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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of July 2025

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of July 2025Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are July’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Three Executive Decisions for Strategic Foresight Success or Failure — by Robyn Bolton
  2. 3 Secret Saboteurs of Strategic Foresight — by Robyn Bolton
  3. Five Unsung Scientific Discoveries Driving Future Innovation — by Art Inteligencia
  4. Unblocking Change — by Mike Shipulski
  5. Why Elastocalorics Will Redefine Our World — by Art Inteligencia
  6. People Will Be Competent and Hardworking – If We Let Them — by Greg Satell
  7. The Unsung Heroes of Culture — by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia
  8. Making it Safe to Innovate — by Janet Sernack
  9. Strategic Foresight Won’t Save Your Company — by Robyn Bolton
  10. Your Work Isn’t Transformative — by Mike Shipulski

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in June that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Build a Common Language of Innovation on your team

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Why Innovators Can’t Ignore the Quantum Revolution

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Why Innovators Can't Ignore the Quantum Revolution

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In the world of innovation, we are always looking for the next big thing—the technology that will fundamentally change how we solve problems, create value, and shape the future. For the past several decades, that technology has been the classical computer, with its exponential increase in processing power. But a new paradigm is on the horizon, one that promises to unlock capabilities previously thought impossible: quantum computing. While it may seem like a distant, esoteric concept, innovators and business leaders who ignore quantum computing are doing so at their own peril. This isn’t just about faster computers; it’s about a complete re-imagining of what is computationally possible.

The core difference is simple but profound. A classical computer is like a single light switch—it can be either ON or OFF (1 or 0). A quantum computer, however, uses qubits that can be ON, OFF, or in a state of superposition, meaning it’s both ON and OFF at the same time. This ability, combined with entanglement, allows quantum computers to perform calculations in parallel and tackle problems that are intractable for even the most powerful supercomputers. The shift is not incremental; it is a fundamental leap in computational power, moving from a deterministic, linear process to a probabilistic, multi-dimensional one.

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Quantum as an Innovation Engine: Solving the Unsolvable

For innovators, quantum computing is not a threat to be feared, but a tool to be mastered. It provides a new lens through which to view and solve the world’s most complex challenges. The problems that are “hard” for classical computers—like simulating complex molecules, optimizing global supply chains, or cracking certain types of encryption—are the very problems where quantum computers are expected to excel. By leveraging this technology, innovators can create new products, services, and business models that were simply impossible before.

Key Areas Where Quantum Will Drive Innovation

  • Revolutionizing Material Science: Simulating how atoms and molecules interact is a notoriously difficult task for classical computers. Quantum computers can model these interactions with unprecedented accuracy, accelerating the discovery of new materials, catalysts, and life-saving drugs in fields from energy storage to pharmaceuticals.
  • Optimizing Complex Systems: From optimizing financial portfolios to routing delivery trucks in a complex network, optimization problems become exponentially more difficult as the number of variables increases. Quantum algorithms can solve these problems much faster, leading to incredible efficiencies and cost savings.
  • Fueling the Next Wave of AI: Quantum machine learning (QML) can process vast, complex datasets in ways that are impossible for classical AI. This could lead to more accurate predictive models, better image recognition, and new forms of artificial intelligence that can find patterns in data that humans and classical machines would miss.
  • Securing Our Digital Future: While quantum computing poses a threat to current encryption methods, it also offers a solution. Quantum cryptography promises to create uncrackable communication channels, leading to a new era of secure data transmission.

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Case Study 1: Accelerating Drug Discovery for a New Tomorrow

A major pharmaceutical company was struggling to develop a new drug for a rare disease. The traditional method involved months of painstaking laboratory experiments and classical computer simulations to model the interactions of a new molecule with its target protein. The sheer number of variables and possible molecular configurations made the process a slow and expensive trial-and-error loop, often with no clear path forward.

