News
Industry news
Independent coverage of what is happening across customer support, live chat, and AI support software - curated from other publications, each linking back to the original report.
What's making headlines?
56 stories43% of Consumers Would Pay More for a Product that Guarantees Access to Human Support, According to Alchemer AI Customer Experience Report
Human access is a selling point: teams deploying AI support should keep clear escalation paths, as 43% of consumers would pay more for it.
CustomerThink Oct 2, 2026 ReadZuckerberg Proposes to Transform the Customer Journey with Personal AI Agents for Billions
If consumers deploy personal AI agents to contact businesses for them, support teams may soon be serving bots, making machine-readable policies and APIs essential.
CX Today Sep 26, 2026 ReadSalesforce CCaaS to be released globally, adds workforce management
Service Cloud customers can now run voice, digital and workforce scheduling on one Salesforce platform worldwide, reducing the need for separate CCaaS and WFM vendors.
TechTarget Sep 25, 2026 ReadLiberty Global Signs Strategic Partnership with Sierra
Liberty Global is putting Sierra's AI agents into customer contact, a sign that large telcos now trust autonomous agents with frontline service.
libertyglobal.com Sep 23, 2026 ReadZendesk Introduces AI-Powered Voice Translation for Global Customer Support
Zendesk's AI voice translation removes language barriers for support teams, letting agents handle global customers without multilingual hiring.
Small Business Trends Sep 17, 2026 ReadSalesforce’s Agentic CX Vision: 8 Dreamforce Announcements CX Leaders Need to Act On
Salesforce's Dreamforce announcements set out a concrete agentic AI roadmap for customer service, with specific actions support leaders should prioritise before year-end.
CX Today Sep 16, 2026 ReadOracle’s Agentic AI Gamble: Replacing Human Support to Fund Data Centers
Oracle is positioning AI agent-driven support cost savings as the funding mechanism for its data centre build-out, tying buyers' cost reductions to Oracle's own infrastructure ambitions.
cxtoday.com Sep 16, 2026 ReadZendesk Introduces Specialized AI Agents Purpose-built for Your Business
Zendesk's new purpose-built AI agents let businesses automate customer support without sacrificing the brand voice or context that matters.
The National Law Review Sep 14, 2026 ReadSOUN Stock Dips As LivePerson Deal Clears Key Hurdle
SoundHound's purchase of LivePerson clears a significant hurdle, accelerating consolidation of voice AI and enterprise live-chat under one owner.
StocksToTrade Sep 10, 2026 ReadSalesforce Completes Acquisition of Fin
Salesforce has formally completed its acquisition of Fin, pulling a leading AI customer support agent inside one of the world's largest CRM platforms.
Salesforce Sep 10, 2026 ReadQuiq launches Voice Assist: agentic AI that acts during live calls
Quiq's Voice Assist goes beyond transcription — it takes actions while calls are still in progress, a meaningful shift for live-agent and deflection workflows.
CustomerThink Sep 7, 2026 ReadPhonely Launches Alma, a Voice LLM That’s 63% Faster and 84% Cheaper Than OpenAI
Phonely's Alma cuts voice-AI latency and cost dramatically versus OpenAI, lowering the barrier to deploying AI phone agents at scale in support operations.
CustomerThink Sep 7, 2026 ReadSoundHound Closes LivePerson Deal, Integrates It Into OASYS AI Stack
SoundHound's acquisition of LivePerson is complete and the platform is being folded into its OASYS AI stack, reshaping the enterprise AI support market.
CMSWire Sep 4, 2026 ReadGenesys: AI Alone Won’t Fix Broken CX
Genesys argues that AI cannot paper over broken customer experience foundations, urging support leaders to fix process and data problems before deploying AI.
CX Today Sep 1, 2026 ReadThe End of Per-Seat SaaS: How Microsoft, Salesforce, and Zoom Are Rewriting CX Economics
Microsoft, Salesforce, and Zoom are replacing per-seat pricing with usage-based models, fundamentally changing how support teams budget for CX software.
