Your CX is stuck in the past. Here’s how to fix it.

Customer expectations and technological advances are evolving faster than ever, but brands are still using customer experience (CX) tools and strategies from a generation ago.

Are you feeling stuck in the past, like your CX can’t move forward? You’re not alone.

In our recent LinkedIn Live, "Say goodbye to old-school CX in 2026," TTEC Head of Innovation James Bednar and TTEC Digital Chief Technology Officer Alfredo Rizzo discussed how outdated CX is holding too many brands back – and what leaders can do to level up this year.

Most CX strategies still play by yesterday’s rules

There are many exciting advancements happening in CX, especially around AI, but some brands aren’t ready to capitalize on them.

Brands might be quick to pilot AI tools but implementing technology just for technology’s sake rarely works, Rizzo said. Investments in AI (and all tech), he said, need to be part of a broader strategy that focuses on your business’ key needs and goals.

“The change that’s needed the most is a new approach,” Rizzo said. Don’t just use AI because it sounds like a good idea; instead, create a focused use case where it’s solving a specific pain point. That way it’s more likely to drive the results you need.  

CX tends to be stuck in the past in other areas too, Bednar said, especially conversational intelligence and quality assurance (QA).

“It’s still shocking how many clients rely on old-school approaches to understanding call drivers and intents,” he said, when they should be using conversational analytics to compile data and glean valuable insights from customer interactions. “Companies need to realize they’re sitting on a goldmine of data” and AI can structure and make sense of it all in real-time, he added.

QA is another area where AI can be revolutionary, he said. There’s no need to have people manually listen to a tiny fraction of contact center calls when AI can quickly listen to 100% of interactions and pull out useful information.

Similarly, more contact centers should be embracing AI for conversation summarizations, Rizzo said. AI can dive deep into customer intents, and delegating summarization to AI lets associates focus more on the conversation at hand. He added, though, it’s important to keep humans in the loop. People should still review AI-generated summaries and tweak them as needed.

Agentic AI will transform CX

Looking ahead, Rizzo and Bednar agreed a hot topic for this year will be agentic AI.

“Agentic is going to, for many reasons, be big in 2026,” Rizzo said. “It’s easier now to build solutions,” so there’s going to be a fast evolution from knowledge-based agents to virtual agents that can accomplish goals. He expects brands to start experimenting with agentic AI in the back office first, then roll out more customer-facing uses.

Customers are beginning to use AI agents to contact brands on their behalf, Bednar said, which raises a lot of questions: How do companies prepare associates for interacting with bots? How do brands verify customers’ identities? What’s the potential fraud risk exposure?

This represents a major change for contact centers, one that will be challenging to navigate.

The biggest barrier to agentic AI adoption – whether it’s back-office or customer-facing – is data readiness, Rizzo said. Enterprise systems are legacy silos, often making associates deal with many disparate systems to serve customers.

“That’s the biggest blocker,” Rizzo said. “Security and trust are going to be extremely important as well.”

Change isn’t the threat; standing still is

An increasingly confusing tech landscape is making it hard for brands to know where to start. The result? Analysis paralysis, which causes companies to lose ground (and customers) to competitors.

Don’t be afraid to start small, Rizzo advised, especially when it comes to AI.

“Get small wins that you can wrap your head around,” like implementing AI for summarization, he said. “There’s no single playbook. You have to find a trusted partner that can come in and help you sort through the noise. The pace of change is just continuing to accelerate.”

Bednar agreed: “You shouldn’t be afraid to experiment. Start small. Get some quick wins, maybe even some quick losses” and learn from them.

Working with a proven CX partner is a great way to tap into proven AI solutions, CX strategy, and partners, Rizzo and Bednar said. At TTEC, we spend a lot of time evaluating tools and partners so our clients don’t have to. Eliminating that guesswork lets brands focus on what they do best.