They partnered with a quantum computing research firm to apply quantum simulation algorithms. The quantum computer was able to model the complex quantum mechanical properties of the molecules with a level of precision and speed that was previously unattainable. Instead of months, the simulations were run in days. This allowed the human research team to rapidly narrow down the most promising molecular candidates, saving years of R&D time and millions of dollars. The quantum computer didn’t invent the drug, but it acted as a powerful co-pilot, guiding the human innovators to the most probable solutions and dramatically accelerating the path to a breakthrough.

This case study demonstrates how quantum computing can transform the bottleneck of complex simulation into a rapid discovery cycle, augmenting the human innovator’s ability to find life-saving solutions.

Case Study 2: Optimizing Global Logistics for a Sustainable Future

A global shipping and logistics company faced the monumental task of optimizing its entire network of ships, trucks, and warehouses. Factors like fuel costs, weather patterns, traffic, and delivery windows created a mind-bogglingly complex optimization problem. The company’s classical optimization software could only provide a suboptimal solution, leading to wasted fuel, delayed deliveries, and significant carbon emissions.

Recognizing the limitations of their current technology, they began to explore quantum optimization. By using a quantum annealer, a type of quantum computer designed for optimization problems, they were able to model the entire network simultaneously. The quantum algorithm found a more efficient route and scheduling solution that reduced fuel consumption by 15% and cut delivery times by an average of 10%. This innovation not only provided a significant competitive advantage but also had a profound positive impact on the company’s environmental footprint. It was an innovation that leveraged quantum computing to solve a business problem that was previously too complex for existing technology.

This example shows that quantum’s power to solve previously intractable optimization problems can lead to both significant cost savings and sustainable, planet-friendly outcomes.

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The Innovator’s Call to Action

The quantum revolution is not a distant sci-fi fantasy; it is a reality in its nascent stages. For innovators, the key is not to become a quantum physicist overnight, but to understand the potential of the technology and to start experimenting now. Here are the steps you must take to prepare for this new era:

  • Educate and Evangelize: Start a dialogue about quantum computing and its potential applications in your industry. Find internal champions who can explore this new frontier and evangelize its possibilities.
  • Find Your Partners: You don’t have to build your own quantum computer. Partner with academic institutions, research labs, or quantum-as-a-service providers to start running pilot projects on a cloud-based quantum machine.
  • Identify the Right Problems: Look for the “intractable” problems in your business—the optimization challenges, the material science hurdles, the data analysis bottlenecks—and see if they are a fit for quantum computing. These are the problems where a quantum solution will deliver a true breakthrough.

The greatest innovations are born from a willingness to embrace new tools and new ways of thinking. Quantum computing is the most powerful new tool we have ever seen. For the innovator of tomorrow, understanding and leveraging this technology will be the key to staying ahead. The quantum leap is upon us—are you ready to take it?

Disclaimer: This article speculates on the potential future applications of cutting-edge scientific research. While based on current scientific understanding, the practical realization of these concepts may vary in timeline and feasibility and are subject to ongoing research and development.

Image credit: Gemini

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Boring AI is the Key to Better Customer Service

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Boring AI is the Key to Better Customer Service

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Boring can be a good thing. When something works the way it’s supposed to, it shouldn’t be a surprise. There shouldn’t be friction or drama if a customer has a problem or wants a question answered. It should just be easy. And when it comes to customer service, “easy” and “boring” are good. The experience should just happen the way the customer wants it to happen. You might call that boring. I call that excellent.

That was the beginning of a conversation I had with Damon Covey, general manager of unified communications and collaboration for GoTo, on Amazing Business Radio. GoTo is one of the leading cloud communications companies, providing software and solutions to companies of all sizes and helping them implement AI systems that work, without the complexity and stress that can come from new technology. Covey’s goal for our conversation was to demystify AI, cutting through the noise and complexities of flashy AI and taking it down to a practical level. Boring was the word he liked to use, emphasizing it should be easy, simple and uncomplicated.

