Andrew Wiseman explores whether the rise of apps, kiosks, QR codes, robots and AI is making human interaction disappear from customer journeys, and what that means for CX.
Disintermediation. It’s a word I’ve used before.
In hindsight, I wish I maybe hadn’t used it on a prime-time Radio 2 interview about contactless payment. Suffice to say, the interview ended pretty swiftly after that, with a slew of listeners no doubt thinking: WTF does that mean?
Anyway. Back to that word. Disintermediation.
In its simplest form, it’s about getting rid of the middlemen. The intermediaries. The bits in between you and the thing you’re trying to do.
I’m using it here in the context of consumer journeys. I was in Newcastle last weekend. And the trip was largely disintermediated.
I booked my train travel via an app. I booked an Uber without the need for human interaction. I scanned my tickets at the automated barrier.
The theme continued on arrival at the hotel. I checked in via a kiosk and went on my merry way.
I could have taken it further. I could’ve ordered food and drinks via QR code, but in the interest of it not being Covid-time anymore, I didn’t. But you get the gist. The need for meaningful human interactions is becoming less and less obvious.
Enter – the robo-waiter
When I was coming out of reception for a night on “the toon”, I noticed some form of robot in the foyer.
On getting back to the room, it turns out it was an automated robo-waiter to deliver your room service.
A robo-waiter. In a hotel lobby. Just there, waiting to bring someone a club sandwich without the inconvenience of another human being getting involved.
And this is before we even get to the next stage of all this. AI companions. AI concierges. AI customer service agents. Not just tech that helps you complete a task, but tech that tries to replicate the softer stuff as well.
Things like warmth. Empathy. Helpfulness. Reassurance. The sense that someone, or something, is listening.
This is where it gets really interesting. To date, a lot of disintermediation has been about removing the human interface entirely. Apps instead of ticket offices. Kiosks instead of reception desks. Barriers instead of station staff. QR codes instead of waiters.
For lots of journeys, that’s absolutely fine. Better than fine, actually. Nobody really wants to queue behind someone arguing about an off-peak return when they can just buy a ticket in 30 seconds on their phone. Nobody wants to wait at a hotel desk for someone to type their surname into a system when a kiosk can do the job. Nobody wants to ring a call centre to do something that should take two taps in an app.
In those moments, the human interface can feel like friction. But AI changes the nature of the trade-off slightly.
That’s because it doesn’t just remove the person. It offers a kind of synthetic version of the person. A human-like layer over a non-human system. Something that can sound friendly, respond instantly, remember your preferences and appear endlessly patient.
Sometimes, that will be genuinely brilliant. But it also raises a bigger question for customer experience.
When we remove people from the journey, what exactly are we removing?
The answer isn’t always “friction”, by the way. Sometimes we are removing waiting time. Sometimes we are removing inconsistency. Sometimes we are removing awkwardness, repetition and unnecessary faff.
All good things.
But sometimes we are also removing reassurance. Judgement. Flexibility. Common sense. A bit of warmth. The little human cues that tell us we’re in the right place, we’ve done the right thing, or someone has noticed that we’re a bit lost.
That’s the bit brands need to be careful with. The danger is that businesses look at these journeys from the inside out. They see efficiency. Lower cost. Faster throughput. Fewer staffing headaches. Cleaner processes. Better data capture. More control.
The customer might experience something else entirely. They might experience absence.
They might experience a journey that works perfectly well until it doesn’t. A journey where everything is smooth on the happy path, but oddly unforgiving the moment they have a question, a problem, a vulnerability, a complaint, or a need that doesn’t fit neatly into the available options.
We’ve probably all experienced some version of this.
The chatbot that insists it can help, despite all available evidence to the contrary. The app journey that is beautifully designed until you need to do something slightly unusual. The self-service portal that gives you control right up to the point where you need care.
That distinction feels important. Self-service can be empowering. It can give people control, speed and convenience. It can remove the dead time and the dull bits from a journey.
But when something goes wrong, control can quickly become abandonment. Suddenly you’re not empowered. You’re stranded.
The implications for CX research
That has some pretty big implications for CX.
The question isn’t whether automation, digital journeys and AI are good or bad. That feels far too simplistic. The better question is where the human interface still matters, and what role it should play.
For routine journeys, speed and simplicity might be enough. Booking a ticket. Checking in. Paying a bill. Ordering the thing you already know you want. In those moments, human interaction might not add much at all.
But in higher-stakes moments, the equation changes. When money, health, safety, travel disruption, complaints, vulnerability or complex decisions are involved, people often need more than a functioning process. They need confidence. They need to feel heard. They need a route out when the system doesn’t quite fit their situation.
And that’s where CX research has to work a bit harder too. It’s not enough to ask whether the journey was easy. Or whether the app worked. Or whether the customer was satisfied at the end of it.
We need to understand the emotional role of human contact within the journey. Where does it create confidence? Where does it reduce anxiety? Where does it add warmth, trust or brand distinctiveness? And where, honestly, does it add very little?
We also need to understand the moments when customers want control versus the moments when they want care.
A good CX research programme should be able to map that. Not just the steps in the journey, but the value of the human interface at each point. The moments where automation improves the experience. The moments where it weakens it. The moments where an AI agent might be enough. And the moments where the option of a real person is the experience.
Because the future of CX probably isn’t fully human or fully automated. It’s knowing the difference between moments that need speed, moments that need simplicity, and moments that need someone to look up, smile and say: “No problem, I can help with that.”
So, has the human interface completely disappeared? Not quite.
But it is being redesigned, reduced and redistributed. The brands that get this right won’t be the ones that remove people from every journey. They’ll be the ones that understand where people still matter.
As automation and AI become more prevalent in customer journeys, understanding the moments when human interaction matters is crucial. Removing staff or intermediaries can improve efficiency but also reduce reassurance and trust. Mapping the emotional and practical value of the human interface helps brands optimise CX, maintain loyalty, and ensure customer journeys remain engaging and effective.
At Mustard, we have recent experience of helping clients better understand what an excellent customer experience should look and feel like in an increasingly digital and AI-enabled world. We’ve heard from consumers how automation and AI can enhance convenience, but removing the human interface entirely can undermine trust, reassurance, and experience quality. We’ve helped brands map the emotional value of human interaction across customer journeys, ensuring CX design balances speed, simplicity, and care. If you’re rethinking digital experiences or exploring the role of AI in your customer journey, get in touch.