A Unified Fuzzy–Explainable AI Framework (FAS-XAI) for Customer Service Value Prediction and Strategic Decision-Making

Abstract

Real-world decision-making often involves uncertainty, incomplete data, and the need to evaluate alternatives based on both quantitative and qualitative criteria. To address these challenges, this study presents FAS-XAI, a unified methodological framework that integrates fuzzy clustering and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). FAS-XAI supports interpretable, data-driven decision-making by combining three key components: fuzzy clustering to uncover latent behavioral profiles under ambiguity, supervised prediction models to estimate decision outcomes, and expert-guided interpretation to contextualize results and enhance transparency. The framework ensures both global and local interpretability through SHAP, LIME, and ELI5, placing human reasoning and transparency at the center of intelligent decision systems. To demonstrate its applicability, FAS-XAI is applied to a real-world B2B customer service dataset from a global ERP software distributor. Customer engagement is modeled using the RFID approach (Recency, Frequency, Importance, Duration), with Fuzzy C-Means employed to identify overlapping customer profiles and XGBoost models predicting attrition risk with explainable outputs. This case study illustrates the coherence, interpretability, and operational value of the FAS-XAI methodology in managing customer relationships and supporting strategic decision-making. Finally, the study reflects additional applications across education, physics, and industry, positioning FAS-XAI as a general-purpose, human-centered framework for transparent, explainable, and adaptive decision-making across domains.