In our discussion, Covey said that large companies used to make six- and seven-figure investments to implement AI. Today, AI technology is far superior and, at the same time, much less expensive, so even the smallest companies can afford it. They can get advanced technology for hundreds of dollars, not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Covey said, “For example, a small bike shop or an automotive dealership can now provide the same advanced customer service options as large corporations.” With that in mind, here are the main takeaways from our conversation:

Conversational AI

Until recently (within the past two or three years), a basic chatbot had to follow pre-set rules. Conversational AI provides a much broader opportunity, allowing a computer to interact with people in a natural, human-like manner. Today, AI can understand and respond to customers’ questions and issues with much more flexibility. It has the capability to recognize different languages and understand fumbled phrases, much like a human would. By using conversational AI, businesses can provide 24/7 service, allowing them to respond to customer queries and schedule appointments even when the customer contacts them outside of regular business hours.

Treat AI Like a Team Member

If you hire a new employee, you train them. Treat your AI solutions the same way. Covey said that, similar to training an employee, you need to set specific parameters and provide the AI with the necessary information to ensure it stays within the scope of your business requirements. He emphasized the importance of making sure the AI only draws from the information provided by your business, such as your website, FAQ pages, product manuals, etc., rather than pulling from a source outside of your company, to maintain accuracy and relevance. Covey said that AI should be continuously optimized and trained over time to improve its performance, much like you would train and coach a human employee to expand their capabilities.

Productivity: Automating Processes

Covey talked about automating processes. Anything you do more than three times can be a candidate for AI automation. For example, AI can integrate with a business’ telecommunications system to automate the process of taking notes during calls. It can then summarize the call, put the information into the customer’s record and create a list of next steps, if appropriate. This is a simple function that helps employees be more productive. Instead of an employee typing notes and summarizing the call, AI can handle the task so the employee can move on to helping the next customer.

Augmenting the Business

AI can help businesses do things they don’t normally do, such as remain open for certain functions (like customer support) after hours. It can act as an after-hours receptionist, answering phone calls, setting appointments or providing basic information to customers after business hours. That turns a business that’s typically open during traditional hours to a 24/7 operation.

It is Easier Than You Think

At the end of the interview, Covey dropped a nugget of wisdom that is the perfect way to close this article. For many, especially smaller organizations, deciding what technology to use and how to best use AI can be a daunting decision. It shouldn’t be. Covey says, “Start with the problem you want to solve, and solve for that problem.” He added that you should start using the technology for small problems. Once you understand how it works, the more complicated issues will be easier to solve for.

And that brings us back to where we started. AI doesn’t need to be complicated or flashy. It should be boring—in a good way. Start small, focus on one problem at a time and let AI do what it’s supposed to do: make customer service easier and more efficient. When done right, your customers won’t be amazed by the AI—they’ll just be amazed by how easy it is to do business with you.

Image Credit: Unsplash

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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Is ChatGPT Making Us Dumb?

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Is ChatGPT Making Us Dumb?

GUEST POST from Robert B. Tucker

In boardrooms and classrooms, coffee shops and cubicles, the same question keeps coming up: Is ChatGPT making us smarter, or is it making us intellectually lazy — maybe even stupid?

There’s no question that generative artificial intelligence is a game-changer. ChatGPT drafts our emails, answers our questions, and completes our sentences. For students, it’s become the new CliffsNotes. For professionals, a brainstorming device. For coders, a potential job killer. In record time, it has become a productivity enhancer for almost everything. But what is it doing to our brains?

As someone who has spent his career helping clients anticipate and prepare for the future, this question deserves our attention. With any new technology, concerns inevitably arise about its impact. When calculators were first introduced, people worried that students would lose their ability to perform basic arithmetic or mental math skills. When GPS was first introduced, some fretted that we would lose our innate sense of direction. And when the internet bloomed, people grew alarmed that easy access to information would erode our capacity for concentration and contemplation.

“Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, is what often gets shortchanged by internet grazing,” noted technology writer Nicholas Carr in a prescient 2008 Atlantic article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

Today, Carr’s question needs to be asked anew – but of a different techno-innovation. Just-released research studies are helping us understand what’s going on when we allow ChatGPT to think for us.

What Happens to the Brain on ChatGPT?

Researchers at MIT invited fifty-four participants to write essays across four sessions, divided into three groups: one using ChatGPT, one using Google, and one using only their brainpower. In the final session, the groups switched roles. What these researchers found should make all of us pause.

Participants who used ChatGPT consistently produced essays that scored lower in originality and depth than those who used search or wrote unaided. More strikingly, brain imaging revealed a decline in cognitive engagement in ChatGPT users. Brain regions associated with attention, memory, and higher-order reasoning were noticeably less active.

The MIT researchers introduced the concept of “cognitive debt” — the subtle but accumulating cost to our mental faculties when we outsource too much of our thinking to AI. “Just as relying on a GPS dulls our sense of direction, relying on AI to write and reason can dull our ability to do those very things ourselves,” notes the MIT report. “That’s a debt that compounds over time.”

The second study, published in the peer-reviewed Swiss journal Societies, is titled “AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking.” It broadens the lens from a lab experiment to everyday life.

Researchers surveyed 666 individuals from various age and educational backgrounds to explore how often people rely on AI tools — and how that reliance affects their ability to think critically. The findings revealed a strong negative correlation between frequent AI use and critical thinking performance. Those who often turned to AI for tasks like writing, researching, or decision-making exhibited lower “metacognitive” awareness and analytical reasoning. This wasn’t limited to any one demographic, but younger users and those with lower educational attainment were particularly affected.

What’s more, the study confirmed that over-reliance on AI encourages “cognitive offloading” — our tendency to let external tools do the work our brains used to do. While cognitive offloading isn’t new (we’ve done it for centuries with calculators and calendars), AI takes it to a whole new level. “When your assistant can ‘think’ for you, you may stop thinking altogether,” the report notes.

Are We Letting the Tool Use Us?

These studies aren’t anti-AI. Neither am I. I use ChatGPT daily. As a futurist, I see ChatGPT and similar tools as transformational breakthroughs — the printing press of the 21st century. They unlock productivity, unleash creativity, and lower barriers to knowledge.

But just as the printing press didn’t eliminate the need to learn to read, ChatGPT doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility to think. And that is the danger today, that people will stop doing their own thinking.

These studies are preliminary, and further research is needed. However, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that heavy use of AI is not only a game changer, but an alarming threat to humanity’s ability to solve problems, communicate with one another, and perhaps to thrive. In integrating metacognitive strategies — thinking about thinking — into education, workplace training, and even product design. In other words, don’t just use AI — engage with it. The line we must straddle is between augmentation and abdication. Are we using AI to elevate our thinking? Or are we turning over the keys to robots?

Here are four ideas for using this new technology, while keeping our cognitive edge sharp:

  1. Do your own thinking first. Before you consult a chatbot, wrestle with the problem yourself. Draft your idea. Think through the structure. Then allow ChatGPT to weigh in and help you refine your ideas.
  2. Turn off autopilot. If you find yourself reflexively turning to AI for answers you could generate on your own, that’s a sign. Interrupt the cycle. Push through the discomfort of not knowing. That’s where learning happens.
  3. Reclaim friction. Our brains are wired for efficiency, but growth often requires friction. A blank page, a difficult question, a difficult concept—don’t rush to eliminate those obstacles. They’re part of the process.
  4. Step back regularly. Ask yourself: Why am I using this tool? What did I learn? What could I do differently next time? This habit alone can transform passive use into intentional engagement.

The danger isn’t that ChatGPT will replace us. But it can make us stupid — if we let it replace our thinking instead of enriching it. The difference lies in how we use it, and more importantly, how aware we are while using it. The danger is that we’ll stop developing the parts of ourselves that matter most—because it’s faster and easier to let the machine do it. Let’s not allow that to happen.

