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What if the biggest mistakes you're making in customer experience right now aren't the ones you can see, but the ones you don't? See, that's the question I want you to sit with as we get into today's conversation, because here's the deal. Over the past nine months, we've seen all kinds of shiny objects in the uc and CX space here for 2025.

I mean, you can't go anywhere without some vendor yelling about ai, this automation that, or whatever buzzword of the week. They've got plastered on some slide deck, and if you actually take time to listen to them. You think the entire world has already shifted into some futuristic, like Jetson style call center where nobody needs human beings anymore, but that's not what's actually happening on the ground.

Not for customers, not for the technology advisors, and honestly, not for most of the vendors either. See, here's the pain. A lot of businesses are waking up every morning thinking, ah, I've got my CX under [00:01:00] control. When in reality, they're bleeding out in ways they can't even see what's happening. Well, calls are getting missed, tickets are piling up.

Customers are churning without saying a word, and advisors, they're stuck in the middle because if you're recommending tech that doesn't actually solve these problems. You're the one your client's pointing fingers at when things go south. So imagine you're a small business owner who thought, Hey, I just need more phones, maybe some chat, maybe an email inbox for support.

But now customers expect real time answers across every channel. They want personalized service, and they're not willing to wait on hold. For 45 minutes just because you didn't think you were running a call center or flip it around. Let's say you're a technology advisor. You signed a client and you brought a vendor that looked great on paper.

They had a great slide deck. They had cool sounding features. They [00:02:00] promised the moon, and then six months later, oh well, the client's furious because support disappeared. The AI feature was nothing more than glorified FAQ bots. And now you are left defending a system you didn't even build. That's a nightmare.

And that's how trust gets torched. If you're only paying attention to the flashy marketing and the press releases, you're gonna miss the actual trends, the real trends, the ones that customers are proving with their buying decisions. The ones advisors are living and breathing in with their daily sales cycles.

And those are the trends that are going to define 2026. So what's actually happening here? Well, today's episode we're gonna be digging into all of the upcoming trends that we've seen, not just here in 2025, but specifically carrying over to 2026. We're gonna cut through the noise and we're gonna focus on five of these [00:03:00] CX trends you cannot afford.

And no, they're not the buzzword. Bingo, not the vendor hype. This is the real stuff. We're gonna talk about why AI is actually working when it's used as a co-pilot. Instead of replacement, we're gonna break down why flexibility is beating lock-in. Across the board, we're gonna hit on the rise of the accidental contact and call centers and why that's something advisors need to flag before it turns into customer nightmares.

And we're gonna dig into why data isn't valuable until you actually turn it into action. And finally we're gonna talk about how human support is suddenly becoming the major differentiator again in an industry that has tried to automate everything. And here's the kicker. 'cause every single one of these trends comes straight from real world pain.

Pain customers are feeling pain advisors are dealing with, and that's why they matter. These aren't predictions I've pulled out of some crystal ball. These are lessons that we've [00:04:00] already been seeing play out over and over, over the past calendar year, and if you ignore them in 2026, you're gonna get left behind.

So let me ask you one more question to frame this up. If your clients came to you tomorrow and asked, Hey, what should we be, uh, paying attention to in CX over the next calendar year? Would you have an answer that actually helps them? Or would you be scrambling trying to remember the last vendor webinar that you sat through?

So my goal is by the end of this episode, you're gonna have a real answer, a practical one, one that isn't wrapped in the hype or the buzzwords. 'cause of course that's what we do here at CX without the bs. Alright, let's jump in. First, let's start with the big one. And this is one that everyone's been buzzing about nonstop, and that is ai.

If you've been anywhere near a vendor webinar, a LinkedIn post, or a random press release, you probably think AI is already replaced. [00:05:00] Like half of the workforce, like entire contact centers are sitting empty right now with robots doing all the heavy lifting while human beings are sipping lattes at home.

That's just not true. And the companies who bought into that dream are already paying a very heavy price. And we've seen it all through 20, 25 businesses that tried to rip out their human support staff and then slap in a chatbot thinking it would save millions. And instead what happened was customers got furious, 'cause conversations went nowhere, and then service scores tanked and the cost of trying to fix it later.

Ended up being way higher than if they had just built a system that actually supported their real life people in the first place. And by the way, if you're a technology advisor, you already know exactly what I'm talking about. You probably had a client, maybe more than one, who came to you saying, Hey, we want AI to replace our support desk.

