Is CX Dead—or Just Drowning in Data? - IMRAN®

Is CX Dead—or Just Drowning in Data? - IMRAN®

In this 30‑minute inteview, I sat down with Mark Michelson — a trusted advisor in marketing research, customer experience innovation, and AI‑powered brand transformation — to dissect what’s really happening in the world of User and Customer Experience (UX/CX).

Key insights from our conversation:

CX has shifted from a culture of empathy to a metrics‑driven monitoring system

Companies are pouring hundreds of billions into AI, yet human experience is declining

Over‑surveying and automation are eroding trust, not building it

AI is poised to disrupt every industry, but without authentic representation, it risks amplifying bias

The future of CX isn’t more dashboards — it’s real human connection, powered by smarter tech

IDC projects global AI spending at $235B in 2024, surging to $631B by 2028. Meanwhile, CX investments are being diluted by cost‑cutting and automation — a dangerous tradeoff that risks undermining customer trust.

If you care about customers, culture, or the future of AI‑driven business, this is a conversation worth your time. Watch the full interview and join the debate on what CX should become.

© 2025 IMRAN®  

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#IMRAN #IMHO #UrUXSux #CX #UX #AI #CustomerExperience #HumanCenteredDesign #Leadership #DigitalTransformation 

That's Not A Phone Ringer, It's The Death Bell For WindowsPhone - IMRAN™

"Microsoft Windows smartphone sales collapse. Down 76%!" reports Computerworld.

That's not a WindowsPhone ringing but death bell of Microsoft's phone platform strategy that you do not hear, because when was the last time you heard a WindowsPhone ring except for the expensive product placements on TV shows and in movies? 

It was a mere $8-10 BILLION write off which destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of Nokia employees. Please stand by for a similar LinkedIn write off in 3 years for about $30 Billion. They could have cured Cancer or built 1000 hospitals worldwide with that money!

Imagine me, a MacOS lover from Day 1, working at Microsoft (in strategy / cloud / consulting though) for 3 years. Ironically, I was already sick and tired of the 200 years old iOS UI (user interface) that has STILL not changed since it launched, and the UXdesign (user experience getting worse) from Apple in EVERY area. 

So I was actually happy to see Microsoft's WindowsPhone interface as one of the few things they did not steal from, I mean, copy from Apple, and something actually better. But, the problem was not the technology. It was, and likely still is, the people of Microsoft.

It is a company with MANY smart people who made so many stupid decisions again and again, but never learned. A most senior leader liked some ideas I had to build a WindowsPhone ecosystem. He connected me with an Indian guy (not Satya Nadella) who was the VP responsible for WindowsPhone app and ecosystem development. I wish I remembered his name now. 

On each proposed step I discussed, he laughed and said, "We are Microsoft, We do not need to do that." And, "Developers are begging us to develop on our platform."

I wish I could have recorded that conversation for entertainment value alone.

Imran Anwar

Butterflies Are Free - IMRAN™

Beautiful summer day on Long Island, New York, at my blessed home. Looking out the sliding doors I saw a reminder of why I love having planted four butterfly bushes years ago. They grow massive and even 12 feet tall or higher before being trimmed by the landscapers. Some days they're covered in monarch butterflies. The bushes, not the landscapers. 😄

Today I saw these two bright yellow and dark blue spotted ones despite it being a windy day. I was able to get close to them and record, create and upload this fun little movie right from my iPhone 6S+. NO color editing or setting or filter of Any kind.

© 2016 IMRAN™

PS Absolutely ƒ-\/-©-|{-!-N-G stupid FaceBook system deleted this video with a false claim that it contained someone else's copyrighted material? Really someone else owns my home and butterfly bush? And the stupid music in the video is actually one of the free BUILT-IN themes for use free in Apple's own FREE iMovie app for iOS. Goddamn stupid policing of wrong stuff while anyone can take your photos and create fake profiles without anything being done by these morons to verify your profile so victims of the fake profiles at least know it was not you. Way to go Mark Zuckerberg, turning a jolly light afternoon into one of extreme irritation. FU. Frankly, Underwhelmed by the 'intelligence' of FaceBook engineers.

Anyone With Any Brains In The Dumb House At Bright House Networks? - IMRAN™

No Interest In Exploring This Frontier Of Lousy Internet Customer Service - IMRAN™

UX Is Not Rocket Science But MacUpdate Makes It That Challenging - IMRAN™

BUX: Apple's Falling Reliability & Incredibly Inconsistent UX On 2 Identical Brand New iPhone 6S+ - IMRAN™

The BUX Stops Here. Bad User Experiences are everywhere. I give examples, and name names, even of companies I love. 

The goal is to inform users of the problems that go on for years, to call attention of these companies to their lousy design or quality control choices, and to help UX designers and product managers improve both the customer experience and the quality of their loyal user's experience. 

Here is an example from a company I generally love, Apple. But I have been griping about the constantly falling reliability of the Apple user experience even from when Steve Jobs was still alive. It seemed like getting it out the door even at 90% reliability became acceptable instead of at least aiming for 99%. 

Under Tim Cook, and especially with the worst OS upgrade I have ever experienced from Apple with El Capitan, and parallel bug nightmares on iOS 9 show that it seems getting things out the door even at 80% is now acceptable at Apple.

The bug I am discussing today is a problem in November 2015, 3.5 years after similar problems have been discussed on Apple's own discussions forum in the past (2012 for example).

I have 2 BRAND NEW iPhone 6S+ 128GB phones, 100% identical in everything, including carrier and even color,... everything except for their device names. 

I even shot identical photographs with them (to use in 3D photos). I connected both devices to iPhoto. The first one's photos ALL came in without ANY problem. The second one's import into iPhoto fails over and over, and the iPhone even disappears from the app and has to be unplugged and replugged in for iPhoto/Mac (Image Capture included) to recognize the device again. 

Even Image Capture failed to import the images either all together or even one by one. I even switched to the cable the other phone's photos came over fine on. Nope. Everything failed. Emailing myself dozens of large image and video files was not an option as some discussions mention. 

I even turned Bluetooth off as others had found to work in past similar bugs. (That by the way is another reason I consider having to play such games of twisters to get things to work making the Mac user today sometimes seem like being a Windows user). 

I did manage to send the photos from the iPhone to the Mac over AirDrop and they ALL imported into iPhoto just fine. There were NO problems with ANY of the photos. Plugging the phone back into the Mac and iPhoto even correctly shows that the photos on the phone now already exist in iPhoto. Meaning the problem was NOT with the photos at all.

Yet the actual routine import of photos failed and the user experiences were smooth vs nightmare on two IDENTICAL devices bought literally the same week. That was the kind of thing you expected to happen with two lousy Windows PCs where they would act differently and inconsistently. But now it is a common Mac thing.

I have been an Apple user since the start of the platform but the more Windows-nightmare-experience-like it becomes the more I shake my head, and the more I can't stand when people think pointing out the falling reliability of the OS releases and apps UX to be some sort of Apple bashing.

I was able to workaround my problem this time, but the problem's root cause is still unknown. That is why I am sharing it here so others may shed light on it if they have ideas. And to try to wake up Apple's quality and UX teams before loyal users start seeing Apple as just another vendor to choose from, not a company we identified proudly with the quality products and consistent high quality user experience of. 

What have been your bad user experiences with devices, products or services?