IDC: AI-driven smartphone spending will reach $32 billion in 2028

IDC's 2025 Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) customer experience forecast shows that artificial intelligence plays an integral role in providing customers with highly personalized experiences, helping businesses in the region stand out from their competitors. By 2028, consumers will spend $32 billion programmatically purchasing goods, services, and items considered for purchase through AI agents running independently on their smartphones. Customer experience executives will adjust their business strategies based on these initiatives and seek ways to incorporate more AI in their activities.

The AI ​​pivot for CX means truly integrating AI into every aspect of business operations to drive growth and stay competitive. Here are some of the most pressing business and technology trends that customer experience executives must focus on as they tap into the vast potential of AI in customer experience.

Customer Experience Pricing Reimagined: IDC predicts that by 2028, 40% of customer experience vendors will move to new, outcome-based pricing models to make the value exchange more transparent to their customers and improve the monetization of their AI investments.

AI governance shift: IDC predicts that as AI implementations scale, human-in-the-loop (HITL) approaches will become obsolete, and it is expected that by 2028, 25% of customer experience teams will create new dedicated roles for AI system governance.

Customer-centric revenue models: Seeing the value of referral growth and controlling costs, IDC predicts that by 2028, 30% of A2000 companies will reorganize and align customer-facing teams under CRO to optimize customer experience outcomes.

Autonomous Proactive Self-Service: IDC predicts that by 2030, 20% of B2C A2000 companies will enable real-time IoT product data to notify customers of future failures, issue solution recommendations, and help customers proactively self-solve.