strategy · behaviour · human experience
By Stratants — an independent strategy & experience advisory studio exploring how vision, behaviour, and human experience shape meaningful growth.

When I was reading the 2025 State of Customer Engagement Report from Twilio, one line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem came to mind:

“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” – It feels strangely relevant today.

AI is everywhere — in conversations, in dashboards, in boardrooms.
But meaningful experience? Not always.

Because AI adoption shouldn’t follow the same pattern:
plenty of activity, very little that truly nourishes the human experience.

And the latest customer engagement study quietly confirms this.

AI dominates headlines.
Yet 55% of people are exhausted just hearing about it.
And 45% simply don’t care about the hype anymore.

This isn’t rejection.
It’s emotional saturation — the point where noise becomes heavier than value.

But here’s the twist:

71% still believe AI will improve their experience.

And confidence in AI’s positive impact has risen
from 32% in 2024 → 43% in 2025.

So people aren’t rejecting AI itself.
They’re rejecting versions of AI that feel like more noise, not more clarity.

They’re waiting for AI that feels meaningful… not mechanical.

What Customers Are Really Asking For

When customers interact with a brand today, they are not wondering:

“Is this built on the latest model?”
“Is the system fully automated?”

They’re asking:

  • Does this help me?
  • Is this clear?
  • Does this reduce my stress?
  • Does this respect my time?

A system can be advanced and still feel indifferent.
It can be “personalised” and still feel impersonal.

People don’t want AI to mimic humans.
They want it to understand human moments.

Where Organisations Misread the Moment

Many businesses still approach AI as a way to:

  • automate more tasks
  • personalise at scale
  • cut time
  • increase speed

But speed without sensitivity feels abrupt.
Personalisation without presence feels hollow.
Automation without clarity feels alienating.

The gap is not technological.
It’s emotional.

Customers can tell when a process is built
for operational efficiency rather than for their ease.

A Different Possibility for Leaders

What if AI wasn’t framed as a performance upgrade,
but as a quiet support system?

What if it:

  • reduced mental load
  • clarified next steps
  • eased confusion
  • brought emotional relief
  • created smooth, predictable moments

Technology becomes humane
not when it pretends to be human,
but when it creates space for people to feel calm, understood, and respected.

A small shift in intention
creates a large shift in experience.

The Stratants Reflection

At Stratants, we are less interested in the machinery of AI
and more in the meaning people create around their interactions with it.

We explore:

  • What emotional weight does the customer carry into the interaction?
  • What story do they leave with?
  • Does the moment lighten them or burden them?
  • Does the organisation signal clarity — or simply intelligence?

AI can accelerate systems.
But only human understanding can deepen relationships.

And in a world of noise,
clarity becomes the rarest form of intelligence.

A Question to Leave You With

As your organisation adopts more AI,
are you offering “water everywhere,”
or something people can truly drink —
something that makes their experience gentler, clearer, and more human?

Because customers don’t remember the sophistication of the system.
They remember whether the moment made sense
— and whether it made them feel understood.

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