Personal AI Assistants
the Future of AI-Driven Business
Artificial intelligence and machine customers
take CX and EX to a new era
At Shirute, we are pioneers in artificial intelligence and customer experience and part of global networks of AI and CX experts. We work together with international experts to develop human-like and effective AI-assisted customer, employee and machine customer experiences. Learn more about the role and opportunities of artificial intelligence in business through Shirute's articles and interviews.
How are machine customers served now?
Check out the results of our survey!
" In order to serve machine customers, it is good to establish a design team to review service processes and look for accessibility challenges. In addition, it is worth starting to plan what new business potential machine customers bring about and what kind of completely new services could be offered to them."
"It's expected that agents will autonomously accomplish real-world tasks. Progression from Reasoners to Agents could happen relatively quickly."
- Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI
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“In order to serve machine customers, companies should set up their own design team, which goes through service processes and looks for accessibility challenges like the obstacles found in this research.”
- CX Today, Why Aren't Customer Service Teams Ready for Machine Customers?
Interviews & Keynotes
Join our experts as they explore how adopting an AI-first approach can
elevate people experiences and transform your business.
In this episode, Merete Medle, Joanna Carr, and Sirte Pihlaja discuss the evolving landscape of customer experience (CX) and the significant role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping it.
Sirte, known as the 'AI whisperer', shares insights on how AI can enhance customer and employee experiences, emphasizing the need for a human-centric approach. The conversation explores the concept of 'machine customers' and their implications for businesses, highlighting the necessity for companies to adapt their strategies to accommodate these digital entities. The episode also touches on the importance of creativity in CX and the ongoing efforts to grow the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) in Finland.
In this conversation, Sirte Pihlaja discusses the transformative impact of AI on customer service, emphasizing the need for businesses to adapt to AI-driven customer interactions. She highlights the importance of creating effective digital assistants and leveraging AI for customer insights, while also addressing the role of AI in promoting inclusivity and accessibility. The discussion culminates in reflections on achievements in customer experience and the collaborative efforts to enhance human connections through technology.
This Forbes article explores the rise of machine customers, AI-driven agents expected to control $30 trillion in purchases by 2030. Sirte Pihlaja, CEO of Shirute and co-author of the globally best-selling "Customer Experience 5", emphasises that businesses must prepare now by optimising marketing content for AI buyers, who scan, analyse, and execute decisions instantly. She highlights that convenience is key, requiring customer journeys to be redesigned for both human and AI decision-makers. Instead of fixating on the ‘right’ technology, companies should focus on AI literacy and rapid adaptability to stay competitive.
The article also features insights from Don Scheibenreif, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner and co-author of “When Machines Become Customers.” He discusses the broader impact of machine customers on businesses and reinforces that AI-driven purchasing is here to stay.
Explore the world of AI Agents at our first AI Monday Helsinki event of the year. Our speakers will break down what AI Agents are, share lessons from 2024’s breakthroughs and challenges, and showcase their role in reshaping businesses.
Join us to see how AI Agents are ushering in a new era—one that’s not just about technology, but about how we solve problems, evolve our work, and imagine what’s possible.
Sirte Pihlaja: Digital Assistants and Machine Customers in Agentic AI - How Customer Encounters Are Evolving
https://bit.ly/shirute-aimonday-agenticai
Full event and Q & A:
https://www.youtube.com/live/5OoA97eRIHQ?si=yf7CtgP-ybMmdvCL&t=2088
Exploring the Role of AI Agents in Business Transformation
AI agents are revolutionizing how businesses operate, enhancing customer experiences, and boosting workplace efficiency. Join Rob Scott and Kevin Kieller as they welcome Sirte Pihlaja, CEO of Shirute, to unpack this game-changing technology.
In this episode, you'll learn about:
- The Basics of AI Agents: Sirte explains what AI agents are and why they're becoming essential in CX and workplace settings.
- Multi-Agent Networks: Discover how these systems differ from traditional AI and their transformative potential.
- Real-World Applications: Hear practical examples of AI agents in action, from customer service enhancements to boosting productivity.
- Overcoming Challenges: Insights on barriers to adoption and strategies for success.
- Future Outlook: Predictions on how AI agents will reshape CX and business operations in the next decade.
- Kevin's “AI Minute” also offers a concise exploration of vector databases, a foundational element of modern AI technologies.
Dive into the fascinating future of customer interactions as Sirte Pihlaja discusses the rise of machine customers and digital assistants. Discover how this emerging technology will revolutionize customer experiences, reshape industries, and create a new era of business opportunities. If you want to stay ahead in CX, this episode is your guide.
The rise of agentic AI introduces machine customers—autonomous systems that interact with businesses on behalf of human users—and it can change everything. This evolution presents both opportunities and challenges, significantly influencing business models and strategies.
