In an era where artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize everything from customer engagement to business operations, a new manifesto emerges. It arises from the intersection of strategic technology adoption and human-centered business practices.

Manifestos get posted or nailed to doors at interesting times in history. I reflect back to “The Cluetrain Manifesto” of the 90s. Some things were right but many things were off with what the internet would be about. In the spirit of making a definitive statement, I present an update for the Agentic AI age. This includes implications for CSM practices in organizations.

This manifesto draws from insights about separating AI hype from reality. It addresses transforming customer success through intelligent automation. Maintaining our humanity in an increasingly digital world is also emphasized. This manifesto challenges conventional wisdom about technology adoption. It calls for a return to fundamental business principles enhanced by thoughtful AI integration.

The Foundation of Reality-Based Technology

1. Markets are conversations, and AI should amplify human voices, not replace them.[1][11]
2. The greatest AI implementations solve real business problems, not imaginary ones.[1]
3. Customer Success is not a department; it is a philosophy that AI can enhance but never substitute.[11]
4. Data without context is noise. Context without human insight is meaningless.[1]
5. Every AI agent deployed should make humans more human, not more mechanical.[8]
6. The companies that survive the AI revolution will be those that remember they serve people, not algorithms.[11]
7. Hype sells conferences. Reality builds businesses.[1]
8. Your customer’s journey is sacred. Treat AI as a guide, not a driver.[11]
9. Agentic RAG represents evolution, not revolution—it’s still about connecting the right information to the right person at the right time.[8]
10. Predictive analytics without human empathy creates predictions without purpose.[11]

The Death of the AI-First Fallacy

11. Business objectives first. AI capabilities second. Always.[1]
12. Companies chasing AI trends instead of customer outcomes will find themselves trending toward irrelevance.[11]
13. The most sophisticated AI system is worthless if it doesn’t understand your customer’s pain.[11]
14. Automation should eliminate friction, not human connection.[8]
15. Every AI implementation should answer this question: “How does this make our customers’ lives better?”[11]
16. The difference between AI success and AI theater is measurable business value.[1]
17. Your AI strategy should fit on a napkin. If it doesn’t, it’s not a strategy—it’s a fantasy.[1]
18. Customer Success teams armed with AI insights but lacking human judgment are just expensive chatbots.[11]
19. The goal is not to replace human decision-making but to make it impossibly good.[8]
20. Any AI implementation that requires customers to change their behavior to accommodate the technology has failed before it began.[11]

The Renaissance of Human-Centered AI

21. The future belongs to organizations that use AI to become more responsive, not more automated.[11]
22. Personalization at scale means treating millions of customers as individuals, not treating individuals as data points.[11]
23. The best AI agents are invisible to customers and indispensable to teams.[8]
24. Customer Success is the art of predicting what customers need before they know they need it—AI just makes the art more precise.[11]
25. Dynamic learning in AI systems should mirror how humans learn: through experience, feedback, and adaptation.[8]
26. The companies winning with AI are not the ones with the most advanced models, but the ones with the clearest problems to solve.[1]
27. Every AI-powered touchpoint should feel more human than the manual process it replaced.[11]
28. Semantic coherence in AI is not about understanding language—it’s about understanding intent.[8]
29. The measure of AI success is not computational efficiency but human satisfaction.[11]
30. Real-time personalization should feel like anticipation, not surveillance.[8]

The Death of One-Size-Fits-All Solutions

31. Every business is unique. Every AI implementation should be too.[1]
32. Templates for AI adoption are like templates for relationships—they miss the point entirely.[1]
33. The complexity of your AI solution should be inversely proportional to its visibility to end users.[8]
34. Customer Success platforms without customization are customer failure platforms with better dashboards.[11]
35. Multi-agent systems should orchestrate solutions, not complicate them.[8]
36. Your AI should adapt to your culture, not the other way around.[1]
37. The best AI implementations feel like natural extensions of existing workflows.[11]
38. If your AI solution requires a user manual, you’ve solved the wrong problem.[8]
39. Industry best practices in AI are often just industry average compromises.[1]
40. The goal is not to build AI that thinks like humans, but AI that thinks for humans.[8]

The Revolution of Iterative Excellence

41. Start small, learn fast, scale smart—the three commandments of AI adoption.[1]
42. Every AI pilot should answer one question perfectly rather than ten questions poorly.[1]
43. The companies that will dominate AI are the ones brave enough to start with imperfect solutions.[1]
44. Customer Success metrics should improve with AI implementation, not just change.[11]
45. Continuous learning in AI systems should be matched by continuous learning in human teams.[1]
46. The best AI strategies evolve daily. The worst AI strategies were perfect on day one.[1]
47. Every AI failure is a learning opportunity. Every AI success that can’t be replicated is a fluke.[1]
48. The distance between pilot and production should be measured in insights, not time.[1]
49. Iterative improvement beats revolutionary transformation every time.[1]
50. Your AI maturity is not measured by what you can do, but by what you choose not to do.[1]

