Forrester’s 2026 total experience study adds our new Employee Experience Index (EX Index™) to our Brand Experience Index (BX Index™) and Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) to reveal that 15% of US retailer brands improved significantly despite EX headwinds stymieing them. We also discuss the top factors that improve the experiences of noncustomers, customers, and employees so executives know where to focus to drive growth.

Forrester’s 2026 total experience study adds our new Employee Experience Index (EX Index™) to our Brand Experience Index (BX Index™) and Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) to reveal that among US health insurers, most brands improved significantly despite EX headwinds stymieing the industry. We also discuss the factors that improve the experiences of noncustomers, customers, and employees so executives know where to focus to drive growth.

Forrester’s 2026 total experience study adds our new Employee Experience Index (EX Index™) to our Brand Experience Index (BX Index™) and Customer Experience Index (CX Index™). The Total Experience Scores reveal that both customer and noncustomer perceptions of US banks overall have improved, despite EX headwinds stymieing many brands. We also discuss factors that improve the experiences of noncustomers, customers, and employees so executives know where to focus to drive growth.

When we ask US online adults how comfortable they are purchasing items through an AI agent, unsurprisingly, they are relatively more likely to say they’re comfortable in categories in which low-value routine payments are common (e.g., streaming subscriptions) or where time-bound transactions may be more common (e.g., entertainment). However, generational and gender differences are stark: Millennials and men are somewhat more likely to report comfort across the featured categories. Digital business leaders in categories with routine or time-bound products should begin using Forrester’s tools and assessments to build strong answer engine optimization (AEO) and agentic commerce strategies .

As AI becomes more prevalent in financial services, consumer comfort is rising but varies across demography and task complexity. Consumers, especially younger generations, are increasingly open to using AI for financial guidance and show little preference for where that help comes from. Comfort drops sharply as AI moves from explaining options to acting autonomously, and most consumers still trust human advisors more than AI alone. This report helps financial services leaders understand where customers expect AI tools to create value today and the types of AI experiences that consumers will adopt.

To understand how business users are thinking about the relationship between their order management system (OMS) and their business priorities, we analyzed data from Forrester’s Industry- And Customer-Supporting Software Survey, 2026. This data report highlights vendor management, software spending, and strategic challenges that the survey identified. Business leaders should use it to learn how their peers plan to adopt OMS in the future and to guide their own strategies.

Consumers are increasingly open to using AI to support healthcare decisions, but low trust in the technology and a clear preference for human oversight constrain adoption. While many are willing to seek guidance from AI tools, comfort declines as AI moves closer to making clinical judgments and health-related decisions autonomously. This report identifies where consumers are most receptive to AI, where skepticism persists, and how providers can design AI‑enabled experiences that build trust by keeping clinicians visibly in control.

Grocery store executives need to understand how their US customers’ expectations for — and behaviors around — online grocery shopping have changed and how they will evolve in the long term. US grocery consumers have new expectations for digital engagement and payment options. This report explores attitudes and behaviors among US online adults for grocery shopping.

One-quarter of affluent investors say they would prefer to use digital self-service tools to plan and/or settle an estate. The emerging and distinct segment of affluent digital investors is younger, more digitally confident, and more self-directed than their affluent peers, often managing their finances and investments independently, rather than relying on advisors. These preferences extend beyond estate services to a broad range of financial activities, signaling a fundamental shift in how this savvy segment wants to engage. This report identifies the characteristics of this segment and outlines how wealth management firms can adapt their strategies, tools, and experiences to better meet their expectations.

To attract and retain B2C and B2B users, companies must be able to serve them wherever they connect digitally. But people alternate between various devices, channels, and platforms. So digital experience (DX) leaders need to design and build for many combinations of connection “building blocks” from these three categories. How many? To answer this question, we created the Digital Connections Tracker: a model and a dataset to answer questions like “How many devices, platforms, and channels do people in a specific region use on average this year?” We examine the dataset in new reports every year. This report explains the model — read it first.