Notion's Emma Auscher on Creating "Everyday Luxury" AI Experiences

Customer experience is undergoing a massive transformation. Few leaders embody this shift as clearly as Emma Auscher, Global Head of Customer Experience at Notion. In a recent conversation on AICX Innovators, Emma shared how she built and scaled a CX organization that serves millions of users across 80+ countries, while thoughtfully embracing AI to create what she calls “everyday luxury” for customers.

Here are the biggest takeaways:

• Serving Every User Equally

Unlike most SaaS companies that tier support by account size, Notion takes a different approach: every user gets access to help. Whether you’re a student, a solo freelancer, or a global enterprise, you can connect with Notion through chat, help centers, or even a live agent.

This philosophy reframes support as a growth engine rather than a cost center. The goal is to remove friction wherever it appears, and to make CX itself part of the product experience.

• Designing for a Global, Diverse User Base

With more than 80% of Notion’s users outside the U.S., Emma’s team faces the challenge—and opportunity—of delivering CX across languages, cultures, and expectations. Notion uses a “follow-the-sun” model with hubs in Dublin, Tokyo, Seoul, Hyderabad, New York, and San Francisco.

The guiding principle: meet customers where they are, in their language and time zone. Local leaders in each region ensure cultural nuance is baked into service design.

• AI in CX: From Reactive to Proactive

AI in customer experience is often framed narrowly around chatbots and deflection. For Emma, the opportunity is much bigger: using AI to move CX from reactive problem-solving to proactive prevention.

“We’re no longer trying to just react after a customer gets stuck. With AI, we can anticipate needs, surface solutions before they’re asked for, and design experiences that feel proactive, not reactive.”

Examples include:

• Automating Tier 0/Tier 1 requests so agents can focus on high-value conversations.
• Using AI to analyze customer sentiment and predict escalation risk.
• Feeding Voice of Customer data directly into product development loops.

• Balancing Human + AI

Emma emphasizes that AI doesn’t replace humans—it frees them to do more meaningful work. By handling repetitive tasks, AI enables human agents to specialize, add product expertise, and build careers in program management, conversation design, and content.

This creates both better experiences for customers and better jobs for employees.

• The Secret Weapon: Knowledge Management

One of the most overlooked CX superpowers, Emma argues, is knowledge management. Without accurate, up-to-date content, AI has nothing useful to draw from.

Investing in documentation, content accuracy, and centralized sources of truth unlocks exponential efficiency for both AI and human agents.

• “Everyday Luxury”: A New Frame for AI in CX

Coming from a background in luxury hospitality, Emma draws an elegant analogy:

“AI is everyday luxury. Time is the ultimate luxury, and AI gives it back to both customers and employees.”

This perspective reframes AI not as cost-cutting, but as experience-enhancing—elevating digital CX to the same standard of personalization and delight as luxury services.

Key Takeaways for CX Leaders

• Support as strategy: Don’t treat CX as a cost center; make it part of the product promise.
• Go global with intent: Hire regional leaders who bring cultural insight and credibility.
• Use AI for proactivity: Move from solving problems late to preventing them early.
• Invest in knowledge: Documentation is the backbone of AI-powered CX.
• Balance human + AI: Automation should elevate humans, not replace them.
• Think of AI as luxury: The real value is giving time back to customers.

At Level AI, we share this belief: the future of CX is about combining AI intelligence with human empathy to deliver trust, authority, and delight at scale.