Voice AI takes over your TV, your phone—and your customers’ expectations
PLUS: Design Voice-First Customer Interactions
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📅 October 20, 2025 | ⏱️ 5-min read
🎯 The big picture
Voice AI just went mainstream everywhere at once. While you were debating whether AI could handle “real” customer conversations, Zendesk deployed fully autonomous agents, Google put Gemini on your TV, and WhatsApp decided only Meta’s AI gets to talk to customers. The question isn’t whether voice AI is coming to customer service—it’s whether you’re ready for customers who expect every interaction to be as natural as talking to a friend.
📊 Today’s lineup
• Zendesk claims their AI can now solve most customer problems without human help
• WhatsApp is kicking out AI chatbots (except Meta’s own, of course)
• Apple’s own employees are concerned about the new Siri they’re building
• Google’s Gemini AI assistant quietly takes over your living room
• ChatGPT shopping gets real with Walmart’s instant checkout integration
1️⃣ Zendesk claims their AI can now solve most customer problems without human help
What’s happening:
• Zendesk launched fully autonomous AI agents that handle complex support conversations start to finish
• These voice-enabled agents use agentic AI to reason, decide, and act across multiple systems
• No more simple chatbots—these understand context and solve messy, real-world problems
What’s so great about this: Remember frustrating phone trees? Those days are over. These agents have the patience of your best human rep with perfect memory and 24/7 availability. They actually understand context and solve complex problems instead of just answering FAQs.
What’s next: Zendesk just set the new customer expectation baseline. When one major platform claims AI handles “most” support issues, every other company needs to figure out what their humans should do instead.
Go deeper: The Star
2️⃣ WhatsApp is kicking out AI chatbots (except Meta’s own, of course)
What’s happening:
• Meta banned general-purpose AI chatbots from WhatsApp starting January 2026
• ChatGPT and Perplexity are out, but business customer service bots can stay
• Meta AI becomes the only general-purpose assistant allowed on the platform
What’s so interesting: This isn’t about AI quality—it’s about real estate. Meta doesn’t want competitors turning WhatsApp into their customer acquisition channel. Smart move: keep business bots for customer service, block everything else.
What’s next: Every major platform will follow with similar restrictions. The AI assistant wars are heating up, and controlling distribution matters as much as having the best technology.
Go deeper: PC Mag
3️⃣ Apple’s own employees are concerned about the new Siri they’re building
What’s happening:
• Apple employees testing iOS 26.4 are worried about the revamped Siri’s performance
• The new Apple Intelligence-powered Siri launches early 2026
• Internal testers question whether it’s ready for public release
What’s so interesting: When your own engineers are nervous about shipping your flagship AI, that’s telling. Apple invented the modern voice assistant but they’re struggling to keep up with the AI revolution they started.
What’s next: Apple might delay again or ship with obvious limitations. Either way, competitors get more time to dominate voice AI while Apple plays catch-up.
Go deeper: 9to5Mac
4️⃣ Google’s Gemini AI assistant quietly takes over your living room
What’s happening:
• Google’s Gemini AI is appearing early on Google TV devices
• It’s replacing Google Assistant with enhanced voice capabilities
• Starting with TCL QM9K series, rolling out to more TV platforms
What’s so great about this: Voice AI is training customers everywhere. When people have intelligent TV conversations about what to watch, they’ll expect the same natural flow when they call customer service.
What’s next: Every screen becomes an AI interaction point. Customer service that still uses button-pressing and menu navigation will feel ancient compared to talking naturally to your TV.
Go deeper: 9to5Google
5️⃣ ChatGPT shopping gets real with Walmart’s instant checkout integration
What’s happening:
• Walmart’s ChatGPT integration now offers instant checkout for U.S. users
• Customers can discover, compare, and buy without leaving the chat
• Full conversational commerce across Walmart’s massive product catalog
What’s so interesting: Shopping just became as easy as asking a friend for recommendations. Say “I need dinner ingredients” and everything’s ordered in minutes. The AI becomes your personal shopper who knows your preferences and budget.
What’s next: Every retailer needs a conversational commerce strategy. When customers can shop through natural conversation, traditional e-commerce with search bars and product grids feels unnecessarily complicated.
Go deeper: Business Insider
⚡ Quick hits
• Google streamlines Gemini to work with YouTube and Maps without separate commands → voice AI becomes more intuitive and natural
• Startuprad.io launches Startup AI Concierge for Europe → AI-powered knowledge assistant transforms startup support
• Retail Tech report highlights emotional AI in customer service → AI that understands and adapts to customer emotions in real-time
💡 CX Prompt Tip of the Day
Design Voice-First Customer Interactions
I need to redesign our customer service for voice-first interactions as customers increasingly expect to talk naturally instead of navigating menus and forms.
Current situation: Our customers typically contact us about [describe 3-4 main scenarios]. Our current system requires [describe current process - phone trees, forms, transfers, etc.].
Your task:
1. Map natural conversation flows for each scenario that feel like talking to a knowledgeable human
2. Identify where voice AI can handle complete interactions vs. where human handoff is needed
3. Design voice interface that captures necessary information through natural dialogue
4. Create fallback strategies when voice recognition fails or customers get frustrated
5. Build quality assurance framework to ensure voice interactions meet service standards
Format: Conversation Flow Map → AI vs Human Decision Points → Natural Information Capture → Fallback Strategies → Quality Framework
Focus on making voice interactions feel effortless and intuitive, not like talking to a computer trying to be human.
Quick win: Record yourself explaining your most common customer issue to a colleague. That natural explanation style is how your voice AI should sound—conversational, helpful, and human.
🤔 CX reflection
Today’s question: With Google putting Gemini on every TV and Zendesk claiming AI can solve most support problems, what’s your plan for when customers start expecting every interaction to be as natural as talking to their smart TV?
(Hit reply—I read every response and often feature insights in future editions)
👋 Talk tomorrow,
Mark
💡 P.S. Ready to master AI for CX? Grab my FREE 32 Power Prompts That Will Transform Your Customer Strategy → Get the prompts