Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of April 6, 2026

Every week, I read dozens of articles on customer service and customer experience from a wide range of sources. Below are my top five picks from last week, along with my takeaways. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

CX Is Chasing ROI – but Still Thinking Reactively by Jeannie Walters

(CX Network) Customer experience is being held accountable like never before. Yet most organizations are still operating in reactive mode and missing the opportunity to drive business results.

My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five with an article from CX expert Jeannie Walters (author of the new book Experience Matters, who shares her takeaways from the recent Qualtrics conference. This article focuses on how CX is becoming accountable to prove its ROI, and some companies are struggling to do so. Walters also comments on how AI progress is making positive strides and can make good CX better, and bad CX worse.

When AI Optimizes the Wrong Thing by Rob Markey, Phil Sager, and Cassy Reichert

(Bain & Company) Faster automated service, lower costs, and a quiet erosion of customer value hiding in plain sight.

My Comment: Another article from the experts attending the Qualtrics conference. Rob Markey (of NPS fame) shares a story about losing his mobile phone. Not sure if he would find it, he had the phone “wiped” remotely. He eventually found the phone and attempted to restore the data but was caught in a bad chatbot experience (the dreaded “circular loop” that kept making the same bad suggestion). Frustrated, Rob gave up on the online support experience and drove to a store where a technician fixed the problem in less than five minutes. This story sets up lessons that sometimes AI makes things worse and can destroy customer value.

‘I hate customer-service chatbots’: The Consumer-AI Refund Relationship Is off to a Rocky Start by Kevin Williams

(CNBC International) Artificial intelligence may be the future of customer service, but some early consumer reviews suggest that, at least for now, you should prepare to be annoyed.

My Comment: Using chatbots to “deflect” customer service issues away from live agents is a mistake. It’s as simple as that. While my customer service and experience research shows positive progress with AI and chatbots, when a company uses AI for the wrong reasons, it hurts everyone. I agree with much of the commentary in the article. There will be better AI experiences, and eventually, most companies will get it right. One other comment in the article is worth mentioning. In the near future, consumers will have their own “AI agent” that will deal with company AI chatbots. (This is something like fighting fire with fire. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.)

What the 1990s Got Right About Customer Experience by Simon Robinson

(CMSWire) Customer experience as a practice has evolved significantly over the past two decades, driven in part by advances in the power and sophistication of CX technologies.

My Comment: Everything old is new again. This article goes back to the 1990s when customer experience became more intentional. Companies became better at measuring CX results. Here we are, 30 years later, and we’re still measuring and improving the experience, but there should be more. The author claims companies should not just focus on fixing problems after they happen but instead focus on preventing them.

5 Things to Know about the State of CX in 2026 by Melanie Mingas

(CX Network) Customers are now on the AI bandwagon data security is a trust issue – find out what’s changing CX this year

My Comment: AI is reshaping modern CX, changing how customers find, interact with, and expect brands to serve them. Experiences are becoming more proactive rather than reactive, which is great for customers. It’s nice for companies to fix problems before customers ever know about them. And even if AI works, don’t forget about keeping live agents in the loop. Many customers still want to talk to someone. Finally, as the technology gets better, trust and transparency are becoming more important than ever.

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.