CX Today Aug 31, 2026 ReadAvaya’s AI Strategy Warning: CX Vendors Are Splitting Fast
Avaya warns that CX vendors are splitting into distinct AI camps, making platform choice a longer-term strategic commitment for buyers.
CX Today Aug 31, 2026 ReadAre You Ready for AI Customers?
As AI agents increasingly act as buyers, contact centres must rethink how they handle automated customer interactions.
Call Centre Helper Aug 31, 2026 ReadFormer LivePerson CEO Launches KID, a Safe Creative AI Device Amid Alarming AI Toy Safety Findings.
The ex-CEO of LivePerson has launched a children's AI hardware startup, signalling where senior customer-support AI talent is moving next.
TMX Newsfile Aug 30, 2026 ReadNICE (TASE:NICE) Turns A Healthcare Contact Center Toward AI With CXone
NICE's CXone platform is now driving AI operations at a healthcare contact center, signalling the company's push into high-compliance verticals.
Yahoo Finance Aug 29, 2026 ReadMitel CX and MiContact Center Enterprise for Healthcare: What Should Buyers Verify?
Healthcare contact centre buyers evaluating Mitel should verify AI capabilities, EHR integration, and compliance credentials before committing to the platform.
CX Today Aug 29, 2026 ReadJasco and Freshworks move to expand access to advanced customer service tech across Africa
Freshworks is teaming with Jasco to push its customer service platform into African markets, a region most enterprise support vendors have largely ignored.
Capital FM Africa Aug 29, 2026 ReadBig CX News From Salesforce, Zoom, Meta and Google
A single briefing tracks platform-level CX announcements from Salesforce, Zoom, Meta and Google — useful for anyone tracking where the big players are heading.
CX Today Aug 28, 2026 ReadWhy AI-Only QA Still Leaves Support Leaders Doing the Heavy Lifting
Pure AI quality assurance hasn't eliminated the need for human judgment, so support leaders should plan oversight into their QA workflows rather than assuming full automation.
CX Today Aug 28, 2026 ReadAI vs. Human: What UK Consumers Really Want
New UK consumer data on AI versus human agent preferences gives support leaders a clearer picture of channel expectations.
Call Centre Helper Aug 28, 2026 ReadCan Crescendo’s AI Agents Really Run the Whole CX Operation?
An independent look at whether Crescendo's AI can genuinely run an entire CX operation end-to-end — worth reading before any evaluation of full-automation vendors.
CX Today Aug 28, 2026 ReadWhy People Tell AI About Their Debt – But Not You
Consumers share sensitive debt information more openly with AI than human agents, with clear implications for collections contact centres.
Call Centre Helper Aug 28, 2026 ReadWhy You Shouldn’t Abandon Reactive Support For Proactive AI
Proactive AI doesn't eliminate the need for reactive support, and teams cutting reactive capacity prematurely may leave customers without a reliable fallback.
CX Today Aug 28, 2026 ReadEdge Wallet Says Zendesk Breach Exposed User Emails, Funds Remain Safe
A breach through Zendesk's infrastructure leaked customer email data for Edge Wallet users, a reminder that support platforms are a high-value attack surface.
CryptoRank Aug 28, 2026 ReadCrescendo launches the AI-native Customer Experience Platform: One system that runs and continuously improves the entire customer operation
Crescendo's new platform runs an entire customer operation from one AI system that continuously improves itself — a direct challenge to point-solution stacks.
CustomerThink Aug 28, 2026 ReadSalesforce’s Claudeforce Deal With Anthropic Points to What Comes After the CRM UI
Salesforce embedding Anthropic's Claude deeply into its platform suggests AI agents will replace traditional CRM dashboards as the primary interface for support and customer data workflows.
CX Today Aug 27, 2026 Read