This headline from No Jitter seems like a milestone in the use of AI in customer experience: Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX. In the post, Robin Gareiss, CEO and principal analyst at Metrigy, reports on her research showing a decline in the number of enterprise leaders who consider people more important than technology for CX success.
In Metrigy’s research last year, 72% of respondents said people were more important than technology for delivering successful interactions, Robin writes. That number fell to 59% this year, and among the cohort Metrigy designates as its “success group,” the majority – 58% - actually gave the nod to technology this year.
This research shows a clear shift in attitudes among the brands delivering CX. But customers may not yet be so optimistic. One consumer survey shows two-thirds of customers “have abandoned a digital task because the process was too annoying; another study shows AI chatbots inadequate at handling complex tasks, while a third survey finds CX leaders believe AI can help strengthen customers’ emotional connection to their brand, but this potential mostly is yet to be realized.
In her No Jitter post, Robin describes a customer interaction scenario where AI proved adept at handling a level of complexity that might previously have been escalated to a human agent. However, when the experience developed yet another complication to resolve, it became time to bring in the human agents. Both Robin’s experience and the other research cited above suggest we’re in a transitional time when it pays to avoid dogmatic views on AI and humans in customer service. Shunning AI-enabled capabilities could well hold your enterprise back and, ironically, avoid the kind of customer satisfaction that Robin experienced in her initial round of interactions. Many customers may be pleasantly surprised that AI can handle their requirements, and presumably do so faster.
On the other hand, as Robin eventually experienced, you may need to reach a human agent. Her story and the other data here suggest that the ability to orchestrate the customer journey to optimize AI’s role (and that of human agents) may well become a competitive differentiator for CX operations.
CX has become an important topic at Enterprise Connect, though it’s still just one of our key pillars, together with Unified Communications/collaboration, pro AV, security, and core infrastructure. At Enterprise Connect 2026 March 10 – 12, we’ll have many places for you to get the insights you need on CX, including our Tuesday Summit on the topic (and we’ll be continuing to add sessions to the program over the coming weeks). If your CX is at an inflection point thanks to AI (and whose isn’t?), I hope you can join us in Las Vegas next March for the industry’s largest independent communications/CX technology event.
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