Nextiva today announced the publication of "Winning the Customer Experience Race," a new guide authored by Edwin Margulies. The book provides CX and IT leaders with a clear decision rubric, cross-industry playbooks, and practical data practices to ensure AI delivers measurable business results. It directly addresses the complexity of modern customer experience management by offering guidance on where to implement automation, where to keep humans in the loop, and how to centralize interaction data for instantaneous AI and agent performance.
Nextiva published "Winning the Customer Experience Race," a guide for CX and IT leaders on scaling AI and automation.
The book provides a decision rubric for determining what to automate (low-emotion, low-complexity tasks) and what to keep human-led.
It addresses industry struggle points: 92% of leaders use AI, but only 9% describe their programs as mature.
A core theme is establishing interaction data as the CX system of record for timely AI accuracy and agent effectiveness.
Guidance is presented with cross-industry playbooks for sectors like Insurance, Healthcare, and Service Providers.
The author, Edwin Margulies, is a CX practitioner and editor with over 40 years of experience and 20 published books.
The guide arrives at a crucial time for Customer Experience (CX) teams. A recent Nextiva study of over 1,000 CX leaders revealed that while 92% have adopted AI, a mere 9% describe their programs as mature. This gap is compounded by operational friction: teams average six or more tools, and 81% report that consolidating customer data into a single system would significantly improve CX. Despite leaders agreeing that seamless handoffs between AI and humans are essential, 90% still struggle to remove friction from this process.
The book is structured as a non-linear planning aid. Each chapter highlights top automation targets, current business challenges, and specific industry-specific use cases, allowing readers to quickly identify relevant solutions and borrow ideas from adjacent sectors.
Yaniv Masjedi, Chief Marketing Officer at Nextiva, noted that the book aligns directly with the company's core mission:
“Leaders want a credible path to outcomes, especially as all businesses navigate this world of agentic AI. Winning the Customer Experience Race shows how to bring customer interactions and data together so AI makes teams faster, customers happier, and the business measurably stronger. It reflects our mission to deliver powerful, easy-to-use customer experience technology.”
"Winning the Customer Experience Race" provides concrete, repeatable guidance for CX transformation. The core practices outlined include:
A Decision Rubric for Automation: Teams are advised to evaluate interactions based on volume, complexity, and emotion. High-emotion, high-complexity moments should remain human-led, while high-volume, repetitive tasks are prime targets for automation.
Data as the CX System of Record: The book emphasizes that centralizing interaction data at the moment of engagement is the foundation for high AI accuracy and maximum agent effectiveness, ensuring AI assists in real-time, not retroactively.
Pilot to Scale Strategy: Readers receive a pragmatic, step-by-step sequence: audit current workflows, start by automating high-volume repetitive tasks, and rigorously measure and iterate using analytics and feedback loops.
The guide features detailed, actionable examples leaders can implement immediately across various sectors:
Insurance: Use cases for real-time transcription, summarization, and sentiment analysis to improve documentation, accelerate claims processing, and reduce rework.
Service Providers and Contact Centers: Focus on Agent Assist capabilities that retrieve knowledge articles in context, auto-note calls, and flag sentiment, freeing agents to focus entirely on the customer interaction.
Healthcare: Addresses complex billing and claims workflows, coding automation with NLP, and RPA for routine validations, all while maintaining strict attention to privacy and staff adoption.
The book is available now, and readers can access Chapter 1 free of charge. A companion resource, "Mastering the Customer Experience," is also available, offering an eight-step discovery plan, templates, and tools to build a comprehensive roadmap.
Nextiva powers over a million users and billions of customer interactions annually with its customer experience platform. From one AI-powered hub, Nextiva Unified-CXM helps businesses orchestrate journeys that acquire, retain, and grow customers. Founded in 2008, Nextiva is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Recent recognition includes number-one rankings in G2’s Winter 2025 reports and being named a Strong Performer in the 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™ “Voice of the Customer” for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS).
TechIntelPro empowers B2B technology decision-makers with the latest industry trends, deep insights, leadership perspectives and actionable intelligence to drive both organizational and professional milestones—and thrive on the tech pulse.