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- Sinch challenges the idea that most companies are stuck in pilot mode when it comes to AI
- AI rollbacks are actually a sign of strong governance, not weak performance
- Investments in AI will continue to rise in 2026
According to new Sinch data, AI customer service deployments are already widespread but many organizations are struggling post-launch, with three in four (74%) having rolled back or shut down at least one of the AI communication agents they've deployed on governance grounds.
This comes as around three in five (62%) companies already have AI customer communications agents live in production.
With the data, Sinch argues against the common narrative that most enterprises are still stuck in pilot mode.
Enterprises continue to find issues with AI long after pilot stages
Instead, the report indicates that the biggest challenge is operational reliability once AI agents are actually deployed at scale. Sinch claims the higher rollback rate among mature organizations may actually be a sign of stronger governance – in other words, they're detecting and stopping failures sooner.
"Higher rollback rates reflect better monitoring and control, not weaker performance," CPO Daniel Morris explained.
"Engineering teams are spending most of their time building and maintaining safety systems, a lot of which their communications infrastructure should be providing, instead of focusing on improving the customer experience," Morris added, noting the emergence of a so-called 'guardrail tax'.
Looking ahead, AI investments have become far more than just paying for the latest models. The data now shoes that enterprises invest more in trust, security and compliance (76%) than in AI development itself (63%).
Nearly all respondents (98%) plan to increase AI investments in 2026, however a much bigger shift is at play with 86% evaluating or considering new communications providers and 55% having to build custom infrastructure for cross-channel context.
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