The State of Customer Experience 2026 Report: 5 Trends Every CX Leader Needs to Know
The only report you need to help close the gap between what your customers expect and the CX you deliver.
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The gap between consumer service expectations and what businesses deliver is widening. The prevalence of AI in everyday life has made instant, accurate answers the norm and customers now expect the same from the brands they interact with. For the first time in five years of this research, the majority of respondents say businesses are falling short.
The solution isn’t to simply deploy more AI. It’s about deploying it strategically: Finding the right balance between automation that can resolve issues end to end and human agents empowered with AI tools to help them work more effectively and efficiently. That’s how brands can start to close the customer experience gap.
The State of Customer Experience 2026, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers, helps us understand what customers really want from service interactions and how contact center and CX leaders can adapt to meet their rising expectations.
What is the customer experience gap?
The customer experience gap refers to the difference between what customers expect from a service interaction and what businesses actually deliver. As AI raises the bar for speed and responsiveness across everyday life, the gap is getting wider.
5 customer experience trends every CX leader should act on in 2026
The report identifies five trends every contact center and CX leader should act on now.
1. The widening experience gap
Customer service expectations have more than doubled in two years. 42% of customers report increased expectations in 2026, up from 19% in 2024. At the same time, 51% say businesses fall short when they need assistance. The majority of businesses have gone from meeting expectations to falling behind in a single year.
2. The human-AI rebalance
Preference for human agents is up 5% year on year, with the sharpest rise among 18–34 year olds. But customers aren’t opposed to AI. 69% of those who currently prefer a human agent say they’d switch to automated service if it could fully resolve their issue. The problem isn’t AI. It’s AI that doesn’t work as promised.
3. Stabilization of channel preferences
After years of rapid shifts, channel behavior is settling. Digital preference has plateaued at 70% and phone has edged back up to 30% after three years of decline. With 95% of customers now interacting across two or more channels, AI and human agents need to operate seamlessly everywhere.
4. Fast or human? Customers want both
Speed is the number one driver of great CX. 78% of customers will sacrifice their preferred channel for a faster resolution. But when using automated service, 42% say access to a human agent matters more to them than speed alone. The human safety net is a core part of what great automated self-service looks like.
5. The CX tightrope
Exceptional customer service is the second most important driver of loyalty, just four points behind product quality. 80% of customers would repurchase and recommend after an amazing experience. 79% would switch to a competitor after a single terrible one. The margin between earning loyalty and losing it has never been thinner.
What contact center and CX leaders should do next
The businesses winning on CX in 2026 are those that:
Deploy AI-powered virtual assistants capable of resolving complex issues end-to-end, without human involvement
Equip agents with AI that eliminates busywork and helps them focus on delivering faster, more effective service
Maintain seamless context through every handoff between automation and human service, so customers never have to repeat themselves
The future of CX isn’t a choice between AI or human agents. It’s both, working together to deliver the speed, seamless journeys, and resolutions that customers demand.
The brands that are winning are those that deploy AI to resolve issues end-to-end, equip their agents with AI-powered tools to deliver faster and more effective service, and never lose sight of what customers truly value.
Download the State of Customer Experience 2026
If you’re planning your CX and contact center AI strategy for 2026 and beyond, this research gives you the consumer data, the trend analysis, and the strategic context to act with confidence.
👉 Download the State of Customer Experience 2026 to explore the full findings and see how the right balance of AI and human agents can close the experience gap, now.
FAQs
The customer experience gap is the difference between what customers expect from a service interaction and what businesses actually deliver. According to Verint’s State of Customer Experience 2026 report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers, 51% now say businesses fall short when they need help — the majority for the first time in five years of this research.
The Verint State of Customer Experience 2026 is a customer experience report based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers. It identifies five trends shaping CX in 2026: the widening experience gap, the human-AI rebalance, channel preference stabilization, the speed-vs.-human tradeoff, and the narrowing loyalty margin.
Both, but context matters. Preference for human agents rose 5% year on year in 2026, most sharply among 18–34 year olds. However, 69% of those who prefer a human agent say they would switch to automated service if it could fully resolve their issue. The key is AI that actually works, backed by seamless access to a human when needed.
Closing the customer experience gap requires deploying AI that can resolve issues end-to-end without agent involvement, equipping agents with AI tools that eliminate busywork, and maintaining seamless context through every handoff between automation and human service so customers never have to repeat themselves.