Clarkston’s David Patterson Speaks to HBR about Advancing Conversations with Customers
July 7, 2025 | Clarkston Consulting’s David Patterson, associate partner, was cited for his expertise on how organizations are advancing their conversations with customers. This research by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, in association with Infobip, explores how this shift in business-to-customer (B2C) communication is unfolding in real time across industries thanks to the influence of AI in CX. Patterson discusses how retailers can tap into an opportunistic moment in the customer’s buying journey while at the same time collecting customer data. He also provides an examples of a multinational personal care company that developed an AI bot that engages customers by providing them with gift-giving suggestions for loved ones on a popular messaging platform. Additionally, he touches on the importance of setting an intention to shape positive conversation and deploying the right methods/tools depending on the scenario. View his quotes below and the full report on the topic here.
Conversational Experiences: The Untapped Potential of AI in Customer Engagement
“End-to-end seamless conversational experiences, often backed by AI, can elevate interactions with a brand.”
“The real business benefit is that, if done right, these conversational experiences can drive loyalty, which most retailers put a premium on.”
“[Brands] identify where the conversational touchpoints make the most sense. If you’re not engaging at the right time in the purchasing journey, you’ll miss the mark. Figuring out where personalization makes the most sense is where you should start.”
“A human agent can’t be fully replaced. There are still many support-type transactions that require some decision making that a chatbot can’t perfect or navigate quite yet.”