Customer experience (CX) leaders are pragmatically optimistic about their resources as they try to reverse declines in CX quality: 39% plan to increase their overall CX investments above inflation in the next 12 months. To succeed, they must act decisively to boost their teams’ productivity, accelerate the flow of insights across the organization, and support tech leaders in driving AI adoption. This report provides CX leaders with data-driven guidance on where to increase, decrease, or experiment with their budgets for 2026.