Over Half of CX Leaders Expect More Routine Queries to Be Fully Automated by Agentic AI in 2026, As Customer Service Transitions to Autonomous Interactions
Despite the growth of agentic AI, human agents will still play a key role in handling complex, urgent, or emotional interactions, even by 2030, according to research by Content Guru.
Content Guru, Europe’s leading Customer Experience (CX) technology provider, has released research findings that demonstrate how artificial intelligence (AI) will support agents and customers in 2026. The research, carried out at the Contact Centre Expo in London in November 2025, highlighted that over half (58%) of CX professionals believe agentic AI will handle an increased number of routine requests and interactions this year.
The Role of AI in CX in 2026
Agentic AI enables AI systems to autonomously understand goals, make complex decisions, and take steps to resolve customer issues without continuous human oversight. As well as handling straightforward requests, around half of respondents believe agentic AI will regularly be used to proactively identify customer needs and suggest next steps (45%) and take on admin tasks such as managing post-interaction activity such as updating systems of record (43%) in 2026.
The growth of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices will continue to generate more interactions from digital customers, autonomous entities such as AI assistants, and smart devices, in the coming year. A quarter (24%) of respondents believe agentic AI will integrate with digital customers and provide autonomous CX with human supervision as soon as 2026.
How AI will impact CX by 2030
The rise of AI has raised questions around the long-term role of the agent, and the research highlights that those within CX see AI and human agents working side-by-side by 2030. Just under half (42%) of those asked believe human agents will remain central to CX and AI will streamline admin and suggest next-best actions in real time.
Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO at Content Guru, explained,
“Agentic AI is transforming CX, and it will continue to support both agents and customers as we move into 2026,”
“AI is already supporting agents by taking admin work off their hands, such as note-taking and basic follow-up actions, and this year we will see its support become increasingly autonomous. Although agentic AI will change the role of the agent, it won’t make them obsolete, with nearly half of those surveyed confirming humans are best placed to deliver gold-standard service in complex or stressful circumstances even by 2030, when AI systems will have almost certainly increased in maturity.”
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