Empathy has become one of the most repeated words in customer service. It shows up in training manuals, leadership presentations, technology roadmaps, and every conversation about modern CX. Yet for all the attention it receives, customer frustration has not really changed. We still hear the same complaints, the same friction, and the same feeling that service interactions are not delivering what people need.

This gap highlights a deeper problem with how empathy in customer experience is measured and delivered across modern service organizations.

So it is worth asking a simple question: why are we still talking about empathy?

The answer is uncomfortable. Most of what the industry calls empathy today is not empathy at all. It is a placeholder, a substitute for something more fundamental that customers actually want. And in most cases, we have confused empathy with a set of polite sentences rather than treating it as an experience built on genuine understanding.

What Customers Actually Mean When They Ask for Empathy

When customers ask for empathy, they are not asking for emotional performance. They are asking to be understood. They want to feel that the person or the system on the other side truly grasps what is happening, what they are trying to solve, and why the issue matters to them.

Real empathy is not a tone of voice. It is the sense that someone is paying attention to your real situation. In practice, customer experience empathy means understanding the customer’s real situation rather than just sounding caring.

The industry drifted away from this idea by reducing empathy to language. Customer service training often focuses on specific phrases agents should say. “I understand how you feel.” “That must be frustrating.” “I am sorry this is happening.”

Although these can sound caring, customers recognize them for what they are: a script. These expressions rarely improve the interaction because they do not change the reality of the problem.

The customer still needs clarity. They still need progress. They still need the issue resolved.

Let’s be clear: not all customer service problems require empathy, and not everyone wants empathy when resolving their issues. But when it comes to complex, high-value customer service interactions, empathy is crucial, and the industry, as it stands, is missing a key component for creating truly empathetic moments.

Why Visual Modality Enables Real Empathy

This is where visual modality becomes transformative. When you can see the environment, the device, the setup or the exact point of failure, understanding becomes immediate. The conversation shifts from guessing to diagnosing.

The customer no longer has to justify or translate their experience. The agent or AI can respond to what is actually happening, not to what they hope is happening.

Visual context does not replace empathy. It enables it. It brings the customer’s reality into the interaction. It turns empathy from a performance into an outcome.

Understanding how AI sees, solves, and scales in customer service makes it clear why visual insight is so critical to empathy in action.

Empathy in customer service will never be solved by better scripts or more polite language. It will be solved by understanding the customer’s world with clarity and acting on it with confidence. That begins with sight. And sight is what allows both humans and AI systems to deliver the kind of service experience that customers actually describe when they ask for empathy: an experience where they feel understood, supported, and genuinely helped.

Where AI Repeats the Same Mistake

Then came the next evolution: applying this same empathy-as-language model to AI systems. As organizations adopted conversational AI and language models, they carried the same flawed assumption with them. Even as discussions about how agentic AI is transforming customer experience in 2025 gained momentum, many implementations took shape.

Most still focus on making systems sound empathetic rather than enabling them to truly understand what customers are experiencing.

If a bot can sound empathetic, customers will feel supported. So the models were trained to mimic those same phrases and patterns. The result is predictable. Customers now get the same scripted lines from machines as they do from human agents.

This is often referred to as engineered insincerity, using AI technology to mimic human interest in a customer’s personal situation without having any actual understanding of it.

The delivery may vary, but the impact is the same. It does not make people feel understood. It does not reduce friction. It does not solve the root problem.

Empathy-as-language, whether spoken by a human or generated by an AI, is a surface-level response to a deeper need. A scripted apology cannot substitute for understanding. And it certainly cannot substitute for progress.

Empathy Begins With Reducing Friction

There is another dimension to this problem that deserves attention. Even the most well-intentioned human agents have limits.

At the end of a long shift, even an experienced agent can sound tired, impatient, or defensive. Tone changes. Reactions sharpen.

A small misunderstanding can escalate quickly. Customers feel this shift immediately. Emotional cues influence the entire exchange, often more than the words themselves.

AI does not have this challenge. It does not get tired. It does not get frustrated. It does not take customer stress personally.

It stays steady even when the customer is upset or confused. This does not make AI empathetic, but it does create the conditions for a calmer interaction.

The absence of frustration or judgment lowers the emotional pressure on the customer. The conversation becomes less about managing feelings and more about solving the issue.

This is where empathy returns to its true meaning: reducing friction, building clarity, and helping the customer make progress.

The Core Problem: You Cannot Understand What You Cannot See

But this raises a larger question. If real empathy requires understanding to reduce friction and achieve full resolution, how can an agent or an AI system understand the problem when they cannot see it?

