CONTACT CENTERTREND SURVEY2025-26 / 2-1
GENERATIVE AI’S ADVANCED UTILIZATIONDRIVES GROWTH.SECURING TALENT AND SECURITYAS KEY PILLARS, TO THE NEXTOPERATIONAL STRATEGY.
Contact Center Trend Report
The contact center industry is undergoing rapid diversification in customer interaction channels and expectations as digital transformation accelerates. In 2025, the most notable shifts included the advanced use of generative AI, broader adoption of chatbots, increasing challenges in securing talent, and heightened focus on security measures.
This report organizes data to show how these developments are affecting frontline operations and highlights key insights to support future strategic planning.
You can view the results from fiscal year 2024 from the below.
Survey Overview
Survey Title: Contact Center Trend Survey
Survey Method: Online Survey
Survey Period: January 23–27, 2026
Survey Target: 890 men and women in their 20s to 60s and older who are engaged in contact center–related work across Japan.
Survey Topics:
Review of 2025
Technology and Solution Utilization
Customer Experience (CX)
Workforce and Workstyles
Operational Challenges and Strategy
Trend Summary: Five Key Perspectives for Understanding 2025
2025 marked a structural turning point for contact centers. Most notably, the advancement of AI utilization became symbolic of this shift, as organizations moved beyond PoCs and partial deployments into a full-scale redesign phase for real operational use.
Specifically, organizations advanced the rebuilding of frontline operations through workflow redesign, optimization of knowledge structures, and strengthened governance.
Another notable development is the heightened importance of security and compliance measures as AI adoption has advanced.
While operational workloads are being reduced, operators are increasingly expected to demonstrate advanced problem solving skills and empathetic engagement. As a result, the model is shifting toward one where AI provides the foundation, and humans create the value.
Survey Results
Current State of Technology Utilization: Adoption, Plans, and Impact.
Technology adoption has become a critical driver of both operational productivity and customer experience. This section outlines the current level of implementation, the expansion of AI utilization, and the areas expected to gain further attention going forward.
Solutions currently in use
Chatbots (47.1%) emerged as the most widely implemented solution. They were followed by automated voice response (voicebots) at 41.7% and speech recognition at 38.3%, indicating that AI adoption is also becoming well established in voice based operations.
CRM integration exceeded 34.1%, indicating a growing movement toward centralizing customer information. This reflects the need to consolidate data that tends to be scattered across multiple channels—such as chat and voice—to standardize service quality and strengthen analytical foundations. Moreover, the widespread use of multiple solutions suggests that the purpose of adoption is shifting beyond solving isolated issues toward improving and advancing overall operations.
Chatbots, voicebots, and speech recognition share a common objective: automating front line operations. As many contact centers adopt these solutions in stages, it is likely that they are progressing toward an operational model in which AI is leveraged in multiple layers.
Solutions Scheduled for Deployment
Chatbots (40.3%) were identified as the most planned solution for future implementation. Already the leading solution in current adoption, chatbots are expected to continue playing a central role, given their strong potential in first line inquiry handling and self service support. This indicates that they will remain in a key focus area for further deployment and enhancement.
Following this, voice recognition (38.0%) and automated response via voicebot (37.1%) rank next, highlighting a notably strong intent to enhance voice-based solutions.
CRM integration also stands out, with 35.8% of respondents selecting it as a priority. In contact centers that handle multiple channels, customer data is often scattered across different systems. By integrating a single CRM platform, organizations can bring all customer information together in one place, make better use of interaction history, and improve their ability to analyze data — all of which leads to smoother operations and a better customer experience.
The share of organizations that have already implemented CRM integration (34.1%) is close to those planning to do so (35.8%), suggesting that many contact centers are still in the process of building this capability. It is likely that foundational infrastructure will continue to develop steadily over the next few years.
All these areas contribute to higher productivity, better customer experience, and lower operating costs in contact centers. The data suggests that the digital foundation of contact centers will continue to strengthen heading into 2026.
Adoption of AI and realization of its impac
As many as 91.4% of respondents reported using AI in their operations, making it clear that AI in the contact center industry is no longer a special initiative — it has become a standard part of how centers operate.
This shows that AI technology — including generative AI, which has spread rapidly in recent years — has become central to contact center operations.
Even more striking is the fact that 95.8% of respondents reported feeling the positive impact of AI adoption. Breaking this down, 48.5% said they "strongly feel the impact" and 47.3% said they "somewhat feel the impact," meaning nearly all users gave a positive assessment. Those who reported feeling no impact at all accounted for just 3.7%.
Even more striking is the fact that 95.8% of respondents reported feeling the positive impact of AI adoption. Breaking this down, 48.5% said they "strongly feel the impact" and 47.3% said they "somewhat feel the impact," meaning nearly all users gave a positive assessment. Those who reported feeling no impact at all accounted for just 3.7%.
Overall, the question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to use it more strategically and turn it into meaningful results across the entire organization.
Featured Technologies
