Nicole Willing

Twilio’s third-quarter results point to rising CX demand for AI voice, richer messaging, agent identity and contact center modernization, as customer engagement infrastructure shifts toward more autonomous interactions and trusted AI-led service journeys.

From a new headless CDP to customer identity across automotive brands and sales intelligence inside Snowflake, this week's CRM and customer data announcements indicate a growing focus on making trusted customer context available wherever AI-driven work happens.

The latest earnings calls reveal growing concerns about governing AI agents, controlling permissions and protecting enterprise data. Meanwhile, the Coinbase analytics incident and other cyberattacks show why CX leaders must look beyond their own systems to safeguard customers.

When disruption strikes, customer service can become mission-critical in minutes. Content Guru’s AI Product Director Rhys Harris explains how AI can manage surging demand, provide proactive updates, and strengthen human support when urgency, complexity or vulnerability requires a fast response

As AI agents take on more work across customer-facing systems, CRM investment decisions need to account for data readiness and the processes businesses want to automate. Here's why CX leaders should get the right people involved before committing their next platform.

ServiceNow’s latest customer wins reinforce the argument made in its Q3 earnings call that CRM is shifting from a sales-led system of record to an AI-powered workflow layer that connects customer, employee, IT, operations, field service and governance processes.

An eventful Cybersecurity Awareness Month has brought fresh vulnerabilities and urgent patching demands. For customer-facing businesses, the challenge is keeping services secure without leaving customers exposed or disrupting the experiences they depend on.

Shadow AI agents are entering enterprise workflows with access to sensitive customer data and business systems, often without security oversight. As autonomous tools take action, CX leaders must help establish the governance, visibility and controls needed to protect customer trust.

NHS 24’s customer experience transformation shows why CRM modernization should start with customer outcomes, not internal systems. By redesigning journeys around access, continuity and safety, it offers CX leaders a practical model for outcome-led service change.

Shifting gears: Semiconductors at the heart of automotive’s next chapter How electrification, ADAS, and digitalization are reshaping leadership in automotive semiconductors

Critical PHP2Shell vulnerabilities forced websites and public services offline as organisations raced to patch systems and protect users. Dubbed the “PHPocalypse”, the incident shows how runtime security flaws can disrupt customer journeys across the Internet.

Revolut, Lloyds, HSBC and a range of U.K. websites were hit as a Google Cloud power event disrupted London-based infrastructure. As customers struggled with payments and account access, the incident renewed questions over cloud resilience and supplier dependency.

CRM vendors are connecting customer data to AI-driven sales, marketing and analytics while addressing spending and governance. This week’s updates include HubSpot’s pricing changes, Salesforce Hunter’s Demandbase partnership and Adobe’s customer journey analytics features.

This week’s security news highlights the growing gap between agentic AI adoption and AI assurance. Meanwhile, ransomware threats are becoming more personal, stolen financial credentials are climbing, and retail remains exposed to complex cyber risks.

Poor AI-to-human handoffs increase customer effort, repeat contact and frustration. Five9 outlines five practical steps that show CX leaders how to measure outcomes, connect context across channels, equip advisors and improve the transfer experience, to build a more reliable handoff model.

Consumer AI agents could change how people make purchasing decisions and interact with customer service teams. That raises questions for CRM leaders about customer relationships, data and how businesses maintain their place in an increasingly AI-mediated customer journey.

Data breach warnings across Japan, the U.S. and Canada highlight a growing enterprise risk that criminals can use stolen identity documents and personal data to pass customer checks. Prove’s Mary Ann Miller told CX Today why businesses need stronger, continuous identity verification.

Can CRM turn customer data into better experiences? Adobe and Heathrow are targeting more personalised passenger journeys, while ServiceNow reports 89% first-contact resolution for Bundesliga fan enquiries. Salesforce, HubSpot and Zeta Global also make moves across CRM and customer data.

ASOS, Anthropic, Microsoft, Cloudflare, IBM and Red Hat all made cybersecurity headlines this week that point to the common challenge for customer experience teams in keeping customer data and connected systems secure as technology becomes more autonomous.

Parloa's Csaba Tamas tells CX Today that launching an AI agent is only stage one. Business teams need practical control after go-live, treating agents like employees who need coaching, feedback and constant fine-tuning to stay aligned with the business