Addressing CX Transformation Challenges for the Agentic Era

This IDC Market Perspective addresses customer experience (CX) transformation challenges for the agentic era. Organizations' AI adoption challenges have been amplified by existing foundational challenges impeding success with their CX transformation. While AI drives innovation and productivity across the customer life cycle, such foundational gaps in operational, technological, and employee capabilities hinder scaling efforts. IDC observes that CX technology vendors and services providers have a remarkable opportunity to be strategic, long-term business partners and support organizations in modernizing CX tech stacks, addressing data silos, upskilling employees for AI-centric roles and, crucially, revamping CX operating models from the leadership level on down. "With only half of organizations globally prepared to leverage AI capabilities for CX in the next 24 months, the urgency to act is undeniable," said Sudhir Rajagopal, research director, Customer Experience Management Strategies at IDC. "Generative AI and agentic AI open the door to AI-first customer engagement models, but foundational challenges to CX transformation continue to hold them back. Success will hinge on organizations being able to bridge the experience fulfillment gap, upskill all employees, and reorganize the enterprise to a CX operating model primed for the intelligence era."