Customer Support stories

eDesk names Gareth Cummings as CEO, tasking the AI veteran with leading an ‘AI-first’ expansion drive across EMEA and North America.

Elyos AI raises USD $13m to grow its AI agents that answer calls, book jobs and automate admin for trades and field service firms.

Rimini Street secures multiple awards for agentic AI, customer service and leadership, as Hitachi Vantara client also earns industry honour.

Australian online florist LVLY is shortlisted in three customer service and online retail categories at the 2026 Inside Retail awards.

Newo.ai and IONOS have launched a plug-and-play AI receptionist, promising SMEs 24/7 call handling, missed lead recovery and quick setup.

Five9 and Google Cloud unveil a joint AI-powered CX platform, unifying contact centre workflows and customer data across all channels.

Babeltext debuts MC-ML-AI, a standard to turn multilingual, multichannel customer chats into completed bookings, transactions and cases.

TeamViewer predicts 2026 enterprise AI will hinge on governance, energy limits and emotionally aware agents reshaping workplace roles.

Chargebacks surge after record online holiday sales, with USD $181 billion in returns putting retailers’ first-quarter profits at risk.

Salesforce debuts a revamped AI Slackbot as a personal work agent, tying Slack into its Agentforce 360 automation and data platform.

Forrester says AI will cut US jobs but stop short of apocalypse, driving 6% of losses by 2030 while reshaping millions more roles.

Google launches a Universal Commerce Protocol and Business Agent tools as it bets on AI agents to drive the next era of online shopping.

Ant backs Google’s new Universal Commerce Protocol to standardise how AI agents handle shopping, payments and post-purchase support.

Hyland has been named IDC’s 2025 Customer Experience Award winner for content and experience management, topping global satisfaction scores.

Infobip named a growth and innovation leader in Frost & Sullivan’s latest CPaaS report, praised for cross-channel AI-driven communications.

Zendesk warns APAC brands that rising CX expectations demand transparent, context-rich AI that resolves issues instantly or risks churn.

AI is set to manage 41% of Singapore’s customer service cases by 2027, as service teams embrace “agentic” tools despite security concerns.

AI agents will reshape how shoppers discover brands, forcing retailers to rethink visibility as SaaS vendors and ad budgets come under strain.

Mitsumi unveils India push with INR ₹700-1,000 crore IT and mobile distribution expansion across metros and smaller cities over 3 years.

CelcomDigi launches PhoneFIX, a monthly repair plan from RM3 offering same-day fixes for phones bought from any retailer in Malaysia.