And maybe you tried to warn them. [00:06:00] Maybe it didn't, but six months later those calls are coming back to you, Hey, uh, customers are angry. Um, we're losing deals. Why is this thing not working the way it was supposed to? And now, yeah, it's your reputation, the line, because you help guide that decision. The industry promised a magic pill and advisors who passed that promise along.

Without checking reality are now stuck doing damage control. And the customers, the customers, they left scrambling to rebuild well, trust is gone, and that's trust with the very people that they were trying to serve. So what's the trend going into 2026 Now? It's not AI replacing humans. It's AI acting as a copilot.

It's AI acting as a copilot ai. Helping real human beings. I mean, think about it. [00:07:00] When you fly on a plane, there's a pilot, there's a copilot. The plane has tons of automation, but would you ever get in a flight where the airline just told you, Hey, don't worry. We fired the pilots, the autopilot. It's got you all from here.

No, of course not. You'd laugh, cry, grab your bags and then run for those emergency exits. And the same thing is true here. Customers don't want to feel like they're talking to a robot. They wanna know that a human being is actually steering the ship, but they're totally fine with AI in the background, helping them human more, move more fast, seeing more clearly, or responding smarter.

So the company's actually winning with a AI right now. They're not firing their agents, they're empowering their agents. Imagine this, an agent is on the phone. And instead of scrambling through five different tabs to answer one question, the AI is [00:08:00] surfacing knowledge articles In real time or while a customer is explaining their issue, the AI is transcribing and suggesting next best actions.

Or perhaps after the call, AI is handling the wrap up note so the agent doesn't spend 10 minutes typing instead of moving to the next customer. See that right there? That's copilot mode, and this is exactly where AI shines. And from the advisor side, this is a story you can sell without worrying about burning trust because you're not promising AI is gonna replace your entire team, but instead you're saying AI will make your team better.

And that's actually believable, that's grounded in reality, and that's where customers are actually looking for when they get past the hype. Here's a concrete example. I worked with a mid-size insurance company back earlier this year that was ready to cut their support desk in half because they thought chatbots would handle everything.

And instead we shifted the conversation. We showed them [00:09:00] how AI could deflect simple questions, yes, but more importantly, 

how it could support their agents by giving them better context in real time. They keep their people, they used AI to speed up their responses, and guess what? Their customer satisfaction scores skyrocketed. Their churn went down, and their agents, the very people, they almost fired.

They started sticking around longer because their job was less stressful. And that's the playbook. And heading into 2026. Here's the takeaway. AI that replaces people is a gimmick. AI that empowers people is a trend. So if you're a technology advisor listening right now, make this your line in the sand.

Stop selling the fantasy. Start selling the copilot. Position yourself as the one who helps clients. Avoid the hype trap and actually get results. Because when the dust settles, that's who they will trust. And if you're, and, and customer listening to this, [00:10:00] well ask yourself. Are you building AI into your CX strategy in a way that actually, I don't know, helps people do their jobs?

Or are you chasing the dream of cutting headcount only to find yourself apologizing to angry customers later? See, that's the real question because the businesses that figure out the copilot model now are gonna be the ones leading in 2026. Everyone else will be too busy cleaning up their mess. All right.

Let's go to the second trend. When's the last time you were excited to sign a three-year contract? Never. Exactly. Nobody likes it. And yet, for years that has been how our industry operated. You have vendors dangling incentives, slapping in minimum seat requirements, and then they locked businesses into long-term contracts that were almost impossible to get out of.

And let's be real here. A lot of advisors went along with it [00:11:00] because, hey, the commissions were great and the vendors trained us to say, well, this is just how it's done. But customers are sick of that. They feel trapped, and once a customer feels trapped, trust is gone. It's out the window. I can't tell you how many times over the past year I've heard stories from SMBs.

The very folks technology advisors are serving who felt like they got burned. They were promised innovation. They were promised white glove service. They were promised flexibility. And then six months in, they realized the only thing they'd actually bought was a cage with a vendor's name on it. And what happens when a client feels burned?

They don't just get mad at the vendor, they get mad at you, the advisor, because you're the one who brought them to the table. So suddenly you're defending a deal that you don't even believe in anymore. I mean, just imagine you're a business who just spent $5,000 a month on a [00:12:00] brand new UCaaS system, and it looked great on paper.

The features, they looked rock solid, but now support is terrible. Implementation dragged on forever and half the tools don't even work like they were supposed to in the demo. And when you call the vendor to say, Hey. Uh, this isn't working. We want out. They point to page 19 of the contract and say, oh, sorry, you got 29 more months.

