Brilliant Builds Season 2: Rethinking Enterprise AI Across the Customer Journey
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November 13, 2026
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In this 4-part series, host Maiken Baromich and resident AI avatar Ada go behind the code with leading technologists to ditch vague corporate promises and examine the operational realities of deploying AI, from curing customer burnout and eliminating black-box algorithms to mastering omnichannel orchestration and machine-to-machine interactions.
Brilliant Builds: Rethinking Enterprise AI Across the Customer Journey
The enterprise conversation around AI has moved beyond speculative hype and board-level proof of concepts. Across global markets, rushing generic automation into customer touchpoints without deep integration is quietly eroding customer trust.
From the UK to Germany, Spain and France, consumers are sounding the alarm:
- 83% of UK consumers feel undervalued by the brands they remain loyal to.
- 90% of German online shoppers report that AI has not improved their experience, while 51% demand visible human oversight.
- 96% of French consumers insist that direct phone access to a human representative must remain an absolute right.
In Season 2 of Brilliant Builds, host Maiken Baromich and resident AI avatar Ada sit down with leading technologists to ditch vague corporate promises and focus on hard operational execution.
Episode 1: Building for Loyalty: Curing the Experience Crisis
Featuring Nancy Rademaker (Author and Keynote Speaker)
Treating AI purely as a call-deflection tool ignores a fundamental operational reality: when automation takes away simple queries, frontline human agents inherit a relentless queue of high-friction complaints, leading to burnout.
“The magic is not in the bot or the human, but in what happens between them. If you can remember me well enough to sell to me, you should remember me well enough to help me.”
- Overcome the "Blank Slate": Unify customer memory across channels so loyal users never restart from zero.
- Support the Frontline: Equip human agents with real-time context to prevent burnout as inquiries grow more complex.
- Automate by Risk, Not Just Capability: Route routine queries to AI, but reserve high-stakes and emotional moments for humans.
Episode 2: Building for Clarity: Overcoming the AI Proof Deficit
Featuring Dr. Stephanie Hare (Technology Researcher and Author)
In high-stakes interactions, such as banking, healthcare, and identity management, speed without explainability is unacceptable to users. Opaque "black box" algorithms create a credibility gap that damages brand equity.
“When people’s money and personal data are at risk, clarity beats speed every time. We have to swap secret black boxes for transparent, auditable architectures.”
Adopt "Glass Box" Systems: Build auditable workflows where automated reasoning can be traced, explained, and verified.
Eliminate Guesswork: Anchor generative responses directly to enterprise-verified data layers to prevent costly hallucinations.
Turn Privacy into an Asset: Leverage stringent European data governance as a competitive trust differentiator.
Episode 3: Building for Seamlessness: Beating the SLA Bottleneck
Featuring Mathew Blakemore (AI Strategist & EU Code of Practice Contributor)
Adding disconnected touchpoints turns flexibility into architectural debt. With frameworks like Spain’s Customer Service Law mandating that 95% of support calls be answered within three minutes, modernizing backend connectivity has become an operational imperative.
“Adding new channels without unifying the backend context creates friction instead of flexibility. If a customer moves between channels and must repeat their history every time, convenience vanishes.”
“Smart organisations don't view new service regulations as a legal headache. They use them as an overdue catalyst to break down internal silos and connect legacy systems.”
Unify Channel Logic: Orchestrate SMS, Voice, WhatsApp, and RCS under a single backend.
Kill the "Cold Transfer": Preserve intent signals and history as conversations transition between bots and human agents.
Accelerate SLAs: Use low-latency automated triage to resolve routine requests and hit strict compliance targets.
Episode 4: Building for Choice: The Human-AI Co-Intelligence Era
Featuring Scott Seaborn (Digital Transformation and AI Strategist)
As consumer AI assistants begin negotiating directly with enterprise AI agents (M2M), customer engagement is moving toward an automated interface where brands risk turning into indistinguishable code.
“CX in the M2M era means building for machines and humans simultaneously. The biggest danger for leadership isn't failing to adopt AI; it's solving the wrong problems brilliantly.”
Build Human "Escape Hatches": Guarantee effortless, contextual pathways to live phone support at every stage.
Preserve Brand Voice in Code: Apply empathy mapping so brand values remain distinct across autonomous agent-to-agent exchanges.
Embrace Co-Intelligence: Free human teams from transactional tasks to focus on complex, high-value customer relationships.
Build What's Next
The next era of customer engagement belongs to builders who combine real-time data, reliable channels, and human judgment into seamless, trusted experiences.
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