AI technology trends for 2026: Leadership insights from Zoom

"In 2026, people will spend far less time on 'work about work' thanks to the rise of agentic AI. Intelligent agents will take on repetitive tasks — updating project status, scheduling meetings, summarizing discussions, and managing follow-ups — so employees can focus on creativity, strategy, and human connection. As agentic AI transforms conversations into actions, it will redefine productivity, helping organizations move from meetings to milestones and from conversation to completion."

"Authenticity becomes the new optimization: AI will make it easier than ever to create content, but the real challenge and opportunity will lie in restraint. The ethical line in marketing won't be drawn by what AI can do, but by what we choose to let it do. As AI-generated content floods every channel, audiences will crave authenticity, and the brands that win will use AI to amplify human connection (not replace it), prioritizing empathy, relevance, and trust as the ultimate conversion metrics."

"Authority and agility define the modern CMO: AI is reshaping both discovery and delivery. Search is no longer a keyword game, it's a credibility game. PR and earned media will evolve into signals of authority in an AI-driven ecosystem, where brand truth needs to be structured for machines to find and humans to believe. Meanwhile, success metrics will shift from isolated performance numbers to indicators of agility, measuring how quickly teams learn, adapt, and execute. Ultimately, the modern CMO's playbook will measure flow as much as output."

"Transparency and context power trust at scale: Personalization and privacy will continue to coexist in a state of tension. Consumers want relevance, but not at the expense of trust. Winning brands will navigate this balance by making data exchange transparent, contextual, and mutually beneficial, not binary. By analyzing signals across customer conversations, events, and support interactions, marketers can leverage AI insights to drive alignment, ultimately fueling product, sales, and marketing strategies that feel more human, not more automated."

"CX leaders will shift focus from satisfaction to effort — the new north star of customer loyalty: CX success will be defined by how little effort it takes to get things done — for customers and the employees who serve them. After years of chasing higher CSAT scores, 2026 will mark a shift toward Effort Scores as the truest measure of loyalty and performance. With generative AI and journey analytics integrated across channels, leading organizations will quantify and eliminate the friction points that slow both customers and agents down, from repetitive post-call tasks to disjointed workflows and complex handoffs. The most successful brands will use AI-driven journey orchestration to measure effort end to end, proactively intervening before frustration occurs and linking agent enablement directly to customer experience outcomes."

"Virtual agents will become part of the staffing economy: In 2026, AI won't just handle routine interactions — it will determine when a virtual agent should engage, which type (scripted bot, agentic model, or voice assistant), and when to hand off to a human based on a cost-impact-experience balance. Companies will no longer treat bots as "free" resources but as members of the team with measurable performance, cost, and experience metrics."

"The greatest AI breakthrough in 2026 won't be new models; it will be connected intelligence: In 2026, CX organizations will stop treating data as a departmental asset and start running on connected intelligence — a unified layer that transforms customer interactions into insights every team can use. From CX leaders and operations teams to product, marketing, and the C-suite, everyone will have the opportunity to gain visibility into the same real-time performance signals: what customers are saying, how issues are resolved, and where experiences break down. This shared intelligence will guide investment decisions, accelerate product improvements, and help leaders measure experience as a true business outcome."

"Workforce management will evolve into workforce experience management: Workforce Management will move beyond scheduling to become a dynamic, AI-driven system that optimizes the mix of human and virtual agents based on performance, cost, and customer impact. Contact centers will utilize AI to forecast interaction demand, then determine which resource yields the best outcome for each scenario. In some cases, human empathy can prove more cost-effective than automation, driving a smarter and more balanced approach to resource planning."

"Transparency will become the new trust currency in AI: By 2026, transparency won't just be a compliance requirement, it will be the biggest differentiator among AI-driven companies. With AI capabilities becoming more complex and omnipresent, customers will reward the companies that can clearly explain how their AI system works, what data it uses, and why it makes certain decisions. Companies that embed transparency into their products and practices will build deeper, more lasting trust with their customers. Plain and simple, those that say what they do, and do what they say, will win customer trust."

"Agentic AI will deepen the meaning of consent — one micro-decision at a time: As agentic AI evolves to handle increasingly complex actions on behalf of users, from scheduling meetings to drafting communications, consent will take on new complexity. The question won't just be, 'Do I authorize AI to accomplish this task for me?' but 'What decisions have users authorized AI to make as it accomplishes the task?' Companies that master the complexity of providing the right balance between user control and AI autonomy will earn the greatest trust."

"Everything old is new again in AI regulation: Regulators expect AI to meet long-standing requirements around consumer protection, data governance, transparency, and data minimization. With the power of AI increasing exponentially, applying privacy requirements to the AI world is simple in concept, challenging in execution unless it is included by design. In 2026, we'll see a shift toward greater alignment between regulators and companies that proactively embed privacy and accountability into their AI systems."