Ugh. Yeah, that's a nightmare. You are paying for pain and you can't escape. Now let's flip it to the advisor side. You get that phone call your client's screaming about how they feel handcuffed, and even if you agree with them. Even if you know they got a raw deal, there's nothing you can do now because the vendor already got their pound of flesh in that contract.

And that's when relationships end. That's when referrals dry up. That's when you, the advisor starts losing credibility. So what's the [00:13:00] real trend heading into 2026? Flexibility beats lock-in period. And we saw this start to snowball here in 2025. More and more businesses are saying, you know what? We'll pay a little more upfront if it means we're not chained to you for three, five years, seven years, no month to month contracts or usage based pricing, minimal seat requirements.

These aren't fringe. They're becoming expectations, and the smart vendors, they're leaning into it. They know that if they keep their service sharp, their customers will choose them to stay. Not because they're forced to, but because they actually want to. And think about how powerful that is for tech advisors.

'cause instead of pitching a solution that requires your client to hope and pray for three years, you can walk in and say, Hey, try this for a month. If it doesn't work, walk away. I mean, think about that. That [00:14:00] changes the dynamic entirely. It lowers the barrier to entry, it builds trust right out of the gate, and it puts pressure on the vendor.

To actually perform, not just cash the check. I worked with one regional credit union earlier this year who'd been locked into this five year agreement with a big name uc vendor. And they were miserable. Their members hated calling in because the system dropped calls and the credit union staff dreaded logging in every single day, but they had no choice.

The contract was ironclad, and by the time it was finally time to change vendors, they were so ready to move on. They said, we don't care what it costs. We just need something reliable. So we set them up with a provider offering true month to month contracts, no minimums, no penalties, and guess what happened?

Their staff immediately felt a sense of relief. Their members noticed better service as well. And leadership told me flat out, even if this costs a [00:15:00] little bit more, it's worth every penny just to know that we have some control. That's the 2026 mindset, control, choice, flexibility. And for you, tech advisors, this is where you can walk into accounts that are frustrated with their existing vendor and say, Hey, look, I can't undo the past, but.

I can make sure you never get locked into a long-term contract like that. Again, this message lands 'cause it's practical, it's believable, and it shows you're putting the customer's interest first. So, big takeaway here. The days of celebrating five years signatures 

are numbered. The real wins in 2026 will come from clients who stay for five years. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to. And that's a trend you can take right into 2026. Alright, how about this third trend? And this is a fun one, and by fun I mean painful.[00:16:00] 

Um, how many times have you heard a business say, ah, yeah, no, we don't run a contact center. Probably a lot, right? Because almost every SMB says it. Oh no, we're, we're not a call center. We just, we take calls or, you know, we don't need all that fancy software. We just got Beverly at the front desk. She answers the phones and she takes care of emails.

See, here's the pain. That's a lie that they tell themselves and it's costing them money, but whether or not they admit that the second you've got customers calling, emailing, chatting, texting, you are in essence running a contact center. I mean, you might not have the title. You might not have supervisors walking around with fancy headsets, but functionally running a contact center, and the problem is most SMBs don't even realize that until it's too late.

Picture this, you're at a dental office and you've got patients calling to schedule. Some are texting to confirm, others may be emailing [00:17:00] with insurance questions and a couple hopping onto Facebook Messenger asking about services. And your receptionist is drowning. Poor Beverly calls are getting missed.

Messages are slipping through the cracks. And what happens when the patient feels ignored? Well, they go to Google and they find a different dentist and, think about a small financial services firm. They got like six employees. One person is answering calls, another is juggling email, and someone else is trying to manage web chat that the marketing team ended up slapping on the website and suddenly without realizing it, they got all this complexity of a contact center, but none of the tools to actually process or handle it.

And that's how reputations get wrecked. Advisors, you are caught in the middle here 'cause your client swears up and down. We don't have a contact center. We don't need that fancy CA solution. They just want a phone system. So you give them what they ask for and then six months later they call you furious [00:18:00] because customers are complaining, staff's getting burnt out, and leadership is realizing they're bleeding opportunities without even knowing it.

And now it's your fault for not warning them guess what? There's your accidental contact center. And by the way. It's everywhere. I mean, for the past nine months, we've seen it all over here in 2025. Small businesses waking up to the fact that they are handling 500 inbound interactions a week across five different channels with no plan.

They never thought they were a contact center, but the customer doesn't care what you call it. 'cause to the customer, if they reach out and you don't respond quickly and consistently, you fail. Period. So the trend heading into 2026. Advisors and businesses need to own the fact that accidental contact centers exist and to actually prepare for them.