The Return to Fundamental Truths

51. Technology amplifies existing organizational capabilities—it doesn’t create them.[1]
52. A dysfunctional customer success process with AI is just dysfunction at machine speed.[11]
53. Data governance is not a technical problem—it’s a business discipline.[1]
54. The most important AI skill is knowing when not to use AI.[1]
55. Customer retention improved by AI is still customer retention—the fundamentals haven’t changed.[11]
56. Every AI decision should be explainable to the person it affects most.[8]
57. The complexity of your technology should be invisible to your customers and your frontline staff.[11]
58. Trust is built by consistent human experiences, not by sophisticated algorithms.[11]
59. The best customer success strategies with AI look effortless because they are.[11]
60. Your AI should make your team feel smarter, not smaller.[8]

The Age of Intelligent Simplicity

61. Complexity is the enemy of adoption. Simplicity is the ally of success.[1]
62. The most powerful AI implementations solve simple problems exceptionally well.[8]
63. Customer Success tools should make complex relationships feel simple, not simple relationships feel complex.[11]
64. Every feature in your AI system should justify its existence by improving customer outcomes.[11]
65. The best AI interfaces disappear into the workflow.[8]
66. Sophisticated backend AI should enable remarkably simple frontend experiences.[8]
67. The goal is not to impress with technology but to achieve with results.[1]
68. Your AI system’s intelligence should be measured by the problems it prevents, not the problems it solves.[11]
69. The most successful AI implementations feel like common sense in retrospect.[1]
70. Elegant AI solutions look obvious after they work.[8]

The Manifesto for the Human Future

71. In 2025 and beyond, the companies that remain reality-based will inherit the market.[12]
72. AI should make work more meaningful, not just more efficient.[11]
73. The future of Customer Success is not artificial intelligence—it’s augmented humanity.[11]
74. Every AI breakthrough should be measured by the human breakthroughs it enables.[8]
75. The winners in the AI economy will be those who remember that business is fundamentally about people.[11]
76. Your competitive advantage is not your AI—it’s how your people use AI to serve other people.[11]
77. Technology strategies without human strategies are just expensive hobbies.[1]
78. The most important question about any AI implementation is not “Can we?” but “Should we?”[1]
79. Customer Success enhanced by AI should feel more personal, not more automated.[11]
80. The measure of an AI-powered organization is not its efficiency but its empathy.[11]

The Final Declarations

81. The AI revolution is not about machines becoming more human—it’s about humans becoming more humane.[1]
82. Your AI strategy should be written in the language of customer outcomes, not technical capabilities.[11]
83. The companies that survive the next decade will be those that use AI to do human things better, not machine things faster.[11]
84. Every AI agent deployed should make your organization more responsive to human needs.[8]
85. The future belongs to companies that can scale empathy, not just efficiency.[11]
86. Your AI should make your customers feel understood, not analyzed.[8]
87. The best AI implementations are the ones customers never think about.[11]
88. Technology should serve the relationship, not replace it.[1]
89. In a world of artificial intelligence, authentic intelligence becomes the ultimate differentiator.[11]
90. The most powerful AI is the AI that makes humans feel more powerful.[8]

The Ultimate Truths

91. Markets are still conversations. AI just makes the conversation more informed.[8]
92. Customer Success is still about success. AI just makes it more predictable.[11]
93. Business is still about relationships. AI just makes them more sustainable.[11]
94. The future is still human. AI just makes humans more capable.[1]
95. Reality is still the best strategy. Everything else is just really expensive guessing.[1]

Conclusion

The path forward is neither about rejecting AI nor embracing it blindly. It is about using these powerful tools to uphold timeless business principles. This includes understanding customers deeply, solving real problems effectively, and building lasting relationships. The organizations that master this balance will use technology in service of humanity. They will not merely survive the AI revolution. They will lead it.

The choice is yours. You can chase the hype, or you can build the future. You can implement AI, or you can implement wisdom. You can follow the crowd, or you can follow the customer. The reality-based organizations will be the ones still standing when the hype cycle completes its inevitable return to earth.

The future belongs to those who remember: in a world of artificial intelligence, the most valuable commodity is authentic humanity.

