Observed Signal · Jun 15, 2026 · Survey · Source: https://martechseries.com/feed/ · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Survey: European Firms Scale AI but Lack Governance
A Vanson Bourne survey of 200 senior CX, contact centre, compliance, risk and data leaders across Western and Central Europe, commissioned by CallMiner and reported via Business Wire/MarTech Series (published 2026-06-15), finds nearly universal pressure to scale AI in customer experience (99%) but limited governance: only 38% report a clear AI governance approach. The study highlights gaps between rapid AI adoption (59% scaling quickly) and compliance (39% say compliance keeps pace), multilingual challenges (96% use AI in multilingual CX; 64% call it a major challenge), and trust concerns—accuracy, explainability and data protection drive customer trust. Organisations increasingly rely on external vendors to accelerate adoption (71%) and for evolving regulatory compliance (66%). CallMiner’s VP of International, Frank Sherlock, emphasised the need for visibility, human oversight and governance to mitigate CX and compliance risks.
The survey reveals widespread AI adoption in CX but a significant governance shortfall in Europe, highlighting compliance, multilingual and trust risks that affect how MarTech vendors, CX teams and regulators approach AI deployments and vendor selection.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Survey of 200 senior CX, contact centre, compliance, risk, governance, security and data protection leaders across Western and Central Europe conducted by Vanson Bourne for CallMiner.
- 99% of respondents say they feel pressure to scale AI in customer experience (CX).
- Only 38% of organisations report having a clear and well-defined AI governance approach.
- 59% say they are scaling AI quickly, while 39% believe compliance is keeping pace; 70% think speed of adoption is often prioritised over compliance.
- 71% say external AI technology vendors accelerate AI adoption and 66% trust external partners more than internal solutions for compliance as regulations evolve.
Connected Companies & Entities
1 Entity mappedRelated Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Enterprises Deploy AI Faster Than Governance, Smarsh Study
Smarsh released the 2026 Enterprise AI Trends Study (conducted by FTI Consulting) finding that 55% of enterprises are actively deploying AI while only 26% say governance is keeping pace. The report highlights limited visibility into unauthorized or "shadow AI" (only 30% report comprehensive detection and management capabilities) and frames communications data as a critical foundation for responsible AI, investigations, and business intelligence. The study identifies five trends — governance lagging adoption, communications data becoming strategic, interconnected systemic risk across AI agents/APIs/third-party apps, a shift toward proactive security and resiliency, and compliance evolving into a strategic function. It also reports enterprise investment priorities: 62% in AI/ML capabilities, 53% in data quality/enrichment, and 51% modernizing archives. Smarsh and FTI executives emphasize that scaling AI safely requires stronger data governance across connected ecosystems.
AI adoption hits 90% in CX, deployment paths diverge
Five9’s “2026 Business Leaders CX Report” finds 90% of customer experience (CX) organizations are piloting or deploying AI, but there is no consensus on governance or deployment architecture. Respondents are split among end-to-end platforms, hybrid setups, and best-of-breed solutions. Infrastructure trends favor flexibility: 84% are transitioning from on-premises to cloud and 74% operate hybrid customer care environments (16% fully cloud, 10% fully on-premises). Data security is the top implementation concern (31%), followed by reliability, scalability, and customer consent (27%). Early AI deployments focus on operational efficiency—self-service automation (42%), quality management (41%), and speech/text analytics (40%)—while customer-facing use cases like knowledge authoring (30%), journey analytics (28%), and personalization (26%) lag. Roughly nine in 10 respondents report positive ROI across AI use cases, shifting the conversation toward operational execution, governance, and trust.
81% of Enterprises Stall AI Over Data Governance Gaps
Transcend published The 2026 State of Customer Data in the World of AI, a report based on a survey of 228 senior IT and business leaders at enterprises with 5,000+ employees. The research finds 81% of enterprises experienced at least one AI initiative delayed, scaled back, or abandoned in the prior 12 months, and identifies permission and governance gaps as the primary cause. Key issues include high rates of permission errors during the AI lifecycle (93%), engineering time consumed by remediation rather than feature work (only 23% of AI engineering hours go to features), and limited enterprise readiness for AI governance (15% have all four foundational capabilities). The report introduces an “Encoded AI Governance” framework, outlines five best practices and a 90-day phased action plan, and includes case studies where Transcend helped large enterprises unblock revenue.
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