McKinsey Talks Operations Beyond the bot: building empathetic customer experiences with agentic AI
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Dec 17, 2025 
Eric Buesing, a Partner at McKinsey & Company, and Gadi Shamia, CEO of Replicant, explore the transformative power of agentic AI in customer care. They discuss how AI can evolve from basic bots to empathetic agents that handle complex interactions. Key insights include the importance of UX design for customer acceptance and the need for robust organizational changes to scale automation. The duo also highlights a successful DoorDash pilot, showcasing measurable goals and impressive automation rates. Discover how AI can reshape human roles in contact centers!
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Agentic AI As Lego Blocks
- Agentic AI can act like small specialized workers that compose into complex workflows.
- When combined, they reason, remember interactions, and respond conversationally at human-like speed.
Place Measured Bets On Impact
- Focus AI efforts where they change the P&L and drive measurable impact instead of chasing every shiny demo.
- Prioritize solutions that help employees at scale and that customers will actually use.
Design Conversations, Not Just Models
- Invest in conversation design and UX alongside the technology to create surprising, delightful experiences.
- Deploy well and iterate so customers gradually accept AI over legacy IVRs.