Can Empathy Be Outsourced?

We’re seeing a strange trend in tech right now. On one hand, many companies are cutting customer-facing roles—customer success, customer advocacy, customer marketing—believing these teams aren’t delivering enough immediate ROI or that their functions can be automated with AI.

On the other hand, Gartner’s latest report says 2025 will be the year that customer experience (CX) becomes a critical buying criterion.

These two statements seem to be at odds. How can companies cut the teams most responsible for understanding customers while CX simultaneously becomes more important than ever?

Spoiler: They can’t.

The Rise of AI—And the Myth of the “Humanless” Customer Experience

I’m not here to bash AI. Far from it. I LOVE AI. I’ve created 18 custom GPTs of my own that do everything from converting your unfiltered brain-dump into a productive written performance review (Tactify)  to a plain-speaking advisor that helps luddites navigate their basic technology (Ok, Larry–named after my dad). AI is incredible at streamlining processes, providing faster answers, and uncovering insights that we’d never spot on our own. But efficiency and empathy are not the same thing.

Empathy isn’t just knowing what a customer did (thanks, data); it’s understanding how they feel and what they’re trying to do. It’s recognizing the friction they’re hitting, celebrating their wins, and anticipating their needs. Yes, AI sentiment analysis software can help with that (shoutout to my friends at UserTesting ), but someone still has to interpret that analysis and take action. It’s the follow-up email that says, “I saw your team is scaling fast—let’s talk about how we can help.” It's the sprint with your product team that says "hey, here's where in the workflow customers are getting stuck; let's fix that."

This is where humans shine. And when we automate or eliminate these roles without a strategy, what we’re really doing is taking our customers’ trust and chipping away at it.

Where’s the Disconnect?

Cutting these teams may feel like a quick win. Less payroll, less overhead. On paper, the math works.

Until it doesn’t.

Because the invisible costs add up fast: customers who churn because no one advocated for them; customers who almost expanded but didn’t because no one connected the dots; customers who were happy but not happy enough to tell their peers.

Meanwhile, your competitors? The ones who really see the opportunity? They’re doubling down on customer experience, especially as software becomes homogenized. If you really want to understand how similar products and pricing can be, go to G2 and take a look at your company’s main category. If there are a dozen other players in the space, stop pretending that you can win on product-led growth. Unless you’re the first to market, have an absolutely game-changing feature, or are the lowest-cost alternative (because who wouldn’t want to be considered the Temu of enterprise software? Sarcasm intended) CX might be the biggest differentiator there is. 

And how will they know what that customer experience with your company is like? By reference calls, testimonials and case studies of existing customers like them–which you won’t have if your customers churn or are unhappy.

Three Things Tech Leaders Need to Consider

If 2025 really is the “Year of CX,” then the companies who will win are the ones who do these three things well:

1. Get the Balance Right AI is powerful, but it works best when it augments human effort—not replaces it. Let AI handle the repetitive, transactional work so humans can focus on building relationships, solving complex problems, and showing customers that they matter.
2. Look Beyond Immediate ROI It’s tempting to measure customer teams against short-term metrics. But CX is a long game. Happy customers renew, expand, and advocate. And those referrals? They drive growth. Cutting customer-facing teams may boost short-term numbers, but it’s often a long-term loss.
3. Stop Calling These Teams “Cost Centers” Words matter. When we label customer success or advocacy teams as cost centers, we diminish their role. The truth? These teams are your growth engine. Every interaction they have either builds trust or erodes it. And in a competitive market, trust is everything.

The “Aha” Moment: Empathy Is Your Competitive Advantage

So, can empathy be outsourced? I don’t think so. AI can help us move faster and work smarter, but empathy—that deeply human ability to listen, understand, and advocate—can’t be automated.

Tech companies that realize this now—those who strike the balance between AI and the human touch—will be the ones customers trust in 2025 and beyond.

Everyone else? They’ll be playing catch-up.