Why AI Handoffs Still Make Customers Repeat Themselves

 A Cresta customer cut inbound volume by two-thirds. Its average handle time went up, and nobody minded. As AI takes the simple requests, advisors are left with longer, harder, and more valuable conversations. In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher speaks with Devon Mychal, VP of Product Marketing at Cresta, about the CCMA research Evolution of the Contact Centre: Autumn 2026 Edition. Cresta supported the report. Devon explains: ✅ Why the contact center still gets treated as the last stop in the customer journey, and what organizations need to build to use it as an early warning system ✅ What separates AI projects that deliver from the false starts that look good in a board demo ✅ Why average handle time is becoming an outdated measure, and what one customer tracks instead ✅ How leaders are reinvesting AI savings into customer value and revenue growth Mychal suggests that the contact centers pulling ahead are measuring the conversations they prevent and the outcomes they deliver, not just the speed of each call 

 Nissan’s Coralie Musy discusses why better CX requires joined-up data, clear ownership, and action customers can actually see. Brands can collect surveys, behavioral data, service insights, complaints, and online feedback at every stage of the customer journey. Yet customers can still move from a website to a dealership, customer care team, or service center and feel like the business has lost the thread. In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher speaks with Coralie Musy, VP of Customer Experience and Market Intelligence at Nissan, about the gap between gathering customer feedback and using it to improve the journey. Musy explains why Nissan has centralized its customer voice, standardized feedback across touchpoints, and focused on the handoffs where customer journeys most often break, particularly between digital research and a physical dealership experience. The conversation covers: Why more customer data does not automatically create better CX How a single view of customer feedback helps teams prioritize action Why digital-to-physical handoffs are a major journey failure point The role of AI in identifying friction and enabling proactive support Why a car sale is the beginning of the customer relationship How connected services can simplify long-term vehicle ownership Why customers need one clear owner when something goes wrong How regular updates protect trust when a problem cannot be fixed immediately The central lesson goes beyond automotive: customers do not see separate digital, physical, service, and partner experiences. They see one brand, and expect it to take ownership of the whole journey. 

 Voice AI can sound seamless in a controlled demo. But real customer calls are rarely controlled. Poor signal, background noise, regional accents, packet loss, latency, and weak carrier routes can all prevent an AI voice agent from understanding what the customer needs. Then come the familiar frustrations: interruptions, loops, repeated questions, and a bot that cannot transfer the conversation cleanly to a person. In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher speaks with Neil Weldon, Chief Product Officer at Klearcom, about why contact centers must test voice AI in the conditions customers actually call from. Neil explains: ✅ Why strong transcription in a lab does not guarantee a strong live customer experience ✅ How poor audio quality and call-path issues disrupt voice AI conversations ✅ When voice AI is already delivering clear value for customers and agents ✅ Why fast, reliable escalation to a human agent remains essential ✅ What contact centers should test before, during, and after deployment 

 TikTok product designer Zhengyang Yang discusses using AI to turn product discovery into purchase confidence, without adding friction or taking choice away from the shopper. AI-assisted shopping is moving beyond product recommendations and chatbots. It is beginning to help customers compare products, interpret reviews, find the right size, and decide whether an item is actually right for them. But there is a risk: adding AI to every stage of the shopping journey can create more clicks, more uncertainty, and another interface customers need to learn. In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher speaks with Zhengyang Yang, a product designer at TikTok, about the product decisions that determine whether shopping AI helps customers make a confident decision or gets in their way. Yang explains why AI should move customers from inspiration to confidence, reduce cognitive load, and fit into familiar shopping behaviors such as search, product pages, carts, and checkout. The conversation covers: How AI can help customers move from product discovery to purchase confidence Why shopping AI should reduce cognitive load, rather than add more clicks Where AI is most useful in the shopping journey Why retailers should not force customers into unfamiliar AI-first flows How “progressive assistance” can improve familiar search, browse, cart, and product-page experiences Why customers need to see the evidence behind AI summaries and recommendations How shoppers should be able to challenge or correct AI-generated guidance Why a good AI shopping assistant knows when to help, when to step back, and when to let the customer exit Yang was interviewed in a personal capacity. His views do not represent official TikTok policy or product plans. 

 Twilio’s Sam Richardson explains why customer context, identity, and reassurance must travel between AI, human agents, and channels. AI customer service may be getting faster and more conversational, but too many customers are still being forced to repeat themselves when they move between bots, agents, and channels. In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher speaks with Sam Richardson, Director of Executive Engagement at Twilio, about the real challenge behind AI handoffs: ensuring that customer context, conversation history, identity, and trust travel with the interaction. Twilio research found that 74% of consumers have to repeat information to AI assistants at least some of the time. Richardson explains why this is not simply an AI-model problem. It can stem from fragmented customer data, disconnected systems, incomplete CRM and knowledge-base integration, and the growing complexity of identity verification and fraud prevention. The conversation explores: Why customers still repeat information after an AI interaction The data and system challenges behind failed AI-to-human handoffs Why identity verification can make continuity harder What a “warm handoff” should look like in the AI era Why acknowledgment and reassurance matter during service transfers When slower AI deployment can protect customer trust Why businesses and customers often judge the same AI experience differently The key question for contact center leaders is simple: when an AI interaction ends, does the next person or channel know what has already happened, or does the customer have to start again? 

