In the dynamic world of customer experience (CX), keeping agents engaged, efficient, and effective is a constant challenge. This is where workforce engagement management (WEM) comes into play, providing a suite of tools designed to optimize everything from agent coaching to forecasting workforce demands and scheduling.

But how are companies truly using WEM, and what’s making a real difference in 2025? Metrigy’s newly released Workforce Engagement Management 2025-26 global research study of 316 companies dives deep into these and other questions, offering invaluable insights into the strategies and tools giving shape to the CX workforce.

Here’s a peek at some of the study’s most compelling findings.

The Core of WEM: WFM and Performance Management Lead the Way

In the study, Metrigy examined which core WEM applications are most in use and which are having the biggest affect. The applications are: workforce management (WFM), quality management (QM), performance management, interaction analytics, training and coaching, employee feedback/voice of the employee, and gamification.

It’s no surprise that WFM remains the backbone of WEM, with a striking 70.9% of companies relying on it. After all, getting the right people in the right place at the right time is fundamental.

However, performance management is the most-used WEM application among this study’s Research Success Group, comprising those companies that show average or better-than-average improvements in revenue, costs, and CSAT (those measuring success but falling below average on improvements go into the non-success group). Nearly 81% of companies in the success group use performance management, vs. 68.4% of all companies and 61.1% of the non-success group. At 80.8% to 61.1%, the gap between successful and not successful is substantial, more so than the success correlations we also see for the use of WFM (76.9% of the success group, vs. 68.1% of the non-success group) and QM (76.9% of the success group, vs. 69.4% of the non-success group).

While WFM and performance management rate as the most important of core WEM applications, the higher success correlation for performance management suggests that while efficient scheduling is vital, actively managing and developing agent performance is what truly propels companies forward.

Beyond the Basics: Bolstering WEM with Supporting Technologies

WEM isn’t just about core applications. Our research shows that over half of companies are bolstering their WEM functions with a range of supporting technologies, including:

This holistic approach indicates a mature understanding of how interconnected various tools are in optimizing the workforce.

The Voice of the Customer: Integrating Feedback for Agent Insight

A growing number of companies are wisely integrating customer feedback directly into their WEM tools. Currently, 41.9% are doing so, with another 32.3% planning to do so in 2025.

The immediate benefit? For most companies (58.6%), the biggest value of using customer feedback with WEM is in providing insight into agent performance. However, in the future,  47.1% of companies said the ability to compare the performance of live agents vs. virtual agents will be the biggest value. Being able to compare customer feedback in this way will provide a crucial benchmark for the evolving hybrid CX environment.

Real-Time Responsiveness: A Supervisor’s Dream

As supervisors manage the agent workforce, they need agility. Our study found that 41.1% of supervisors seek the ability to react to scheduling and forecasting insights in real-time. Interestingly, small companies (250 or fewer employees) feel this need more acutely than midsized (250 to 2,500 employees) or large (more than 250 employees) companies. Small companies expect this real-time capability 1.4 times more than their larger counterparts. The desire for real-time scheduling flexibility highlights a clear demand for dynamic WEM tools that allow supervisors to adapt rapidly.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

Metrigy’s study makes it clear: WEM is no longer a luxury; it’s a strategic imperative. To truly succeed, businesses must:

By focusing on these areas, you can ensure your workforce is engaged, your operations are efficient, and your customers receive the exceptional experience they deserve.

A critique of AI as part of the CX journey is that it will eliminate a customer-friendly human touch. But not every customer ask needs human attention.

There’s something to be said about the “human touch” and personalization during conversations with sales or service representatives helping customers make a purchase or solve a problem.

Creating a short-term bond makes customers walk away happier, refer a business to a friend, and even spend more money—all items for the “plus” side of customer relationship management.

But what happens when an AI agent enters the picture? One of the criticisms of the technology is that companies will lose the human touch in their customer interactions if they start using AI agents or even go too far with automation.

If AI is deployed properly, this is a nonissue.

Is Human Touch Needed all the Time?

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is seemingly everywhere. From powering our smart devices to streamlining business operations, AI’s presence is undeniable. But as companies rapidly adopt AI solutions, a crucial question arises: How do consumers really feel about it?

That’s precisely what Metrigy’s newest AI for Business Success – A Consumer’s Perspective annual research study sets out to uncover. This isn’t just another tech report; it’s a deep dive into what we – the everyday users – really think and feel about AI, whether we’re using it at work, in school, or dealing with companies.

