THE CONVER- GENCE OF AI ASSISTANTS, APPS, AND TRADITION- AL CONSUMER CHANNELS... IT ' S HAPPENING TODAY...
This shift also supports stronger self-service adoption and higher customer containment by fully resolving issues within an automated or self-service channel without needing a human agent.
As consumers are increasingly preferring quick, independent solutions, and brands are prioritizing efficiencies, AI assistants are delivering both at scale.
So, how can brands maintain exceptional CX as expectations shift in this new era?
OPERATIONAL BEST PRACTICES
• Audit your service channels, and map out how many interactions happen through apps, websites, chatbots, and voice assistants. Then ask yourself how that mix will shift as AI assistants take a bigger role.
• Unify your customer data from across all channels. Pull data from apps, AI assistants, and traditional channels. This way both human or agentic agents can see the full picture and reduce repeated questions, making every interaction feel effortless.
• Strengthen data readiness so that unified customer data is accurate, accessible, and actionable. AI systems and human agents can then deliver consistent, personalized experiences at scale.
• Train agents for hybrid( channel-agnostic AI, app, human) customer journeys. Make sure agents understand what AI can and can’ t do and give them the tools to quickly verify AI-generated information to seamlessly pick up customer conversations where the AI assistants left off.
TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE
• AI orchestration isn’ t optional; it’ s the backbone of modern contact centers, internal CX operations, and customer-facing channels.
• Connect internal service bots and CRM systems with external AI assistants to deliver seamless, cross-channel experiences.
One of the most powerful emerging trends is third-party app invocation, a technical term for when AI interacts with a third-party app.
For example, imagine a customer asking an AI assistant to book a hotel room. The assistant opens the hotel’ s app behind the scenes, checks availability, reserves the room, and confirms the details. All without the customer leaving a chat window.
• Combine your apps with AI assistants to create agentic commerce experiences that anticipate intent, streamline decisions, and complete end-to-end actions so customers get what they need instantly. This saves time and eliminates effort.
• Work with trusted partners to build end-to-end processes that cover the full customer journeys, from mobile check-ins and room service orders, to chatting with bots or human agents.
• Equip your CX agents with AI tools that provide real-time guidance, surface context-relevant knowledge, and suggest next-best actions so they can resolve issues faster on any channel.
THE TIME TO EXPERIMENT IS NOW
The convergence of AI assistants, apps, and traditional consumer channels isn ' t a distant future scenario. It ' s happening today, and brands that wait for a clear playbook will find themselves behind.
To set themselves up for success, brands must start designing a customer journey with multiple entry and exit
AI VS APPS
points, between AI assistants, apps, and websites, and for different customer personas. This includes planning for seamless live agent connections that preserve context across channels.
Providing agents with a real-time 360-degree customer view and quick and easy access to customer history reduces frustration and friction. It also enables faster resolution regardless of where the customer journey began. This will help ensure every customer gets what they need, where they naturally engage.
Additionally, forward-thinking brands are designing API-first services so that machines, apps, and AI agents can use them as easily as humans can, making integration and automation seamless.
However, the technical reality is that connecting AI assistants to your existing systems requires the right infrastructure.
While new standards like model context protocol( MCP) are emerging to make AI integrations easier, most brands today still need traditional API connections to bridge AI assistants with their business systems and customer data.
This approach enables cross-platform consistency in tone, empathy, and resolution quality while maintaining human oversight to handle nuance and complex calls.
This is critical. While AI offers efficiency, experience quality matters. If AI responses are wrong or the tone is off, customers may abandon the brand or escalate to a human.
The brands leading this transformation aren ' t waiting for perfect conditions. They ' re testing, learning, and iterating toward seamless, channel-agnostic experiences. Start by identifying one customer journey that spans multiple channels, map the friction points, and experiment with solutions.
The question isn ' t whether this shift will happen, it ' s whether you ' ll be ready when your customers expect it. Brands that deepen human values, empathy, reliability, and transparency are going to win the CX game, regardless of where the conversation begins.
Jamie Timm is Global SVP, Service Delivery and Operations, at TELUS Digital. Jamie leads a cross-functional team to help clients explore the art of the possible when it comes to delivering impactful and innovative digital experiences at scale for their customers and employees, while driving bottom line impact.
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