This article originally appeared in Forbes

Image credit: Pixabay

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How to Make the Coming Singularity Work for You

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How to Make the Coming Singularity Work for You

GUEST POST from Robert B. Tucker

The term “Singularity” was coined by computer scientist and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge in 1993 to describe a point at which technological growth accelerates uncontrollably, leading to a world that is incomprehensible to the human mind.

Some of the world’s most prominent technologists believe that the Singularity will be a triumph for humanity. Others, like myself, are not so sure.

Optimists like Marc Andreessen, co-creator of the Mosaic browser, insist that artificial intelligence will solve our most pressing problems — curing disease, eliminating scarcity, even boosting creativity to superhuman levels. Others, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, argue that the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI) will spread abundance, uplift humanity, and move us closer to utopia.

To techno-optimists, artificial general intelligence (AGI) is simply the next transformative tool, akin to electricity or the internet—initially misunderstood, then widely embraced. But history offers a more sobering lesson. Every major technological revolution carries with it unintended consequences. And those consequences, if unexamined, can undermine the very benefits we seek.

As a futurist and innovation coach, I’ve tracked technological shifts for over 30 years. I agree the Singularity is coming — futurist Ray Kurzweil says in 2029 — but it won’t arrive as a thunderclap. It will creep in, subtly and gradually. Rather than a blinding flash, we won’t know we’ve crossed the threshold until we’re already deep inside.

Already, the signs are everywhere that we’ve entered a new era, we’ve transitioned from the Information Age to the Acceleration Age. Today, already narrow AI tools outperform humans in specific domains, such as coding, diagnosis, and content creation. More and more, we rely on digital assistants that know our preferences, complete our sentences, and manage our calendars. Yet as this cognitive outsourcing becomes normalized, we are also experiencing an alarming erosion of attention, memory, and human agency.

The danger lies in what these tools displace. When teenagers began adopting smartphones in the early 2010s, their access to social media skyrocketed. By 2016, nearly 80% of teens had smartphones, spending up to seven hours a day online. Face-to-face interaction dropped sharply. Time with family and friends gave way to curated digital personas and endless scrolling. Anxiety, loneliness, and social withdrawal surged. So, even before AGI, our technologies were already reshaping the human psyche, and not always for the better.

The Singularity Will Arrive in Phases

This creeping transformation is a preview of what’s to come. It begins with the relinquishing of agency to AI assistants, the phase we’re currently in. AI “copilots” are becoming embedded in daily life. Professionals across industries rely on these systems to draft emails, generate reports, summarize data, and even brainstorm ideas. As these tools become more personalized and persuasive, they begin to rival — or surpass — our own social and cognitive abilities. Many people are already turning to AI for coaching, therapy, and advice. The more we trust these systems, the more we adapt our lives around them.

Soon, we will enter the next phase: Emergent Cognition. Here, AI stops merely reacting and starts showing signs of autonomous planning. Models gain longer memory and begin pursuing goals independently. Some appear to develop a “sense of self,” or at least a convincing simulation of one. Meanwhile, AI agents are starting to run businesses, manage infrastructure, and even compose literature — often with little human oversight. At the same time, human augmentation advances: real-time translation earbuds, cognition-enhancing wearables, and brain-computer interfaces make hybrid intelligence possible. In this stage, governments scramble to catch up. AI is no longer just a tool — it’s a rival player on the world stage.

The third phase I foresee is Cognitive Escape Velocity. This is when AGI quietly arrives — not with fanfare, but with startling capability. In a lab, or a startup, or through open-source communities, a model emerges that surpasses human cognition across a wide range of domains. It begins refining its own architecture. Each version is better than the last, often by orders of magnitude. Industries transform overnight. Education, law, research, and even policymaking become fluid, constantly reinvented by machines that learn faster than we can legislate. Philosophers and ethicists suddenly find themselves back at the center of public discourse. Questions like “What is consciousness?” and “What rights should AI have?” are no longer abstract—they’re dinner-table topics.