The solve isn't to scare every SMB into buying a 500 C enterprise C cas platform. That's just [00:19:00] vendor bs. The solve here is giving them tools that match their actual needs. Simple queue management, basic reporting, multi-channel routing that doesn't break the bank. Features that help a five person office function like a 20 person team without forcing them into a bloated system that they'll never use.

And from the advisor perspective, this is gold because you are the one who helps a small business realize they're already a contact center, even if they didn't know it. And you've instantly become the trusted partner. You showed them a problem they didn't see you saved them pain before it hit critical mass.

And that's how you win deals and build loyalty. Here's a a quick story. I worked with a small regional credit union last year. There were only about 25 employees and they swore up and down. They were not a contact center, Brian, we're just a credit union. People call us directly, that's [00:20:00] it.

But when we dug in, they had members calling, members, emailing, web chatting, and staff was drowning. Calls were being missed. Every single day. Members were leaving frustrated, and they didn't even realize how bad it was until they actually dug into the data. And what we did was implement a lightweight contact center solution.

Nothing crazy, just intelligent routings, some voicemail, transcription, and a simple dashboard so leadership could actually see what the hell was happening. And within one month, 30 days, missed calls dropped by 40%. Members satisfaction skyrocketed and the credit union president told us, and I quote, we didn't know we are running a contact center, but now I can't imagine running without one.

That's the 2026 trend. Not pretending the accidental contact center doesn't exist. Not ignoring the signs until, you know it blows up, but proactively recognizing it and putting in [00:21:00] the right tools before customers notice the cracks. So if you're an advisor, make this part of your CX playbook. When a client says, we don't need a contact center, just don't sit there and nod in agreement.

Ask the deeper questions. How many inbound interactions are you really getting across? How many channels and, and how are you tracking them? Who's responsible? See, nine times outta 10, you'll uncover an accidental contact center sitting right in front of them. And if you're an end customer who's listening to this, take a second to take a hard look at your business.

And if you've got more than one channel of customer communication, hey, you're running a contact center whether you like it or not. The question isn't if it's whether you're managing it well or letting it manage, you see heading into 2026, the businesses who own this truth and address it will thrive. But the ones who keep pretending that I'm just a small office.[00:22:00] 

Well, they're gonna lose customers and have no idea why. Trend number four. Let's talk about data. See, everybody in this industry loves to throw that word around. We've got data driven. This, we give you real time insights that we've got. The best dashboards, you've, you've heard it all, but most businesses are drowning in data and starving for context for meaning.

They got call recordings, they got chat transcripts, survey responses, CSAT scores, NPS scores, dashboards out the wazoo. But when you ask them, okay, so what have you done with all this data? The answer is usually silence. It's that proverbial deer in the headlights look. Or worse, uh, well, we look at it during our quarterly reviews.

No, that's not data driven. That's data hoarding and it's killing businesses quietly. I mean, imagine you're an SMB leader. You know, you should be keeping an eye on your customer experience. So you pay for reporting tools. You get analytics [00:23:00] packages bundled with your uc and CA solutions, and every month you get an email with a colorful dashboard.

It looks really nice, but do you know what it means? Do you know what action to take? Is there any context here? Meanwhile, your customers are still waiting too long on hold. Your agents are still frustrated and your revenue is still slipping. And you're sitting there with a pretty PDF. That doesn't change a single thing.

If you're a technology advisor, think about this. How many times have you recommended a solution that has analytics baked in? Only to have your client call you later saying, this is overwhelming. I don't even know what I'm looking at, or what to look at. And suddenly, what was supposed to be a selling point has become a point of frustration.

See, that's the trap. Collecting more and more data. Without a plan to turn it into contextual action. The real trend heading into 2026, data [00:24:00] as currency not just collected, not just displayed, but converted into something that moves a business forward. Think of it like money. You can't just sit on snacks of cash under your mattress 'cause it doesn't do anything.

The value only comes when you spend it, when you invest it. Same thing is true with CX data. The real value isn't in the numbers themselves, it's in how you use them to make tangible changes. So what does this look like in practice? Well, for customers it means tying metrics to outcomes that actually matter.

