2026: The "Boring" AI Revolution in Customer Service
The era of AI as a "slick demo" is ending. In 2026, the brands that win will be the ones that stop chasing the most impressive chatbot and start fixing their "internal plumbing"—the data, systems, and workflows that actually make AI work.
Key Highlights
- The Infrastructure Shift: Progress in 2026 will come from unglamorous work like consolidating vendors, cleaning up data, and overhauling knowledge bases.
- The "Consumer Bot" Threat: Customer service centers will face a new challenge: a flood of consumer-built AI agents hammering systems to complete simple tasks like signing up for samples.
- Hiring Machine Managers: About 30% of enterprises are expected to create parallel AI functions, with human roles dedicated to "coaching" and monitoring AI agent performance.
- Quality Over Hype: While simple self-service could improve by 10%, experts warn that over-automating complex or emotional issues will backfire and frustrate customers.
- Integrated Value: Real ROI comes when AI, automation, and humans work on a single, unified platform that remembers the customer across all touchpoints.
"The organizations that succeed will be the ones that make AI part of everyday decision-making and continuous improvement." — Frank Palermo, NewRocket.
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