AI Vitals: Three shifts that will redefine how your customers engage with you

The promise of AI's potential has been narrowly framed around efficiency, the easiest metric to quantify but equally the fastest path to commoditisation. Productivity gains alone won’t be why customers remember you. Relationships will. The real value of AI lies in using it to radically reimagine your digital customer experience: creating interactions that are proactive, contextually aware, and emotionally resonant. 

That was the key insight our team walked away with after attending Web Summit 2025 in Lisbon earlier this month. Across two days and 18 stages, conversations ranged from world models and neuromorphic computing to enterprise AI deployment and vibe coding.  

From talks titled "the internet is dead" to those declaring "the internet is very much alive”, we needed to connect these expansive possibilities to the realities our clients face today, identifying three prominent shifts and why they should matter to your business.  

1. From distant future to doorstep: Agentic AI is finding its place in culture 

The shift: AI is moving from tool usage to autonomous agents capable of acting, deciding, and collaborating across digital ecosystems. These agents are set to become the central organizing principle of how customers interact with digital services. 

Why it matters: If natural language prompting taught us anything, it's that 'tech for work' quickly spills into mainstream culture, shifting how consumers expect to interact with brands. Your business now has a new customer to understand and serve: AI agents. As customers deploy agents beyond work into personal use cases (an inevitable shift, regardless of adoption pace) your business will need to serve both humans and their agents, each with different needs and expectations. This isn't distant speculation; it's an imminent reality requiring immediate preparation. 

2. From language understanding to world understanding 

The shift: AI is evolving from language models to world models, systems that understand physical environments and predict actions based on how the world and people behave. Jeff Bezos's Project Prometheus, describing its mission as "AI for the Physical World," signals this technology moving from headline to market disruption. 

Why it matters: This frontier opens opportunities for more intuitive, non-intrusive engagement between brands and customers. While existing touchpoints won't disappear, fundamentally different interaction modes will emerge. With more options comes greater autonomy in how your customers choose to engage with you. In an AI-mediated world where interactions can feel algorithmic, these more natural, context-aware experiences become critical differentiators. Without adaptation, you risk losing moments of connection entirely. 

3. From digital noise the slow media era 

The shift: The attention economy has long been under scrutiny as culture sets boundaries against brands adding to digital chaos. Representatives from The Economist, The Independent, The Guardian, and The Times conveyed that while they're shifting formats toward deeper video and podcast content, audiences still come to them for what they stand for as brands. Formats change, but people return for integrity. 

Why it matters: People are actively seeking and deeply connecting with authentic voices who offer meaningful perspectives. While the ways of digital engagement fundamentally shift, your brand purpose and integrity remain signals of trust.  

Toto Wolff, Team Principal of Mercedes F1, described his role as "translator" between engineers armed with billions of data points and drivers who operate on feeling and intuition. When data says the car is performing optimally but the driver insists something's wrong, who do you believe? The answer is both. His job is finding the balance. 

That balance is the strategic opportunity ahead. While the "I" in AI continues to advance at pace, it will be the human "I's" Intention, Intuition, Intellect; that set your brand apart in an AI-mediated world.