Commissioned by ReflexAI
The Hard Calls
How frontline leaders are preparing for the conversations automation leaves behind.
Routine customer contact is being automated faster than most organizations planned for. What stays with a person is the missed payment, the denied claim, the health scare, the safety emergency, the housing decision.
This research asks the people who run those teams what the work now demands of them, and whether the people doing it are being prepared for it.
- Which conversations will still be handled by people in 2028, and why those.
- How the frontline job itself is changing. Who gets hired, how long they take to ramp, how they are coached, and what the career looks like.
- Whether training, quality, and coaching are keeping pace with the difficulty of what remains.
Fifteen to twenty leaders, all of whom run the team themselves.
No vendors, no analysts, and no one speaking about an operation they outsource. Every contributor meets the same four conditions.
- VP or Director and above, in operations, customer experience, or quality.
- Runs their own frontline team of 150 or more people on voice or chat.
- Already deploying automation in customer contact, or working to a stated plan.
- The conversations carry real stakes for the customer. Money, health, home, or safety.
109 leaders told us what is broken. None of them could tell us what happens next.
In February and March of 2026, ReflexAI commissioned an independent survey of 109 Directors, VPs, and Executives running frontline operations, fielded through the GLG research panel. Current ReflexAI customers were excluded.
- 85%have deployed at least one AI tool for training or quality
- 29%say they are using it effectively in operations
- 58%say their training tools are not fully meeting their needs
- 61%say the same of their quality tools
- 77%do not have enough time for coaching
Published as Why contact center performance management is broken.
That study measured the state of things. This one asks the people running these teams where the work is going, and it can only be answered in their own words.
Semi structured, recorded, and led by whatever turns out to be interesting.
Thirty to forty five minutes over video. Ten to twelve questions, though the good ones tend to arrive by following a story rather than working down a list. There is no survey, no homework, and no draft to read.
A few of the things we would talk through
- The two or three conversation types you would not hand to automation, and what you are guarding against in each.
- A recent conversation that no automated system could have handled.
- How long it takes a new hire to be ready for the hardest conversations, and whether that is getting longer.
- How your people practice for a hard conversation before they face one live.
- Finish the sentence. In 2028, the frontline job will be…
If finding 45 minutes is the hard part, a voice memo or written answers carry the same weight. Several contributors will take that route.
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Named in the report
Your name, title, and company, alongside 15 to 20 senior leaders.
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An edited clip of your segment
Cut from your interview, produced to publication standard, and yours to use however you want.
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The report before anyone else
An advance copy in your hands ahead of the public launch.
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A co-marketing kit
The finished asset packaged so your marketing team can run with it.
The report launches in October to a gated list of more than 200 senior operations and experience leaders, with an advance copy going to contributors first. It is amplified across the LinkedIn audiences of ReflexAI's founders, Sam Dorison and John Callery-Coyne, along with the writing built off the findings in the weeks after launch.
ReflexAI commissioned this research and will publish it. The findings belong to the people interviewed.
ReflexAI builds simulation and quality tooling for teams handling conversations where the stakes are real. Its founders came out of crisis line work at The Trevor Project, which is where the company's view of this problem started, and it is backed by Google.org. The platform is HIPAA compliant and HITRUST certified.
No part of this is a product pitch. ReflexAI does not sit in on the conversations and does not decide what the report concludes.
How much time does this actually take?
One call of 30 to 45 minutes. Nothing before it and nothing after it. If a live call is difficult to schedule, a voice memo or written answers work just as well.
Is this a sales call in disguise?
No. The interviews are run by Catalyst, the research partner producing the report, rather than by anyone at ReflexAI. Nobody follows up with a pitch, and there is no commercial conversation attached to taking part.
Do I need approval from communications or legal first?
Many contributors do, and it is a normal step. Ask and we will send a one page summary of the scope, the topics, and how the material is used, written to be forwarded internally.
Can I see how I am quoted before it publishes?
Yes. You see your own quotes in context before anything goes out, and you decide how you are attributed. Some contributors prefer their title and industry without their company name, and that is a normal request.
What if my company will not let me discuss specific numbers?
Directional answers are useful. Most of what makes this report worth reading is judgment rather than metrics, and no contributor is asked to share anything their company treats as confidential.
Reply on the email thread and we will find a time.
Contributor selection closes at the end of the month, and interviews run through to the October launch. If the timing is wrong but the subject is not, say so and we will send you the report when it is out.