October 31, 2025
This Week in CX: Fauxductivity, Fraud Fighters & Feel-Good Teams
Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.
This week, we explored how busyness doesn’t always equal progress, why fraud teams are becoming banks’ biggest trust builders, and how self-service AI could put consumer confidence at risk.
We are also discussing updates from Spotify, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and more.
Key news
- Spotify has announced a new feature that allows users to follow their favourite music venues on the app, aiming to make it easier to discover live music. The initiative will provide concert announcements and updates from saved venues, and allow users to purchase tickets directly through Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The feature builds on the launch of the platform’s Concerts Near You tool, rolled out earlier this year, which creates a weekly playlist of artists scheduled to perform in a user’s area.
- Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom plan to jointly build a one-billion-euro data centre in Munich, according to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources. The official announcement is expected next month. Europe’s leading software company, SAP, will reportedly be among the users of the facility’s computing power. The project follows the two companies’ presentation of an industrial AI factory in June, set to go live in 2026. The announcement comes amid Europe’s push for AI investment and digital sovereignty, with the EU pledging €200bn over the next decade to expand computing capacity.
- PwC has scrapped a pledge made in 2021 to hire 100,000 new employees by 2026, a reversal that partly stems from slowing revenue growth and the impact of artificial intelligence. The Big Four accounting firm has instead eliminated 5,600 positions in the year that ended 30 June, according to the Financial Times. PwC’s global revenue rose 2.7% to $56.9bn (€48.9bn; £43.1bn) in that period, marking a deceleration in growth from prior years. It was also the first year that its workforce decreased since 2010.
CXM news stories
Here’s the full news stories that CXM have reported on in the past week. Discover the latest news on fauxductivity, the role of AI in Las Vegas, the risks of self-service AI, and more.
New Research Reveals the Rise of the Festive Shopping Season
New research from Experian and Reward shows that Black Friday is no longer just a single-day event. Instead, it has morphed into a season-long shopping period, with British consumers increasingly prioritising experiences, wellbeing, and value-led purchases over traditional retail splurges.
“Consumer habits are clearly evolving, and in today’s economic climate those changes can be difficult to predict,” says Colin Grieves, Managing Director of Experian Marketing Services UK&I. “Having access to comprehensive spending insights, combined with smarter audience targeting, gives brands a much stronger chance of success — ensuring the right messages reach the right audiences and deliver value to both the consumer and the brand.”
Analysis of over 1.4 billion anonymised transactions across more than 4,000 retail brands reveals that October and December outperformed November in 2024, while the overall trading window grew by more than 10% compared to the previous year. This signals a shift toward more evenly distributed festive spending, a trend that is expected to continue into 2025.
Spending habits are also evolving. Consumers are investing in travel, fitness, health, beauty, nutrition, and sustainable or value-driven retail — a shift reflected even among older shoppers, who now account for 14% of online spending. The most active groups during Black Friday and the Golden Quarter include mature homeowners, suburban families, younger renters, and budget-conscious buyers.
To thrive in this new landscape, brands need to move beyond short-term discounts and focus on data-driven strategies that anticipate customer needs, deliver consistent experiences across channels, and reward loyalty.
Consumers are spreading their spending across a longer festive period and redefining value, presenting brands with opportunities to build deeper, more meaningful connections.
