CallMiner, the global leader in customer experience (CX) automation powered by deep conversation intelligence, released its annual CX Landscape Report in partnership with Vanson Bourne, revealing a significant gap between organizations’ ability to deploy automation and their ability to use customer insights to continuously improve it.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are now embedded across CX, as organizations look to manage growing interaction volumes, improve efficiency and deliver better customer experiences. However, the report found that widespread adoption is not necessarily translating into better outcomes. Less than one in four (23%) of organizations says its customer interactions are both highly automated and consistently optimized using CX insights.

The findings point to an emerging intelligence gap as organizations move beyond simply implementing automation and AI toward determining where the technology delivers value, how it should be continuously optimized and when human expertise is essential.

“Nearly every organization is using automation, but adoption alone doesn’t guarantee better CX,” said Jeff Gallino, CEO and founder, CallMiner. “As automation becomes ubiquitous and AI expands what’s possible, the differentiator is customer intelligence. Organizations need to continuously learn from customer interactions to understand where automation works, where it needs to improve and where human expertise delivers greater value.”

Organizations have the data, but automation lags

Organizations aren’t lacking CX data. All organizations surveyed report collecting CX data to understand and improve customer interactions, and they are increasingly automating how they analyze it. But the report found a widening gap between organizations’ ability to generate insights and their ability to operationalize them.

More than two-thirds (68%*) say they don’t utilize CX data to its best advantage, up from 62%* in 2025. At the same time, 66%* now rely on automated processes to analyze CX data, compared with 53%* in 2025.

Organizations are still underusing CX insights to guide automation. Just 30% use them to improve automated interactions and 22% to decide what should be automated. While 71% say customer insights inform these decisions, 76% acknowledge automation is ultimately driven by internal goals rather than customer needs.

Organizational alignment also remains a significant challenge. Nearly all organizations (94%) report difficulties aligning on CX data and feedback across departments.

“Organizations have more customer intelligence at their fingertips than ever, but collecting and analyzing data isn’t enough,” Gallino added. “The real value comes from putting those insights into action. When customer intelligence continuously informs automation decisions, organizations can identify friction faster, make smarter choices and improve experiences over time.”

Better CX comes from smarter automation

The organizations delivering the strongest automated customer experiences use CX insights to continuously refine where and how automation is applied.

Organizations reporting “very positive” automated customer experiences are around six times as likely to consistently optimize automation using CX insights than those reporting mixed or negative experiences (49% vs. 8%). They are also more likely to draw on richer sources of CX data during and after interactions, including automation performance data from chatbots, voicebots and interactive voice response (IVR) systems, as well as omnichannel conversation transcripts. These insights can help organizations identify friction, understand where customers drop off or escalate, and continuously refine automated journeys.

The findings also challenge the assumption that successful automation means removing humans from the customer journey. Nearly all organizations (95%) say human agents add more value than automation or AI in at least one type of customer interaction, particularly when complex problem solving, significant business consequences, customer vulnerability or empathy are involved. The strongest automated experiences also appear to depend on knowing when to involve a human, with organizations reporting “very positive” automated customer experiences being more likely to escalate interactions to human agents than those reporting mixed or negative experiences (76% vs. 68%).

Strengthening automation and human expertise

Organizations are increasingly using AI to enhance human capabilities alongside automated experiences. Nearly all organizations (96%) are implementing AI within CX initiatives, while 85% use AI for at least one human-agent use case.

Organizations reporting “very positive” automated customer experiences are also more likely to use AI to personalize customer outreach and provide real-time assistance to human agents. In comparison, organizations reporting mixed or negative experiences are more likely to focus on using AI to decrease or automate repetitive work.

Despite the potential benefits, concerns remain. More than nine in ten organizations (91%*) continue to report fears around implementing AI, although that figure has declined from 95%* in 2025. Further, 43% say customers prefer speaking with human agents, while 40% believe AI and automation still struggle to effectively handle complex, emotional or high-risk interactions.

The 2026 CX Landscape Report reveals that as automation becomes ubiquitous, the next opportunity for CX organizations is to turn customer intelligence into action. For more information on CallMiner’s 2026 CX Landscape Report, please download the full report here.

Survey Methodology

A total of 700 senior decision makers from contact center and CX departments were interviewed in May and June 2026, with interviews in the US (250), UK/Ireland (125), France (125), Germany (125), and South Africa (75). This matches the interview profile from previous years’ reports.

Respondents had to be from organizations that had a contact center, with 100 or more employees in total globally, and be part of the healthcare, financial services, technology, retail, or business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors. BPOs were first added to the research in 2025. Where historical data and comparisons with 2025 are discussed, BPO data is excluded for comparability. These statistics are highlighted using an asterisk*.

The interviews were conducted online and undertaken using a rigorous multi-level screening process to ensure that only suitable candidates were given the opportunity to participate.

About CallMiner

CallMiner is the global leader in customer experience (CX) automation, powered by deep conversation intelligence. Leveraging AI agents and human expertise, CallMiner delivers smarter, more efficient interactions that transform CX and reduce operational costs. Advanced AI and industry-leading analytics turn every conversation into actionable intelligence, driving process optimization, performance gains, customer engagement, and enterprise-wide automation. CallMiner is trusted to improve CX for leading brands across technology, media and telecom, retail, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and travel & hospitality. To learn more, visit CallMiner.com, read the CallMiner blog, or follow us on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Facebook.

About Vanson Bourne

Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Their reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and their ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com.

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