Live Webinar
The Automation Gap: Why Contact Centers Are Investing More in AI and Getting Less Than They Expected
August 5, 2026 · 1:30 PM ET
New research from ContactBabel’s 2026 Chatbots & Voicebots Study reveals where AI is really working in the contact center, where it’s stalling, and what the organizations getting real results are doing differently.
You’re Not Imagining It
Chat automation has barely moved in two years, stuck at 39% despite growing investment. Voice self-service hasn’t meaningfully improved in 20 years. And 45% of organizations plan to deploy voicebots by 2027, yet only 19% have today. Something isn’t adding up.
It’s not a lack of tools. It’s that the tools aren’t talking to each other.
This webinar unpacks new findings from ContactBabel’s 2026 Chatbots & Voicebots Study to show exactly where AI is working in the contact center today, where it’s quietly stalling, and why customers are still hitting the same walls after years of automation spend.
What You’ll Learn
01
Where AI Is, and Isn’t, Working Right Now
What the data shows about chatbot and voicebot performance, and why chat automation growth has plateaued at 39% for two years running.
02
What Customers Actually Think About Automated Interactions
Real data on trust, satisfaction, and abandonment, broken down by age group and channel, and why it directly affects adoption.
03
Why More AI Tools Aren’t Producing Better Results
The pattern behind fragmented, hard-to-measure outcomes, and why measuring containment alone misses what the business actually cares about.
04
What Good Looks Like, and Where to Start
A practical framework for shifting from measuring AI by activity to measuring it by commercial outcome, plus real deployment results.
Meet Your Hosts
Chris Karp
Chief Growth Officer,
Afiniti
Chris leads Growth at Afiniti, overseeing Client Services, New Business, Marketing, and Commercial Strategy. He previously served as Chief Customer Officer at Chewy, running customer service operations at scale. At Afiniti, he’s focused on making sure AI investment translates into measurable client outcomes.
Dileepan Narayanan
Chief Product & Technology Officer, Afiniti
Dileepan leads Afiniti’s global product and technology organization, with more than two decades building AI products at enterprise scale. He joins Afiniti from Amazon, where he led product for Alexa’s Generative AI capabilities and the Astro home robot. At Afiniti, he leads the company’s Agentic AI roadmap.
Steve Morrell
Managing Director, ContactBabel
Steve is Managing Director of ContactBabel, the research and analysis firm serving the UK and US contact center industry since 2001. He has authored hundreds of research reports, is a regular media commentator on the sector, and has advised the UK government on the economic impact of offshoring.
The Data Is In. The Question Is What You Do With It.
Join Afiniti and ContactBabel on August 5 to see exactly where the automation gap is costing you, and what closing it actually looks like.