CX Trends 2026 Explained: A Practical Guide To The Zendesk Report

11/26/2025
Elena Tsesnietse

Working in CX can feel like juggling too many balls at once. New channels keep popping up, AI promises a lot but doesn't always deliver, and customers want fast, personal help without repeating themselves. If that sounds familiar, the CX Trends 2026 insights from the Zendesk report are made for you.

In this article, we're going to discuss:

If you work in CX, chances are your days look a bit like this:

Your team is flooded with conversations across channels.
Everyone is talking about AI, but you are not seeing it magically fix queues.
Leadership wants higher CSAT and lower costs.
You know your data is valuable, but getting clear insights still feels like pulling teeth.
Your customers say they want human support, but they also expect 24/7, instant answers.

In this article, we will break down the Zendesk CX Trends 2026 report in clear, friendly language and show you:

What the biggest CX trends 2026 actually are
What they mean for your roadmap in the next 1-2 years
Where to start without tearing up your entire stack

If you want more than a summary, download the full Zendesk CX trends 2026 report

Why Zendesk’s CX Trends report matters more than “yet another report”

Let’s be honest. The internet is full of “CX trends” articles that say the same things:

“Be more customer-centric”
“Use AI”
“Be on every channel”

Helpful? Not really.

What makes the Zendesk CX Trends 2026 report different is the data and focus:

Over 11,000 people surveyed worldwide (consumers, CX leaders and agents)
Clear, five-trend structure you can actually turn into a roadmap
Very concrete stats, like:

0 %

of consumers

think CX should be far better

than it is today

0 %

of consumers

say AI is now part

of customer service

0 %

of CX leaders

say customers will drop brands that can’t resolve issues on first contact

Zendesk CX Trends is not just “AI is important.” It is “here is what the best teams are already doing, and here is how far behind you might be.”

The 5 big CX trends 2026 in plain language

The Zendesk CX Trends 2026 report groups everything into five big shifts. Let’s strip the jargon and talk about what they actually mean.

Trend 1. Memory-rich AI: personalisation that actually remembers you

AI used to be like that friend who asks your name every time you meet. Now, “memory-rich AI” means:

It remembers previous conversations
It knows what the customer bought or asked before
It can use this context to answer in a smarter, more human way

0 %

of CX leaders

say memory-rich AI agents are the key

to truly personalised journeys

0 %

of agents

say having all the history in one place

helps them do their jobs better

In practice, that means:

No more “can you repeat your order number” five times
AI agents that can pick up a case days later and still “get” the customer
Humans stepping in with full history, not blind

Why this matters for you:

If your AI or bots still behave like goldfish with amnesia, customers will feel it. Memory is no longer a nice extra, it is now a basic expectation.

Trend 2. AI-powered self-service: customers now expect instant resolutions

For years, we focused on fast response times. But in 2026, customers want fast resolutions.

0 %

of consumers

now expect 24/7 support

because of AI

0 %

of consumers

say fast responses and accurate resolutions strongly influence their purchase decisions

0 %

of CX leaders

say customers will drop brands that can’t solve problems on first contact

AI-powered self-service now means:

AI agents that can make decisions, not just answer FAQs
Real actions: refunds, cancellations, changes, without waiting for a human
Knowledge bases that are actually maintained and connected to live data

Why this matters for you:

If your “AI” is just a pretty FAQ search, customers will notice. The bar is now: “solve my problem the first time.”

Trend 3. Multimodal support: not just omnichannel, truly flexible conversations

“Omnichannel” used to mean “we have many channels.” But for customers, it often felt like:

“Lots of ways to tell the same story again and again.” Multimodal support in the Zendesk CX Trends 2026 report is different:

Customers can use text, images, video and voice in one conversation
They can show the broken product, share a screenshot, or jump on quick video support
AI can handle non-text inputs, like understanding an image or recording

0 %

of consumers

would choose a company that lets them mix text, images and video in the same thread

0 %

of customers

say being able to share media makes

getting support easier

Why this matters for you:

If your “omnichannel” strategy still means “pick one channel and stay there,” you are already behind the curve. Customers expect to talk the way they talk to friends.

