AI-Powered and Unified: The CX Mandate for 2026

If you think today’s consumer landscape is hyperconnected, you’re right. If you think brands are connecting meaningfully, you’re wrong. Rory Read, Sprinklr’s President and CEO, argues that the winners in 2026 and beyond will be the brands that cut through the noise, unify every customer touchpoint and use AI to turn fragmented interactions into a single, human understanding of their customers.

Hyperconnected, yet still fragmented

Consumers today move across discovery, purchase, support and feedback with ease. Most journeys still break between channels and teams. The fix is not more touchpoints; it is better connections that carry context. When every moment understands the person and the journey, loyalty rises and noise fades. The move to unified CX is now underway.

Trust is a daily decision

Fragmentation breaks promises and drains trust. The CX Confidence Disconnect research report (commissioned by Sprinklr) shows a simple truth: leaders are confident, customers are not. Ninety-one percent of leaders say experiences land as intended, yet only 36 percent of customers see consistency across website, app, support and store. Many consumers feel unrecognized, and nearly six in ten leave after a single poor moment. Trust is built in daily execution. As Read always says, “Do what you say and own what you do.” Close the loop fast, make recovery visible, leave every interaction better than you found it.

How AI unifies the experience with efficiency and empathy

AI stitches the journey the fastest when it runs on one source of customer truth. Automate the routine tasks. Augment the human with copilots that deliver real time context, guidance and next best actions. That is how costs fall and quality rises. Sprinklr’s edge is native AI on one platform built to ingest unstructured signals at scale. Studio centralizes orchestration, Copilots lift agents, agentic automation completes end-to-end workflows with governance and safety. The outcome is a unified experience that feels faster, smarter and more human.

Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer adds an important reminder. Customers accept AI when they understand it, feel safe and notice better outcomes in their day-to-day. So, as a business leader, here’s what you can do to make AI adoption easier for your customers:

• Label interactions.
• Ground models in first party data with strong controls.
• Make decisions explainable.

Responsible design is not a compliance box; it is an adoption strategy.

Proof in the market: real brands, real transformation

Unification proves itself in high stakes moments when volume surges and expectations spike. Here is how it performs in practice.

A global streaming entertainment leader

During major live events signals surge across social, app stores and help centers. The brand runs Sprinklr’s unified feedback management on one platform so teams share truth in real time. Studio classifies issues and triggers playbooks. Copilots give agents context for faster updates. The impact: quicker detection and triage, fewer repeated tickets, clearer status communication and an experience that stays human at peak scale.

A global 50 electronics brand

Deploying Sprinklr across 42 divisions to unify social, digital, feedback and contact center into one voice of the customer. Shared taxonomy and governance keep data clean, models aligned and actions consistent across regions. Product, marketing and service act on one record that travels from web to chat to phone. The impact: faster insight-to-action, consistent journeys across geographies, fewer tools and handoffs, measurable gains in cost and satisfaction.

Leadership that chooses bold

Transformation rewards decisive leaders who move when proof and readiness align. Unify data into one customer truth. Deploy native AI where outcomes improve. Automate the routine, augment the human. Measure trust with the same rigor as revenue. Make governance visible, explain decisions and recover quickly. Momentum is compounding. Invite it in and let it work.

The future of CX is unified

Customers do not want more touchpoints. They want better ones. Unified CX connects signals, context and action across the journey so every interaction feels known and consistent. It turns fragmentation into focus and transactions into relationships. One AI powered platform that unifies every modern channel will help customer facing teams deliver connected human experiences at scale. This is the mandate for 2026. The only real question is how fast you want to lead.

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