Customer experience transformation is no longer just about service design or journey mapping. As organisations adopt AI at speed, CX outcomes are increasingly shaped by leadership decisions around technology, people, and priorities.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Elm brought together 25 participants for a Transforming Customer Experience Workshop built around Aeqlia’s MAVERICK business simulation, delivered in partnership with BTO.
The session used simulation to help participants explore how AI-enabled decisions made at leadership level directly influence customer experience – often in ways that are difficult to see in day-to-day work.
Rather than starting with CX frameworks or best practices, the workshop began with a different question:
What happens when leaders must make AI-related decisions that shape customer experience, without clear answers or perfect information?
Participants were placed inside a simulated organisation navigating AI-driven change, where choices around technology, people, and strategy were tightly interconnected.
The focus was not on getting decisions “right,” but on experiencing the trade-offs that come with AI-enabled CX leadership.
Using the MAVERICK business simulation, participants stepped into senior leadership roles such as CXO, CMO, and CHRO, working together to navigate evolving, AI-driven scenarios.
The simulation brought together different viewpoints around the same table. Participants had to listen, debate, and align – often balancing competing priorities as they worked towards shared outcomes. Decisions were not made in isolation, but shaped through discussion, challenge, and collective sense-making.
Within the simulation, teams:
Made AI-related decisions that directly influenced customer experience outcomes
Explored how technology choices interacted with people, processes, and organisational priorities
Navigated tension between efficiency, trust, speed, and long-term value
Experienced how collaboration and alignment across perspectives shaped results over time
This role-based approach moved the group beyond theoretical discussion into active, collaborative decision-making, creating strong engagement and a clearer appreciation of how leadership choices play out in complex, real-world contexts.
“In other learning sessions we don’t get a chance to think and act as decision makers. With MAVERICK you play the role of CXO, CMO, CHRO.” – Elm, Saudi Arabia
One of the defining aspects of the workshop was the opportunity to experiment safely.
Because decisions played out inside a simulated environment, participants could test different approaches, compare outcomes, and reflect openly on what worked – and what didn’t.
These moments sparked conversations around:
Assumptions about AI and customer value
How leadership decisions cascade across the organisation
The balance between automation and human-centred CX
Personal and collective decision-making habits
Rather than converging quickly on solutions, the group spent time unpacking why outcomes unfolded the way they did.
The workshop was delivered in partnership with BTO, whose focus on AI, digital, and technology-enabled transformation helped shape the overall design and facilitation of the experience.
Together with Aeqlia, the emphasis was on creating a learning environment that was hands-on, forward-looking, and grounded in real AI-driven challenges, allowing participants to explore how technology decisions translate into customer experience outcomes.
AI introduces layers of complexity that are hard to surface through presentations alone. Decisions interact, consequences compound, and customer experience is shaped indirectly through many leadership choices.
Simulation-based learning helps by:
Making decision pathways visible
Allowing leaders to experience consequences quickly
Encouraging dialogue across functional perspectives
Turning abstract AI conversations into concrete leadership practice
For Elm, MAVERICK provided a structured way to explore how AI and customer experience intersect at the leadership level.
As organisations continue to integrate AI into customer-facing operations, the ability to practise decision-making in complex environments becomes increasingly valuable.
Elm’s MAVERICK workshop in Jeddah shows how simulation-based learning can support leaders in exploring AI-enabled customer experience challenges – not through theory, but through experience.
Curious about how simulation-based and experiential learning can support leaders in navigating AI-driven customer experience challenges? Get in touch to explore how Aeqlia’s business simulations create space for practice, reflection, and better decision-making in complex, real-world contexts.
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