In this webinar, Jannecke Drangert-Hveding from Customer C and Sirte Pihlaja from Shirute will discuss how agentic AI impacts customer interactions and overall business. They will talk about the importance of integrating agentic AI and generative AI into core business strategies rather than treating these capabilities as a standalone component.
In this CX Doers webinar, Cemantica was joined by leading Customer Experience experts, Ian Golding, CCXP from CXC and Sirte Pihlaja, CCXP from Shrirute to discuss this important development in the way machine customers are interacting with brands, and how to proactively meet their expectations. Adapting your interaction channels to optimize the experience for both humans and machines is vital.
Watch the recording to gain a clear understanding and recommendations for next steps:
- What are machine customers and how are they impacting journeys as autonomous assistants to human customers?
- How AI assistants support customers find suitable offers and cut through the information overload via automated decision-making
- How can your business adapt to this emerging trend?
In this video, discover the practical steps you should take in revamping your customer journey with the digital persona in mind.
Ristomatti Partanen halusi tutkia, miten ihmisasiakaspalvelijat suhtautuvat digitaalisen tekoälyapurin yhteydenottoon. Hän uskoo, että digiassistenttien käytöstä tulee pian arkipäivää. Partenen otti yhteyttä koneasiakkaisiin perehtyneeseen Sirte Pihlajaan Shirute Oy:stä ja jo ensimmäisessä tapaamisessa rakennettiin ensiversio Assiksi nimetystä digiapurista.
Yle AI Demo will explore the topics of new season, new ideas. We will give a glimpse of what is currently unfolding at Yle and within our partner networks in the areas of AI and experimentation. Presenters at this demo include Sirte Pihlaja CEO at Shirute Oy, Ristomatti Partanen, Liiketoiminta- ja palvelumuotoilija, Elisa Oyj. Jyri Kivimäki, AI Coach at Yle, Vertti Luostarinen AI Engineer at CasvuAI. Hosted by Tove Mylläri, AI Innovation Lead at Yle Innovations.
Yritysten kannattaa valmistautua palvelemaan myös koneasiakkaita. Ne arvostavat helppoa ja nopeaa palvelua, mutta eivät välitä tunteisiin vetoamisesta.
Vuoteen 2025 mennessä markkinoilla odotetaan olevan jopa 15 miljardia koneasiakasta. Arvioiden mukaan ne vaikuttaisivat 30 000 miljardin dollarin arvosta ostoksiin seuraavan vuosikymmenen aikana.
In our webinar on Machine Customers, two highly experienced CX professionals shared their insights on what your business needs to know about dealing with Machine Customers both from CX and EX points of view. Listen to James Dodkins and Sirte Pihlaja to learn more!
https://cxpa.fi/event/cxpa-finland-webinar-hello-world-the-rise-of-the-machine-customers/
People have always seized the opportunity to use their time more efficiently. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers an easy way to have our own little helpers do business for us. Machine customers will redistribute market shares. This Boardman Grow member blog, written by Sirte Pihlaja and Ristomatti Partanen, delves deeper into what machine customers are, how they can be served and how you should head towards the era of machine customers.
Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and several other industry players are increasingly emphasizing Agentic AI when talking about artificial intelligence. It represents the next big step in AI development now that generative AI has already become commonplace. Agentic AI enables the use of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives as machine customers, our personal digital assistants.
Listen to Sirte Pihlaja, CEO of Shirute, as the opening keynote at the Midlands Women in Tech (MWIT) community-hosted engaging webinar series focused on the dynamic fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Other speakers in this event included Diane Magers, CEO of Experience Catalysts and Hammad Kamran, Lead Data Scientist at Kagool.
Microsoft, Google ja OpenAI sekä useat muut alan toimijat korostavat tekoälystä puhuessaan yhä enemmän itsenäisten agenttien tekoälyä (Agentic AI). Se edustaa seuraavaa isoa kehitysaskelta generatiivisen tekoälyn nyt jo muututtua arkipäiväiseksi. Agentic AI mahdollistaa tekoälyn hyödyntämisen arjessamme koneasiakkaina, henkilökohtaisina digiassistentteinamme.
Sirte Pihlajan ja Ristomatti Partasen kirjoittamassa Boardman Grow -jäsenblogissa syvennytään mitä koneasiakkaat ovat, kuinka niitä palvellaan ja miten koneasiakkaiden aikakauteen kannattaisi suunnata.
https://www.boardmangrow.fi/koneasiakkaat-mullistavat-digitaalisen-liiketoiminnan/
Asiakaspalvelua ja myyntiä hoidetaan pitkälti tekoälyavusteisesti ja bottien avulla, mutta mitä tapahtuu, kun vastassa on asiakkaan oma tekoälyassistentti? Asiakaskokemuksen uranuurtaja lähti tutkimaan asiaa ja yllättyi.
