CX and the 6ix: AI, Fraud, and the Future of Customer Experience

There are plenty of events for marketers, operators, and founders. But for customer experience leaders? Not so much.

That's why bringing CX and the City to Toronto felt important. 🇨🇦

For our first dinner in the city, we gathered ten CX leaders from brands including Mejuri, KOTN, and Branch Furniture in a private dining room at Alo Salon in the heart of Yorkville. Over three courses, the conversation moved well beyond networking. It became an honest discussion about the challenges every CX team is navigating today: how to embrace AI without losing the human connection, how to combat increasingly sophisticated fraud, and how the role of customer experience is evolving inside modern commerce businesses.

What became clear throughout the evening wasn't that anyone had all the answers.

It was that everyone is asking the same questions.

AI isn't replacing customer experience. It's redefining it.

A year ago, conversations around AI largely focused on whether brands should adopt it.

Today, that question has changed.

Every leader around the table was experimenting with AI somewhere in the customer journey—whether behind the scenes to improve team efficiency or through customer-facing experiences. The conversation has shifted from if to where.

Where does AI genuinely improve the customer experience?

Where does it create friction?

And perhaps the biggest question of all: where should humans remain?

There was broad agreement that while AI continues to improve, it cannot replicate empathy, nuanced judgment, or the reassurance that comes from speaking with another person during complex or emotional interactions. For premium brands especially, those moments remain a defining part of the customer experience.

Rather than replacing people, AI is increasingly becoming a tool that allows teams to spend more time on the conversations that matter most.

Fighting fraud without punishing good customers

As AI becomes more capable, so do bad actors.

One of the evening's most engaging discussions centered around fraud—particularly how brands can protect profitability without creating frustrating experiences for legitimate customers.

The challenge is a familiar one.

Customers expect instant resolutions, but blanket refund policies can expose brands to fraudulent claims. On the other hand, adding unnecessary friction risks damaging trust with loyal customers.

The group explored how AI can help strike a better balance.

One example discussed was the DigitalGenius and Wyllo integration. When a customer reports that an order hasn't been delivered, AI can instantly assess signals across the customer journey and assign a risk score. Lower-risk customers can receive an immediate refund or replacement, while higher-risk cases are intelligently escalated to a human agent for review.

It's a simple idea with significant implications.

Instead of forcing every customer through the same process, brands can create experiences that are both more efficient and more trustworthy.

Throughout the discussion, one sentiment remained consistent: AI should help teams make better decisions—not make every decision for them.

The future of CX is more strategic than ever ✨

As dinner continued, the conversation naturally shifted toward the future.

If AI handles more repetitive work, what becomes of the customer experience team?

Rather than shrinking in importance, the consensus was quite the opposite.

Customer experience is becoming one of the most strategic functions within an organization.

The insights gathered from customer conversations increasingly influence product decisions, marketing campaigns, operations, logistics, and overall business strategy. As AI automates repetitive tasks, CX professionals will have greater opportunities to focus on understanding customers, identifying trends, and influencing revenue.

The future isn't fewer CX leaders.

It's more influential ones.

As one attendee, Kristy Mohun of Mejuri, reflected after the dinner:

“We're still in the earliest stages of understanding what AI and automation will mean for customer experience. No one has the perfect answer or the path forward, and none of us can say exactly what the future will look like, but that's also what makes this moment in time so exciting—and so important. We're not just observing the change. We're helping shape it.”

That sentiment perfectly captured the spirit of the evening.

More than a dinner

While AI and fraud may have been the headline topics, the biggest takeaway wasn't technological at all.

It was the value of creating space for honest conversations.

As the evening unfolded, what started as introductions quickly turned into candid discussions about the realities of leading customer experience teams today. There were no sales pitches, no polished presentations, and no expectation to have all the answers. Just a group of leaders openly sharing what they're testing, what's working, and where they're still learning.

Several attendees commented on how valuable it was simply to have a space dedicated to customer experience operators in Toronto—and that they'd love to see more of it.

That's exactly why CX and the City exists.

Because while the tools will continue to evolve, the best ideas still come from bringing great people together around a table.

We're excited to keep the conversation going. 🥂