From our recent Kiwi CX Collective Podcast Episode with Richard Winterburn, CCNNZ Committee Member & Founder at DigEcom
Why Are 80% of AI Projects Failing?
There’s a massive gap between the promise of AI and the reality. The promise is a seamless, efficient, and intelligent customer experience. The reality, for a shocking 80% of businesses, is a failed project, wasted budget, and a “drive to the bottom” that sacrifices the human touch for flawed automation.
This leaves leaders asking a critical question: How do we innovate with AI without frustrating our customers and burning out our agents?
In this episode of the Kiwi CX Collective, we get a much-needed dose of reality from 30-year industry veteran Richard Winterburn. As a CCNNZ Committee member who has seen it all—from 90s call centres to consulting for Buckingham Palace—Richard provides a pragmatic, human-centred roadmap for navigating the AI hype.
What You’ll Hear:
Meet “Agentic AI”: The Future You Need to Know What’s the difference between a “train on a track” and a “car that can stop for a sandwich”? Richard explains this powerful analogy for “Agentic AI” and shares the surprising stat that 63% of customers already prefer it for certain interactions.
Empowerment, Not Replacement: Instead of fearing AI, learn how tools like call summarization are already acting as a “co-pilot” for agents. Richard dismantles the replacement myth, showing how this tech improves the agent experience and captures far better data.
Why You Need a “Failure Tolerant” Culture: The 80% failure rate isn’t just a tech problem; it’s a culture problem. We explore why a “stop, pause, reset” mentality is essential for innovation and why the search for a “single perfect vendor” is a myth.
The “Win-Win-Win” Strategy: True success isn’t just a win for your company and a win for your customer. Richard explains his “Win-Win-Win” framework, which forces you to understand your customer’s customer to build a truly effective experience.
This conversation is a practical guide to separating AI facts from fiction. It’s about making technology work for people, not the other way around.
Watch the full episode for a blueprint on building a smarter, more human-centred contact centre.
Watch the full episode now:
Connect with our Guest:
- Richard Winterburn: CCNNZ Committee, Founder at DigEcom
- LinkedIn: Richard Winterburn
