High volume, tighter windows – Data-backed imperatives for retail’s peak season 2026

The traditional blueprint for retail’s golden quarter has officially shattered. For years, eCommerce and retail leaders relied on a predictable cadence, launch promotions early in Q4, cast a wide net with global campaigns, and watch average order values lift bottom-line revenue. Data from Contentsquare’s Peak Season Benchmark Report reveals that consumer behaviour has fundamentally evolved. …

The 2026 tightrope – The four friction points threatening AI ROI and customer empathy

Striking a balance between the continuous pressure for cost efficiency and the undeniable need for empathetic customer care is the defining challenge of 2026. Polling conducted at the Contact Centre Symposium 2026 in May revealed that while AI adoption is accelerating, the friction points are overwhelmingly human and operational rather than purely technological. The poll …

AI and hyperscalers trigger historic shift in contact centre and CX technology market, new research finds

The enterprise contact centre market is undergoing its biggest structural shift in more than a decade, according to the newly released 2026 APAC Contact Centre CX Platforms with AI Buyers Guide from independent research and advisory firm, CrayonIQ. The report finds organisations are no longer simply selecting contact centre platforms. Instead, procurement is increasingly driven …

Managing the next-gen army of humans and bots – The future of Workforce Management (WFM)

Three decades ago, the contact centre industry was bound to physical facilities. In these bustling, centralised hubs, rows of agents sat side-by-side, handling simple, straightforward voice calls within rigid brick-and-mortar constraints.  Workforce management (WFM) was a rudimentary administrative task, largely limited to basic time-and-attendance tracking and simple shift allocations. The operational landscape was uncomplicated, as …

From transaction to concierge – How Our Vacation Centre is re-engineering global CX with AI

For global travel and hospitality brands, customer experience (CX) is a complex, multinational orchestration of journeys. At Our Vacation Centre—a prominent travel loyalty provider under the global Arrivia umbrella—managing these dynamics involves coordinating a highly distributed, multilingual footprint. In an industry vulnerable to sudden geopolitical shifts and changing consumer habits, the organisation has shifted its …

How Australian organisations are scaling their AI / CX pilots

The Australian customer experience (CX) landscape has reached a critical inflection point. The era of speculative AI experimentation is drawing to a close, replaced by an urgent mandate for enterprise-wide integration. While the first half of 2025 saw a staggering 119% surge in AI agent adoption across the country, moving these initiatives out of the …

Don’t let your customers succumb to email fatigue – How TravelOnline overhauled its customer journey

Imagine you wake up on a Tuesday morning, grab your phone, and see 14 unread notifications from your email app. You open it up, hoping for an update on a package you’re expecting or a message from a friend. Instead, your inbox looks like a digital shouting match: This is the daily reality of email …

Why the convergence of CRM and CCaaS is the new CX North Star

Historically, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform operated as two distinct silos. This separation created swivel-chair syndrome, where agents manually toggled between screens, leading to fragmented data and frustrated customers.  Audrey William,  Industry Analyst and founder of Crayon IQ,  comments, “The convergence of CCaaS and CRM really …

How contract lifecycle management platforms support regulatory compliance

Your business faces increasingly complex regulatory requirements spanning multiple jurisdictions, from data privacy laws to industry-specific standards. Managing contracts manually introduces substantial risk, especially when handling hundreds or thousands of agreements. Contract lifecycle management (CLM) platforms embed compliance into every stage, from drafting through renewal, reducing human error and enabling continuous oversight. Understanding the Rising …