Good relationships have been a cornerstone of good business and a driving force for commerce for millennia. When, in the mid-90s, the nascent Customer Relationship Management (CRM) industry became supercharged by players like Siebel and, a little later, the now dominant market leader Salesforce, business leaders were promised an automated return to this customer intimacy, even at scale. However, in the thirty-odd years since these supposed groundbreaking solutions were introduced with much fanfare, most people have yet to have a conversation with their bank or insurer in which they come away feeling as if they’ve just spoken to somebody who..