PwC Partner on the 'Loyalty Illusion' Costing Businesses Their Customer Connection

The gap between what leaders believe customers feel and what those customers actually experience is growing. While many see rising loyalty as proof that their investments are working, the results tell a different story: 90% of executives believe customer loyalty has grown, but only 40% of consumers agree. In the rush to embed AI into every corner of the customer journey, some organizations are creating more noise than clarity. Now, some brands wonder whether the metrics they're chasing impress executives more than they inspire customers.

For an expert's perspective on the growing perception gap, we spoke with George Korizis, Partner and Front Office Strategy & Transformation leader at PwC. With more than two decades of experience, including a tenure as Managing Director at Accenture, Korizis has seen firsthand how innovation can blur the line between progress and performance. For him, the loyalty illusion stems from leaders mistaking their own investment activity for genuine customer outcomes.

"That 50-point gap is the first time we’ve seen two distinct realities emerge so clearly. Executives have mistaken the progress they’re making by investing in loyalty for actually producing loyalty. Meanwhile, customers are looking at those efforts and thinking, 'There’s very little in it for me,'" Korizis says. Executives are losing their grip on the customer journey through the "experience supply chain." Once, brands could count on customers landing squarely on their websites. Now, decisions are being shaped upstream by LLMs, with algorithms acting as the new gatekeepers. The brand’s voice fades long before the final click.

• Dwindling control: In Korizis’s view, that loss of control calls for a reckoning. The old "build it and they will come" mindset doesn’t cut it anymore. To stay relevant, leaders have to pick a lane: be data-rich, be distribution-focused, or get comfortable being commoditized as the "plumbing" behind everyone else’s experience. "Executives still believe they control the experience, but they don’t. Customers aren’t going to brand websites anymore. They’re going to LLMs to ask which product, which bank, which charity deserves their attention. The decision is made there, and soon the entire transaction will happen there, too. All that’s left for brands to control is their placement, their IP, and how well it’s distributed, and even that’s slipping away."

• Augment, don't automate: Instead of seeing AI as a tool for replacement, Korizis encourages leaders to redefine it as a way to augment human potential and unlock new capacity. "When it comes to the orchestration, deciding why we put certain things together, and connecting it to business value, we can’t outsource that thinking," Korizis says. "Too many leaders see AI as a replacement when it should be an unlock. The goal is to move the repetitive work to machines so people can focus on judgment and creativity."

Applying the same philosophy to customer support, Korizis reframes it from a cost center ripe for automation to a "second line of defense." Support teams frequently step in to bridge the space between what customers expect and what they experience. The real opportunity is to design experiences so seamless that they feel less like problem-solving and more like having an assistant.

• Metric mirage: Traditional KPIs often create the illusion of progress while missing the point entirely, Korizis advises. "Too many organizations start with measurement rather than meaning. Begin with the why, then move to the what and the how. Otherwise, you end up chasing vanity metrics that make the dashboard look good but say nothing about real customer value. Metrics only make sense in context. You have to be sector- and industry-specific to interpret them. In B2B, things like purchase frequency or average order volume might not apply at all."

With AI now elevating that vision from aspiration to reality, the long-held goal of transforming service centers into profit centers is finally within reach. Korizis’s closing message to leaders is straightforward: reconnect with the people who matter most. By stepping outside the boardroom, leaders can "truly understand the products and services they offer, how they’re improving people’s lives or changing them, and then work backwards from there." That kind of perspective is especially critical as younger generations reshape what loyalty looks like. "Their engagement and buying patterns are the blind spot for most organizations. Too many leaders make assumptions without firsthand data or experience in how these generations will redefine their products."