October 02, 2025
Mind the Empathy Gap Before AI Makes It A Trench
New research from Zurich Insurance Group highlights the value of empathy in customer interactions, something that the rush to AI-enhanced systems could overlook.
The report, Empathy: The Untapped Advantage Driving Business Growth & Loyalty notes some 73% of consumers will avoid using businesses that fail to show some level of empathy.
AI Can Empathise At Scale, Or Can It?
The report opens by highlighting “that in an AI-driven world, the need for authentic human connection hasn’t disappeared, it has deepened. Empathy is both the foundation of
meaningful relationships, and part of a company’s competitive edge.”
While some AI vendors are developing agentic CX platforms for empathy at scale, if customers don’t believe it can be genuinely empathetic, then the effort will fall on the deaf ears of customers marching to another store or service provider.
Zurich recognises empathy as not just a soft skill, but a core business capability. Especially when dealing with people at some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives through insurance claims. Listening, understanding, and supporting them has to be at the heart of everything the company does.
Will AI Improve or Destroy Empathy?
The research data also revealed that 60 percent of respondents expressed concern that AI is destroying customer empathy, so how is a consumer to know which part of the company’s communications is AI and which is genuinely human? Especially in an AI voice era, and a world where deep fakes can make it hard to tell the difference.
Brands will need to either consider an “AI created” tag for such content, and even consider a time when litigation means consumers can opt out of receiving AI-generated messages, or having their data analysed by AI systems.
Whatever comes next, with almost half (43%) taking their business elsewhere when brands fail to deliver on empathy, customer-focused firms will still need a supply of emotional engagement.
And as 71% of consumers believe AI cannot recreate genuine human connections, with 92% valuing direct human interaction over 24/7 availability, will they change their minds as AI gets inevitably smarter ?
Read the report for some answers to these questions, but the pace of change, the need to compete and growing consumer scepticism will see companies struggling to find the sweet spot between true empathy and tech’s power to scale and synthesise.
