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Visionary Voices

Reimagining the
Digital Experience

From Platform Fatigue to Composable Futures: Reimagining the Digital Experience

Woody Carlisle
Managing Director
Customer & Work Experience

In our latest Visionary Voices conversation, we spoke with Woody about the growing challenges facing enterprises in the digital platform space. With a rare blend of expertise as both a CPA and digital strategist, Woody offers a grounded yet forward-looking view on why many organizations are experiencing deep fatigue with their multi-million-dollar platform investments—and how composability and AI are reshaping the future of both customer and employee experience.

Here’s what really stood out in our chat:

Platform Fatigue Is Real—and Widespread

“Many of our clients are feeling fatigued by their enterprise platforms—especially customer-facing ones where they’ve invested millions,” Woody explains.

This isn’t just about outdated systems—it’s platforms that promised transformation, but have instead become costly, rigid, and innovation-constraining.

Trapped in expensive licensing cycles and increasingly dependent on IT for even minor changes, organizations are now looking for something different: more flexibility, more automation, and more empowerment for non-technical teams like marketing. The emerging answer? Composable platforms—modular, agile systems that reduce technical debt and enable rapid experimentation.

Many of our clients are feeling fatigued by their enterprise platforms—especially customer-facing ones where they’ve invested millions.

AI Is Compressing the Technology Decision Cycle

The rapid pace of AI development is compounding this pressure. What used to be long-term platform decisions are now being upended by weekly breakthroughs in AI capabilities.

“You start with one platform and one model, and three weeks later there’s something three times better,” Woody notes. “It’s learning off itself. That kind of velocity breaks traditional planning cycles.”

Organizations that can’t keep up with this pace—either because of their tech stack or their operating model—will be left behind. The shift toward composable and AI-native platforms is becoming not just an option, but a necessity.

AI acceleration, rising employee expectations, and the limits of monolithic legacy platforms are converging to force a rethinking of how organizations engage, both inside and out.

Employee Experience Is Becoming the Driver of Change

While customer experience still garners much of the spotlight, Woody sees employee experience (EX) emerging as the more urgent transformation imperative.

“Since COVID, employee expectations have skyrocketed. They want the same level of personalization, intelligence, and seamless experience they get as consumers.”

Employees are no longer willing to jump between 12 different systems to get what they need. They expect tailored content, intelligent delivery, and platforms that anticipate their needs—not just support their tasks.

Organizations that can meet these expectations internally will be better positioned to compete externally. In many cases, EX transformation is leapfrogging CX innovation.

The Future of Digital Experience: Two Strategic Imperatives

1

AI-First Experience Design: Future customer and employee experiences will be built around AI—from personalized content delivery to predictive automation. This shift will require not just technical upgrades, but a full rethink of platform architecture and organizational workflows.

2

Cross-Functional Digital Teams: The era of siloed transformation is over. Leading organizations are forming integrated digital teams that span IT, marketing, operations, and business units—empowered to deliver end-to-end experiences at speed.

The Bottom Line

The digital experience landscape isn’t just evolving—it’s being disrupted. AI acceleration, rising employee expectations, and the limits of monolithic legacy platforms are converging to force a rethinking of how organizations engage, both inside and out.

The winners will be those who embrace composable, AI-enabled solutions—while building the cross-functional agility to turn those capabilities into meaningful outcomes.

If you’re ready to break free from platform fatigue and reimagine your digital experience strategy—let’s talk.

Visionary Voices is a segment of RGP’s LinkedIn newsletter, Mindshift. Each month we highlight a unique futurist who challenges us to think differently and to drive innovation. Mindshift also contains valuable research and curated content.

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