At a moment when Irish organisations are investing heavily in AI-powered CX, global evidence confirms the most durable competitive advantage remains distinctly human. The Ipsos report Empathy: The New Currency of Brand Connection, published in October 2025 and drawing on analysis of more than 1,700 advertising campaigns and the proprietary Ipsos Brand Value Creator database, finds that empathy-grounded ideas are 79 per cent more likely to drive brand choice. This research reframes empathy not as cultural aspiration but as a measurable commercial strategy.

The data makes a compelling case that organisations embedding genuine empathy into their CX architecture will outperform peers on loyalty, wallet share, and advocacy. Ipsos BVC analysis finds consumers willing to spend up to seven times more on brands they feel genuinely close to. Three dimensions deserve immediate investment: empathy as a design discipline, the irreplaceable role of human service in an AI-saturated environment, and empathy as a measurable and auditable performance standard.

On the first dimension, empathy must move from brand value to service design. The KPMG Global Customer Experience Excellence 2025-26 study, drawing on 80,594 interviews across 16 markets, identifies empathy as one of six universal pillars of CX excellence, with the highest-performing organisations embedding it across every touchpoint. In Ireland, where the CXi 2024 Report by Amárach Research recorded a 1.9 per cent national decline in CX scores, the empathy pillar represents the largest area of underinvestment and the clearest opportunity for recovery.

On the second dimension, the limits of AI empathy are now empirically established. Peer-reviewed research published in April 2026 in MISQ Quarterly by the University of South Florida finds that while human empathy de-escalates frustrated customers and rebuilds trust, equivalent AI chatbot responses can trigger negative reactions and make customers feel surveilled. This argues not against AI in CX, but for precision in deployment. Organisations reserving human empathy for high-stakes interactions, while using AI for transactional efficiency, deliver the combination customers consistently reward.

On the third dimension, empathy must become auditable rather than assumed. The Qualtrics 2026 Consumer Experience Trends Report finds satisfied customers are four times more likely to recommend a brand and almost four times more likely to trust it — returns directly linked to emotional connection. Ipsos characterises empathy not as a feeling but as action: delivering tangible solutions, showing genuine care, and supporting customers through daily life. Organisations defining empathy in measurable service terms can audit and compound those returns systematically.

Three practical actions will accelerate progress. CX leaders should conduct an empathy audit across high-volume touchpoints, identifying where interactions feel transactional and redesigning them with emotional intelligence standards. Human-to-AI routing should be mapped against emotional complexity, ensuring distressed or high-value customers reach human agents. Empathy performance should be incorporated into CX scorecards alongside NPS and CSAT.

The Ipsos evidence is unambiguous: empathy drives brand choice, deepens wallet share, and builds loyalty price competition cannot erode. Irish organisations that design, measure, and lead on empathy in 2026 will set the benchmark competitors spend years trying to reach.

(The views expressed by the writer are his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of BusinessRiver.)