Cost remains the biggest factor shaping customer experience spending as companies move into 2026, according to a Nearshore Americas report. 

Citing David Rickard of Everest Group, the report said that cost has never gone away and it’s still going to be the number one priority in conversations. Among the other concerns raised in the report were AI adoption among enterprises and the 2026 trends to watch out for in CX.

AI talk is loud, but many efforts stay small

Nearshore Americas highlighted that AI is now the most common topic in CX discussions. Despite this, Rickard warned that talk does not always match real readiness. 

“Everyone’s bringing AI, everyone’s interested in it because they are being inundated by their service providers, everyone’s saying we can do AI,” Rickard pointed out.

According to a separate report from Cisco’s AI Readiness Index, only 13% of companies show full preparedness to get value from AI. This comes despite the many talks coming from industry leaders. 

“We’ve been seeing a lot of work being done on pilots and not necessarily moving to production,” Rickard said. He highlighted that while the pressure among executives is high, people are “just concerned that they’re missing out on something” and that the AI adoption has remained purely experimental.

Buyers face a crowded, confusing vendor market

Rickard said CX buyers are seeing many groups claim they own CX, including BPOs, customer relationship management firms, contact center platform providers, and hyperscalers. He said this has added confusion, especially at the senior leadership level.

“Senior leaders definitely don’t understand it fully, and they’re embarrassed sometimes to ask because they think people expect them to,” Rickard added.

Where spending is rising and falling

Rickard said growth in CX spending has been strongest in sales and collections, areas tied to generating or collecting revenue. On the flip side, traditional service work continues to decline from a spend perspective. Due to automation or the choice to move operations offshore. 

According to Rickard, this year could be a great point for businesses to actually pivot towards actual growth. To get there, however, he noted the need to “bite the bullet and completely reinvent what we do.”

In 2022, Nearshore Americas reported that many companies are still pondering AI use. Nothing monumental has changed since then, as Rickard pointed to AI fatigue. 

According to him, CX itself remains a problem. In a related Forbes article, AI CX is showing growth, but is not meeting the growing customer demands.