X4 2024: Reimagining human experiences with AI

Day 2 of X4^® 2024 followed up on a dynamic opening day and included Qualtrics’ President of Product and Services, Brad Anderson, NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, New York Times best-selling author Morgan Housel, and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Brad kicked off day 2 highlighting Qualtrics’ $500 million commitment for artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and showcasing a set of new AI-powered innovations to the XM Platform^® that will help accelerate the speed of change across an entire organization.

That investment is crucial as Brad noted we’re at an inflection point that many are calling the fifth industrial revolution and the breakthrough technology driving that change is AI.

But, Brad cautioned it’s important to understand what is AI hype and what is AI product truth.

With the addition of Qualtrics^® AI to the XM Platform, previously announced by Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin on day 1, every organization can deliver human-like experiences that build human connection at incredible scale.

The benefits? Increased productivity and retention in your workforce, products on the market people gravitate toward, and optimized customer support, all while driving revenue and profit growth.

Click here for a full list of the innovations showcased at X4 2024.

Championship state of mind

NBA Hall of Famer and three-time NBA champion, Dwyane Wade, stressed the importance of focusing on the journey and awakening the leader within.

Wade, whose leadership has expanded past the hardwood into a business leader and business owner, said the same lessons he learned while playing professional basketball, like having a deep commitment to the game, can be applied to business and life itself.

"I'm here because I recognize there is an opportunity to help develop leaders within your companies who lead with compassion, respect for all and have the commitment to see it through,” Wade said.

He provided three takeaways for attendees looking to embark on their own championship journeys: vision, dedication, and confidence.

“To be a champion, to put yourself in a position to win for your organizations, it requires you to be an audacious leader,” Wade said.

Risk and the role of expectations

Morgan Housel, New York Times best-selling author, followed Wade with an insightful conversation on how our expectations as a society have more than doubled.

Our Qualtrics research confirms as much for a variety of reasons:

• Demand for exceptional service is growing, especially with millennials
• The power of the consumer is greater
• The digital experience is made possible with cheaper and more available technology
• Changing events and circumstances impact the way customers behave

Housel noted most people go through life in pursuit of finding the space between expectations and reality, and that true satisfaction can be found somewhere in between the two.

It was the perfect example of why knowing your customer’s expectations is important to all businesses - whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise organization, because - if you can meet them in a positive way-customers are likely to spend 140% more and more likely to become brand champions.

2024 XM Breakthrough Artist Awards

Attendees also saw 8 companies recognized for standing apart from the crowd by driving business value through exceptional customer and employee experiences. Qualtrics’ Breakthrough Artist Award winners receive a custom Yamaha Revstar guitar, meant to signify the boldness and creativity of each recipient.

“This year’s Breakthrough Artists – which include trusted, admired brands like Hilton, adidas, Shake Shack and DISH Network – demonstrate the significant, proven impact of experience management, and the power of investing in human connections at scale,” said Brian Stucki, Qualtrics President and COO.

This year’s award winners are:

Experience Management Breakthrough Artist Award Winner – DISH Network
DISH has delivered a 10-point NPS increase in just one year and has reduced customer churn with the help of insights derived from Qualtrics. The company is pioneering the use of Qualtrics AI to collect and analyze video feedback and uncover customer insights from unstructured data to drive business-wide improvements, and cultivate a customer-centric culture by connecting employee insights to business results.

Customer Experience Breakthrough Artist Award Winner – Hilton
With Qualtrics AI-enabled capabilities, Hilton is now collecting and synthesizing feedback across the entire guest journey for its more than 7,600 global properties, including calls, chatbot interactions, email and messaging during and after a guest’s stay, in-app, and from digital surveys. Guest insights inform every aspect of the company’s commercial strategy, and in 2023, Hilton served hundreds of millions of guests and achieved record financial results.

Employee Experience Breakthrough Artist Award Winner – adidas
adidas is recognized by Forbes as one of the world’s best employers and is leading globally by identifying and acting on the intrinsic link between employee experience and business outcomes. The company deepened its commitment to employee experience by embracing Qualtrics AI-powered solutions that empower its managers at all levels to take effective action based on feedback. Empowered with quicker insights, managers have improved leadership capabilities to keep team members feeling satisfied and engaged at work.

Strategy and Research Breakthrough Artist Winner – Shake Shack
Shake Shack uses customer insights to deliver popular products and exceed expectations for in-Shack experiences for guests around the world. With Qualtrics AI-powered analytics and real-time brand tracking capabilities, Shake Shack goes beyond brand-funnel metrics to identify experience drivers and competitive differentiation. Equipped with a deep understanding of its brand experience through Qualtrics, the company maintained key guest satisfaction scores, managed significant operational efficiencies, and increased likelihood to recommend by 30%.

Financial Services Breakthrough Artist Winner – Citi
Leading bank, Citi, centralized its experience management program with Qualtrics to effectively deliver a superior customer experience for its U.S. customer base. The organization has enabled new, full self-service capabilities with Qualtrics, bringing together more than 30 insights programs, integrations with key services, and the ability to understand and respond to unstructured feedback such as complaints.

Healthcare Breakthrough Artist Winner – Stanford Health Care
Stanford Health Care delivered an improved patient experience, driven by a 200% increase in patient reach and 10% increase in patient response rates, by transforming its patient experience program with Qualtrics. The modernized program addresses the overall patient journey, focusing on closing the loop with patients in near real-time and building a culture of action across the healthcare system.

Government Breakthrough Artist Winner – State of Missouri
The State of Missouri set new standards for the public sector – the first state in the nation to run a statewide customer and employee experience program. Missouri’s signature SHARE MO Program, powered by Qualtrics, helps leaders understand its residents, visitors and businesses. Omnichannel listening empowers agency leaders to make data-driven decisions addressing the most critical needs of Missourians and increasing direct engagement between citizens and state employees. The statewide employee experience program captures sentiment at multiple stages of the employee journey to identify the most meaningful ways to improve the experience of the state employees.

Education Breakthrough Artist Winner – National University
National University – a Veteran-founded nonprofit annually serving a diverse, non-traditional population of 50,000 degree seeking and 80,000 workforce and professional development students worldwide – is using student feedback to drive educational success. National University deployed the Qualtrics platform to truly understand the student experience using a combination of structured and unstructured data for a full omni-channel perspective. Their work is uncovering how students feel at each point in the student journey and the highest-impact areas where they can help students push past challenges to achieve their educational goals.