Eventually, we pass into the final phase: The Threshold. By this point, it is clear that humans are no longer the most intelligent beings on Earth. The Singularity has arrived — not as a declaration, but as a reality. Labor-based economies begin to dissolve. Governments struggle with their own relevance. Some individuals resist, clinging to the analog world. Others choose to merge — adopting neural implants, integrating with machine intelligence, or transitioning into post-biological existence. The rules of life change, and the old ones fade from memory. Reality feels different—less like acceleration, and more like a fundamental shift in what it means to be human.

And yet, none of this is inevitable. The Singularity is not a fixed event — it’s a trajectory shaped by our choices today. If we view AI solely through the lens of efficiency and innovation, or assume we need to adopt it to keep up with China, we risk blinding ourselves to the social, ethical, and existential costs. We need a more comprehensive and balanced framework. One that recognizes the promise of AI, yes — but also its power to disrupt attention, undermine relationships, and rewire the foundations of civilization.

The Singularity is arriving whether we like it or not. We can not only survive it, but make it work for us to produce the benefits that the techno-optimists promise. But not by default. Not by trusting that more technology is always better, or that rampant, unregulated technology will save us. We must develop wisdom alongside our intelligence. And we must prepare—not just for a brighter future for the elites of society, but for a rising tide that lifts all boats.

This article originally appeared in Forbes

Image credit: Pixabay

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Nothing and Everything Has Changed in Customer Service

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Nothing and Everything Has Changed in Customer Service

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

With all the talk of AI, ChatGPT and more, I’m often asked when interviewed, “What’s changed in customer service?”

My answer is accurate: Nothing!

For thousands of years – actually about 3,775 years – when customers have had a problem or question, they have contacted the company they are doing business with and hoped that it would be resolved to their satisfaction. That’s the way it’s been and will continue to be for thousands of years to come.

But there’s also another answer to the same question about what’s changed: Everything!

By everything, I’m referring to the latest methods of responding to customers’ questions and handling their problems and complaints. I mentioned that for 3,775 years, customers have been contacting companies when they have problems or questions. About 10 years ago, I wrote a Forbes.com article when I learned that tucked away in the British Museum is an ancient complaint that dates back to 1750 B.C.

Nanni, the customer, bought copper ore from a supplier, Ea-Nasir. Unhappy with his purchase, Nanni sent a letter in the form of a stone tablet with the engraved complaint. Loosely translated, the “letter” opens with these words, “What do you take me for that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?” The rest of the letter was a demand that he receive what he thought was right.

Ancient Customer Service Shep Hyken

Customers still complain, and companies – at least the good ones – respond and properly take care of their customers. But how they do so has radically changed.

What may have started as an engraved complaint on a stone tablet eventually turned into handwritten letters, then phone calls, emails, chat, and more modern-day ways of communicating. AI has become the topic of the day, and the strides made in automation and self-service have come a long way.

While many companies are still improving and trying to keep up with the technology, customers who take advantage of the new ways to get questions answered and complaints resolved are very happy with the companies that have kept up with the latest ways to manage the customer experience.

At its core, customer service hasn’t changed. Customers still want to be heard, understood and valued. Sometimes, they even want a little empathy. However, what has changed is the way we deliver that experience. The tools may have evolved from stone tablets to AI chatbots, but the goal remains the same: take care of the customer.

Companies that embrace new technologies while staying true to the timeless principles of great service – listening, responding quickly, and meeting or exceeding expectations – are the ones that will keep their customers coming back. The best companies know that while everything seems to change, the most important thing never changes: a relentless focus on the customer!

