CX Today

CCW 2026: Is AI Making Customer Experience Better - or Just Cheaper?

Rob Scott, Publisher at CX Today, sits down with Jeremie Abou, Sales Lead at Diabolocom, on the floor of CCW Las Vegas to ask the question the industry keeps dodging: is AI actually improving customer experience, or just cutting costs? Jeremie doesn't pull punches. From automation hype to the uncomfortable gap between slick demos and live contact centre reality, this conversation gets into what vendors won't tell you — and what CX leaders need to hear. They cover the 89% of CX leaders who expect humans to stay central to support, the 17% who think their agents are actually ready for it, and why Diabolocom believes the future of CX might be more human, not less. If you're navigating AI investment decisions, workforce readiness, or just tired of the buzzwords — this one's for you. Topics covered: * The AI hype problem and what it's costing CX * Why "presence" beats pure automation as a CX strategy * AI theatre vs. operationally useful technology * Agent enablement and the workforce readiness gap * The "super operator" — Diabolocom's vision for the future contact centre CX Today [https://www.cxtoday.com/] is the leading news and analysis platform for the customer experience industry.

The Reality of Voice AI in the Contact Centre: From Pilot to Production - AudioCodes

In this CX Today interview, Marcus Law speaks with Ilan Avner, Director of Product Management at AudioCodes, about the practical reality of moving Voice AI from proof of concept into production. The conversation explores why so many Voice AI projects stall after promising pilots, what enterprises often underestimate about voice infrastructure, and why connectivity, latency, noise handling, scalability, redundancy, and human-agent handoff matter just as much as the AI model itself. Avner also discusses how platforms such as AudioCodes Live Hub and AI Agents can help enterprises build a more resilient production environment for Voice AI use cases, including voice bots, agent assistance, and real-time translation. Watch the full interview to learn what CX and contact center leaders should ask before putting Voice AI into production.

When the Playbook Runs Out: Closing the Real-Time Agent Assist Gap with AI - CallMiner x CCW Vegas 2026

At CCW Vegas 2026, Rob Scott sits down with Jonathan 'JR' Ranger, Chief Customer Officer at CallMiner, to explore the company's latest AI innovation, 'Real-Time AI Guidance,' and what it actually means for agents, customers, and contact center leaders navigating an increasingly AI-driven world.  JR breaks down how the technology works in practice, why hold times and transfers are no longer an acceptable fallback, and why he believes agents who embrace AI will thrive rather than disappear. He also gets candid about why so many AI deployments fall short, and what organizations need to do differently to see real results.  If you're leading CX strategy, running a contact center, or just trying to separate the AI hype from the reality, this one's worth your time.

Five9 Explains How Human-in-the-Loop AI Drives Better CX Outcomes

In this CX Today interview, Nicole Willing speaks with Jonathan Rosenberg, Chief Technology Officer at Five9, about the role of human-in-the-loop design in AI-powered customer experience. Rosenberg explains why mature AI strategies should not treat human intervention as a failure or last resort. Instead, humans play a critical role in continuous learning, governance, high-risk decisions, and customer interactions where emotion, complexity, or value requires a human touch. The conversation explores why businesses should avoid chasing 100 percent automation, how AI can still support agents when interactions are handed over, and why CX leaders need stronger auditing, monitoring, and performance evaluation as AI agents become more common. Rosenberg also shares practical advice for organizations beginning their AI journey: start with simple, high-confidence use cases, prove value, build oversight structures, and then expand carefully.

Why Your AI ROI Numbers Are Probably Wrong – And What to Measure Instead

Forethought’s Antoine Nasr discusses how outcome-based AI is reshaping the way enterprises measure the true value of customer service automation  In this CX Today discussion, Associate Editor Rhys Fisher sits down with Antoine Nasr, Head of AI at Forethought, recently acquired by Zendesk. The pair discuss Forethought’s agentic AI push to tackle one of the most uncomfortable conversations in the CX space right now: is the ROI you're reporting on your AI investment actually telling you anything useful?  Twelve months of AI euphoria in the enterprise is giving way to a harder question: was it worth it? Antoine Nasr makes the case that most organizations are measuring the wrong things, and explains what Forethought is doing differently:  Deflection is a broken metric: A deflected ticket tells you nothing about whether the customer's issue was actually resolved. Forethought's outcome-based pricing model only charges when the AI agent genuinely resolves a conversation, and shows admins exactly why each one was classified the way it was.  The $1B ROI figure? Already outdated: Antoine is candid that Forethought's headline customer ROI number has already been surpassed, and walks through the framework for calculating both the hard dollar savings and the softer but real gains in CSAT, brand value, and churn reduction.  AI as a single entry point: User expectations have shifted. Customers no longer want to navigate your org structure, they want one interface that routes intelligently across support, commerce, sales, and beyond. Forethought's RevTech integrations are built around that reality.  Self-improving agents are here: Forethought's Discover product automatically identifies support topic gaps, builds agents to handle them, and improves after every interaction, closing the loop between performance data and agent behavior.