For too long, the conversation around AI adoption has focused on the enterprise side: what companies can do with AI, the efficiencies they can gain, and the innovations they can achieve. But what about the people on the receiving end? This new Metrigy study highlights critical gaps and misalignments between what businesses excitement to adopt AI solutions and what consumers may or may not want.

What will you learn from this essential research?

Understanding the consumer perspective is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity for any business looking to successfully integrate AI. By uncovering these insights, Metrigy provides guidance for companies to refine their AI strategies, build greater trust, and deliver experiences that truly resonate with their customers and employees.

Don’t just implement AI; implement it wisely, with the consumer in mind.

Most do, but not always with the same level of enthusiasm as businesses, according to Metrigy’s research.

“Whom you often long to speak to during a customer service call.” This clue from a recent New York Times mini crossword puzzle gave me nary a pause, thanks to the CX analyst in me. I knew “human” had to be the answer … despite the industry’s best efforts to insert AI agents into customer interactions.

In studying business and consumer perceptions about AI’s use for CX, Metrigy has found several areas in which the two don’t match up. Here’s one example: Most businesses (75.9%) using AI feel their customer service has improved in the last year, according to our global “AI for Business Success 2025-26” study with 1,104 companies. Consumers, however, are divided in their opinions on the quality of their customer service interactions. In an April 2025 study of 503 consumers in North America, only 35.6% reported that customer service had gotten better. The others were fairly evenly split between not seeing any change and seeing a degradation in customer service.

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Developing a solid CX strategy is significantly harder than it once was. When do AI agents trump human agents? In a digital-first world, does voice still matter? And how important is platform integration to unlock new levels of agility and insight?

Join Metrigy and Nextiva to get answers and insights to these crucial questions, and master building a sophisticated and flexible CX strategy that will drive business metrics. Hear from Metrigy CEO Robin Gareiss and Nextiva’s Senior Director, Porfolio Product Marketing & Customer Marketing Kate Hodgins, who will address the following:

Omnichannel 3.0: Mastering the Intersection of AI + Humans in a Digital-First World

Presented by: Robin Gareiss, CEO and Principal Analyst, Metrigy
Kate Hodgins, Senior Director of Porfolio Product Marketing & Customer Marketing, Nextiva Marketing

Date: June 25, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm ET

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The next phase of generative AI is agentics, where detailed analytics and AI-powered workflows guide AI agents to take action to solve a problem or address an opportunity. This series covers:

CX Expert Insights Series 2 – Agentics: How and When to Deploy for Maximum Impact

Presented by: Robin Gareiss, CEO and Principal Analyst, Metrigy
Elizabeth Tobey, VP of Marketing, NICE
Gavin Frank, VP of Ecosystems, TechSee

Date: June 10, 2025
Time: 12:00 pm ET

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Metrigy’s research documents significant improvements to business metrics, including revenue (36%), customer satisfaction (39%), and employee productivity (29%), when companies use AI that is targeted toward agent performance. This series covers:

CX Expert Insights Series 1: AI’s Growing Roles in Supercharging Agent Performance

Presented by: Robin Gareiss, CEO and Principal Analyst, Metrigy
Elizabeth Tobey, VP of Marketing, NICE
John Finch, Global VP Product Marketing, RingCentral

Date: May 20, 2025
Time: 12:00 pm ET

View Series

Universal AI agents, operational management for AI, autonomous AI agent feedback are closer than you might think and may lead us to fully agentic AI-powered customer experiences.

Looking to the future—and perhaps not such a distant one—IT and customer experience (CX) leaders might imagine the day when autonomous virtual agents rule the contact center, running independently to streamline operations and optimize customer interactions, among other tasks. This is the stuff of agentic AI, and its earliest stages are already upon us.

Agentic AI refers to AI systems, based on large language models (LLMs), that autonomously reason, plan, and act, as well as adapt to changing environments. Not only can these systems operate with a high degree of independence, but they can also continuously refine their actions based on context. In essence, agentic AI is the next evolutionary step for conversational and generative AI-based chat/voicebots. For example, agentic-powered AI agents are capable of adapting responses during an interaction based on the customer’s sentiment and intent whereas earlier solutions can only respond based on input prompts—they have no autonomy to do more than execute on predefined, specific tasks.

Agentic AI Solutions to Complement Existing AI

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