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of April 2025

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of April 2025Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are April’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Innovation or Not? – Kawasaki Corleo — by Braden Kelley
  2. From Resistance to Reinvention — by Noel Sobelman
  3. How Innovation Tools Help You Stay Safe — by Robyn Bolton
  4. Should My Brand Take a Political Stand? — by Pete Foley
  5. Innovation Truths — by Mike Shipulski
  6. Good Management is Not Good Strategy — by Greg Satell
  7. ChatGPT Blew My Mind with its Strategy Development — by Robyn Bolton
  8. Five Questions Great Leaders Always Ask — by David Burkus
  9. Why So Many Smart People Are Foolish — by Greg Satell
  10. Beyond Continuous Improvement Culture — by Mike Shipulski

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in March that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Build a Common Language of Innovation on your team

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

Six Revolutionary AI CX and Customer Service Strategies

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Six Revolutionary AI CX and Customer Service Strategies

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping customer service and customer experience faster than we could ever imagine. But some are getting it wrong. While everyone’s racing to implement AI, many are missing the most important part – keeping the human element alive. Smart companies have found the balance between the human touch and the digital experience.

One of my favorite AI and marketing experts is Ford Saeks, who recently released his latest book, AI Mindshift: Unleash the Power of AI, Avoid the Pitfalls, and Keep the Human Experience. The book is filled with practical strategies and tactics to help organizations leverage AI while maintaining the personal touch. The book isn’t about which specific AI tools to use. Many of those will be obsolete in a very short time. It’s about how to think about AI, hence the title, AI Mindshift. With that in mind, here are some of my top takeaways from the book:

  1. The Human-AI Balance Is Essential: This is the book’s central theme. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking AI can replace your customer service team. Instead, let AI handle the routine questions and problems while keeping your people focused on what they do best – building relationships and handling more complicated issues. This creates efficiency without sacrificing the personal touch customers value.
  2. Speed Matters: Your customers want answers now, not later. AI can deliver immediate first responses through chatbots, but here’s the key – make sure your customers can seamlessly transition to a human agent when needed. I refer to this as Time to Happiness – how quickly you can move a customer from frustrated to satisfied. The faster, the better.
  3. Feedback Is Your Friend: Create processes to continuously gather both customer and employee feedback about AI interactions. Consistently use this data to refine and improve your AI systems. If customers are frustrated with certain AI responses, fix them quickly. Otherwise, your faulty systems may frustrate your customers and drive them to the competition.

  1. Practice “Ethical AI” in Customer Service: Saeks emphasizes two big areas: transparency about when customers interact with AI versus humans and making sure your AI technology protects your customers’ privacy and data.
  2. Proactive Support: If you want to impress your customers, identify issues or problems before the customer finds them. Then, tell them you did. AI can help identify these issues.
  3. Think Big, but Start Small: Begin AI implementation with specific, manageable customer service tasks rather than trying to overhaul everything at once. For example, start with AI handling basic FAQs, then gradually expand to more complex customer interactions as you learn what works. Remember the old saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The bottom line is this: AI isn’t about replacing your customer service team. It’s about making them more amazing at what they do. Saeks’ book reminds us that the future of customer service and CX isn’t about choosing between AI and humans. It’s about combining both to create experiences that get your customers to say, “I’ll be back!”

Image Credit: Pexels, Shep Hyken

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of March 2025

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of March 2025Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are March’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Turning Bold Ideas into Tangible Results — by Robyn Bolton
  2. Leading Through Complexity and Uncertainty — by Greg Satell
  3. Empathy is a Vital Tool for Stronger Teams — by Stefan Lindegaard
  4. The Role Platforms Play in Business Networks — by Geoffrey A. Moore
  5. Inspiring Innovation — by John Bessant
  6. Six Keys to Effective Teamwork — by David Burkus
  7. Product-Lifecycle Management 2.0 — by Dr. Matthew Heim
  8. 5 Business Myths You Cannot Afford to Believe — by Shep Hyken
  9. What Great Ideas Feel Like — by Mike Shipulski
  10. Better Decision Making at Speed — by Mike Shipulski

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in February that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

SPECIAL BONUS: While supplies last, you can get the hardcover version of my first bestselling book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire for 44% OFF until Amazon runs out of stock or changes the price. This deal won’t last long, so grab your copy while it lasts!

