Executive Research Report: Delayed Augmentation: Why Customer Contact Teams Are Falling Behind In the Agentic Era

For customer contact teams, AI has long been positioned as a method of augmenting rather than replacing. The goal was to extend human capacity, enabling employees to focus on resolving more complex matters, forming emotional connections, and growing customer lifetime value.

As 2026 reaches its midpoint, a contrarian perspective is beginning to emerge. Some technology providers and thought leaders are proposing a more autonomous model in which AI agents independently handle the end-to-end customer experience. In this vision, employees would pivot away from customer support.

But if organizations want to preserve – and amplify – the human workforce, they will have to rethink their technology frameworks.

Based on how they are approaching their AI investments, many contact centers are bottlenecking their ability to maximize returns. They are specifically neglecting employee experience concerns, leading to a scenario where agents will face heightened customer expectations yet lack empowerment for rising" with "situation in which agents will face heightened customer expectations yet lack the empowerment to rise to the occasion. And if employee performance is inhibited, customer experience quality" with "hindered, the quality of the customer experience will be jeopardized.

Driven by the aforementioned research, this report dives deep into the vision for the AI-human balance, the factors that are thwarting success, and the best opportunities for getting" with "thwarting success and the best opportunities to get ahead.