Skip to content

Beyond the bot: building empathetic customer experiences with agentic AI

December 17, 2025 · 24 min

Show notes

Improving operations, generating revenue and implementing the right technology have all become key priorities for customer care professionals over the last decade. Organizations must find customer service operating models that scale, whilst maintaining customer satisfaction. In an evolving landscape where the leaders are those making significant strides in agentic AI adoption, one question remains: can an agentic AI voice agent truly be empathetic?  

 In this episode, host Daphne Luchtenberg is joined by Eric Buesing, Partner at McKinsey & Company and Gadi Shamia, CEO and Co-founder of Replicant. Together, they discuss the evolving landscape of customer care and explore how agentic AI is transforming contact centres.   

 McKinsey Talks Operations has much more content to offer on the Operations topics that connect strategy with lasting success. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com to explore events and insights from McKinsey’s Operations Practice, and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations. 

 

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

All episodes of McKinsey Talks Operations

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.