At Unit4’s global AI Learning Festival, more than 2,400 employees came together to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we work. Among the featured speakers was Richard Owen, co-creator of Net Promoter Score (NPS) and CEO of OCX Cognition, who presented on how AI is transforming the foundation of customer centricity—a central theme in the Customer AI Masterclass.

Owen’s presentation focused on a defining shift for modern organizations: the move from measuring customer experience to predicting it. Drawing on the frameworks taught in the Customer AI Masterclass (Lesson 1.3: CX Metrics, and How You Should Use Them), he explained how predictive intelligence enables leaders to turn data into foresight and foresight into measurable financial outcomes.

The Core Idea: Measurement Fuels Every Revolution

Owen began with a historical perspective also explored in the Customer AI Masterclass, Lesson 1.1: The Customer-Centric Organization (And the Challenge to Get There). Every management revolution, he explained, has been powered by new forms of measurement—from the precision of timekeeping in industrial factories to the process analytics of the digital era. Today, AI represents the next measurement revolution, replacing lagging surveys and static dashboards with predictive systems that anticipate customer behavior, risk, and opportunity.

He emphasized a key principle of the Masterclass: customer centricity is not a philosophy—it’s a measurable system. With AI, organizations can forecast outcomes before they happen, quantify how experiences drive value, and act early to influence retention, expansion, and growth.

From Product-Led to Predictive-Led

Building on concepts from the Customer AI Masterclass, Lesson 1.3: CX Metrics, and How You Should Use Them, Owen illustrated how traditional CX metrics—NPS, Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES)—remain useful but incomplete. These tools describe the past. AI transforms them into predictive models that reveal which experiences drive loyalty, churn, and long-term financial performance.

He also highlighted how AI enables a continuous, predictive view of customer health—a concept explored further in the Customer AI Masterclass, Lesson 2.3: The Three Amigos of the Customer AI Toolkit. By combining generative, predictive, and prescriptive AI, companies can create a living, data-driven model of their customer base—one that replaces guesswork with precision.

The Business Impact

Owen’s session underscored one of the most important takeaways from the Customer AI Masterclass, Lesson 4.2: Insights Framework—that AI makes CX not just more digital but more decisive. Predictive insights replace static reporting with live decision systems, connecting customer sentiment and operational data directly to outcomes like Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

For Unit4’s teams, the presentation demonstrated how AI turns customer management into a discipline of measurement, prediction, and action. Leaders can move from reactive management to proactive engagement—anticipating risk, capturing opportunity, and aligning the organization around measurable customer value.

Why It Mattered

The presentation captured the essence of the AI Learning Festival: curiosity, collaboration, and forward momentum. It showed how the frameworks from the Customer AI Masterclass, Lesson 1.3: CX Metrics, and How You Should Use Them translate into enterprise reality—where every team, from customer success to operations, can use predictive intelligence to make faster, more confident decisions.

As Owen emphasized, AI doesn’t replace leadership—it redefines it. Customer AI gives leaders the visibility, precision, and foresight to manage customer relationships as a measurable system of growth.