How to build context-aware customer experiences

We know the pressure of delivering a seamless experience while the organization’s gears are grinding behind the scenes. When a customer has to repeat themselves, it’s a signal that your team’s ability to share context is hitting a wall.

At the March 2026 MarTech Conference, the session “Connected conversations: Building context-aware customer experiences” dove into this exact struggle. Moderated by Annette Franz, CEO of CX Journey, Inc., the panel featured Gene De Libero, principal consultant at Digital Mindshare; Shiv Gupta,principal at Quantum Sight; and Haley Trost, director of product marketing at Braze.

Stop blaming the software

It’s a common hurdle in this role to assume a new platform will fix a fragmented experience. But as De Libero pointed out, without a clear operating model, even the most expensive digital experience platform is just a “super expensive CMS.”

The data often exists; the breakdown occurs because it isn’t being activated in real time. Trost emphasized that the failure is rarely about collection — it’s about turning information into cross-team action. This is doable, but it requires leadership to prioritize how people work together over which buttons they press.

The myth of the perfect 360-degree view

The panelists understood the exhaustion that comes from chasing a “complete” customer profile that remains forever out of reach. Gupta suggested a more empowering path: focus on the data needed to solve immediate friction points rather than chasing total completeness.

• Context over completeness: Trost noted that knowing what a customer is doing right now is more valuable than knowing everything they’ve ever done.
• Honor the recent signal: De Libero urged teams to stop waiting for perfection. Choose a trusted source, respect the most recent interaction, and move forward.

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Building bridges with shared KPIs

A common pain point for marketing meaders is the “us vs. them” narrative that emerges when sales, service and marketing all have different North Stars. Disconnected metrics lead to disconnected customer experiences.

To fix this, the panel suggested implementing shared outcomes that no single team can achieve on its own. Gupta proposed lifetime value (LTV) as a primary candidate, while Trost recommended metrics such as time-to-value and retention. When everyone is measured on the same customer journey outcome, collaboration happens naturally.

AI needs a human guardrail

Let’s tackle the AI factor. While AI can summarize histories and speed up responses, it cannot fix a lack of brand standards or poor data quality. The path forward involves training AI on trustworthy, recent signals while keeping humans in the loop to maintain governance and trust. As De Libero put it, AI will only amplify the results of bad data if you aren’t careful.

The path forward

Connected experiences aren’t a data storage problem—they are an alignment and accountability problem. You don’t need a perfect record to start making your customers feel seen. You just need an operating model that empowers your teams to act on the signals that matter most right now.