Most customer service interactions today are still blind. They rely entirely on what the customer can describe and what the agent can interpret. Anyone who has tried to explain a malfunctioning device or technical issue knows how frustrating it can be.

The customer repeats themselves. The agent guesses. Misunderstandings multiply. These blind interactions are the opposite of empathy. They create friction, not clarity.

To deliver real empathy, you need visibility. You need to see the issue, not imagine it. You need context that language alone cannot provide.

In 2025, we made Herculean strides towards solving simpler, low-risk problems with AI. We took repetitive work off their plates so they could focus on complex problems only humans can solve.

2026 is the year we master AI so we can deliver the same level of service for complex matters that require real empathy: to facilitate customer progress and ensure every person feels seen when they reach out.

And for that? You need visual AI.

FAQs:  

What are the different types of customer empathy?

Research commonly describes three types of empathy that apply to service interactions:

• Emotional empathy is the ability to feel what the customer feels and build rapport through emotional connection.
• Cognitive empathy means understanding the customer’s situation and responding from their perspective.
• Compassionate empathy combines the intent to help customers succeed with actions that genuinely support them.

In customer service, compassionate empathy is often the most impactful because it translates understanding into action and resolution.

Why is showing empathy often misunderstood in customer service

Many organizations reduce empathy to language and tone. Agents and AI systems are trained to say the right things, but not necessarily to understand what is happening. This creates interactions that sound empathetic but still leave customers frustrated because the underlying problem is not resolved.

How does visual context change empathy in service interactions

Visual context removes guesswork. When agents or AI systems can see the customer’s environment, device, or setup, understanding becomes immediate. Customers don’t have to put their experience into words anymore.

Service teams can respond to what’s really happening, not assumptions. This turns empathy from a performance into a measurable outcome.

Can AI be empathetic?

AI does not experience emotions, but it can support empathetic outcomes. By staying consistent, removing frustration from interactions, and reducing customers’ cognitive load, AI creates calmer conditions for problem-solving. When combined with visual understanding, AI can help deliver the kind of clarity and progress customers associate with empathy.

Why is empathy harder in complex service issues?

Complex issues are difficult to describe and easy to misinterpret. Without visibility, agents and AI rely on partial information, which leads to misdiagnosis, repeat interactions, and increased frustration. Empathy breaks down not because of intent, but because understanding is incomplete.

Empathy in Customer Service: Why Seeing the Customer Matters More Than Saying the Right Words

Introduction: Why are we still talking about empathy?

Empathy has become one of the most repeated words in customer service. It shows up in training manuals, leadership presentations, technology roadmaps and every conversation about modern CX. Yet for all the attention it receives, customer frustration has not really changed. We still hear the same complaints, the same friction and the same feeling that service interactions are not delivering what people need.

So it is worth asking a simple question: why are we still talking about empathy?

The answer is uncomfortable. Most of what the industry calls empathy today is not empathy at all. It is a placeholder, a substitute for something more fundamental that customers actually want. And in most cases, we have confused empathy with a set of polite sentences rather than treating it as an experience built on genuine understanding. 

What Customers Actually Mean When They Ask for Empathy

When customers ask for empathy, they are not asking for emotional performance. They are asking to be understood. They want to feel that the person or the system on the other side truly grasps what is happening, what they are trying to solve and why the issue matters to them.Real empathy is not a tone of voice. It is the sense that someone is paying attention to your real situation.

The industry drifted away from this idea by reducing empathy to language. Customer service training often focuses on specific phrases agents should say. “I understand how you feel.” “That must be frustrating.” “I am sorry this is happening.” Although these can sound caring, customers recognize them for what they are: a script. These expressions rarely improve the interaction because they do not change the reality of the problem. The customer still needs clarity. They still need progress. They still need the issue resolved.

Let’s be clear: Not all customer service problems need empathy, and not all people want empathy while resolving their issues. But when it comes to complex, high value customer service interactions, empathy is crucial – and the industry as it stands is missing a crucial component to being able to create truly empathetic moments. 

Why Visual Modality Enables Real Empathy

This is where visual modality becomes transformative. When you can see the environment, the device, the setup or the exact point of failure, understanding becomes immediate. The conversation shifts from guessing to diagnosing. The customer no longer has to justify or translate their experience. The agent or AI can respond to what is actually happening, not to what they hope is happening.

Visual context does not replace empathy. It enables it. It brings the customer’s reality into the interaction. It turns empathy from a performance into an outcome.