Asiakaskokemustoimisto Shiruten tuore tutkimus paljastaa, että suomalaisyritykset eivät ole vielä valmiita hyödyntämään tekoälypohjaisten koneasiakkaiden palvelua ja uuden teknologian tarjoamaa taloudellista potentiaalia täysimääräisesti.
https://mma.fi/ajankohtaista/yleinen/koneasiakkaiden-palvelemisessa-kehittamisen-varaa/
A recent study has revealed that many organizations are failing to understand the potential of machine customers and are not equipped to serve them. The research – published by customer design experience agency Shirute – explored and analyzed the capacity of Finnish companies to serve machine customers.
But what exactly are machine customers and how will they impact the customer service and CX sector moving forward? Read more in this article by Rhys Fisher.
https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-centre/why-arent-customer-service-teams-ready-for-machine-customers/
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way companies interact with their customers. However, organizations aren’t the only ones who can access this technology: customers can, too, leading to a future where they use AI tools to create digital assistants that can act independently on their behalf (to make buying decisions and purchases).
In this session from All Access: The AI Revolution in CX, Sirte Pihlaja, CEO of Shirute explains how your organization can prepare to serve machine customers.
https://www.cxnetwork.com/on-demand/content/machine-customers-revolution
Supercharge your CX success through technology
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the customer experience landscape at an unprecedented pace. With the potential to reduce customer churn by up to 20 percent and boost customer satisfaction by as much as 15 percent, AI is now a building block for loyalty-building experiences and the ability to use it effectively is essential to the future of CX.
However, as we navigate this transformative journey, we must confront a series of challenges. These include ensuring data quality and mitigating bias, cultivating customer trust, and seamlessly integrating AI into existing CX ecosystems.
All Access: AI in CX will explore solutions to these hurdles, empowering your organization to unlock the full potential of AI
In her opening keynote, Sirte Pihlaja, CEO at Shirute, will introduce us to the theme of this 2-day webinar. The title of her talk is "Are You Ready to Serve Artificially Intelligent Machine Customers?".
Customers are increasingly turning to digital channels to address their queries and a big part of that puzzle has been the effectiveness of conversational chatbots to address queries. In the past, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing how bots can deflect queries, alleviating some of the burden overwhelmed contact center teams face. With Gen AI entering the picture, it’s time we relook at the whole dynamic.
Key areas to be covered in this interactive session include:
- Understand the impact of Gen AI on customer service
- Evaluate traditional metrics to measure effectiveness of bots
- Learn a new framework to create bots your customers will actually use
Generative AI applications in customer service are growing strong, giving rise to ample excitement alongside some challenging questions. In such a rapidly changing market, how can contact centers keep up? Which use cases are AI appropriate? And how can companies make sure they’re utilizing it in a way that’s just right for them and their customers?
Join Toby Braun from Sprinklr for an interactive fireside chat with CX leaders about how AI is evolving self-service.
Speakers invited to this fireside chat include:
Sirte Pihlaja, CEO, Shirute
Hussein M. Dajani, Ex Partner and CMO, Deloitte Digital Middle East
Gregorio Uglioni, Head of Business Transformation, Kantonsspital Winterthur
Chris Booth, Product Owner - Machine learning and Insights, NatWest
In this episode of CX Passport, Rick Denton interviews Sirte Pihlaja on creativity, LEGO Serious Play, Implementing AI in Customer Experience and Machine Customers.
Are you ready for the rise of the machine customer? 🤖
With Gartner predicting that by 2027, 50% of us will be using AI personal assistants in our daily lives, they could be here much sooner than anticipated!
Joined by Sirte Pihlaja, CEO of Shirute, listen to episode #706 now as we explore what machine customers are, how they’re set to impact the future of CX and EX, and as CX leaders, what we should be thinking about now to ensure we’re equipped for their arrival.
So, with employees and agents set to interface with AI in the near future, is it machine customer experience that we instead need to be designing for? 🤔
Onko organisaatiosi valmis palvelemaan tekoälykkäitä koneasiakkaita?
Tämän päivän kilpailluilla markkinoilla unohtumattomat asiakaskokemukset eivät ole enää luksusta vaan välttämättömyys. Brändit, jotka eivät priorisoi panostuksiaan asiakaskokemuksiin, menettävät arvokkaita asiakkaita ja jäävät jälkeen kilpakumppaneistaan.
Tekoälystä on tullut muutosvoima, joka mullistaa yritysten vuorovaikutuksen asiakkaiden kanssa ja tarjoaa ennennäkemättömät mahdollisuudet personointiin, palvelujen tehostamiseen ja asiakasuskollisuuden kasvattamiseen.
Tässä webinaarissa opit, miten:
- varmistat organisaatiosi valmiuden tekoälyn vaikutuksiin.
