Five9 , provider of the Intelligent CX Platform, released its 2026 Business Leaders Customer Experience Report, uncovering how organizations are moving from AI experimentation to execution in customer experience. The global study found that 92% of organizations have already implemented or piloted AI use cases in customer service. Yet despite rapid adoption and measurable business results, consumer trust remains the defining challenge. While 80% of consumers are willing to use AI-powered customer service, two-thirds still prefer speaking with a human.

Based on a survey of 3,000 consumers and 600 customer experience and contact center decision-makers across the U.S., U.K., and Germany, the report explores the important difference that separates successful AI adoption from just effective AI execution. The findings show that organizations are realizing strong returns from AI investments, but long-term success depends on how well AI is integrated into customer journeys, employee workflows, governance frameworks, and human support experiences. The next phase of CX will be defined not by how much AI organizations deploy, but by how effectively they use it to build trust and improve outcomes.

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“AI has clearly crossed the threshold from promise to production in customer experience, but the next challenge is much harder than deployment,” said Amit Mathradas, CEO of Five9. “Winning with AI in customer experience will come down to more than automating interactions at scale. It requires making every experience more relevant, more trusted and more human – giving customers choice, equipping agents for higher-value work, preserving context across every handoff and building AI strategies that can scale responsibly across the business.”

The findings also reveal that consumers are placing new expectations on AI-powered customer service. While many are willing to engage with AI for routine interactions, they expect transparency, choice, and seamless transitions when human assistance is needed. Phone remains the most preferred customer service channel overall, and that preference increases steadily with age, rising from 23% of Gen Z consumers to 33% of Gen X consumers, 47% of Baby Boomers, and 66% of consumers in the Silent Generation. The report also found that 71% of consumers consider it very or extremely important to know when they are interacting with an AI agent, highlighting the growing role of transparency in building trust.

Among the key insights:

• The AI-to-human handoff is make-or-break: Nearly all decision-makers say their organization preserves context during AI-to-human handoffs, yet 83% of consumers say they still have to repeat themselves at least sometimes after being transferred —raising questions about whether organizations are accurately measuring handoff success.
• CX infrastructure is still catching up to AI ambition: 84% of organizations are still transitioning from on-premises infrastructure to cloud-based, underscoring that AI execution depends on the systems, data and workflows underneath it.
• There is no one-size-fits-all AI playbook: Decision makers are split between end-to-end platforms, hybrid approaches and best-of-breed tools, reinforcing the need for flexible AI strategies that align models, workflows, governance and human oversight to each use case.

Download the full Five9 2026 Business Leaders Customer Experience Report to learn where AI is delivering value, where consumer trust is still lagging and how CX leaders can build the next generation of AI-powered customer experiences.