The New CX Power Move: Owning the “Last Click”
Plus: agentic commerce is basically a tug-of-war for who controls the customer journey
📅 January 12, 2026 | ⏱️ 4-min read
Good Morning!
The Executive Hook:
You know that moment when a customer is this close to buying and then something dumb happens? A “verify your address” loop. A declined card. A mysterious shipping fee.
Now imagine an AI agent is driving. The customer just says, “Buy it.” And the agent tries to finish the job. If your systems aren’t ready, you won’t just lose the sale. You’ll look unreliable. And customers have very little patience for unreliable.
🧠 THE DEEP DIVE: FIS is trying to keep banks relevant in an “AI buys things for me” world
The Big Picture: FIS rolled out an “agentic commerce” offering designed to help banks support purchases initiated by AI agents, using existing card networks.
What’s happening:
Banks don’t want to get cut out of the loop: If AI assistants start handling purchasing, banks still need to authenticate, approve, and protect those transactions, without turning it into a 12-step CAPTCHA tragedy.
Visa + Mastercard are part of the story: FIS says it’s partnering with both networks to make this work at scale.
This is really about “invisible reliability”: Customers won’t care what rails you used. They’ll care that the payment was secure, the receipt was clean, and reversing a mistake doesn’t require a blood oath.
Why it matters:
CX leaders should pay attention because payments are about to stop being “a finance thing” and start being a core experience layer. If an AI agent is doing the buying, the quality of the journey becomes approvals, fraud checks, confirmations, disputes, refunds, and all the stuff that’s usually hidden until it breaks.
The takeaway:
Start pressure-testing your “agent-made purchase” journey now: How is consent captured? What does confirmation look like? How do refunds work? Where do humans step in? If your answers are fuzzy, customers will feel it.
Source: FIS
📊 CX BY THE NUMBERS: Customers are fine with AI… until you get sneaky about it
Data Source: Talkdesk Post-2025 Holiday AI Survey
89% of shoppers used AI in some way during holiday shopping. (It’s not “the future.” It’s “last month.”)
74% said AI saved them hours. (Convenience is officially a baseline expectation.)
40% said they’d feel misled if a brand didn’t disclose they were interacting with AI. (Translation: “Don’t catfish me with a bot.”)
The Insight:
This is the new deal: customers will happily use AI if it helps, but they expect you to be straight with them. Surprise AI is what damages trust, not AI itself.
Source: Talkdesk
🧰 THE AI TOOLBOX: Nextiva AI Receptionist (XBert)
The Tool: Nextiva’s AI Receptionist is called XBert, and it’s basically the coworker who never takes a lunch break. It can handle calls, texts, and chats 24/7.
What it does:
It greets customers, answers the usual questions, books appointments, and captures leads. In other words, it deals with the stuff that normally clogs up your phones and steals your team’s attention.
CX Use Case:
Stop bleeding calls after hours: Instead of “leave a message,” customers can actually get something done, like booking an appointment.
Handle spikes without panic: When call volume jumps, XBert can keep up so customers do not get the “we’re experiencing unusually high call volume” speech for the 900th time.
Trust:
AI receptionists only work if they stay in their lane. Be clear it’s AI, keep answers grounded, and make the handoff to a human smooth when the situation gets weird, emotional, or expensive.
Source: Nextiva
⚡ SPEED ROUND: Quick Hits
📦 Narvar launched NAVI, an agentic assistant for post-purchase automation (delivery issues, returns, refunds, exchanges). If your highest-volume contacts are “where’s my order?” and “I need to return this,” you can see why this is a big deal.
👟 JD Sports is rolling out AI-assisted commerce in the U.S., starting with Microsoft Copilot to help shoppers discover and buy. Retail is basically admitting what customers already told us: “I’m starting my journey in an assistant, not your navigation bar.”
🛡️ HPE announced retail infrastructure updates focused on continuity and security. Not glamorous, but if your AI journey depends on always-on transactions, this is the stuff that keeps you from trending on social media for the wrong reasons.
🔦 THE SIGNAL: “Convenience” is about to come with a receipt for trust
Agentic commerce sounds like the dream: fewer steps, fewer clicks, less hassle. And yes, customers want that. But the second an AI can act, the customer’s brain flips from “help me” to “okay, but who’s responsible if this goes sideways?”
That’s the CX leadership moment. Build experiences where automation feels safe: clear disclosure, easy undo buttons, human help when things get emotional, and policies that don’t punish people for trusting your tools. Speed gets you a transaction. Dependability gets you a relationship.
See you tomorrow.
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