Unifying the Contact Center: Salesforce’s Agentic AI Vision for Customer Service
Release Date: 03/10/2026
Unifying the Contact Center: Salesforce’s Agentic AI Vision for Customer Service
The Modern Customer Podcast
Contact centers have long been built on fragmented systems — CRM for customer data, separate platforms for calls and messaging, and AI layered on top. But that model is starting to change. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, in partnership with Salesforce, Blake Morgan speaks with Gautam Vasudev, SVP of Agentforce Contact Center at Salesforce, about the rise of the agentic contact center — and how companies are beginning to unify AI agents, customer channels, and CRM data on one platform. #ad One key idea: when AI agents and human agents share the same context, customers no...
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Service at Scale: The AI Model Driving Sales and Loyalty
The Modern Customer Podcast
Service economics have long depended on headcount. Scale meant higher cost, and capacity constrained performance. AI changes that. This week on The Modern Customer, , Founder & CEO of , explains how AI expands capacity and connects service directly to business outcomes. Instead of charging per seat or hour, Crescendo ties pricing to measurable results. When teams treat service conversations as engagement opportunities, more than half involve buying intent — and repeat visits increase. In this episode, you’ll learn how organizations: • Turn service interactions into buying moments •...
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What the American Customer Satisfaction Index Reveals About 2026
The Modern Customer Podcast
New data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals nearly a decade of stagnation, a narrowing gap between top and bottom performers, and rising loyalty. Together, these shifts point to one conclusion: customer experience is converging. In this week’s episode of The Modern Customer, Forrest Morgeson, Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index, explains what this means for leaders heading into 2026. As AI accelerates and economic uncertainty persists, differentiation becomes harder to sustain and more critical to get right. If you’re shaping your 2026...
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Powering Connected Customer Conversations with Agentic Voice AI
The Modern Customer Podcast
Customer conversations generate value. Yet most organizations never connect that value to action. Context gets lost across channels, and next steps never connect to downstream systems. This week on The Modern Customer, , RingCentral’s SVP & GM of Conversational AI, shares how agentic voice AI closes that gap. He outlines why organizations must move beyond isolated automation and build systems that coordinate conversations, context, and follow-through across every touchpoint. If you want AI to drive real customer outcomes — not just efficiency — this episode is for you. 👉...
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How CAVA Integrates Hospitality, Experience, and Rewards at Scale
The Modern Customer Podcast
As restaurants scale, preserving hospitality becomes harder to sustain. This week on The Modern Customer, Andrew Rebhun, Chief Experience Officer at CAVA, shares how the Mediterranean fast-casual brand keeps hospitality at the center while scaling to 400+ locations. The conversation breaks down how experience leadership actually works at scale—from loyalty and social listening to team training and selective use of AI—without losing human connection. Where do you see the biggest gap today: loyalty design, social listening, or team alignment? 🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore...
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How Great CX Turns Customers Into Superfans
The Modern Customer Podcast
Great customer experience doesn’t lose customers to competitors—it loses them to apathy. And it creates superfans when ownership of the experience is clear. In this episode of The Modern Customer, customer experience speaker and author Brittany Hodak explains what actually turns customers into superfans—and why tools, automation, and AI alone aren’t enough. Drawing on her work with organizations like American Express, Benihana, and Keller Williams, she shows why ownership, accountability, and human judgment drive lasting loyalty. 🎧 Tune in to the full conversation to learn how great...
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What CX Leaders Can Learn From The Laws of Employee Experience
The Modern Customer Podcast
Customer experience leaders face a familiar tension: do we put employees first or customers first? As organizations scale and adopt AI, that question becomes operational. In this special takeover episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, shares insights from , based on research with more than 100 CHROs. He explains why CX and EX operate as one system—and how leadership decisions behind the scenes shape customer outcomes. This conversation gives CX leaders a practical, systems-level lens to strengthen trust, consistency, and performance as AI raises the stakes. Blake Morgan is a...
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Winning with AI Without an AI Strategy
The Modern Customer Podcast
This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, you’ll hear why winning with AI doesn’t start with an AI strategy. In this episode, —former VP of Experience Innovation at —shares a business-first approach to transformation that begins with experience, outcomes, and human capability, with AI supporting execution underneath. The conversation explores how leaders can move beyond AI experimentation and hype by anchoring technology decisions to growth, productivity, and the experiences they want to deliver to customers and employees. If you’re navigating AI investments, organizational change,...
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How AI Is Changing How Customer Bugs Get Resolved
The Modern Customer Podcast
As digital products become the primary customer interface, delays in bug diagnosis and resolution now directly affect the customer experience. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Matt Rubright, Chief Customer Officer at Jam, explains how Jam fits into the bug-reporting and support workflow by capturing technical context as issues are reported. That shared context helps support and engineering diagnose problems faster, reduce handoffs, and move toward resolution with greater clarity. The conversation looks at why resolution speed and coordination have become CX priorities—and how...
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How a Fortune 500 Bank Turns Half a Million Customer Signals to Lead CX
The Modern Customer Podcast
In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Krista Phillips, Chief Customer and Transformation Officer at M&T Bank, explains how a Fortune 500 bank turns half a million customer signals into CX execution. The conversation explores how structure, governance, analytics, and AI help move customer insight from feedback into action—while balancing digital growth with trust and prioritizing relationships over transactions. Topics covered include: Anchoring CX in relationships, not transactions Balancing digital convenience with trust-based experiences Turning customer signals into...
info_outlineContact centers have long been built on fragmented systems — CRM for customer data, separate platforms for calls and messaging, and AI layered on top.
But that model is starting to change.
In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, in partnership with Salesforce, Blake Morgan speaks with Gautam Vasudev, SVP of Agentforce Contact Center at Salesforce, about the rise of the agentic contact center — and how companies are beginning to unify AI agents, customer channels, and CRM data on one platform. #ad
One key idea: when AI agents and human agents share the same context, customers no longer have to repeat their problem multiple times they’re transferred.
The conversation explores:
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Why contact centers have remained fragmented
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How AI and human agents can work together
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What shared customer context means for CX leaders
This episode is sponsored by Salesforce. Learn more about Agentforce Contact Center.
Blake Morgan was called “The Queen of CX” by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn
For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com