CX Horizons: The state of CX in 2026

The results of CX Network’s research into the top CX trends, customer behaviors, and practitioners spending plans, analyzed by 12 leading CX practitioners

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By: CX Network, Melanie Mingas 03/25/2026

Shaped by new technologies, new customer behaviors, 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.

These changes have led practitioners to ask several key questions around how they can reach and engage customers and what recent developments will mean for CX moving forward.

CX Horizons: The state of CX in 2026 is based on our annual survey, completed by 342 CX practitioners, service leaders, experience designers, analysts, and consultants, between December 2025 and January 2026. To add meaning to the results, CX Network put the figures to 12 leading CX practitioners from fashion, media, consultancy, healthcare, retail and ecommerce, finance, communications, and technology.

The resulting report uses their insights to examine what agentic commerce means for practitioners and the key actions they must take to remain relevant; why consumers are meeting their own needs when it comes to quick and seamless CX; and how personal AI assistants and Moltbook could be undermining hard-won customer trust.

Download the report to find out:

The stats showing how practitioners are planning to adapt to the major changes happening across CX in 2026
How to work with vendors in the current trading environment and the key questions to ask when acquiring new tools
How and where practitioners are applying generative and agentic AI to enhance operations and experiences