CX Today

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.

Are customer experiences becoming too clunky for the way people now want to communicate?

In this CX Today interview, Rob Wilkinson speaks with Peter Bell, VP of Marketing, EMEA at Twilio, about how voice is changing the way consumers interact with technology, and what that means for brands designing the next generation of digital customer journeys.

Peter explores Twilio research showing that almost a quarter of Brits now talk more than they type when using technology, rising to 33 percent among Gen Z. He explains why voice is becoming a more natural interface for customers, where it can reduce friction, and why brands should avoid treating it as a one-size-fits-all solution.

The conversation also covers the importance of context, sentiment, and conversational intelligence in customer engagement. Peter shares why businesses need to design processes around the customer first, then apply the right technology, rather than recreating old IVR frustrations with newer tools.

The discussion also looks at voice as part of brand identity, from tone and personality to the long-term emotional associations customers build with a company’s service experience.

Watch the full interview to learn how voice, AI, and communications infrastructure are reshaping customer engagement.

In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher, Associate Editor at CX Today, speaks with Russell White, Transformation Lead at Bluecrest, and Reece Harper, Account Executive at NiCE.

Bluecrest has moved from reviewing a sample of calls to analyzing every customer interaction through NiCE CXone. The conversation explores what happens when contact centers stop relying on assumptions and start using customer intent, real conversation data, and human-reviewed AI summaries to guide decisions.

Contact centers have recorded calls for years. The problem is that most businesses only listen to a fraction of them.

White and Harper discuss how 100% interaction analysis is changing the way Bluecrest understands customer intent, tests internal assumptions, and identifies where service journeys need work.

They cover:
🔴 Why call dispositions can show an outcome without explaining why a customer got in touch, and how full interaction analysis revealed the gap between internal assumptions and customer reality.
🔴 How Bluecrest’s self-service rescheduling launch did not reduce call demand as expected, but showed customers wanted more flexibility to change appointments.
🔴 How analytics uncovered that a new Health Monitor product was being mentioned in fewer than 10% of relevant calls, leading to targeted training and a rise to around 60–70%.
🔴 Why human review of AI-generated call summaries remains essential in healthcare, where records must be accurate, consistent, and compliant.

As White puts it: “The first thing you find is that the anecdote and reality are two different things.”

For contact center leaders, start by asking which decisions are still based on sampled calls, dispositions, or internal opinion. Then use real interaction data to test those assumptions before automating the journey around 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 Christina Augustine, COO of Bloomreach, about the growing impact of AI on product discovery, personalization, and retailer loyalty.

With shoppers increasingly asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude where to buy, the conversation unpacks whether brands deliver the same depth, confidence, and relevance once customers arrive on their own sites?

AI is quickly becoming the first stop in the shopping journey. But if customers discover a product through an AI assistant, what happens when they land on a retailer’s website and the experience feels like it has been left behind?

Augustine reflects on the findings from Bloomreach’s latest consumer research and discusses what retailers need to do next.

In this interview, they cover:
🔴 Why AI is helping shoppers at the two hardest points in the journey: knowing where to start and feeling confident enough to buy.
🔴 Why retailers should treat conversational queries as valuable first-party customer signals, not a future experiment.
🔴 How richer product data, from boot weight to gift-buying context, can prevent customers from bouncing elsewhere.
🔴 Why useful AI should give customers more agency, rather than push urgency tactics that can damage trust.

One quote sums up the shift: “Before I was looking at pixel clicks, right? Like, and reading the tea leaves… Now you don’t have to guess.”

Retail, ecommerce, and CX leaders must review where customers are forced to infer product information, test conversational discovery around high-consideration purchases, and make sure the experience does not break when a shopper moves from an AI answer engine to your site.

For more Customer Experience tech news visit https://www.cxtoday.com

Are contact center buyers still using yesterday’s criteria to make tomorrow’s technology decisions?

In this CX Today interview, Rob Wilkinson speaks with Keith Dawson, Research Director at ISG, about what contact center leaders should prioritize in 2026 as artificial intelligence, automation, analytics, and customer expectations reshape the market.

Keith explains why the contact center is evolving from a routing and efficiency engine into a broader customer engagement environment. He explores why buyers now need to think beyond traditional vendor rankings and assess how platforms fit their operating model, enterprise technology stack, governance requirements, and long-term CX strategy.

The conversation also covers the rising importance of AI governance, context preservation, automated quality management, self-service, agent guidance, and closer collaboration with IT.

For contact center, CX, and service leaders planning new investments, this discussion highlights why the right buying decision now depends on more than features. It depends on understanding operational complexity, risk, integration, and what the business wants every customer interaction to achieve.

Watch the full interview to learn how ISG believes buyers should approach the 2026 contact center market.