Historically, companies have always faced a choice: focus on operational excellence (fast, efficient, and error-free) or on customer intimacy (personal service, warm relationships, and human attention). Offering both at the same time was difficult.
AI fundamentally changes this playing field. Through automation, scalable personalisation, and real-time insights, AI becomes a superpower for customer experience. It enables organisations to be hyper-efficient and hyper-relevant.
Where you used to have to choose, today you can combine both. Processes become faster and smarter, while customers receive personal, intuitive experiences that were previously impossible. AI therefore eliminates the age-old trade-off between efficiency and empathy, bringing the best of both worlds together.
Historically, companies have always faced a choice: focus on operational excellence (fast, efficient, and error-free) or on customer intimacy (personal service, warm relationships, and human attention). Offering both at the same time was difficult.
AI fundamentally changes this playing field. Through automation, scalable personalisation, and real-time insights, AI becomes a superpower for customer experience. It enables organisations to be hyper-efficient and hyper-relevant.
Where you used to have to choose, today you can combine both. Processes become faster and smarter, while customers receive personal, intuitive experiences that were previously impossible. AI therefore eliminates the age-old trade-off between efficiency and empathy, bringing the best of both worlds together.
“We need both the Michelin chefs and the street food chefs.”
Organisations need to invest in two types of innovation. The “Michelin chefs” represent the big, visionary projects: ambitious innovations that require time, expertise, and resources. They build the future, with new products, services, and experiences that elevate the brand to the next level.
The “street food chefs,” on the other hand, represent fast, agile experiments: small optimisations, pragmatic ideas, and iterations that can make an immediate impact today. These are the teams that try, test, and adjust without large budgets or long lead times.
Forward-thinking companies need both. Those who focus only on big projects move too slowly. Those who focus only on small tweaks fail to build the future. The real power lies in the combination: visionary strategy and practical action.
“Add 5% of intuition back into your decision-making. Touch your customer's heart.”
Organisations today operate almost entirely data-driven. That is efficient and necessary, but it also carries a risk: decisions become more rational, colder, and less human. According to Van Belleghem, it is exactly this that makes the difference between a good company and a memorable one.
By deliberately adding 5% intuition and human feeling to data-driven decisions, you create space for empathy, creativity, and emotional connection. It’s these small, immeasurable gestures (like a warm service or an unexpected touch like Chewy’s oil paintings) that move customers and build loyalty.
In short: data optimises, but intuition connects. And only brands that connect can truly touch the heart of the customer.