Customer support leaders rely on a yr of enterprise transformation justified by the facility of at this time’s AI. But 2026 not be that yr. As a substitute of dazzling transformation, the yr forward might be outlined by gritty, foundational work — the sort that hardly ever makes headlines however is important to realizing AI’s long-term promise.
Forrester’s 2026 predictions reveal a sobering fact: Whereas the imaginative and prescient of AI-first customer support is compelling — autonomous operations, specialised human brokers, and seamless self-service — most organizations are usually not but geared up to ship it.
The Actuality Verify: AI’s Operational Calls for
Organizations have eagerly embraced vendor guarantees that AI will empower prospects to self-serve on their phrases, growing buyer satisfaction and containing prices by decreasing the reliance on human brokers. This imaginative and prescient is tough to attain as a result of scaling AI throughout customer support features exposes operational gaps. Forrester predicts that in 2026, service high quality will dip as corporations wrestle with the complexity of AI deployment and the necessity for sturdy change administration.
To maneuver ahead, organizations should simplify their tech stacks, consolidate vendor relationships, and rework outdated processes. They’ll additionally have to spend money on enterprise information high quality and optimize information bases — all whereas fostering cultures that may soak up and adapt to the tempo of AI innovation.
Prediction 1: Self-Service Success Will Rise — For Some
Forrester predicts that one in 4 manufacturers will see a ten% improve in profitable easy self-service interactions by the top of 2026. This rise is pushed by rising belief in generative AI (as 78% of AI decision-makers agree) – paving the best way for broader deployment of chatbots and clever voice brokers (IVAs).
These beneficial properties might be modest however significant. We anticipate every day agent workloads to drop by a mean of 1 hour as AI automates slim duties like FAQs. Nonetheless, customer support leaders should tread fastidiously. Over-automating complicated (and emotional) inquiries will frustrate prospects and erode satisfaction.
Prediction 2: AI Brokers Will Flood Name Queues
A brand new problem looms: consumer-developed AI brokers. Designed to finish easy duties — getting into sweepstakes, shopping for tickets, signing up for samples — these brokers will overwhelm model name facilities as they multiply via self-learning reinforcement.
Forrester expects at the very least three main manufacturers will expertise single-day name quantity spikes 100 occasions above regular, on six separate events. These surges gained’t be malicious like DDoS assaults, however the influence would be the similar. Tech suppliers will scramble to implement bot and agent administration options like DataDome or HUMAN to detect provenance and intent, and to route requests appropriately.
Prediction 3: AI Expertise Will Reshape Service Organizations
As AI turns into integral to customer support supply, organizations will restructure their groups to assist it. Forrester predicts that 30% of enterprises will create parallel AI features that mirror human service roles. These will embody managers to onboard and coach AI brokers, operational groups to optimize AI efficiency, and specialists to “unblock” AI when it falters.
Leaders should start scoping these roles now and plan for to evolve their workforces – by coaching, reskilling, and/or hiring new expertise.
The Backside Line
2026 gained’t be the yr that AI transforms customer support operations. As a substitute, will probably be the yr of arduous work — of simplifying, restructuring, and making ready. The organizations that embrace this actuality might be greatest positioned to ship the AI-first experiences prospects more and more anticipate.
Forrester shoppers can learn all 5 of our predictions in our Predictions 2026: Buyer Service report. You too can schedule a steerage session or inquiry with us as analysts researching and advising on many elements of customer support, contact heart, and AI’s potential in reshaping every part from customer support expertise to customer support roles.
