How AT&T Predicts What Customers Will Want Next, And How You Can Too

LeadershipLeadership StrategiesHow AT&T Predicts What Customers Will Want Next, And How You Can TooByShep Hyken,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, author & keynote speaker.Follow AuthorJun 14, 2026, 08:00am EDTCustomers often describe improvements to the present, while innovators focus on creating the future.gettyKnowing what customers want today is a priority. If customers don’t see value from you today, they won’t care enough to stick around for your future vision. That’s why great companies balance two priorities:Have products that customers are willing to buy and create enough value for them to keep coming back. Know what your customers will need in the future.Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, said, “Some people say, ‘Give the customer what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Jobs was forward-thinking. But in addition, the products he sold at that time made his customers happy. The point of his quote was to look ahead and understand what people will want. That didn’t come from guesswork. And as much as he claimed he didn’t rely on market research, he had to have a reference point that helped make his decisions. It was past and present data that gave him insights to anticipate his customers’ future expectations. He also had intuition. He was gifted in that way. I recently discussed understanding the future customer with Zee Hussain, AT&T’s global head of enterprise solutions, on an episode of Amazing Business Radio. We talked about how most customer conversations focus on today’s problems. Hussain believes the best companies also have conversations about tomorrow’s opportunities. He calls these “Future Meetings,” and they focus less on current products and more on where the customers’ business is headed. The goal is to understand what customers want, even if they don’t yet know themselves.Hussain also...