Capital One's Customer-Back Engineering Drives AI Innovation
Research from McKinsey indicates that organizations realize less than one-third of the anticipated value from digital investments, often because they prioritize technology over customer needs. Ashish Agrawal, managing vice president at Capital One, promotes a 'customer-back engineering' approach, emphasizing the importance of placing customers at the center of technological change. Engineers are urged to connect with customers through activities like digital empathy sessions, ride-alongs, embedded support, and hackathons. This strategy has resulted in innovations such as Chat Concierge, an AI framework for car buyers and dealers. A recent survey by MIT Technology Review Insights revealed that 70% of leaders are utilizing agentic AI, with half of executives reporting enhancements in fraud detection (56%), security (51%), cost savings (41%), and customer experience (41%). Agrawal stresses the importance of utilizing high-quality data, rethinking core AI functions, restructuring workflows with AI, and creating cross-functional teams. The content was produced by Insights, the custom content division of MIT Technology Review.
Key facts
- McKinsey research indicates organizations capture less than one-third of expected digital investment value.
- Capital One's Ashish Agrawal promotes customer-back engineering: starting with customer needs and working backward to technology solutions.
- Engineers engage with customers via digital empathy sessions, embedded support, ride-alongs, and hackathons.
- Capital One developed Chat Concierge, a multi-agent AI framework for car buyers and dealers.
- MIT Technology Review Insights survey: 70% of leaders use agentic AI; 56% improved fraud detection, 51% security, 41% cost reduction and customer experience.
- Agrawal recommends high-quality data, reimagining AI core functions, rebuilding workflows with AI, and cross-functional teams.
- Content produced by Insights, custom content arm of MIT Technology Review, not editorial staff.
- AI tools used only in secondary production processes after human review.
Entities
Institutions
- Capital One
- MIT Technology Review
- McKinsey