Constellation Research’s Liz Miller explains why Salesforce’s $5.66B Braze deal is about the execution layer behind data, AI, content, and customer engagement. Salesforce has agreed to acquire Braze for $5.66B. The deal adds Braze’s real-time, cross-channel customer engagement and decisioning capabilities to Salesforce’s growing stack of CRM, data, AI, and content tools. But, according to Liz Miller, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, this is about more than another acquisition. Salesforce has spent years building out Customer 360, Data 360, Agentforce, and, more recently, Contentful. The missing piece was how brands actually execute engagement at scale: delivering a major product announcement to millions while also managing personalized, timely communication with individual customers. In this CX Today interview, Miller discusses whether Braze gives Salesforce the engine it needed to turn customer data and AI into real-time customer engagement. The conversation covers: Why Salesforce’s Braze acquisition was not a surprise The engagement execution gap in Salesforce’s wider strategy Why data and AI are only useful when brands can act on them The challenge of balancing mass brand communication with one-to-one engagement What the acquisition could mean for Salesforce Marketing Cloud Why Braze customers may be concerned about cost, simplicity, and innovation Where Data 360, Contentful, Braze, and Agentforce could fit together The integration risks that could define the deal’s success 

 Contact centers are under pressure to automate, cut costs, and reduce customer contact. But are efficiency targets improving service, or simply making it harder for customers to get help? In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher speaks with Natalie Beckerman, Chief Business Officer at iQor and author of When Did You Stop Caring?, about the “caring recession” she believes has taken hold in customer service. Beckerman explains why containment, deflection, and average handle time can hide unresolved customer problems, repeat contacts, and declining trust. She also shares where automation can genuinely improve the customer experience, when it becomes a barrier to human support, and why agents should be involved in journey and technology design. The conversation covers: Why reducing contact is not always the same as improving CX The customer-service risks hidden behind containment and deflection rates Why repeat contact can expose a failed self-service journey Where AI and automation genuinely make service easier How automation can trap customers in loops and block human help Why frontline agents should shape service and technology decisions The metrics leaders should use alongside efficiency measures Natalie Beckerman’s book, When Did You Stop Caring? Reignite Humanity in a World Obsessed with Efficiency, explores how businesses can restore care to customer and employee experiences. 

 Brands have more customer data, dashboards, and campaign tools than ever. Yet turning a useful customer signal into the right action can still take too long. In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher speaks with Kabir Shahani, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Amperity, about Pér, Amperity’s new customer data agent. Shahani explains why customer engagement often slows down after a business spots the signal, as information passes between analytics, marketing, service, and activation teams. He also shares an early MacKenzie-Childs use case, where Pér analyzed survey feedback to identify customers connected to wedding and registry purchases and proposed a possible engagement journey. The conversation explores: Why fragmented customer data still creates slow decision-making How Pér moves from investigation to recommendation and approval The difference between generic AI tools and specialized customer-data intelligence Why brands need evidence, permissions, and human approval before acting How to avoid intrusive outreach, including promotions during unresolved service issues When personalization is useful and when restraint is the better customer experience 

 In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher, Associate Editor at CX Today, speaks with Suzie Dieth, VP and Chief Experience Officer at NRG, about why churn should concern every customer experience leader. In deregulated energy markets, customers have plenty of options and can switch providers with relative ease. Dieth explains why the decision to leave often starts much earlier, and what businesses can do to spot the warning signs before it is too late. A customer switching provider is rarely a single-moment decision. In competitive energy markets, a higher-than-expected bill, a home move, poor communication, or an uninspiring renewal offer can all become reasons to look elsewhere. For Dieth, churn is not simply a number to reduce; it is a signal that customers may no longer feel the value or connection needed to stay. In this CX Today interview, Dieth discusses: 🔴 The moments most likely to trigger churn, including bill shock, relocation, and contract renewal, and why these points demand proactive customer support. 🔴 How NRG seeks to build trust through tailored support, payment assistance, competitive renewal plans, and weekly usage updates that help customers avoid surprises. 🔴 Why NPS and CSAT are only useful when connected to retention, customer behavior, revenue, and the operational changes teams need to make. 🔴 Why employee experience and AI both matter, but neither can replace the human judgment needed to understand customer needs and act on them.For more Customer Experience tech news visit https://www.cxtoday.com 

 In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher, Associate Editor at CX Today, speaks with Kim Johal, Retail Specialist at Infobip, about WhatsApp’s growing role in UK retail customer engagement. Infobip’s research points to a shift away from one-way notifications and toward richer conversations across service, shopping, loyalty, and returns. Johal explains why the next challenge for retailers is not sending more messages, but making every interaction feel relevant enough to deserve a place in a customer’s inbox. WhatsApp is already in shoppers’ pockets. Retailers are now racing to make it part of the customer journey. But there is a fine line between a useful conversation and another message a customer wants to mute. Johal discusses why WhatsApp is gaining traction across UK retail, and how AI, customer data, and rich messaging channels could reshape everything from product discovery to returns. They cover: • Why consumers are moving away from phone calls and toward conversational channels that support text, images, updates, and real-time service. • Why personalization needs to go beyond “Hi, first name,” using consented behavioral data to make a message timely and useful. • How agentic AI can support product availability, sizing questions, store locations, returns, and purchase decisions without forcing customers through a rigid chatbot flow. • Why future retail engagement may be driven by customer preference across WhatsApp, Apple Business Messenger, and RCS, rather than a brand deciding where the conversation happens. Johal also explains why returns are becoming an important AI use case. Better sizing, product guidance, and purchase support can help customers make more confident choices before they buy. For retail and CX leaders, start by identifying where customers already ask for help, then connect those moments across service, commerce, and loyalty.