Despite rising enterprise investment in AI-powered customer engagement, many organizations still struggle to deliver seamless automated experiences across digital channels. New research from Infobip suggests the biggest obstacle is not AI capability itself, but fragmented customer data, disconnected systems, and limited orchestration infrastructure preventing brands from scaling customer journey automation effectively.

Infobip released its 2026 Customer Experience (CX) Maturity Report, highlighting a growing disconnect between enterprise communications technology investments and actual customer experience performance.

The findings arrive at a critical moment for enterprise customer engagement strategies as brands race to integrate generative AI, conversational automation, and agentic AI into customer journeys across messaging, voice, mobile apps, and digital commerce platforms.

According to the report, while 96% of organizations automate customer interactions in some capacity, only a minority have achieved the infrastructure maturity required to orchestrate seamless omnichannel customer experiences at scale.

The research points to a broader challenge facing enterprises in the AI era: organizations are deploying automation tools rapidly, but many lack the operational architecture necessary to unify data, workflows, and customer context across systems.

Infobip found that only 58% of businesses report fully synchronized communication channels, while just 60% maintain centralized customer data storage. More significantly, only 27% currently use orchestration platforms capable of coordinating customer interactions across channels and workflows.

The findings underscore how fragmented enterprise technology stacks continue to limit the effectiveness of AI-powered customer engagement initiatives.

In practice, that fragmentation creates inconsistent experiences where customer context is lost between communication channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, voice support, email, and mobile applications.

The report argues that delivering mature customer experiences increasingly depends on orchestration rather than isolated automation.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important as enterprise customer engagement evolves beyond basic notifications and transactional messaging toward conversational, AI-driven experiences capable of handling complex workflows in real time.

Infobip highlighted the difference between a simple one-way SMS fraud alert and a fully interactive two-way messaging workflow where customers can authenticate, resolve issues, or complete transactions directly inside conversational channels.

The report also reveals that AI deployment is advancing rapidly, though operational barriers remain significant.

More than half of surveyed organizations already use agentic AI within customer journeys. However, enterprises continue facing major concerns around trust, privacy, governance, and integration complexity.

Among the primary barriers to broader AI adoption:

• 71% cited user trust concerns
• 64% pointed to data privacy challenges
• 41% identified technology stack integration issues

The findings reflect broader industry trends emerging across customer experience and MarTech ecosystems.

According to Gartner, customer experience platforms are increasingly evolving toward AI-native orchestration systems capable of coordinating workflows, data layers, personalization engines, and conversational interfaces simultaneously.

Similarly, Frost & Sullivan has identified agentic AI as one of the fastest-growing enterprise CX technology categories, particularly within industries managing high-volume digital customer interactions.

Infobip’s report suggests many organizations are still in the early stages of operational maturity despite aggressive AI experimentation.

The company evaluated organizations across three maturity dimensions:

• Journey automation
• Sophistication of AI and automation technology
• System potential and API readiness

Among industry verticals, telecommunications and retail emerged as the most mature sectors in customer journey automation, both scoring 32 out of 100 in automation maturity.

Telecommunications also ranked highest in automation sophistication, slightly ahead of retail, while banking trailed modestly despite maintaining relatively strong infrastructure readiness.

However, the overall maturity scores indicate substantial room for advancement across industries.

One particularly notable finding involves API readiness.

Only half of organizations surveyed described their systems as fully API-ready — a critical requirement for integrating AI agents, orchestration platforms, personalization systems, and customer data environments.

That limitation has major implications for enterprise AI strategies.

Modern AI-powered customer engagement increasingly depends on interoperability between communications infrastructure, CRM systems, analytics platforms, identity layers, and workflow automation engines.

Without API-accessible infrastructure, enterprises struggle to operationalize AI consistently across the customer journey.

The report’s emphasis on orchestration platforms also reflects broader competitive shifts occurring across the customer experience software market.

Major technology providers including Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, and Twilio are increasingly positioning orchestration and customer data unification as foundational requirements for AI-powered CX systems.

As customer expectations continue rising, enterprises are under pressure to deliver contextual, real-time interactions that remain consistent across mobile, messaging, commerce, and support channels.

The challenge is no longer whether organizations can deploy AI-powered customer engagement tools. Increasingly, the question is whether underlying systems are mature enough to support them operationally.

For enterprise leaders, the report reinforces a growing reality in customer experience transformation: AI alone is not sufficient. Without unified data, orchestration infrastructure, governance, and interoperable systems, scaling intelligent customer journeys remains difficult regardless of AI investment levels.

Market Landscape

The enterprise customer experience and conversational AI market is rapidly evolving as organizations invest in AI-powered engagement, orchestration, and automation platforms.

Technology providers including Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, Twilio, and Google are expanding investments in conversational AI, customer journey orchestration, and omnichannel automation infrastructure.

Key trends shaping the market include:

• Agentic AI for customer engagement
• Omnichannel journey orchestration
• API-first customer experience infrastructure
• AI-powered conversational commerce
• Unified customer data platforms

Enterprises are increasingly prioritizing orchestration and interoperability as critical enablers for scalable AI-powered customer experiences.

Top Insights

• Infobip’s 2026 CX Maturity Report found that fragmented systems and disconnected customer data remain major obstacles to scaling AI-powered customer experiences.
• Although 96% of brands automate customer interactions, only 27% currently use orchestration platforms capable of coordinating omnichannel customer journeys effectively.
• More than half of organizations already use agentic AI, but concerns around trust, privacy, and integration complexity continue slowing broader enterprise deployment.
• Telecommunications and retail sectors currently lead in customer journey automation maturity, though all industries remain far from fully optimized AI-powered CX operations.
• API readiness and centralized customer data infrastructure are emerging as foundational requirements for scalable conversational AI and customer engagement systems.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts