5 Things to know about the state of CX in 2026

Shaped by new technologies, new customer behavior and age-old challenges, CX has changed drastically since the start of this decade. However, the last 12 months have seen external forces – from Big Tech to regional regulators – start to reshape what CX means and what it is capable of, accelerating change and forcing new ways of working.

If recent months have felt dizzying, hold on: whether driven by vector AI, agentic orchestration, AI coworkers, or machine customers, the pace of change will only accelerate. 

In December 2025 and January 2026, CX Network conducted its annual research into the state of CX, which saw 342 CX practitioners, service leaders, experience designers, analysts, authors, and consultants from around the world participate. This article rounds up five key findings from the research to explain what you need to know about the latest CX trends.

Don't miss any news, updates or insider tips from CX Network by getting them delivered to your inbox. Sign up to our newsletter and join our community of experts. 

Learn More

1. Experience now starts with conversations, not questions

It doesn’t take a two-month research project to establish that AI search is changing everything we know. But when more than 300 practitioners confirm AI first customer journeys are a top CX trend and a top customer behavior, it’s clear there’s a lot for CX to consider.  

When respondents were asked to select their top three CX trends from a list of more than 20 choices and their top three customer behaviors from a list of 14 choices, AI first customer journeys emerged as the third most selected result on both lists. Furthermore, when it comes to customer behaviors, customers using artificial intelligence (AI) for their service and sales interactions emerged as the sixth most important customer behavior this year, and the use of generative AI for purchasing products/ services ranked as the 11th. 

Writing for CX Network, AI and enterprise architect Anjali Jain says: “One of the most important changes in customer behavior today is how few journeys begin with brands. They begin with questions. Customers no longer search by company name or product category. They start with intent.”

Agentic commerce is going mainstream and it’s the machine customer future many have talked about for a long time. This changes a great deal of how CX works, from customer engagement to who owns the customer relationship. 

2. There are new rules to how customers discover brands

For brands, this shift means there are new rules to getting discovered online.

“AI first journeys change discoverability in a pretty fundamental way,” says Joshua Curtis, customer care center manager for Super Retail Group. “It’s no longer just about how well you rank in search or how strong your marketing is, it’s about how well your business actually holds together when an AI is assessing it on a customer’s behalf.”

This change means discoverability is no longer rooted in traditional advertising, marketing, and SEO. Today it’s all about GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO (answer engine optimization) and this calls for site-wide transformation and optimization.

With AI assistants assessing everything from delivery times and costs to an organization’s service processes, organizations must ensure their product listings, company information, and customer policies – whether that’s returns information or contact details – are machine readable and competitive.

3. In CX, AI’s greatest impact is on operations

As customers also turn to AI to make journeys seamless and convenient, process excellence – and ethical and responsible AI use – are now table stakes for organizations.

For the second consecutive year AI-powered technologies for operations is the top CX trend identified by research respondents. Selected by 24 percent of respondents in 2026, its ranking as the top trend confirms the broad role AI plays in everything from data analysis to customer service. And the arrival of agentic commerce explains why it is so important. 

Greg Thomas, senior director of thought leadership for Genesys, says CX has “truly entered the AI Era” and that AI is no longer a feature, but is “becoming the operating model”, enabling a shift from “managing CX purely with operational efficiency in mind to a world where CX leaders can also prioritize building customer loyalty”. 

“Customers increasingly judge organizations based on the best experience they’ve had with any brand, anywhere… AI enables brands to identify intent signals early, personalize engagement in real time, and turn service moments into relationship-building opportunities,” Thomas explains.

With effective CX now recognized as a direct outcome of processes excellence, CX is truly an organization wide effort. 

4. Generative AI can multiply efficiencies but should be used with caution

The research asked practitioners where in a typical customer journey generative AI is currently in use and provided five journey-related options to choose from. Practitioners told us their customers encounter generative AI bots in support (19 percent), and that generative AI is used to create hyper-personalized advertising/dynamic optimization in the discovery phase (email, social media, etc, 16 percent). Thirteen percent said generative bots are used in the product discovery/ research phase, while 32 percent said they do not currently use generative AI. 

While the use of generative AI to create product listings is driving results for some retailers, major brands have experienced backlash for using generative AI to create advertising campaigns.

At online costume retailer Fun.com – and its sister company HalloweenCostumes.com – generative AI is used to execute creative campaigns for product listings that would be impossible to deliver at scale with current resources. Dianna Lyngholm, director of creative services and website at Fun.com, says: “We're onboarding so many new products at the same time, when we added new unisex costumes to our catalog, we didn’t have the bandwidth to re-shoot the costumes with different models and edit the images. But we were able to mobilize generative AI to change the models from male to female and create new listing images for about 150 products in the first month, without requiring any additional bandwidth.” 

However, Coca-Cola, BMW, Moncler, and McDonalds are just some of the major brands to experience a backlash to AI-generated images in their advertising campaigns. 

Jacqueline Bourke, senior director of creative for the EMEA region at Getty Images, says: “Generative AI can be applied to great effect at many different points in the customer journey, driving efficiency and insights. To drive trust on the face of the brand, the technology needs to be used strategically and with thought given to how its audience will receive AI generated content. 

It’s clear AI has its place, but as always, to win and maintain customer trust brands must understand that customers are unwilling to accept AI as a like-for-like replacement for human contact or creativity. 

5. Data security is a trust issue

When it came to the top challenges facing CX in 2026, consumer demand for data security emerged as the fifth most significant. Sue Duris, principal consultant at M4 Communications says that in part, this is linked to the demand for consumer privacy, which emerged as the 10th most selected CX trend, and that the result is “telling about where customer trust actually stands”.

She says several factors are driving the demand for data security: escalating threats, data breaches, and identity theft have become pervasive, and cybercrime is growing more sophisticated, particularly with AI enabling smarter attacks. “Customers aren't just concerned their data is safe – they want assurance it is being used ethically and legally,” she explains. 

Compounding these factors, Duris says there is regulatory complexity and gaps, despite the standards set by GDPR and CCPA, and that most other regions lack explicit protections. “Even where regulations exist, most customers don't understand their data rights, or what's available to them,” she adds. 

Furthermore, the existence of a policy does not mean enforcement and documentation are adequate, and transparency is often inconsistent, leaving customers guessing what happens with their information. “This opacity breeds distrust and makes customers vulnerable to misuse they can't see or prevent,” Duris says. 

Despite – or perhaps because of – these challenges, data security is rapidly becoming a competitive differentiator. Customers will switch brands for better peace of mind, knowing their data is safe and being used appropriately. 

“Data security isn't just a technical issue or compliance checkbox,” Duris says. “It's a trust issue. In an environment where customer trust is already at historic lows, organizations that fail to demonstrate robust data protection and transparent practices are actively eroding the foundation of customer relationships. Customers are demanding better. Brands that deliver will differentiate. Those that don't will lose.”

The full results can be downloaded in the CX Network report,
CX Horizons: The state of CX in 2026

Quick links

The top 50 AI leaders in CX to follow in 2026

Loyalty program fraud: How points can become a shadow currency

CX is chasing ROI – but still thinking reactively