Introducing The State of Agent Experience 2026 Report

For contact centers, the only constant is change. But this year’s change has a twist: contact center AI is accelerating, yet many agents say they’re still spending too much time doing ‘busy work’ that could be automated.

That’s why we conducted research for the State of Agent Experience 2026, based on a survey of 1,000 contact center agents, to uncover what’s really happening on the front line — and what leaders should do next.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the contact center faster than ever. But the majority of contact center agents are still spending too much time on manual, repetitive work while navigating long-running AI pilots that often fail to deliver ROI. The biggest opportunities in contact center automation come from applying AI directly to agent workflows — reducing manual tasks like searching for answers and after-call work — which improves agent experience and strengthens agent retention.

4 trends defining contact center agent experience in 2026

The agent experience trends in the report explores four key trends shaping the future of agent work, including:

1. Role complexity is growing: Agents expect AI to change their work — but not always in ways that make work easier.
2. Too much time spent on automatable tasks: Agents still spend a significant portion of every interaction on tasks that can be automated.
3. AI implementation in contact centers must move beyond pilot mode: Leaders are under pressure to move beyond experimentation and deliver measurable results.
4. Agent experience as a driver of retention: Flexible scheduling and AI-powered workforce management are becoming essential.

Together, these trends point to a pivotal moment for contact center leaders. The question is no longer whether to use AI — but where to apply it first to deliver real outcomes for agents and customers alike.

The hidden “busy work” tax draining agent productivity

To understand the real impact on the front line, we took a deeper look at how agents actually spend their time. While AI discussions often focus on innovation, agents are still buried in basic administrative work that technology can already automate.

Our research for the State of Agent Experience 2026 found that:

• 45% of calls require agents to search for answers during the interaction
• 54% of calls require after-call work, such as summarization and documentation
• 67% of calls requires agents to complete a task on behalf of the customer
• 57% of calls requires agents to gather interaction context upon issue escalation

These tasks don’t just eat into agent efficiency and capacity — they pull agents away from the moments that matter most: listening, empathizing, and resolving customer issues. This is why contact center workflow automation has become a competitive advantage: every minute reclaimed is capacity returned.

What tasks should AI automate first in contact centers?

Based on what 1,000 agents told us, the highest-impact place to start is automating the repetitive “busy work” embedded in everyday workflows — especially during live interactions and immediately after calls.

1. Interaction handoffs and workflow routing (automate next-best actions, tagging, and sending cases to the right queue/system).
2. In-call knowledge search and answer retrieval (so agents aren’t spending time hunting for information mid-interaction).
3. CX use cases — end-to-end (use agentic AI to orchestrate the completion of customer tasks across systems).
4. After-call work (ACW) summarization and documentation (auto-generate wrap-up notes).

Why Agent Experience Is a Retention Imperative for Contact Centers

Agent experience is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s a business-critical priority.

In fact, nine out of ten agents say schedule flexibility is important when choosing a job, underscoring how closely agent experience is tied to retention. When agents feel overwhelmed by manual work and inflexible systems, attrition risk rises — along with hiring and training costs.

The best-performing contact centers are taking a different approach. They’re using AI to free agents to focus on complex, high-empathy conversations — applying AI to agent workflows where it removes agent effort.

The Future of the Contact Center Isn’t Humans or AI — It’s Humans With AI

The most successful contact centers aren’t replacing agents with automation. They’re strengthening the agent–AI relationship.

When AI is embedded directly into workflows, agents can:

• Move faster
• Resolve issues more effectively
• Spend less time on busy work
• Deliver the empathetic experiences customers expect

Download the State of Agent Experience 2026

If you’re planning how to scale contact center AI this year, this research offers a clear, agent-workflow-led roadmap for where to focus next.

👉 Download the State of Agent Experience 2026 to explore the full findings, understand what agents really need from AI, and see how targeted AI can unlock CX automation and deliver measurable outcomes — now.