For our 10th anniversary, we’ve unpacked our crystal ball and come up with 10 predictions for the future of Contact Centres. Our 7th prediction considers a world where CX is no longer conducted customer to brand but bot to bot.

By 2035, according to Gartner, 70% of customer journeys will begin through third-party ecosystems assistants like Siri, Gemini, Alexa, or Copilot. Welcome to the Experience Wars: where access is auctioned, and discoverability decides destiny.

The hyperscalers will control not just the technology stack, but the customer gateway. They’ll set the standards for authentication, conversation, and commerce. Your customer will still speak, but increasingly through someone else’s interface. Brand loyalty will be mediated by algorithms, and visibility will depend on compliance with rules you didn’t write.

The shift explained

Over the next decade, as AI assistants become embedded in homes, cars, and devices, customers will no longer “visit” brands, they’ll ask ecosystems to act on their behalf.

“Book me a flight.” “Renew my insurance.” “Sort my broadband.” In this world, your brand is competing less on ads and offers and more for inclusion, as the top three or four options are presented, driven not just by paid media but by other algorithmic factors too, such as how easy a brand is to deal with.

The consequences are profound:

• Customer access becomes dependent on platform relationships.
• Discovery is filtered through ranking, licensing, and compliance.
• Data ownership and brand identity blur into the background.

And while the problem for marketing is already becoming clear – we’ve already seen the notion of brand by-pass at point of sale, where the transaction still happens, but the brand equity doesn’t – this will extend that premise into ongoing CX and relationships. Customer interactions will be mediated by intermediaries and trust and loyalty will migrate too. CX becomes an API call, where ‘your [customer] bot’ talks to ‘my [brand] bot’ – much less a human experience.

Unless the of course ‘your bot’ can’t talk to ‘my bot’. Or ‘my bot’ gets in a tangle and fails to deliver. In which case ‘your bot’’s experience of ‘my bot’ will see it downrated. You’re saved from the poor experience by ‘your bot’, but my brand doesn’t get a chance to recover.

What it means for CX leaders

• Reclaim your voice. Design for interoperability. Make sure your brand can be recognised – and trusted – through any assistant.
• Diversify discovery. Don’t rely on a single or handful of platforms. Spread presence across ecosystems and channels you can still influence.
• Protect your data. Big Tech might own the pipes, but make sure you still own the customer. Ensure data contracts and AI partnerships respect sovereignty.
• Stay findable and responsive. Optimise for algorithmic visibility and easy handoffs. Your next “customer service” moment may happen entirely within someone else’s UX.

Our perspective

At Customer Contact Panel, we’re plugged in to technology and service trends throughout the industry. Our job is to help organisations see and plan for these strategic shifts before they become existential.

The smartest move isn’t resistance, or hoping it won’t come to pass. It’s awareness and readiness. We help brands understand where to partner, where to differentiate, where to stand firm on identity and data. And when to make the right moves.

Being future-fit means preparing for a world where you might not own the channel, but you can still own the experience within it. In the Experience Wars, the winners won’t be the loudest voices, they’ll be the most recognisable ones.

Closing thoughts

The customer of 2035 won’t come to you. They’ll ask their assistant for help, and it’ll decide whether you make the cut.

Sources & further reading

Gartner CX Ecosystem Outlook 2035 | Forrester Future of Digital Platforms 2030 | Accenture Experience Wars Report

Do you think this will come to pass in the next ten years? Or is it science fiction?

Let us know in 50 words or less and we’ll publish the most interesting and thought-provoking perspectives below.