Empathy in customer service will never be solved by better scripts or more polite language. It will be solved by understanding the customer’s world with clarity and acting on it with confidence. That begins with sight. And sight is what allows both humans and AI systems to deliver the kind of service experience that customers actually describe when they ask for empathy: an experience where they feel understood, supported and genuinely helped.

Where AI Repeats the Same Mistake

Then came the next evolution: applying this same empathy-as-language model to AI systems. As organizations adopted conversational AI and language models, they carried the same flawed assumption with them. If a bot can sound empathetic, customers will feel supported. So the models were trained to mimic those same phrases and patterns.

The result is predictable. Customers now get the same scripted lines from machines as they do from human agents. This is often referred as engineered insincerity – using AI technology to mimic human interest in a customer’s personal situation without having any actual understanding of it. The delivery may vary, but the impact is the same. It does not make people feel understood. It does not reduce friction. It does not solve the root problem.

Empathy-as-language, whether spoken by a human or generated by an AI, is a surface-level response to a deeper need. A scripted apology cannot substitute for understanding. And it certainly cannot substitute for progress.

Empathy Begins With Reducing Friction

There is another dimension to this problem that deserves attention. Even the most well-intentioned human agents have limits. At the end of a long shift, even an experienced agent can sound tired, impatient or defensive. Tone changes. Reactions sharpen. A small misunderstanding can escalate quickly. Customers feel this shift immediately. Emotional cues influence the entire exchange, often more than the words themselves.

AI does not have this challenge. It does not get tired. It does not get frustrated. It does not take customer stress personally. It stays steady even when the customer is upset or confused. This does not make AI empathetic, but it does create the conditions for a calmer interaction. The absence of frustration or judgement lowers the emotional pressure on the customer. The conversation becomes less about managing feelings and more about solving the issue.

This is where empathy returns to its true meaning: reducing friction, building clarity and helping the customer make progress.

The Core Problem: You Cannot Understand What You Cannot See

But this raises a larger question. If real empathy requires understanding to reduce friction and achieve full resolution, how can an agent or an AI system understand the problem when they cannot see it?

Most customer service interactions today are still blind. They rely entirely on what the customer can describe and what the agent can interpret. Anyone who has tried to explain a malfunctioning device or a technical issue knows how frustrating this is. The customer repeats themselves. The agent guesses. Misunderstandings multiply. These blind interactions are the opposite of empathy. They create friction, not clarity.

To deliver real empathy, you need visibility. You need to see the issue, not imagine it. You need context that language alone cannot provide. 

In 2025, we made Herculean strides towards solving simpler, low-risk problems with AI. We successfully cleared rote, repetitive tasks from our agents and employees so that they could focus on what really matters: the complexity that requires human ingenuity. 

2026 is the year we master AI so that we can achieve the same level of service with those complex matters that require real empathy: to facilitate customer progress and make sure every person feels seen when they reach out. 

And for that? You need visual AI. 

FAQ

What are the different types of customer empathy

Research commonly describes three types of empathy that apply to service interactions:

• Emotional empathy is the ability to feel what the customer feels and build rapport through emotional connection.
• Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand what the customer is experiencing and thinking, and to communicate in a way that aligns with their perspective.
• Compassionate empathy is the desire to help the customer succeed, combined with the ability to act in a way that actually supports them.

In customer service, compassionate empathy is often the most impactful, because it translates understanding into action and resolution.

Why is empathy often misunderstood in customer service

Many organizations reduce empathy to language and tone. Agents and AI systems are trained to say the right things, but not necessarily to understand what is happening. This creates interactions that sound empathetic but still leave customers frustrated because the underlying problem is not resolved.

How does visual context change empathy in service interactions

Visual context removes guesswork. When agents or AI systems can see the customer’s environment, device, or setup, understanding becomes immediate. The customer no longer has to translate their experience into words, and service teams can respond to reality instead of assumptions. This turns empathy from a performance into a measurable outcome.

Can AI be empathetic

AI does not experience emotions, but it can support empathetic outcomes. By staying consistent, removing frustration from interactions, and reducing cognitive load for customers, AI creates calmer conditions for problem solving. When combined with visual understanding, AI can help deliver the kind of clarity and progress customers associate with empathy.

Why is empathy harder in complex service issues

Complex issues are difficult to describe and easy to misinterpret. Without visibility, agents and AI rely on partial information, which leads to misdiagnosis, repeat interactions, and increased frustration. Empathy breaks down not because of intent, but because understanding is incomplete.