How Gladly is redefining AI in CX for retailers and customers

“This sense of not being known, having to repeat oneself, having to give an order number and having to spell one’s name yet again — that comes up in nine out of 10 customer service complaints,” said Melissa MacAlister, head of customer success at customer experience platform Gladly. “AI is positioned to take away those pain points because it is always on, consumers never have to wait, and everything is automatic.”

When AI in CX is used to make interactions personal, it drives revenue, retains customers and differentiates brands. Gladly reported that its platform has helped retailers achieve these results, with some clients — like Rothy’s — seeing 20% of AI-assisted conversations lead to a purchase.

“When brands implement AI the right way and give it access to all of the customer context, that sense of not being known doesn’t exist,” MacAlister said. “It knows what items a customer has bought and what their preferences are, and it can deliver that really personalized experience pretty instantly.”

While many AI pilot programs fail to deliver measurable impact, Gladly’s AI solutions are driving results. The company has achieved more than 131% year-over-year growth in AI annual recurring revenue (ARR), according to Gladly. Furthermore, approximately 50% of Gladly’s new business and expansion ARR now stems from its AI offerings, with the majority of clients successfully achieving enterprise-wide adoption.

Using AI in CX to produce measurable results

Until now, many AI in CX solutions have fallen short for two primary reasons: Ticket-based platforms treat each issue as an isolated event, and standalone voice AI solutions lack the context needed to make interactions personal. These fragmented approaches create frustrating experiences for both customers and agents.

Newer platforms like Gladly aggregate all customer interactions, regardless of channel, into a single lifelong conversation. This record informs both AI and agent-led support, leading to more personalized and efficient service. The platform’s quality control features also allow brands to configure AI behavior to match their specific tone of voice and guidelines.

“Determining the experiences AI should handle versus the experiences it shouldn’t touch varies brand by brand,” MacAlister said. “Astute brands determine their values — where humans can deliver value that’s going to build loyalty versus what is the best experience for a customer to get fast, friendly service — and whether AI can take action on the brand’s behalf.”

According to MacAlister, Gladly’s clients achieve faster resolutions, reduced agent handle times and higher customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Businesses using Gladly have seen up to a 470% yearly ROI, a 45% reduction in handle times and CSAT scores as high as 98%, MacAlister said.

What retailers should look for in an AI in CX partner

When choosing an AI in CX partner, many retailers focus on cutting costs. But the real opportunity lies in using AI to enrich the customer experience and drive revenue. Retailers should seek partners with AI tools that elevate interactions through smarter conversations, combining human qualities like recognition and empathy with measurable results.

Retailers should consider two key outcomes when evaluating platform providers:

Resolutions: Does the AI fully solve common customer issues from end to end? This frees human agents to focus on complex, high-value conversations that require creativity and emotional intelligence.

“The math is pretty simple. It costs a lot of money to acquire a customer, so the ability to retain that customer, increase their average order value and increase their lifetime spend is a good investment,” MacAlister said. “Looking at CX from a holistic perspective and making sure your AI and your interactions with human agents all live in the same place is the impetus for building loyalty.”

Assists: Can the AI gather context, conduct initial troubleshooting and prepare insights before passing customers to human agents? This allows agents to work faster while ensuring customers feel understood. For example, if a customer asks for a makeup foundation recommendation, Gladly’s platform can access their purchase history to suggest the right shade and brand.

“It’s using the breadth of a brand’s customer knowledge to really tailor which experiences the customer has,” MacAlister noted. “If a brand’s AI agent has no idea who the customer is, it doesn’t have the flexibility to treat every customer as a person.”

When customer service interactions are well-informed, brands create opportunities to cross-sell and upsell. Currently, about 70% of Gladly’s enterprise customers and nearly 60% of its mid-market customers have adopted Gladly’s AI capabilities, the company said.

Case Study: How KUHL transformed support into a revenue driver

When KUHL, a Salt Lake City-based outdoor brand, realized its ticket-based CX system was holding its customer service back, the brand knew change was necessary. KUHL’s platform was outdated, customizations required expensive add-ons and the company’s lean CX team was struggling under the workload. More fundamentally, the system prioritized problems over people — the opposite of what KUHL stands for as a values-driven brand.

To address these challenges, KUHL turned to Gladly’s customer-centric platform, which is built on the same values the brand emphasizes: putting people first and refusing to compromise on experience. Unlike KUHL’s previous system, Gladly’s platform gave KUHL agents a unified view of each customer in a centralized profile, including purchase history and current orders — eliminating the need to shuffle between multiple tabs and systems.

“Our earlier ticketing system required us to purchase additional apps to get the same functionality as Gladly,” said Nancy Orgill, customer support manager at KUHL. “But with Gladly we got everything we needed out of the box. Now, we have real-time data and easy access to the channels from one platform. It’s seamless.”

KUHL also strategically implemented Gladly AI, training it to match the company’s unique tone and voice while handling only repetitive inquiries. The conversational AI generates answers from KUHL’s knowledge base via chat and SMS, ensuring accuracy and brand consistency.

“Our AI kicks in and starts answering common, repetitive questions,” Orgill explained. “If something goes wrong or it’s a more complex inquiry, the AI routes the customer straight to an agent. It’s a seamless transition. Our customers don’t even realize they’re talking to AI.”

Since implementing Gladly’s platform, KUHL has seen transformative results. The AI now handles 59% of email inquiries and 27% of chat conversations, allowing agents to focus on higher-value interactions. Weekend email volume also dropped by 60%.

“We have been able to capture more emails with Gladly’s AI,” Orgill noted. “We now come in from the weekend, and there’s 60% less.”

But, the most significant impact for KUHL since switching to Gladly’s platform has happened on the revenue side. KUHL’s CX agents now have time to help customers find the perfect fit for apparel and upsell relevant accessories. This shift from managing CX tickets to building customer relationships drove a 120% increase in revenue per call, transforming customer support from a cost center into a genuine revenue driver.

Taking CX into the era of AI

Most legacy CX platforms fall short because they retrofit AI into a fragmented infrastructure, creating automation that’s fast but rarely helpful. The result is repetitious interactions that lead to customer frustration. Successful retailers like KUHL have flipped the model by partnering with AI in CX platforms like Gladly to elevate interactions and turn service into a sales opportunity.

Looking ahead, MacAlister predicts that AI in CX will become more channel-independent. “In most cases, if a customer engages with a chatbot on a website, there is no way to take that chat with them,” she said. “What’s going to happen is that the customer will be able to pick up that same conversation via text or on their phone and carry on.”

MacAlister also expects static FAQ pages to evolve into conversational, brand-owned experiences. “Brands are going to want to own more of those conversations,” she concluded. “Similar to what happened with shopping, merchants will want to incentivize customers to come directly to them for service because they can own that relationship.”

Sponsored by Gladly