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 …

Want outstanding CX? Overhaul your knowledge base

Is providing faster, more responsive customer service via your contact centre a priority for FY2027? For many Australian businesses, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. That’s because the contact centre has ceased to be seen as a standalone cost centre. Instead, it’s become the beating heart of the enterprise and a critical touchpoint; somewhere customer …

When disconnected CX turns people into middleware

A customer does not see the systems behind their request. They do not see the service ticket, CRM record, policy workflow, approval queue or handoff between departments. They see the wait. On the other side of that wait is often an employee doing everything they can to help. They are copying information between platforms, chasing updates and filling the …

From invisible risk to total clarity – quality assurance in the AI era

Organisations today are unknowingly carrying a potential burden of invisible risk. Most chats, calls, emails and social media interactions are not monitored or evaluated. Erik van Eekelen, Founder and CEO of Icana.AI, advises, “Traditional Quality Assurance (QA) processes typically analyse only a very small fraction of customer interactions, often less than 2%, which means the …

2026 – The year to prioritise contact centre efficiency and quality

It’s a tough time to be in business. Geo-political tensions continue to disrupt supply chains, damage business confidence and throw forecasts and forward plans into abject disarray. Customers, meanwhile, have never been more demanding – or disgruntled. Almost two-thirds of Australians have a moderate to high sense of grievance and believe governments and private enterprise …

Voice AI: The future of the contact centre is not automation — it is true conversation

The traditional contact centre is undergoing a profound transformation. Central to  this shift is Voice Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is moving far beyond simple automation to fundamentally reshape how organisations manage both their inbound and outbound call operations. It represents a fusion of different AI technologies to to deliver immediate, intelligent and scalable 27/7 customer …