The traditional “omnichannel” approach is being replaced by something far more dynamic: a living ecosystem of intelligent, two-way dialogues. As brands move away from simple automation toward sophisticated “digital labour,” the focus has shifted from mere efficiency to deep, trust-based customer connections.
To explore how these trends are manifesting in the Australian market, Mark Atterby from CXFocus sat down with Angus Mansfield, Senior Vice President of Sales and Partnerships APAC at Sinch. With a front-row seat to the explosion of conversational AI and the rise of Rich Communication Services (RCS), Angus provides a unique perspective on why 2026 is the year irrelevance becomes invisible and trust becomes the ultimate currency.
Mark Atterby (MA): Please provide a brief description of your current job role and mission?
Angus Mansfield (AM): As Senior Vice President of Sales & Partnerships APAC at Sinch, I drive the commercial strategy for one of the world’s most dynamic and fast-growing regions. I lead high-performing sales and partner teams across diverse markets, overseeing all aspects of new business, customer growth, and ecosystem partnerships to ensure we deliver against Sinch’s regional and global ambitions.
My role centres on building and scaling a strong partner ecosystem: from carriers and resellers to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), cloud platforms, and technology partners. By embedding Sinch’s Customer Communications Cloud into their solutions, we enable secure, AI-powered messaging, voice, and email experiences that reach customers on the channels they already use.
Ultimately, my focus is on turning Sinch’s global scale, innovation, and product depth into measurable value for APAC partners and brands: higher engagement, stronger customer experience, and predictable, sustainable revenue growth. I’m passionate about unlocking new opportunities in rapidly evolving markets and ensuring our partners are set up to win in the next era of intelligent customer communications.
MA: Beyond the obvious rise of AI, what is the most significant CX trend that you believe will fundamentally disrupt the Australian market next year – a trend, maybe, that most are currently underestimating?
AM: AI is going to fundamentally shift the way that brands can communicate with customers. But the biggest CX shift in Australia next year won’t just be AI itself—it’ll be the impact it has on customers and rising expectations. Brands are rapidly using AI to deliver simple, one-off alerts to orchestrating more complex, connected conversations across their digital channels.
However, customer expectations are rising fast. Sinch’s 2026 predictions show that consumers are increasingly frustrated if they can’t continue a conversation or query an update in the channel of their choice. Brands that still rely on one-way, broadcast-style messages are already beginning to feel outdated and disconnected from what customers now expect.
In practice, Australian customers will expect to reply to an SMS or WhatsApp message, and soon, a Rich Communication Services (RCS) message to ask a question, complete a purchase or authenticate themselves, all within the same trusted thread. The real disruption isn’t the channel itself, but the shift to journeys where every interaction is two-way, verified and seamlessly connected across devices. AI agents will help brands meet these expectations while simultaneously raising the bar.
Most local brands are still in the early stages of this shift, which is why the impact on customer experience, loyalty and revenue is still widely underestimated.
MA: What specific, measurable shift in Australian consumer behaviour or technological capability makes you confident that your prediction will be accurate and impactful by the end of next year?
AM: The fact is that this is already starting to happen. Brands are adopting technology, including AI, to power dynamic, two-way customer conversations, and the results are already beginning to show.
When brands move from one-way messaging to orchestrated conversations, we are already seeing clear engagement uplifts and better experiences. Sinch’s data shows that 80% of people react negatively when they have to repeat information during support interactions. In response, 46% of businesses say they plan to improve how communications integrates within the digital transformation in their business, and many are rolling out AI powered chat and voice experiences that keep context across channels. In Australia and across APAC, major brands are already replacing static alerts with two‑way service flows and connected journeys, lifting response and completion rates and overall satisfaction, instead of just sending more one‑off notifications.
MA: Beyond the single biggest pivot you identified, what’s the single biggest risk for CX leaders if they fail to make that pivot, and how quickly will that failure translate into lost revenue or market share?
AM: The biggest risk for CX leaders is a rapid loss of trust. Customers already find one-way alerts less engaging, and Sinch’s research shows that nearly one in three consumers are frustrated when they cannot respond to a customer update. At the same time, half say they have treated legitimate brand messages as suspicious, and intelligent inboxes from Apple and Google will increasingly filter out generic or untrusted content.
If brands stay with siloed, one-way messaging, their notifications will be ignored, downgraded or blocked while competitors use verified sender profiles, conversational threads and connected journeys to feel personal and safe. In practical terms, declining open rates, response rates, and repeat purchases will start to show in the numbers within 12 to 18 months, and before the end of 2026, as customers quietly shift their spend to brands that recognise them across channels and make trust visible.
MA: If we fast-forward to the end of 2026, what’s a concrete example of a customer interaction a typical Australian consumer will have with a major brand that simply wasn’t possible or practical in 2025?
AM: If 2026 is the year when two-way customer conversations become the benchmark, by the end of the year we’ll see this evolve into agent-to-agent conversations, as Agentic AI becomes mainstream for both brands and consumers. Increasingly, these interactions will take place between AI agents on both sides, carried across channels, enriched with full context, and backed by visible verification.
For example, imagine a major airline facing a disruption. Instead of sending a one-way SMS alert, the customer receives a verified, branded RCS or WhatsApp message they immediately recognise as legitimate. They reply in the same thread to review alternative flights, seat options and compensation – all guided by an AI agent that already understands their preferences, past behaviour and loyalty status.
If they prefer to talk, they can tap to switch into a natural Voice AI conversation that picks up exactly where the chat left off – no repetition, no friction. Behind the scenes, the customer’s own personal AI assistant can even negotiate with the airline’s AI agent to lock in a new itinerary that suits their calendar.
You’ll start to see similar experiences across banking, utilities and retail, basically, any sector where time-sensitive updates and seamless service recovery matter most.
MA: If your prediction is correct, what is the single biggest pivot Australian CX leaders must make right now in their budget, team structure, or technology stack to capitalise on it?
AM: If this vision plays out, the biggest pivot Australian CX leaders need to make is to fund and build a single, AI-ready conversation layer that connects every channel and system. Today, most organisations still treat SMS, WhatsApp, email, apps and contact centres as separate projects, which is why only around half say their communications are fully integrated.
To capitalise on 2026, budgets need to move from channel-by-channel campaigns to a unified platform that orchestrates journeys across SMS, WhatsApp, email and voice – with AI agents able to see and act on the same customer context. Businesses that integrate rich channels into a single AI-driven journey will set the pace for engagement, loyalty and growth.