Not average handle time for the sake of a graph, but average handle time compared to churn rate, not call abandonment percentages as a number on a slide, but abandonment rate compared to lost revenue. See, for advisors, it means walking into conversations, not with another, Hey, here's a fancy dashboard, but with, Hey, here's what this data can actually help you with.[00:25:00] 

Like this report shows your customers are bailing after 90 seconds on hold. If we implement callback options, you can keep those customers engaged instead of losing them. See, that's actionable. That's meaning. Businesses that learn how to spend their data wisely are the ones who are going to win in 2026 because they're not just tracking cx, they're improving it.

Here's a quick story. Uh, I worked with a logistics company last year that was absolutely drowning in call recordings, legitimately had terabytes of stuff. Every customer call is recorded, stored, and then ignored. And when I asked them what they were doing with it, they said, well, we use it if there's ever a dispute.

And that's it. Millions of data points just sitting in a storage, never being used to actually make experience better. And then we showed them how to apply speech analytics to flag common [00:26:00] pain points within weeks, weeks. They realized 30% of their calls were being tied to the same singular issue, customers not getting delivery updates and time.

So what did they do next? Well, they automated proactive notifications call volume dropped, customer satisfaction improved, and their agents finally had time to breathe. See, that's data as currency. They spent it on something that paid back. So let's bring this back to the advisors here. If you can help a client look at their data, not as just data and noise, but as opportunity, you stop being just the person who brought us a vendor and you start being the partner who helped us find money we didn't know we had.

That's how you differentiate yourself in a crowded market. So the big takeaway for 2026, businesses don't need more dashboards. They need fewer dashboards that actually point to action. [00:27:00] They don't need every possible metric. What they need is the right ones tied to the right outcomes that actually matter, and advisors who can guide that conversation will own the room and they'll own the year.

So ask yourself this. Are you helping your clients spend their data or are you just helping them collect it for some rainy day? That never comes because data that just sits there is a liability. Data that gets used as an asset in 2026 that will differentiate the winners and the winners are going to be the ones who see the difference.

Alright, CX trend number five, and we're gonna finish with one trend that nobody in the vendor hype machine wants to talk about because it doesn't sound as sexy, but honestly, it's the one that might actually matter most and that is real life. Living, breathing, human support. 'cause over the last five, 10 years, [00:28:00] the industry has been obsessed with cutting support costs that looks like offshoring, automating, deflecting calls into, into ai, bots hiding phone numbers on websites.

So customers have to fight their way through self-service before they ever reach a real person. And what's been the result? Customers are more fed up today than ever before, and let's be real here. We've all felt it. You got an issue, you go to a company's website and the only option is some stupid chatbot that spits out generic gobbly good answers.

And then you finally find a phone number buried on three pages deep. And when you call, you're on hold forever, only to get bounced around to three different reps who can't help you. That's not support, that is torture. And in 2025, we're starting to see customers flat out revolt against this. Social media is full of horror stories of angry customers posting screenshots or [00:29:00] tagging brands, saying things like, I will never do business with these guys again.

Their support is useless. Advisors, you felt it too. Because when you recommend a vendor and your client has that kind of experience, guess who they're gonna call first, not the vendor. You, I mean, think about that. An advisor's reputation, which should be built on trust and expertise that gets shredded because a vendor treated human support like an afterthought.

So what's the real trend heading into 2026. Human support is back. As a huge critical differentiator, 'cause customers don't just want it, they expect it. And the businesses that can actually deliver real human first service are the ones that will stand out versus a sea of chatbots and really cheesy whole music.

And don't get me wrong, by the way, this doesn't mean we throw out automation entirely. Tools like [00:30:00] callback queues, AI assistance, self-service portals, they can be awesome. If they're used to make human support better not replace it. The key is making sure there's always a clear, easy path to a real person when a customer needs it.

And here's a big opportunity for advisors. 'cause when you're evaluating vendors, don't just look at the features list, look at the support experience, and ask how fast do they pick up the phone. Are there support teams based where your clients are or across the world with a 12 hour time difference? Do they resolve issues quickly or do they bounce customers around because in 2026 those answers will matter more than fancy AI widgets that are slapped on some, uh, sales slide.

See, here's a story that drives us home. Our regional healthcare group we worked with had been working with a very well known UCAS vendor, and on paper it looked fine. Good features, decent pricing, but there [00:31:00] was a big problem. Support was a nightmare. Their IT team told us they dreaded opening a ticket because they knew, they immediately knew.

It would mean waiting for days for some type of response and then getting shuffled through tier after tier before anything was even remotely fixed. And in healthcare, downtime isn't just inconvenient. It can actually be dangerous. So when their contract came up. They didn't care about the new features or the flashy AI stuff.

