February 12, 2026 • 4 min read
NiCE Releases Agentic AI CX Frontline Report
CX Analyst & Thought Leader
February 12, 2026
NiCE released its new report, The Agentic AI CX Frontline, on February 12. Here are my 5 key takeaways:
1. Agentic AI Is The Present, Not The Future
In the first half of 2025, conversations about Agentic AI were largely theoretical and future-focused. NiCE’s Agentic AI CX Frontline Report highlights the success of early adopters who have stopped seeing Agentic AI as a futuristic concept and started to see it as a current competitive advantage.
Enterprise early adopters of agentic AI are already experiencing measurable business impacts, including double-digit reductions in cost per contact, up to 3x faster deployment times, at least a 30% reduction in average handle time, and 20% improvements in customer satisfaction scores.
2. Agentic AI Necessitates Workflow+Process Redesign
Perhaps the report’s most essential insight is the complete workflow and process redesign that Agentic AI necessitates. As the report perfectly put it, “Old processes don’t deserve automation.”
Before you apply any new technology, you have to decide what to stop doing and then redesign the workflows. Otherwise, you risk automating bad processes.
Enterprises will not see the impacts of Agentic AI if they’re simply bolting it onto legacy workflows and outdated, disconnected systems. Business processes are now no longer just “human-led” or “AI-led” – most are a dynamic collaboration between the two. It’s impossible to cram it into existing processes, because existing processes built before the AI era are entirely obsolete.
3. Voice AI Is The Ideal Agentic On-Ramp
Unsurprisingly, the report advocates for voice AI as the ideal “first step” towards successful agentic AI at scale. NiCE reminds readers that voice is still customers’ preferred channel – even for self-service interactions. If enterprises get voice AI right, they’ll secure future AI investments from executives and boost customer trust in agentic AI.
50% of enterprises polled in the report already use traditional voice agents for task/service automation, and consider it the most compelling use case for voice AI agents. 15% of organizations are already actively developing voice AI agents, and 98% of them plan to deploy those voice AI agents within 12 months.
What makes voice the ideal springboard for agentic AI?
The report cites existing CCaaS platform support for API-level access, access to mass amounts of structured/unstructured data, and easy containment wins thanks to the nature of customer support requests made via phone.
4. For Agentic AI, Trust Is A System Requirement
Trust is a system requirement for Agentic AI not only for customers, but for the employees actually using the technology. While executives embrace AI-first CX, almost half of employees don’t trust the companies they work for to implement AI in ways that benefit them. Unsurprisingly, many workers instantly associate Agentic AI with job loss, unrealistic performance expectations, and the pressure to enthusiastically adopt AI with little-to-no training.
NiCE’s report stresses the importance of differentiating between automation (completely replacing human agents with agentic ones) and augmentation (human-AI agent workforce collaboration.)
Taking the augmentation approach to agentic AI reduces employee skepticism and encourages employee adoption of agentic AI tools – but also mandates significant, meaningful employee upskilling and top-down transparency.
5. Scalability+Integration Define Agentic AI Success
Agentic AI projects aren’t officially “a success” until they’re scaled and fully integrated. Problems arise when enterprises confine Agentic AI to sandbox scenarios or fail to factor in scalability when redesigning workflows.
The report emphasizes the need for a major mindset shift: stop seeing agentic AI as a “static science project,” and start seeing it as a “production-grade infrastructure.”
NiCE Launches Companion Agentic AI Masterclass Series
In addition to the report, NiCE has added a companion Agentic AI masterclass series. Interested parties can register here.