Trend 4. Promptable analytics: using AI to finally make sense of your data

Most CX leaders are drowning in data and starving for insight. The CX Trends 2026 report introduces promptable analytics, which is a simple idea:

You ask questions in plain language
AI reads your CX data and answers
Anyone in your team can do it, not just analysts

0 %

of leaders

believe AI is already improving

data and analytics

0 %

of CX professionals

say letting every employee “ask questions” will transform decision-making

Why this matters for you:

If you still wait weeks for a report on “why did ticket volume spike in France last month,” you are missing the real benefit of AI in CX: faster, better decisions based on live insight. Organisations with high AI maturity are already there, using AI-specific KPIs like automation success, bot satisfaction and cost per contact to steer their operations in real time.

Trend 5. AI transparency: customers want to know the “why”

AI is becoming normal in support. But trust is not automatic.

0 %

of consumers

want to know why AI made a decision

only 0 %

of organisations

explain AI decisions in a clear way

Demands for transparency are up 63% since last year, which means customers are increasingly fine with AI saying “no” as long as it also explains why, for example: “We could not process your refund because this order is outside our 30 day return window.”

Why this matters for you:

If your AI says, “this decision was made by the system,” customers will not blame “the system.” They will blame your brand.

How to use CX Trends 2026 in your roadmap without burning everything down

You don’t need to become a Silicon Valley lab in 6 months. Think of the CX Trends 2026 insights as a checklist to prioritise the next steps.

Here is a simple way to use the Zendesk CX Trends report:

Step 1: Check your AI maturity honestly

Ask yourself and your team:

Does our AI remember previous conversations and use them?
What percentage of issues are fully resolved by AI, without humans?
Can customers mix text, images and other media in one thread?
Who can access CX insights today: analysts only, or everyone?
If AI declines a refund, can we clearly explain why?

If most answers start with “not yet” or “it depends,” you have your gaps.

Check your AI maturity with the AI readiness quiz

Step 2: Pick one trend to improve in the next quarter

Trying to fix everything at once is how roadmaps die. Use the CX Trends 2026 report to choose your focus:

If your team is drowning in repetitive tickets → Trend 2: AI-powered self-service
If your NPS suffers from “I had to repeat myself” complaints → Trend 1: Memory-rich AI
If leadership mistrusts your dashboards → Trend 4: Promptable analytics

Start small, but make it real. For example:

Launch AI agents for your top three high-volume, low-risk use cases
Connect your AI to order, booking or account data so it can actually act
Give a small group of managers access to prompt-based analytics and measure how it changes decisions

Step 3: Bake in transparency and trust from day one

Do not leave explanations for last. Plan from the start how you will explain your AI’s decisions in simple, clear language.

Decide which decisions must always be explainable in plain language
Align your AI with company policies on refunds, pricing and security
Train agents how to talk about AI decisions with confidence

This is not just about risk. According to the CX Trends report, clear explanations can turn a “no” into a “thank you for being honest.”

Why download the full Zendesk CX Trends 2026 report

This article is a teaser. The full CX Trends 2026 report gives you:

If you are a CX manager, director or CXO, it is also a useful alignment tool. Instead of debating opinions about AI, you can point to concrete numbers and say, “This is where the market is going. Here is where we are. Here is what we need to do next.”

How this compares to other “CX trends 2026” content

A quick look at Google shows many CX Trends articles, but most fall into two camps:

Very generic “top 10 CX trends” lists with little data
Vendor-heavy pieces that focus more on product than on practical action

The Zendesk CX trends report 2026 gives you:

Solid global research, not just opinions
A tight set of 5 trends, easy to remember and use
Clear “how to take action” suggestions under each trend
A realistic view of AI that includes both power and responsibility

In short, it is one of the few resources you can both send to your CEO and use with your frontline team.

What is the role of Premium Plus in CX trends?

Premium Plus is a long-term Zendesk Premier Partner and has been recognised as a Zendesk EMEA Partner of the Year. The team spends their days helping organisations turn insights like those in CX Trends 2026 into real-world improvements in customer experience.

If you read the report and find yourself thinking “this is exactly where we want to go, but we are not sure how to get there,” Premium Plus is a friendly place to continue that conversation. Think of us less as a vendor and more as a group of CX nerds who enjoy digging into journeys, workflows and AI together with you.

Reach out to Premium Plus directly if you want to talk through what these CX trends mean for your own organisation and where to start with practical next steps.