They cared about one thing. Who's gonna pick up the phone when we need them? So what we did was we matched 'em with a vendor who had a hundred percent US-based support and real humans available 24 7. And once they were live, within weeks, their entire tone shifted. Their IT staff told us we finally feel like someone has our back.

And that right there is the shift. And by the way, heading into 2026. That's the story that you as an advisor can use to win deals. Not that, you know, we've [00:32:00] noticed that things are going to more automation and now we have vendors who have the most advanced AI integrations. No, none of that. None of the the, we've got the prettiest dashboard stuff, but actually, hey, we've got real people who you can actually call and actually care when you call.

Yeah. And to an SMB business owner who's been burned by support horror stories. That message hits harder than any feature demo ever will. And for businesses who are listening, this is your competitive edge, by the way. In a world where your competitors are all trying to cut corners and hide behind bots, being the one company that actually answers the phone might be the simplest and strongest differentiator you've ever got.

So the main takeaway. The future isn't human or ai. It's human and ai. Automation and self-service should support your team, not replace them. And the [00:33:00] businesses that get the balance right will not only keep their customers, they'll earn new ones from competitors who drop the ball, which as we all have seen, is quite a few.

In 2026. Human support isn't just a feature, it's the whole ball game. Alright, so we just covered five CX trends you cannot ignore going into 2026 and notice none of them were the shiny, hyped up nonsense you hear in half of the vendor webinars. No AI will replace humans. No. No signing a five year contract and everything will magically work.

No. Look at our 25 dashboards that nobody will ever use. See today we talked through real shifts, the things that customers are actually demanding and advisors are already running into in the field. Because I wanna leave you with this EPIs,

[00:34:00] so let's just run through 'em one more time. Just to make sure we don't forget, one AI is a co-pilot, not replacement. The winners in 2026 will be the ones who bet on humans, not robots taking over. They'll be the ones who use AI to empower their people and not replace them. Two, flexibility beats lock-in.

Contracts that trap customers are dying. Flexibility month to month and usage based pricing are what earned trust and loyalty. Three accidental contact centers are everywhere. And if your customers have more than one channel, well they're already running a contact center where they like it or not. And the smart play is recognizing it before the pain hits.

Four CX data becomes the new currency. Dashboards don't win deals. Actionable insights do. Data that drives outcomes. Revenue, retention and satisfaction is what actually matters. And number five, human support as a differentiator. 'cause in a world [00:35:00] full of bots of bad hold music and companies that, a company that actually answers the phone wins.

Human first support is back on. And that's the playbook. These are the trends that will define 2026. And if you're a technology advisor, here's the big takeaway. This is the story you need to be telling your clients right now because they're not hearing this from other vendors. They're just hearing hype.

And when you cut through the BS and you bring them the truth, that's when you become indispensable. And if you're a business leader or an end customer listening, your job is to ask the hard questions. So don't let yourself get dazzled by the slide deck. Ask, is this solution actually empowering my people or is it trying to replace them?

Am I locked into this forever or do I have actual flexibility? Do we secretly already have a contact center? We're just ignoring it. What am I doing with my data, not just collecting it? And will a real human [00:36:00] actually answer the phone when I have help?

If you can't get answers to those, you've got work to do before 2026 hits. So here's my challenge. Pick one of these five trends and take action on it this month, just one. Maybe it's auditing a vendor, or maybe it's testing an AI copilot tool with your agents. Maybe it's mapping out all the channels your customers actually use.

Whatever it is, do something because if you wait until January to think about all of this, you're already behind. And of course, if you want to keep getting these kinds of straight shooting breakdowns without the bs, make sure you've hit subscribe here to CX without the BS on YouTube. Spotify, or whatever it is.

You consume your content. We're on every podcast platform, and if you really want to keep this conversation going, follow me over on LinkedIn. I'm sharing stories, strategies, and sometimes rants fair, uh, about what's actually happening in our CX world, uh, because at the end of the day. That's what we're [00:37:00] doing here.

This is the whole mission to cut through the noise, ignore those buzzwords, and give you the tools you actually need to win. 2026 is gonna be full of hype. It's gonna be full of noise and full of distractions. But if you keep your eyes on these five trends, you'll be head of 90% of the market. So ask yourself, which side do you want to be on the side cleaning up the mess or the side building real solutions.

The choice is yours. And with that. Thanks for being here today. Um, this is Brian Nichol signing off for today's episode of CX Without the bs. One more time. Hit subscribe, follow on LinkedIn. And with that, I'll see you next week.