We’ve all been there, sitting on hold, listening to tinny holiday music, wondering if a package will arrive before the New Year. You’ve memorized the chorus of “Jingle Bell Rock,” your hot cocoa’s gone cold, and you’re starting to question every online order you’ve ever made. This year, it doesn’t have to be that way.
The holidays are supposed to bring joy, but for many consumers, they now mean stress, inefficiency, and automation overload. Long wait times, unhelpful chatbots, and repetitive “we’re experiencing higher-than-usual call volume” messages have replaced the warmth and wonder of the holiday shopping season. Yet, if this year’s early retail trends tell us anything, it’s that shoppers still want more: more connection, more empathy, and more humanity in their digital experiences.
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Holiday Retail Survey, consumers crave the convenience of digital shopping but also seek personal experiences. Forrester’s 2026 prediction reinforces this: a third of consumers will opt for offline experiences over online ones, driven by a desire for tactile and sensory connections. The message is clear: customers aren’t rejecting technology; they’re rejecting the lack of humanity behind it.
That’s where human-guided AI steps in. The goal isn’t to replace the human touch but to make it scalable. When AI handles repetitive tasks – such as routing, FAQs, and triage – it frees up real people to do what they do best: listen, empathize, and solve problems creatively. At Glance, we call it “empathetic efficiency:” technology that amplifies human skill rather than automating it away.
And it’s not just theory. Retailers who strike this balance are already winning. Adobe projects that more than half of this year’s holiday sales will come from mobile devices, while Salesforce reports a 500% surge in AI-influenced shopping decisions. Simultaneously, Accenture found that 40% of shoppers still turn to physical stores for connection and inspiration. These dual truths reveal a new customer mindset, one that values both speed and warmth equally.
When a customer starts with a bot and seamlessly transitions to a human expert who already knows the context, it feels effortless. Technology disappears into the background, and what remains is trust. That’s the true magic of a modern holiday experience: using AI not to remove people from the process but to bring them in at the right moment.
So maybe AI doesn’t need a break this season, it just needs a human holiday. Because while technology can process transactions, only people can create moments that feel like holiday magic. And that, more than any discount or next-day delivery, is the gift that keeps on giving.