- tarjoat parempaa palvelua älykkäille koneasiakkaille.
- kehität entistä vaivattomampaa asiointia asiakkaillesi.
https://www.markkinointiliitto.fi/menneet-tapahtumat/mark-webinaari-asiakaskokemus-tekoaly/
Machine customers offer totally new opportunities for business, but achieving the benefits requires commitment and preparation. Is your business geared up to embrace this new customer segment and adapt to the forthcoming transformations? The time has come for business development teams to translate promises into reality.
In this keynote, you will learn how to:
- ensure your organisation's readiness for the effects of artificial intelligence
- offer better service to smart machine customers
- develop more effortless transactions for your human customers
On the occasion of her contribution among other leading international and certified CX experts, in the long-awaited book Customer Experience 5, Sirte Pihlaja presents on the main stage of the CX Summit 2024 about its topic entitled "Are You Ready to Serve Artificially Intelligent Machine Customers?".
In this article, you can read more about the book "Customer Experience 5" that was just published.
The fifth edition of the global best-selling Customer Experience book series was released on January 22, 2024, covering the latest trends and strategy developments in CX.
Sirte Pihlaja, head of team at CXPA Finland and CEO of Shirute, is one of 18 expert CX authors featured in Customer Experience 5 and her chapter on machine customers explores one of the biggest customer behavior trends to emerge in recent years.
Enabled for the masses by the rise in IoT devices, consumer-friendly AI tools and the January 2024 launch of the ChatGPT Store, Pihlaja says machine customers represent a change twice as big as when e-commerce first emerged.
In this interview, she tells CX Network what is happening and what it means for organizations around the world.
For CX practitioners, 2023 was a rollercoaster. New customer demands, revolutionary new technologies and muted economic growth in major markets were just some of the things keeping practitioners busy. And things are unlikely to calm down in 2024.
Digital CX – the top trend in our 2023 Global State of CX research – will continue to develop with new capabilities paving the way for connected customers with new expectations.
In light of these developments, CX Network has rounded up six trends that are set to change your organization, customers and service suite in 2024.
Get ready for machine customers - The widespread availability of generative AI will have implications beyond the corporate world. As an author and CX expert Sirte Pihlaja, CEO of Shirute and head of team at CXPA Finland, is an authority on the use of AI in CX. Due to the rapid advances around LLMs, she believes 2024 will be the year of the machine customer.
Read this article to find out more:
https://www.cxnetwork.com/cx-experience/articles/6-cx-trends-that-will-shape-2024
Tänä kesänä jo neljättä kertaa järjestetyn CXPA Finlandin Hackin osallistujat pääsivät suunnittelemaan asiantuntijoiden ohjauksessa oikeilla haastekumppaneidemme caseilla, miten tekoälyä voidaan hyödyntää tukiälynä asiakas- ja työntekijäkokemuksen parantamiseen.
Tekoäly ammattilaisen tukena parantaa tuottavuutta, työhyvinvointia ja mahdollistaa täysin uudenlaisia palvelukokemuksia. Mitä tämä tarkoittaa käytännössä ja miten oma organisaatiosi voisi lähteä liikkeelle? Kuule webinaarissamme Microsoftin asiantuntijoilta, kuinka tekoälyä voidaan hyödyntää CX- ja EX-kehittämiseen.
Webinaarissa kuulet, kun Microsoft Finlandin operatiivinen johtaja (COO) Teemu Vidgrén avaa matkaa tekoälystä tukiälyyn ja kertoo, mitä kaikkien asiakas- ja työntekijäkokemuksen kehittäjien sekä liiketoimintavastaavien tulisi tietää AI:sta tässä hyvin ajankohtaisessa CXPA Finlandin ja Shiruten yhteistyössä järjestämässä webinaarissa! Keskustelussa mukana myös Microsoft Finlandilla liiketoimintasovellusten ja Low Code alustojen myyntiä johtava Axu Paimio. Haastattelijana Shiruten toimitusjohtaja ja CXPA Finlandin toiminnanjohtaja Sirte Pihlaja.
https://cxpa.fi/event/cxpa-finland-webinar-ai-mita-kuuluu-cx/
“Technology is best when it brings people together.
Let empathy guide the way, and let AI enhance the journey.”
- Sirte Pihlaja, CEO, Shirute
“In B2C the use of digital assistants is not so much about productivity, but convenience. As consumers, we want to make our lives as easy as possible, and we are already familiar with assistants. We are also getting used to commanding our homes or vehicles through wearables, connected devices and other types of interfaces.”
- CX Network, Machine Customers and the future of CX and service
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"I think about [agents] as intelligent systems that show reasoning, planning, and memory. They are able to think multiple steps ahead, work across software and systems, all to get something done on your behalf, and, most importantly, under your supervision."
- Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google