AI agents rewrite customer experience playbook
Speakers at CEM Africa 2026 stressed that AI alone is not the key to delivering better experiences to customers.
In 2026, artificial intelligence (AI) agents are transforming the customer experience landscape, according to Luke Duffell, director of customer service automation and solution engineering at NiCE. Speaking at CEM Africa 2026 held at the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town, Duffell highlighted how AI has fundamentally altered how we access information online.
Instead of searching through numerous results on a search engine, we can now simply ask our query and receive an answer. Duffell emphasized that seamless customer experiences should be the goal, as this is now the norm in today's world. However, he cautioned against simply implementing AI into every interaction without proper consideration.
Customers have developed a negative perception of chatbots due to their poor performance. Additionally, Trent Rossini, CEO and co-founder of inQuba, stressed that to effectively incorporate AI into customer experience, organizations must focus on what customers actually do rather than what they say. Surveys often yield inaccurate sentiment data because people generally dislike completing them.
Instead, behavioral and operational data holds more value. Rahul Jain, CEO and co-founder of Peach Payments, presented a panel discussion at the event where he questioned whether the trend of AI agents taking over all customer interactions in five years' time is what customers truly desire. While AI offers benefits and efficiencies, Jain highlighted the importance of delivering an experience that customers genuinely want.
He cautioned that if AI cannot solve a customer's problem with absolute reliability, it may only add friction to the experience. Customers reach out to customer care due to issues they face, and they expect quick resolutions. If a chatbot fails to address these concerns promptly, it can exacerbate the problem. Jain questioned whether implementing AI simply for the sake of being trendy is truly beneficial for customers or merely a trend-following exercise.
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