ClearPoint Product Owner and Senior Experience Designer, Aleksandra Ovalle shares her insights from the recent 2025 Digital Experience Summit.
The 2025 Digital Experience Summit in Auckland brought together digital leaders to explore how they're navigating CX and UX in the AI era. The event was short, sharp, and full of smart ideas — held in a well-run venue that encouraged connection and collaboration. As part of ClearPoint's Design Studio, the goal was to learn how others are keeping customers at the core.
The focus? Emerging technologies like AI, voice, and personalisation, but with a strong reminder that meaningful digital progress starts with people. Here are the key themes and takeaways that stood out.
AI Is Moving Fast, but Needs Guardrails: Speakers emphasised AI’s potential in personalisation, service design, and accessibility, alongside ethical concerns and trust challenges.
Human-Centred Design Remains the North Star: Regardless of the tools used, customer understanding remains the foundation of successful experiences.
Legacy Tech Is Still a Barrier: Legacy systems continue to limit the pace of innovation. Organisations are working to modernise while maintaining trust.
Start Small, Deliver Value: Don’t wait for a massive transformation. Small, meaningful changes can keep momentum and reduce risk.
A standout moment came during the panel featuring leaders from ANZ, Southern Cross Health Society, Lotto NZ, and Dialpad. The conversation tackled the daily tension between outdated systems and the drive to innovate, particularly in regulated industries.
Anna Livesey, General Manager of Everyday Banking at ANZ and a respected CX leader with deep roots in design, spoke candidly about the very real tension between customer expectations and the reality of working within a large, regulated bank. Livesey shared an analogy — comparing their legacy system to "thousands of tin cans" holding fragments of customer data — acknowledging the complexity of the challenge facing many organisations.
They agreed: digital success starts with understanding. Research, customer interviews, and mapping emotional needs aren’t optional, they’re foundational. Technology comes second.
Anna posed a challenge that many in the room recognised but few had answers to: how do we design forward when the foundation is scattered, legacy-bound, and deeply regulated? It’s a question many are asking, one that goes hand-in-hand with technology. It needs cross-functional collaboration, a pragmatic roadmap, and a deep understanding of what customers truly value.
Among all the excitement around AI, one truth stood out: research remains the key to customer-centric innovation. Even the smartest systems can miss the mark without insight from real people.
Small, regular check-ins — interviews, observations, usability tests — uncover what actually matters. It’s this evidence that reduces risk and leads to more impactful outcomes.
The summit left attendees inspired by what's possible, but also grounded in the reality that great experiences don't emerge from tech alone. Whether it's using AI to personalise content or voice to improve accessibility, the best use of tech comes from listening to people first.
If your team is navigating the space between old systems and new possibilities, this is the time to act with clarity and purpose, starting with your customers.
If you're looking at legacy systems and wondering how to move forward, AI-enabled modernisation makes the previously daunting achievable. Partner with ClearPoint to navigate the process safely and effectively.