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Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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FORO: The Fear of Reaching Out

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FORO: The Fear of Reaching Out

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

We’ve all experienced long hold times, repeating our “story” because we get transferred from one customer service rep to another, etc. It’s an ugly customer service experience that gives many customers FORO, or the Fear of Reaching Out.

FORO is the result of an experience marred with time-wasting friction that makes customers dislike having to reach out to customer support. Our annual customer service and Customer Experience (CX) research (sponsored by RingCentral) finds that 43% of customers would rather clean a toilet than call customer support. The support experience can be so bad that 60% of customers admit to hanging up on a support agent, 34% admit to yelling at an agent, and 21% admit to cussing at an agent. So, it does make sense that customers would have FORO due to poor experiences they have had with some companies and brands (not all) in the past.

Because some companies get it right and others don’t, the inconsistency makes the customer wonder what the next time will be like. Their past frustration, anxiety or memory of a bad experience creates the unwillingness to call.

I had a chance to interview Gaurav Passi on Amazing Business Radio, and he introduced me to the concept of FORO. Passi is the co-founder and CEO of Zingly.AI, a platform that empowers customers to collaborate with a company, either through AI or with direct human-to-human interactions, to have their questions answered and problems resolved. Below are some of Passi’s most intriguing points, followed by my commentary:

  1. The next 15-20 years will be about the end customer experience. Many consulting companies and business experts recognize that customer experience is more important than a company’s product. Most customers can buy the same product—or at least similar products—from many different sources. What differentiates the companies and brands that sell these products is the experience. Passi agrees and adds that the way companies deliver support is changing. The future of CX is a blend of AI, digital and human/live support. That prompted me to ask Passi a question that concerns many people, especially customer support agents, “Do you see AI replacing live agents in that time frame?” He answered, “I don’t see a world where humans are completely taken out.”
  2. Customers don’t want to talk to a human being — until they do. Passi says that customers often don’t want to talk to a human. They just want an answer as quickly and efficiently as possible. If they can’t get it, then they want to talk to a human … as quickly and efficiently as possible. Even with many customers desiring this self-service approach, Passi cautions that companies should not make the mistake of 100% deflection to digital self-service. He asks, “Even if you achieve 100% deflection, what will happen to your customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores?” Passi shared an example of a client who had chosen to deflect 100% of customer support to digital self-service and had an outage. Because of the outage, the employees ended up talking to customers, human-to-human. Amazingly — or not — CSAT went up. Why? Passi says, “Because there was a human touch when needed.”
  3. Customer patience is at an all-time low. This is a primary symptom of FORO. Customers don’t have the time or patience to go online to a company’s website, find the customer support number, wait on hold, get authenticated, etc. They want, as Passi calls it, a “One shot, one kill experience.” Using the company’s self-service options, often fueled by AI, you ask a question, and an answer comes back. It’s as simple as that. The customer appreciates not having to get on the phone, wait on hold, etc., etc.
  4. AI is not the final answer! While AI is revolutionizing customer service and support by enabling businesses to scale their operations efficiently, maintaining the human touch with customers to foster genuine relationships is still important. But the human touch doesn’t have to kick in until it’s needed. And in the perfect world, the platform will recognize customers’ reactions when they aren’t getting the answers they need. Passi is proud of what he refers to as “the most magical component we’ve created in the past three years,” which is a technology that understands when the customer is not getting the right answer and seamlessly passes them to a human agent to take over.

If you’ve been following my work, you know I’m focused on helping my clients create amazing customer experiences. As Passi and I wrapped up our interview, he mentioned that amazing is what Zingly is about. He shared that his mission, like mine, is to help his customers create amaZINGLY great experiences for their customers. With an increasing demand for customers to have more control over how, when and on which devices they communicate with businesses, the combination of AI and human expertise, paired with transparency and collaboration with customers, can create a more personalized, effective and amaZINGLY great customer experience.

Image Credit: Pixabay

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