Welcome back to part two of our conversation with Joey Edwards-Lebair, Zendesk’s Senior Customer Insights Manager and lead researcher for our annual CX Trends report. This week, Edwards-Lebair joins host Nicole Saunders to take a deeper look at more of the trends shaping the future of customer experience and shares what excites him most about the future.

“AI is really helping experiences become what they always were supposed to be,” Edwards-Lebair said. “The goal of customer service and customer experience—to create these amazing experiences and provide people with information—hasn’t changed with AI. It’s just that AI makes that so much easier and better for you, for your customers, for everyone.”

Beyond the important role of AI going forward, Edwards-Lebair shares his thoughts on some of the emerging challenges for CX leadership.

“Consumers do not want security tacked on to their experience,” said Edwards-Lebair. “They don’t want to be taken out of the moment of what they’re doing to verify themselves somewhere else or remember a password they set up seven years ago.”

If you missed it, be sure to catch part one of our discussion with Edwards-Lebair which covered the big impacts of AI and the critical need for a smart integration approach. And if you’d like to learn more, check out our 2026 CX Trends hub to read custom insights, sign up for a virtual event, or download the full report.