AI agents have become a topical focus during CX discussions. Now, with their popularity soaring across industries, one might wonder what’s next for agentic AI.<\/p>\n
These agents are being used in different, new, and exciting ways by different companies to advance their customer experience.<\/p>\n
These providers put forward the following participants for this month\u2019s roundtable:<\/p>\n
Below, these industry experts discuss the latest industry trends, predictions, and more.<\/p>\n
Barouch:<\/strong> We are moving from the \u201csmart IVR\u201d era to AI Agents that understand intent, execute procedures within a controlled framework, and can escalate you to a human when needed.<\/p>\n This is a world of human and bot collaboration that heralds the end of the touchtone IVR. We see this as a fundamentally different phase for the contact center where AI Agents can consume internal knowledge or even AI generated knowledge based on the wealth of data within your customer service tickets.<\/p>\n This is the proactive, intelligent and integrated resolution based approach to AI.<\/p>\n McNulty: <\/strong>AI agents are advancing from handling single tasks to working together through multi-agent orchestration. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They can now share context, divide responsibilities, and coordinate across systems to solve more complex customer issues end to end. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This level of interoperability is a major step forward\u2014it allows AI agents to <\/span>operate<\/span> more like teams than tools. <\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Within the broader movement toward Customer Experience Automation, these agents are learning from outcomes and from each other, becoming faster, more <\/span>accurate<\/span>, and more adaptive with every interaction.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Spearing: <\/strong>A defining trend is that AI is becoming the new UI for customer support. <\/span><\/p>\n Instead of navigating complex menus or portals, users can now engage naturally with AI agents through text, voice, or images to get instant, personalized help.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ServiceNow\u2019s \u201cAI Experience\u201d embodies this shift, turning conversational, intuitive AI interfaces into the front door of enterprise service.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By understanding intent and context, AI becomes the seamless layer between people and workflows, making support faster, smarter, and more human.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Muthukrishnan: <\/span><\/span><\/strong>The most significant trend is the rapid evolution from simple, single-purpose AI agents to sophisticated multi-agent systems capable of orchestrating complex customer journeys. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Previously, AI agents focused on handling straightforward tasks, but now <\/span>we\u2019re<\/span> seeing the commercial adoption of AI agents that not only <\/span>fulfill<\/span>\u00a0actions but also make real-time decisions\u2014such as choosing the best next step for a customer based on context, business rules, or predictive analytics. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n These agents can dynamically coordinate across multiple backend systems, access context, and seamlessly transfer between specialized sub-agents, all within a single customer conversation. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This enables a unified, \u201cone conversation\u201d experience where boundaries between sales, support, and service are blurred. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As these multi-agent orchestration and decision-making capabilities mature, <\/span>we\u2019re<\/span> moving from experimentation to real-world deployments, unlocking more intuitive and human-like interactions, and <\/span>setting the stage for the next generation of customer experience.\u202f<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Szilagyi: <\/span><\/span><\/strong>AI in the customer experience will soon be fully agentic as AI agents gain the awareness to understand context and act on it. <\/span><\/p>\n They\u2019re<\/span> learning to reason through complex interactions, coordinate across channels and carry forward the customer\u2019s intent from one moment to the next. <\/span><\/p>\n This evolution marks the rise of skill-based, semi-autonomous systems that can deliver personalized, empathetic experiences with speed and consistency. <\/span><\/p>\n It will transform how service teams <\/span>operate<\/span> and how customers feel seen.<\/span><\/p>\n Barouch:<\/strong> AI Agents will fundamentally change how Contact Centers are operated.<\/p>\n Everything from reporting and analytics (what does AHT or Agent Occupancy even mean in a world of AI-based service?) all the way through to staffing rules will be thrown out the window.<\/p>\n The role of the human contact center agent will become more complex, picking up higher order work and where individual contributors morph into AI supervisors and coaches.<\/p>\n This change won\u2019t happen over night but we expect contact leaders will adapt their hiring and team structuring strategies in 2026.<\/p>\n McNulty<\/strong>: AI agents are about to completely change what customer support looks like. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ll<\/span> move from reacting to issues to a world where agents <\/span>anticipate<\/span> needs, team up in real time, and solve problems before customers even reach out. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n These agents will reason, collaborate, and adapt\u2014pulling in the right data and actions from across systems to deliver real outcomes, not just answers. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As Customer Experience Automation takes hold, support will feel less like a process <\/span>and more like a living network that gets smarter, faster, and more intuitive with every interaction<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Spearing: <\/strong>By the end of this decade, AI agents will evolve from digital helpers into autonomous colleagues, operating across every function, anticipating needs, and resolving issues before customers even ask.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ServiceNow sees a future where AI is the control tower for enterprise service, orchestrating people, data, and workflows seamlessly. <\/span><\/p>\n These agents won\u2019t just respond; they\u2019ll run support operations, guided by natural language and voice, integrating every system of record.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As enterprise AI matures, customer service will shift from reactive resolution to proactive value creation, where AI delivers outcomes instantly, and humans focus on empathy, innovation, and growth.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Muthukrishnan: <\/span><\/span><\/strong>In 2026, AI agents will fundamentally transform customer support by enabling brands to deliver truly human-like seamless, personalized experiences. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I predict the distinction between support, sales, and service interactions will increasingly disappear from the customer\u2019s perspective. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With AI acting as the orchestrator, customers will engage in a single, fluid conversation with the brand, where their needs are anticipated, context is preserved, and resolution is immediate. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Human agents will focus exclusively on complex or emotionally nuanced cases, empowered by AI-driven insights and automation. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This shift will turn contact <\/span>centers<\/span> into \u201cexperience <\/span>centers<\/span>\u201d, making customer support a strategic driver of loyalty and growth.\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Predictive, Agentic Support<\/strong><\/p>\n Szilagyi: <\/span><\/span><\/strong>We\u2019re<\/span> entering a phase where customer support will move from response to anticipation. <\/span><\/p>\n Semi-autonomous and autonomous AI agents will be able to recognize friction before it escalates and <\/span>take action to resolve<\/span> it. <\/span><\/p>\n They will schedule follow-ups, adjust <\/span>processes<\/span> and offer proactive solutions. <\/span><\/p>\n This agentic evolution will enable organizations to be always on, always aware and always improving. <\/span><\/p>\n Humans can then focus on the interactions where empathy and creativity drive the most value.<\/span><\/p>\n Barouch:<\/strong> Zendesk acts as a trusted partner; not just a vendor.<\/p>\n With security and safety at the core of our proposition we focus on customer resolution as the metric and even charge customers based on resolutions.<\/p>\n All of our AI Agent use cases are practical and in the market today; they don\u2019t require complex bolt-ons or heavy integrations.<\/p>\n Customers get fast time to value from a company with strong market adoption (with nearly 20,000 customers already using Zendesk AI).<\/p>\n McNulty: <\/strong>Talkdesk<\/span> is built for this moment. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Our Customer Experience Automation platform\u2014<\/span>Talkdesk<\/span> CXA\u2014is designed to power the next generation of AI agents for customer support. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n At its core is the <\/span>Talkdesk<\/span> Data Cloud, which unifies structured and unstructured data\u2014including the incredibly rich conversational data most companies struggle to use. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As organizations look to build data lakes that AI agents can access and learn from, we make that easy, governed, and real-time. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n CXA then brings that intelligence to life through multi-agent orchestration, allowing AI agents to collaborate across channels and systems to deliver fast, contextual resolutions. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Combined with our history in <\/span>CCaaS<\/span> and deep industry <\/span>expertise<\/span>, <\/span>Talkdesk<\/span> helps companies move beyond simple chatbots to fully operational ecosystems where data, AI, and human insight work together to create smarter, more proactive customer experiences.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Spearing:<\/strong> ServiceNow is uniquely positioned to deliver AI agents for customer support because our platform unifies data, workflows and automation into one trusted environment.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our latest \u201cZurich\u201d release emphasises agentic AI built into the platform, giving customers scalable, governed, enterprise-grade agents from day one.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We combine pre-built AI agents for common use cases with a low-code studio to customize, and built-in governance (AI Control Tower) so you can deploy quickly with confidence\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Muthukrishnan: <\/span><\/span><\/strong>Cisco stands out as an ideal partner for AI-driven customer support due to our commitment to open, interoperable platforms and responsible AI innovation. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We design our solutions to adapt to any customer\u2019s needs, whether on-premises, hybrid, or cloud. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This ensures security, data sovereignty, and compliance are never compromised. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Webex Contact <\/span>Center<\/span> leverages<\/span> advanced AI to deliver measurable results, such as significant reductions in call abandonment rates and faster resolutions. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n What differentiates Cisco is our <\/span>holistic approach<\/span>: we blend <\/span>cutting-edge<\/span> AI, deep integration capabilities, and a foundation of security and trust, enabling organizations to modernize customer experience at scale while <\/span>maintaining<\/span> flexibility and control. <\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n We also build on Cisco\u2019s advanced AI capabilities across our entire collaboration portfolio, allowing us to innovate rapidly and tailor solutions specifically for evolving CX needs.\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Szilagyi: <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>Delivering agentic AI responsibly requires a platform that unites intelligence, <\/span>orchestration<\/span> and governance.<\/span><\/p>\n The Genesys Cloud platform will empower AI agents to <\/span>operate<\/span> with autonomy and accountability guided by built-in guardrails and full visibility into how decisions are made.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s<\/span>Multi-Agent Orchestration<\/h3>\n
AI Is The New User Interface<\/h3>\n
Single To Multi-Agent System<\/h3>\n
Fully AI-Driven Customer Experiences\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
AI Agents for Customer Support: The Predictions<\/h2>\n
A New Contact Center Era<\/h3>\n
Proactive Customer Support<\/h3>\n
Multi-Functional AI Assistance<\/h3>\n
Personable Customer Experiences<\/h3>\n
AI Agents for Customer Support: The Providers<\/h2>\n
Zendesk<\/h3>\n
Talkdesk<\/h3>\n
ServiceNow<\/h3>\n
Cisco<\/h3>\n
Genesys<\/h3>\n