AI is no longer optional in 2026 - and that’s great news for CX.

Jonas Berggren

Head Of Business Development NE

Core services

AI,

CX,

technology,

Published on Thu May 07 2026

Updated on Thu May 07 2026

3 minute read

Everyone involved in customer experience (CX) design, or any other form of business process outsourcing (BPO), has seen their business transformed in the past couple of years. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has created a wave of new possibilities for augmentation and productivity - every business has changed. This period of AI experimentation, and especially everything learned in 2025, has created a new starting point for 2026.

This new year will see optimization and a real strategic balance as AI moves into the mainstream. This is a really important point to underline. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of content and commentary focused on AI. Some commentators believe it will dramatically change how we all work - it’s a component of the fourth industrial revolution. Others believe that the hype cycle is at work once again and we should all calm down.

The reality is that AI is no longer negotiable. It is a critical component of modern business success. Tools like Microsoft Copilot are now being used by almost every business. Even if you don’t have a big, expensive, and highly visible AI strategy, it is already being used by your people. They are not asking for the permission of the CIO.

Success today depends on finding and using the right tools and ensuring that you have knowledgeable people who understand how to design processes that get the most from those tools. Augmentation is a crucial strategy today. For a business to not be exploring AI augmentation today would be like ignoring what email could do for your business in the early 90s because you are happy enough using the postal service to send messages. Looking back at earlier technological advancements makes this point obvious. Who would have ignored email? Yet anyone old enough to remember the 1990s knows that there really were executives who could not see how important this was going to be.

Businesses are now better prepared to accept and use AI. Many have already experimented and run pilots. The case studies are out there. Many of the mistakes have already been made. Whenever any new and important technology arrives there are always mistakes and project failures - this is because you can’t create innovative business solutions by only ever doing what you did yesterday. Trying new ideas invites the possibility that some will fail. But we now understand the processes better. We understand the data requirements. We understand the weak points in AI strategy - where projects can fail because of a lack of planning.

We have many more knowledgeable and experienced people in 2026. Can you remember how many LinkedIn profiles suddenly claimed AI expertise in 2023? Every time a technology becomes big, there is a huge number of consultants riding the wave. The key understanding now is that if you combine knowledgeable and skilled people with AI tools, then you can design successful business outcomes. It is not just a possibility, it’s a reality.

Think about how significant this is for CX. We are now able to design truly transformational customer interfaces using AI. Look at how companies such as Expedia have realized this. Their ‘Romie’ chatbot allows a customer planning travel or a vacation to ask anything about flight schedules, hotels, local restaurants and activities. The customer can just have a natural conversation such as ‘if I book the hotel you just recommended can you suggest child-friendly activities that are nearby?’

CX innovation that drives real results.

What it really takes to make AI work in customer experience: 5 strategies from our Frost & Sullivan win.

Transcom

Created at Wed May 13 2026

5 min read

What it really takes to make AI work in customer experience: 5 strategies from our Frost & Sullivan win.

Who can the world’s most ambitious brands trust for tech-enhanced CX that delivers? Separating trend-followers from those forging impactful solutions, Frost & Sullivan identified Transcom as a 2026 Technology Innovation Leader in both North America and Asia-Pacific. This recognition reflects a shift in how AI is evaluated in CX. It’s no longer about pure capability - it’s about ensuring that tools enhance real operations to boost efficiency and loyalty alike.

This makes all the

Brands now realize that they don’t need to use the enormous LLMs trained with billions of items of data. If you are a retailer then customers will almost always ask about stores, products, stock and delivery times. You can reduce the model training down to all this information - reducing the risk of hallucination and reducing the cost of training. It is also clear that human interaction is still essential for the customer service environment. AI chatbots are becoming extremely powerful and useful, but sometimes the interaction itself requires the empathy and emotion of a human connection. A customer that just missed a flight because a hurricane has wrecked the airport schedule needs help immediately - they need to connect to someone and to feel that someone understands their problem and is helping.

AI is helping to transform business processes - even where humans are delivering the actual engagement with a customer. Digital assistants are helping the human agents to be more effective, more productive, and always compliant with any rules or regulations. Giving every person a digital helper means they can be onboard the team faster and they can keep on improving - training can be personal and entirely focused on what people need rather than giving the same lesson to 30 people together.

AI is transforming every area of any business that relies on information - which is most of us today. Decision-making is more informed. Customer engagement is improved and this wave of productivity and innovation creates new opportunities and ideas. Five years from now, there will be entirely new types of business serving customers - businesses that we were not even aware of in 2025. This is not even a prediction. It is clear from the pace of innovation that AI is creating new ideas.

The past few years have been a time of experimentation with AI, but 2026 will see a consolidation of effort. This is now an essential business tool that has been proven - but it needs planning and the right people to get the best from it. The right tools and people who understand what your business needs are going to really change the world in 2026.

AI is no longer optional in 2026 - and that’s great news for CX.

Jonas Berggren

Created at Thu May 07 2026

3 min read