What's in the cards for customer communications in 2026?

"The way businesses connect with customers is changing. New channels, smarter technology, and rising expectations are rewriting the rules of engagement. For brands, that can feel both exciting and overwhelming. If you feel like you're one step behind, you're not alone - the future moves fast. That's why Sinch decided to look ahead and do some future-casting of our own by pulling together insights from in-house experts, our latest research,"

"Businesses that still treat messaging as a one-way broadcast will struggle in 2026. That approach might check a box, but it misses real opportunities for deeper connection - and nearly one in three consumers find that kind of experience annoying. Look closely and you'll see that two big developments in AI will make one-way messaging feel outdated in 2026. First, conversational AI is making it possible for businesses to handle exponentially more context-aware exchanges at once."

"The cards are clear: AI is already creating new types of conversations, and this will lead to an explosion in conversation volume in 2026. Consumers will be able to reply to messages that used to be one-way alerts, while AI agents will also proactively reach out to them to offer support for reordering a product or rescheduling a service appointment before they even ask."

Business-to-customer connections are changing as new channels, smarter technology, and rising expectations reshape engagement rules. Sinch synthesized internal expertise, research, and third-party analysis to identify eight trends that will influence customer communications in 2026. The foremost trend predicts an explosion in conversational volume driven by conversational AI enabling context-aware, scalable exchanges and AI agents that can initiate and manage dialogues. One-way broadcast messaging will decline as consumers reply to alerts and AI agents proactively offer services such as reordering or rescheduling. A significant emergence of agent-to-agent interactions is expected, with personal AI assistants communicating on behalf of customers.

Read at Miami Herald