The state of customer experience in 2026 can be summed up simply: customers have never had more ways to interact with your brand, and they’ve never been less tolerant about friction when engaging.
While the power of technology is at its apex, so are expectations. And the gap between the two is where revenue goes to die.
Brands using AI to deepen human connection by freeing up sellers, marketers, and service agents to focus on empathy, trust, and complex problem-solving are pulling ahead. Those still bolting AI onto fragmented systems, or using it purely as a cost-cutting measure, risk falling further behind.
To help organizations address the rapidly changing factors impacting CX, we’re proud to debut our first quarterly “State of” reports. Designed to pull together the latest research and data across sales, service, marketing, and e-commerce, these thought leadership pieces are available without a gate because we know that experience and expertise matter, and we want to share ours with you. (You can find links to the reports at the end of this post.)
The key takeaways from each report demonstrate that CX is no longer a single department’s job. Rather, it’s a cross-functional discipline, and the stakes for getting it wrong are higher than ever.
