Technology
CX trends in 2026 – an interview with analyst Audrey William
Audrey William is Principal Analyst at CrayonIQ, a research and advisory firm focused on the evolving landscape of customer experience, employee experience, and enterprise collaboration. As a trusted advisor to CEOs, Boards and vendors alike, Audrey helps guide informed strategic decisions during times of disruption and change. Read her take on the 2026 trend to watch.
What’s the main trend you’re seeing in CX technology in the ANZ region for 2026?
Workplace dynamics is changing. Businesses have an opportunity to rethink how they manage their workforce and harness tools to support this change.
AI is now very much part of the enterprise workforce and you may have a combination of AI agents, live human agents and Voice AI in the mix. This requires a completely new way of scheduling and looking at how many agents will be managing what on a day-to-day basis. Humans will also manage AI interactions and jump in to solve an issue when the AI runs into problems.
It will be important to understand from the data how best to assign tasks, route calls, and allocate jobs to the AI Agents + live humans + Voice AI.
What advice do you have for buyers trying to cut through the sales hype of vendors around AI?
Don’t just buy an AI solution because it’s part of your CCaaS offering. Investigate what you’re buying and the outcomes you want to see from the deployment. Most vendors will tick the box when it comes to post call summarisation, however find out if they have AI agents and bots that are integrated into workflows to drive efficiency gains.
Can the vendor handle Voice AI and, if so, what are the use cases so far? What plans does the vendor have to put in place a solid foundation for getting your data right? These are examples of important questions to ask – the next solution you invest in might not be from your CCaaS vendor.
How do you see the trajectory of voice AI?
We’re already seeing some good deployments in the market. The tough part for the buyer is deciding which vendors to work with, given there are hundreds of companies in the Voice AI space.
In the Asia-Pacific, the vendors that work alongside partners to develop accurate local Asian languages and dialects will see great success.
How do Australia and New Zealand rate against other developed countries for adoption of AI-enabled CX solutions?
Australia tends to be ahead of the curve in the adoption of new technologies. That trend has been consistent for many years. It is often on par with, or more advanced than, some deployments in North America and Europe.
