65% of Contact Center Leaders Call Their AI Successful. Yet 43% of Projects Are Delayed or Stalled

New Laivly research finds board-level scrutiny is forcing CX teams to declare early success on AI projects that aren't delivering

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, June 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Laivly today released new research revealing an AI paradox that will define the next phase of customer service. Sixty-five percent of customer experience (CX) leaders classify their most recent AI project as a success. Yet 43% of all projects are currently delayed or stalled, 53% have exceeded budget, and 28% have lost revenue due to AI that cannot handle customer complexity. Another 20% acknowledge revenue loss is occurring but admit they are unable to quantify the damage.

AI deployment in the contact center is accelerating: 55% of leaders rank CX as a top-three AI investment priority across their company, with 30% naming it their highest priority. But 43% of boards are dissatisfied with AI progress, and that impatience is pushing organizations to deploy AI even when the technology is behind schedule, over budget, and below operational expectations.

"CX leaders have been pushed to use AI and it resulted in companies that deployed without really having the expertise to operationalize and scale their ideas," said Jeff Fettes, CEO at Laivly. "The most successful companies using AI are the ones that think not just about their goals but where those overlap with what their users and customers want. It's a simple equation. Adoption leads to scaling which leads to ROI."

The full report - Laivly's 2026 AI Deployment Index: Modern Contact Centers Aim for a False Finish Line - identified four critical points of AI breakdown in the contact center:

1. Customer Friction Is a Revenue Problem. Forty-nine percent of companies report increased friction directly linked to their AI tools. The financial consequence is immediate: 57% of those companies are losing 5–10% of sales. Companies that reduced friction tell the opposite story — 36% report AI actively growing revenue by 5%.
   
   
2. Agents Reject Tools They Cannot Trust. When asked why their agents avoid AI tools, 31% cite fear of job replacement. The more damaging problem is agents who would use AI and choose not to because the tools aren't reliable enough to use in front of a customer. Forty-six percent of leaders say agents struggle with AI that lacks context across interactions. Thirty-six percent say it introduces compliance and tone risk. As a result of untrustworthy AI tools, 36% saw agent turnover increase last year.
   
   
3. The Headcount Reduction Logic Is Backfiring. Seventy-eight percent of companies expect AI savings through agent reductions; 44% plan cuts within 12 months. But the companies cutting most aggressively are the same ones reporting higher customer friction, greater revenue leakage, and higher AI project costs.
   
   
4. Fragmented Stacks Are Negatively Impacting CX. Fifty-six percent of companies operate with more than three AI tools, and a majority of those companies report increased customer friction. Fragmented stacks of six to 10 tools also experience dramatically higher AI project implementation delays.

The Financial Return of Operationalized AI

The companies seeing real financial returns aren't deploying more AI, they're operationalizing it more effectively. Key drivers of success include:

• Targeting ROI Early: Fifty percent of companies that consider their AI deployments successful cite selecting use cases that deliver measurable ROI within the first 90 days as a top success factor. Operational integration ranks second at 49%.
  
  
• Human-AI Collaboration that Drives Strong Revenue Outcomes: Sixty-one percent of companies that prioritized real-time agent guidance and coaching expect revenue growth through faster, more accurate service. Thirty percent cite human-in-the-loop orchestration as a key success factor for their AI project.
  
  
• Planning for What's Next: Fifty-four percent of companies are already preparing for agentic AI that completes real transactions. Forty-one percent expect full ROI within a single fiscal year, and 31% expect lower technology debt by avoiding disconnected systems.

"The financial upside of getting this right is significant and no longer theoretical," Fettes added. "Companies winning with AI aren't deploying more of it—they're deploying it more deliberately. Not just use cases or pilots, but AI as infrastructure that they can flex to answer daily problems and challenges all contact center operations have. That's the difference between AI that transforms an operation and AI that just adds to the budget."

For a deeper look at how contact center AI is actually performing, and what separates deployments that deliver from those that don't, download the full 2026 AI Deployment Index.

About Laivly

Laivly helps the world's leading brands operationalize AI in the contact center with the help of Sidd, our AI platform. Sidd is designed to translate artificial intelligence into measurable results by integrating directly into existing customer service operations. Each deployment is configured to align with a brand's unique business operations and goals, ensuring AI delivers practical impact, not abstract potential. With Laivly, AI becomes an everyday driver of data, consistency, and customer satisfaction. Laivly is a privately held company based in Winnipeg, Canada. Follow Laivly on LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads and Instagram, or learn more at https://www.laivly.com.

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SOURCE Laivly Inc.