Customers remember every interaction. The infrastructure underneath your AI should too.

Your loyal customers have shopped with you for years. So why do your support agents greet them like strangers every time they switch channels?

Most customers have been there. The moment they switch from chat to phone, from chatbot to human agent, from one interaction to the next, many businesses lose the thread entirely. 

As more companies deploy AI in customer service, the stakes have risen. A chatbot that forgets everything the moment you’re transferred feels unhelpful and actively sabotages the experience it was supposed to improve. The resulting frustration is nearly universal, and largely avoidable. So, why does it keep happening?

Retailers remember customers’ credit card information, but not their last complaint

Customers today move seamlessly between channels, starting a conversation on chat, following up by email, and calling when the situation requires it. 

The reasonable expectation is that their information moves with them. According to the State of Customer Communications report, published by Sinch, 59% of consumers expect exactly that: information that flows between conversations regardless of where or how they reach out (live chat, email, text, or voice). 

When it doesn’t, 81% have a negative reaction if they have to repeat themselves to customer support:

• 42% find it frustrating
• 24% say it wastes their time
• 15% lose trust in the business as a result

How do you feel when you have to repeat your issue or question during conversations with support?

_{81% of customers say they have a negative reaction when they have to repeat their issue or question during conversations with support.}

The expectation is clear, but most brands still can’t deliver it, and the gap they’re leaving is real. PwC’s 2025 Customer Experience Survey found that 89% of executives believe customer loyalty has grown in recent years. Only 39% of consumers agree.

Without context preservation (the ability to retain information on past interactions across channels), every conversation becomes a cold start. Customers feel it every time, and loyalty and trust chip away with every fresh start. 

Streaming services don’t ask what their customers have already watched. They know, and they use this to shape everything they show them next. Customer service should work the same way, but for most businesses, it doesn’t.

That gap was frustrating enough in a world of human agents. With AI, the stakes are even higher. A virtual assistant with no memory of a customer’s last purchase or support ticket feels impersonal and fails at the main thing it was deployed to help businesses do. And contrary to popular belief, that thing isn’t cutting costs: according to Sinch research, only 16% of enterprise leaders cite cost reduction as their main reason for deploying AI in customer communications. For 36%, the main goal is building customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Why switching channels often means starting over

For most consumers, a single buying journey now spans three or more channels and 75% want a connected experience across them, according to McKinsey. But only 25% feel they get one.

Adding more channels has created a structural problem for businesses: Sinch research found that 41% say their communications aren’t fully connected to support customer experiences across channels.

This means each new channel becomes its own silo, its own version of the customer, and potentially, its own source of frustration. 

How well are your communications connected to support customer experiences across multiple channels?

_{Over 40% of businesses say their communications aren’t fully connected to support customer experiences across channels.}

With the expansion of AI across customer communications, that problem has become harder to ignore. Sinch research reveals that 62% of businesses already have live AI communications agents, deployed across an average of 3.3 channels. The top planned integrations include:  

• website and in-app chat (64%)
• email (63%)
• social media messaging (51%)
• SMS (49%)
• WhatsApp or other messaging apps (49%)
• voice (42%)

When these AI agents are built on a foundation that isn’t designed to support them and carry context across channels, they create customer friction at every customer touchpoint.

The same research found that 55% of enterprises are currently building context preservation capabilities themselves because their existing platforms don’t provide it natively. Without it, conversations reset the moment a consumer switches channels. The chat agent who helped you last Tuesday has no idea you called on Thursday. The email you sent with your order number doesn’t show up when you switch to live chat. Every channel holds a fragment of your story, but no single system holds all of it.

For consumers, that unsolved challenge has direct consequences: poor experiences and damaged trust.

The real fix lies underneath the conversations

The brands that have moved past this challenge have one thing in common, and customers, even if they can’t tell what’s changed, feel the difference. 

A customer who spent 10 minutes explaining a delivery issue to a retailer’s AI chatbot doesn’t have to repeat it when transferred to a human agent. A loyalty member who complained about point balance issue doesn’t need to bring it up again on their next call, because the record is already there. The thread is far less likely to drop, no matter how they reach out. 

What makes this possible is the communications infrastructure underneath the conversation. This means systems that carry the full history of every interaction, understand what a customer is trying to accomplish, and move that context forward across every channel and every handoff. 

That foundation is the strongest predictor of AI deployment success, as Sinch research into AI deployment found – more than investment level or AI maturity. With AI now handling the first line of customer communication at many companies, ensuring conversations run smoothly is increasingly the difference consumers notice most. 

The good news is businesses are already responding: 86% have been in conversations with alternative communications providers in the past 12 months.  

No introduction necessary

Getting customer service right has always been about making people feel heard. The technology powering it has changed, but that basic expectation hasn’t. In practice, that means support agents actually remember consumers, no matter the channel they use. 

As AI takes on more of these conversations, a support agent is only as good as the context it can access. Without it, even the most sophisticated AI model is working blind, and when this happens, customers pay the price. 

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