Want to discuss? You can book 15 minutes with me to discuss here: https://app.usemotion.com/meet/campbell-robertson-416h/manifesto

Sources

[1] From Hype to Reality: Strategic AI Adoption in 2025 https://campbellrobertson.com/2025/01/11/from-hype-to-reality-strategic-ai-adoption-in-2025/
[2] Campbell Robertson’s Post – LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/crobertson_came-across-my-first-website-that-clearly-activity-7160403078175682560-Jk5k
[3] Understanding Agentic RAG for Business Efficiency | Campbell … https://www.linkedin.com/posts/crobertson_understanding-agentic-rag-for-business-efficiency-activity-7309735521860091905-4lsZ
[4] Checking in on the quantum hype – POLITICO https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2023/10/03/checking-in-on-the-quantum-hype-00119742
[5] [PDF] Emerging Technologies in Distance Education https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120177_99Z_Veletsianos_2010-Emerging_Technologies_in_Distance_Education.pdf
[6] Campbell Robertson – The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/by/campbell-robertson
[7] Technology, Commentary, Ideas for Executives https://campbellrobertson.com/?query-0-page=2
[8] Agentic RAG: Turbocharging Data-Driven User Experiences https://www.persistent.com/blogs/agentic-rag-turbocharging-data-driven-user-experiences/
[9] Supercharging AI with Quantum Computing: A Look into the Future | Capitol Technology University https://www.captechu.edu/blog/supercharging-ai-quantum-computing-look-future
[10] Emerging technologies – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_edge?oldformat=true
[11] Customer Success Strategies: Embracing AI for Growth https://campbellrobertson.com/2025/04/11/customer-success-strategies-embracing-ai-for-growth/
[12] How to Remain a Reality-Based Human in 2025 | Campbell Robertson https://www.linkedin.com/posts/crobertson_opinion-how-to-remain-a-reality-based-human-activity-7291225096461983753-MdeY
[13] MA-RAG: Multi-Agent Retrieval-Augmented Generation via … – arXiv https://arxiv.org/html/2505.20096v1
[14] AI and machine learning take a quantum leap https://www.uts.edu.au/stories/ai-and-machine-learning-take-a-quantum-leap
[15] [PDF] Sinan Küfeoğlu – Emerging Technologies – OAPEN Library https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/558fc4d3-9f1e-4a58-b69b-804f4ba1694f/978-3-031-07127-0.pdf
[16] What is Agentic RAG | Weaviate https://weaviate.io/blog/what-is-agentic-rag
[17] Quantum Computing and the Future of AI https://iot.eetimes.com/quantum-computing-and-the-future-of-ai/
[18] Campbell Robertson https://slate.com/author/campbell-robertson
[19] Retrieval-augmented generation for knowledge-intensive NLP tasks https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/3495724.3496517
[20] Campbell Robertson – The New York Times Journalist – Muck Rack https://muckrack.com/campbellnyt/articles
[21] Campbell Robertson (@campbellnyt) / X https://x.com/campbellnyt?lang=fr
[22] Campbell Robertson (@Campbell_Tech) / X https://x.com/Campbell_Tech
[23] Campbell Robertson (@camrobertson) – Instagram https://www.instagram.com/camrobertson/
[24] Campbell Robertson (@pigletpilot) • Instagram photos and videos https://www.instagram.com/pigletpilot/
[25] Campbell Robertson on X: ” Just published: “Agentic RAG: The … https://twitter.com/Campbell_Tech/status/1903970595139723520
[26] Campbell Robertson (@campbellnyt) / X https://x.com/campbellnyt?lang=en
[27] Unlocking the Power of Agentic RAG — Engineering Business Outcomes | Infogain https://www.infogain.com/blog/unlocking-the-power-of-agentic-rag/
[28] How agentic RAG improves AI answer accuracy and relevancy https://www.moveworks.com/us/en/resources/blog/agentic-rag
[29] A complete guide to agentic RAG https://www.moveworks.com/us/en/resources/blog/what-is-agentic-rag
[30] The 11 next big things in AI and data innovations for 2024 | Rong Yan https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rong-yan-2004692_the-11-next-big-things-in-ai-and-data-innovations-activity-7264835679048671233-7uOt
[31] Building a Sustainable AI Strategy | Krish Prasad – LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/krish-prasad-414b13_building-a-sustainable-ai-strategy-broadcom-activity-7265780473480527872-4xVT
[32] Why Are Enterprises Adopting Agentic RAG? https://ai.plainenglish.io/why-are-enterprises-adopting-agentic-rag-b638a0227b7f?gi=0b703f0444ac
[33] What is an emerging technology? https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/What_is_an_emerging_technology_/23420075