Zendesk – Building Competitive Edge with Contextual Intelligence: Leading in the AI Era, 2026

The report focuses on customer experience (CX) trends in the AI era, emphasizing the need for organizations to evolve their CX strategies.

It highlights the gap between AI's promise and the current reality of customer experience, noting consumer dissatisfaction. Agentic AI, capable of reasoning and making decisions without human intervention, is identified as a game-changer that 87% of CX leaders believe can dramatically improve customer interactions. 83% of consumers believe customer experience should be far better than it is today. Economic challenges are pushing organizations to adapt CX strategies for efficiency. The report advocates for embracing contextual intelligence—next-generation agentic AI that integrates structured data, historical context, dynamic signals, and policies to build emotionally intelligent customer relationships at scale. Connectivity and integrated knowledge are key to making AI interactions more relevant and effective. Insights are based on research involving over 11,000 people worldwide. The report outlines five key trends necessary for delivering high-impact, loyalty-driving experiences without sacrificing speed or consistency.