The CX Iconoclast
If you’re exhausted by traditional approaches to CX, impatient with the stunning lack of progress in the field, and done re-hashing the “best practices” that don’t change anything, you’ve found your podcast. Here’s what we know: Companies gain competitive advantage through exceptional customer experience, and customer insights are the best decision-making tool there is. But traditional CX approaches have run their course and it’s time for the next revolution in CX. Tune in every two weeks as Richard Owen, co-founder of OCX Cognition, hosts conversations and interviews with business leaders, academics, and thinkers whose ideas can guide the CX profession to think in new ways about what success looks like. Most of them aren’t CX professionals, but all of them have something to teach us about CX. We’ll take a clear-eyed look at the problems that have hampered the discipline and explore the compelling ideas behind a re-engineering CX for a modern world. Come disgruntled, leave inspired. Find us at www.ocxcognition.com
The CX Iconoclast
AI, Culture, and the Future of Customer Experience: A Conversation with Murli Buluswar of Citi
In this episode of CX Iconoclast, OCX Cognition CEO Richard Owen sits down with Murli Buluswar, Head of Analytics at Citi’s U.S. Personal Bank, to explore how AI is reshaping customer insight and experience at enterprise scale. Murli shares his journey from early interest in behavioral science and analytics to leading cutting-edge initiatives that bring such innovation to life. From sharing intelligence across teams to improving operational risk detection and enabling hyper-personalization, he tells us how generative and agentic AI are turning customer intelligence into real business impact—faster, smarter, and at scale.
The discussion is not just about technology, and focuses on the human and cultural transformations that AI demands. Murli emphasizes that while data and tools are part of the equation, 70% comes down to people: rethinking roles, changing how decisions are made, and redefining what really matters in the age of machine learning. This is a must-listen for CX and CS leaders, Chief Data Officers, and transformation champions ready to move from AI curiosity to AI-powered growth. As Murli puts it, the choice is simple—be the driver of change, or risk being disrupted by it.
Murli Buluswar is a highly-experienced analytics and AI leader currently serving as Head of U.S. Consumer Analytics at Citi's Personal Bank, overseeing a team of 400+ professionals and steering data-driven decision‑making across a 30 million+ customer base. He describes himself as an “intrapreneurial” strategist with boardroom influence, Murli excels at transforming mature financial services into digitally intelligent organizations. He has built internal data science teams that deliver real commercial impact and lead cultural evolution through data and AI. He now champions hyper-personalization and real-time customer intelligence at Citi—embedding AI-driven models into the core of customer experience, risk management, and digital marketing.
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