Why Bridging AI-to-Human Support Will Define CX in 2026

Despite the rise of automation and AI agents, the core expectations of a good customer experience remain consistent. When customers reach out for help, they’re still looking for the same things: quick responses, full resolution and clear communication, delivered seamlessly.

At the same time, the bar for delivering on those expectations is rising. According to Salesforce, 82 percent of frontline service professionals believe that customers expect more today than they did in the past. When support doesn’t meet those expectations, the impact is measurable. PwC’s recent Customer Experience Survey reveals that more than half of consumers (52 percent) have abandoned a brand because they had a bad experience with its products or services.

Meanwhile, most organizations are already deep into AI adoption. With AI embedded across the customer journey, customers have grown accustomed to quicker responses and consistent availability. Any friction, especially when an issue requires human support, feels more pronounced by comparison.

As AI becomes standard across customer service in 2026, the next phase of CX won’t be about choosing between automation and human support but about how well companies bridge the two.

The Next Frontier of CX is the AI-to-Human Handoff

It’s undeniable that AI agents deliver value to support teams and to customers. Of the companies adopting AI agents, teams report increased productivity, faster decision making, cost savings and, ultimately, happier customers. For routine questions and quick fixes, AI has become one of the fastest ways for customers to get what they need.

In a recent survey conducted by the Capacity team, customers drew a clear distinction. They value automation for speed, but they still rely on human support for reassurance and confidence when an issue grows complex. In fact, 85 percent say the ability to escalate from AI to human support smoothly is important.

Customers expect technology to work on their behalf and for automation to ease their experiences. For 33 percent of customers, just one unresolved support issue is enough for them to stop using a brand altogether.

Ultimately, customers don’t want to feel the seams between AI and human support. When a situation requires more nuance and reassurance, they don’t want to get trapped in an endless loop of repeating themselves or prompting an AI chatbot to achieve resolution. 

Over the coming year, customer experience will focus on perfecting those handoff moments— when AI reaches its limit and passes the baton to the human agent. That exchange will determine whether the experience holds together or falls apart. Achieving that level of orchestration requires understanding what AI does best and where humans add value.

AI Agents Will Become the Preferred First Point of Contact

The role of AI agents in customer service is expanding rapidly. Over the last year, the use of AI agents in customer service has grown by 119 percent, and the number of customer service conversations led by AI agents has increased 22x.

At this point, offering 24/7 Tier 1 support is no longer optional. As technology advances, blending human-like attention to detail with better-than-human recall, it won’t be long before customers interact more frequently with an AI representative than with a human one. And they’ll love it.

This shift in preference is already happening. Given that most interactions aren’t complex or emotional, the majority of customers (94 percent) would choose to interact with AI agents when given the option, particularly for quick requests and questions. Say they want to check an order status late at night or reschedule an appointment between meetings. AI agents are built for these moments. They’re available, consistent and capable of handling repetitive tasks.

AI agents also create value, though, when an interaction requires human input. As issues become more nuanced and require escalation, AI agents can gather account details, surface previous interactions and document what has already been tried with the customer. When a conversation escalates, the human agent has all the info they need to start tackling the problem, and customers don’t have to repeat themselves.

As the speed and memory of the technology improve, customers won’t consider who’s on the other end of a call or a chat. AI agents will become the preferred first point of contact, not as a human replacement but as a means of enhancing human support.

AI Will Shape How the Whole Organization Works

In 2026, AI progress will depend less on smarter tools and more on how companies connect and deploy what they already have to create a seamless omnichannel CX.

As companies link their chat, voice and workflow systems, AI will start operating at the edges where data and decisions overlap. Instead of functioning as isolated tools, AI agents will begin to influence how interactions flow from one moment to the next. With full integration, contextual information stays intact, allowing customers to move through the entire customer journey without friction.

When omnichannel connection happens, AI stops behaving like a collection of side projects and starts acting as connective tissue. AI moves beyond solving individual tasks and begins shaping how work gets done across teams, driving the whole business forward. And as a result, customer experiences become more consistent because the systems behind them are finally aligned.

What CX Leaders Should Be Thinking About for 2026

Expectations for customer service won’t change, but they may become less forgiving. Speed and clarity remain the baseline. Customers want fast resolution, and they want clarity to understand what happened and what comes next. AI tools will continue to improve at delivering both.

Over the coming months, it will become imperative to design CX systems that anticipate what customers need at each stage of an interaction and pivot when that need shifts. The organizations that get this right won’t stand out because their CX feels automated or human-led, but because it feels effortless.

David Karandish is founder and CEO of Capacity, an enterprise SaaS company headquartered in St. Louis. Capacity is a support automation platform that uses AI to deflect emails, calls, and tickets so internal and external support teams can spend more time doing their best work. Prior to starting Capacity, Karandish was the CEO of Answers Corp., which he cofounded in 2006.