Research Finds 96% of Organizations Report that Agentic AI Deployments Met or Exceeded ROI Expectations in 2026
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN), a global leader in voice and agentic AI, today released new data revealing that customer service leaders are beginning to see ROI on agentic AI as more businesses deploy AI agents to deal with consumer queries and transactions.
The study, which surveyed customer contact, customer experience, and operations leaders with agentic AI projects already in production, marks a sharp departure from prior CCW Digital research. As recently as 2025, 50% of leaders reported their AI projects were progressing more slowly than expected. Today, that pessimism has been replaced by measurable results, and a fundamental rethink of what "self-service" customer engagement can do.
Key Findings
- ROI is delivering: 96% of organizations with active agentic AI deployments report results that met (54%) or exceeded (42%) their ROI expectations.
- Employee satisfaction is rising: 72% of organizations report employee satisfaction has increased since introducing agentic AI, with 24% calling the increase significant.
- Customers are re-engaging with self-service: 50% of organizations report customers are now more inclined to actively engage and converse with self-service platforms — such as AI-powered chat and phone systems — reversing years of documented consumer avoidance.
- Agentic AI is changing enterprise strategy: 95% of respondents say their agentic AI deployments have already changed how their enterprise thinks about holistic AI transformation.
- Complex resolution is now real: More than one in four deployments (28%) can resolve complex or unique issues end-to-end without human intervention — the type of work prior-generation AI could not complete.
- Deployment is easier than expected: 82% of respondents found deployment either exactly as expected (64%) or easier than expected (18%). The integration friction and cost overruns that affected more than 70% of organizations in the pre-agentic era now affect only a minority of deployments.
- The autonomous frontline is on the horizon: 9 in 10 respondents (90%) expect at least 25% of customer interactions to be fully resolved by AI agents within five years; 58% expect the majority of interactions to be AI-resolved.
"The shift we're seeing is not incremental, it is categorical," said Michael Zagorsek, Chief Operating Officer at SoundHound AI. "For years, self-service was something customers tolerated at best and bypassed at worst. Agentic AI is changing that equation by actually resolving issues rather than deflecting them. The organizations that have made this shift are seeing it reflected in their ROI, their customer satisfaction scores, and now their broader enterprise strategy."
From Deflection Tool to Resolution Engine
Earlier generations of AI in the contact center were constrained to generating responses — retrieving information, summarizing policies, and answering questions — while leaving the customer to complete the resolution themselves. Agentic AI breaks that model. The study found that leading deployments today can:
- Execute multi-step workflows and access multiple systems of record
- Process complaints and returns (56%) and handle replacements and reshipments (45%)
- Deliver make-good and promotional credits (45%) and process full or partial refunds (44%)
- Route customers and initiate multi-step collaboration between AI and human agents
The impact on customer behavior is already visible. Since launching agentic AI projects, 46% of organizations report customers are more inclined to start their inquiry in a self-service environment, and 38% report customers are now more inclined to seek exceptions or make-goods through self-service — work that previously required escalation to senior agents.
Channels Converge; Workforce Transforms
Agentic AI deployments are now operating across channels that were previously siloed. The study found 74% of organizations have incorporated agentic AI into live chat, 67% use it in email, and 53% use it on voice calls (phone). Also, 28% percent have extended deployments to social and asynchronous messaging.
The human workforce is being transformed. 94% of organizations say humans are monitoring or supporting at least some AI-driven resolutions. More than 66% of leaders have seen a noticeable shift in employee workflows and responsibilities since introducing agentic AI, with 72% reporting an increase in employee satisfaction.
SoundHound's OASYS
OASYS is SoundHound's category-defining agentic platform, and the world's first self-learning AI system where AI builds AI. Unlike traditional build-and-deploy approaches that demand constant manual upkeep, OASYS autonomously creates, orchestrates, evaluates, and improves entire fleets of conversational AI agents, turning what once took months of developer effort into a matter of minutes. The platform is continuously refining itself based on real-world usage, so businesses get smarter and more efficient AI over time without the maintenance burden.
OASYS offers the ability to meet customers and employees wherever they are. Agents built on the platform deploy seamlessly across phones, web chat, in-store kiosks, drive-thrus, social media, smart TVs, and in-vehicle infotainment – maintaining context across channels, devices, and languages throughout every interaction. Backed by enterprise-grade guardrails and SoundHound's patented Human Assisted Resolution (HAR) technology, OASYS handles everything from complex insurance claims and retail orders to prescription refills and outbound customer engagement, delivering fluid, conversational experiences that get better the more they're used.
SoundHound will be showcasing OASYS at Customer Contact Week in Las Vegas from June 22-25 at booth #756. Additionally, join SoundHound's interactive workshop, "From Skeptic to Scaled: What It Actually Takes to Deploy Agentic AI in Customer Contact," on Tuesday, June 23 at 3:30 PM in Workshop D, where attendees will build live AI agents on the spot.
Read the full report here: https://www.soundhound.com/resources/whitepaper/state-of-agentic-ai-in-contact-centers/
Learn more about SoundHound's OASYS agentic AI platform here: https://www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-blog/meet-oasys/
About the Study
This report is the product of a comprehensive benchmarking survey developed by CCW Digital and SoundHound AI.
These findings come from a survey of customer contact, customer experience, and operations leaders with active agentic AI projects already in production, not just in ideation or planning stage. The sample is uniquely positioned to describe what is actually working.
For this study, "agentic AI" refers to systems that go beyond generating responses or retrieving information. Rather, they can take autonomous, multi-step action on behalf of the customer or employee, including executing transactions,accessing systems of record, and completing resolutions. Just over two thirds of respondents were at least one year into their agentic AI journeys; 12% confirmed they had been using the technology for more than two years. Upwards of 82% said their customer-facing agentic AI projects were in a production phase, with 46% confirming a large-scale rollout .The numbers for employee-facing projects were 85% and 43%, respectively.
More than 31% rank as a director or vice president of customer experience, with an additional 17% identifying their role as head of contact center operations. Other leading respondent groups include chief customer officers, chief information officers, and customer experience managers. Reflecting an enterprise user base, respondents work for companies with at least 500 full-time employees and $500 million in annual revenue. More than half are part of organizations with at least 5,000 employees. The survey was open to most industries, but the majority of respondents were from retail and e-commerce, healthcare, telecommunications, or banking and finance.
About CMP Research
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About SoundHound AI
SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) is a voice and agentic AI company that enables businesses to deliver natural, end-to-end conversational experiences across digital and physical channels, including phones, kiosks, chat, smart devices, drive-thrus, TVs, in-vehicle, and more. Its agentic platform, OASYS, is a self-learning, orchestrated AI system where organizations can build and deploy conversational AI agents to handle transactions, tasks, and workflows on behalf of customers and employees. Built on proprietary technology backed by 400+ patents and years of AI research, SoundHound serves leading brands across industries including automotive, financial services, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and more. It powers millions of products and processes billions of interactions annually for enterprise customers worldwide. Learn more at: www.soundhound.com
Media Contact
Fiona McEvoy
PR@soundhound.com
415-610-6590
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/23a15a0c-6bf5-455d-91e5-d16c8a2ec95d
