The Forrester Wave™: Conversational AI Platforms For Customer Service, Q2 2026
More than 650 conversational AI vendors compete for relevance in a market shaped by the needs of roughly 15 million contact center agents. The 14 vendors included in this evaluation demonstrate a clear understanding that success in this market depends on far more than impressive demos or novel AI techniques. Customer service leaders require platforms that integrate with entrenched, long-lived IT environments; support the creation of highly tailored, brand-aligned applications; and enable collaboration between software developers and business users. Equally critical are enterprise-grade observability and enforceable guardrails — prerequisites for earning the confidence of risk-averse legal and compliance teams. All vendors in this evaluation embed some form of agentic framework within their platforms, reflecting a broader shift toward more autonomous, task-oriented customer self-service.
No common features specified.
Vendors must, among other requirements:
A: This research evaluates 14 conversational AI platform providers for customer service based on their current offering capabilities, strategy, and customer feedback. The evaluation focuses on how well platforms integrate into IT environments, align with internal development teams, and support table-stakes agentic frameworks for customer self-service.
A: Customer service leaders should use this research to assess conversational AI platform vendors and determine how well their products fit safely into IT environments, align with internal teams in terms of development approaches and tools, and support agentic frameworks for autonomous customer self-service.
A: All vendors included in this evaluation must provide: (1) Broad, enterprise-level support with all core functions natively provided and demonstrated track record supporting large enterprises; (2) A conversational AI solution specifically targeted at and packaged for the customer service market; (3) A standalone product available for purchase with its own SKU and pricing, actively used by customers on a standalone basis; (4) At least $35 million in annual revenue from the conversational AI for customer service product in the last four quarters; (5) Significant mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients, frequently mentioned in client inquiries, advisories, and consulting engagements, and recognized as a competitor by other vendors.
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A: Strength of Offering evaluates the current capabilities and functionality of the conversational AI platform, including technical features like AI model management, development tools, scalability, security, and integration capabilities. It focuses on what the platform can do today. Strength of Strategy evaluates the vendor's future direction and market approach, including their vision for AI in customer service, innovation capabilities, product roadmap, partner ecosystem strength, pricing models, and service offerings. It focuses on where the vendor is heading and how well-positioned they are for future success.