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Why Agentic AI Becomes the CX Default
Customer conversations are no longer just automated — they’re adaptive, persistent, and agent-driven.
In 2026, the question won’t be if you use AI agents, but how you operate them safely at scale.
This guide outlines the six predictions driving the shift to agentic CX — and how leading enterprises are preparing their teams, systems, and operations for what’s next.
Beginners in AI
Good morning and thank you for joining us again!
Welcome to this daily edition of Beginners in AI, where we explore the latest trends, tools, and news in the world of AI and the tech that surrounds it. Like all editions, this is human curated and edited, and published with the intention of making AI news and technology more accessible to everyone.
THE FRONT PAGE
MIT Just Built an AI Liver — Why 2 New Tissue Models Are Changing Medicine
TLDR: MIT researchers developed new tissue models that accurately replicate liver disease, which could significantly speed up how we develop life-saving drugs.
The Story: Researchers at MIT have built two new liver models that mimic how fat builds up in human tissue. These models allow scientists to watch disease progression in real-time, providing a much clearer picture than previous lab methods. By using these advanced setups, the team successfully tested drug treatments that help reduce fat buildup and inflammation. This development is a major advance for metabolic research, as it offers a reliable way to test new medicines before they ever reach human trials.
Its Significance: Continuing with great news for AI enhanced medicine this week following yesterday’s AI Catches 12% More Breast Cancers That Doctors Miss, Major Study Finds This matters because liver disease is a growing health crisis, and finding treatments has always been slow and expensive. If these models work as expected, we'll see better drugs reach the market much faster. It’s a sign that AI and bioengineering are finally cracking some of our toughest medical puzzles. For patients, this means more hope for effective cures within our lifetime.
The story: New AI capabilities from Anthropic triggered a massive sell-off in global software and data shares. One trigger was Anthropic's launch of plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent, which automates tasks across legal, sales, marketing, and data analysis. Investors are now worried that traditional business models in publishing and professional services may not hold up.
Your takeaway: If your investments or job rely on selling static data or routine professional services, AI is moving into that space fast. This sell-off is a signal that the market is starting to price in that reality. The companies that adapt will thrive. The ones that don't will get left behind.
(Want to get ahead of this shift? The Beginners in AI Claude Specialist Course launches next week — designed to help you actually use these exact tools instead of being disrupted by them. Beginner focused. Stay tuned for details.)
The story: This startup raised a massive Series B round from Sequoia and a16z to develop new AI accelerator hardware. Its goal is to provide a cost-effective alternative to Nvidia's GPUs for training large models.
Your takeaway: Expect the price of AI computing to drop as new competitors finally break Nvidia's monopoly.
The story: The new platform uses autonomous agents to handle personalized services across mobile, online, and branch channels. These agents help banks anticipate customer needs and manage complex financial tasks without human intervention.
Your takeaway: Banking is becoming more conversational and automated. This helps speed up your service but reduces the need for human bank tellers.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
📝 Superlist Freemium: Modern task manager that seamlessly separates professional work from personal lists, allowing for intuitive collaboration.
📧 Shortwave Freemium: AI powered email client that groups related threads and summarizes history, helping you reach inbox zero efficiently.
🐧 Docmost Free and Open Source: Privacy first open source alternative to Notion, designed for building internal documentation and wikis. (Alternative to Notion)
🚀 Fibr Freemium: Agentic website optimization platform that transforms static URLs into adaptive experiences, automatically personalizing pages for every visitor.
TRENDING
Fibr’s Website Flip: Fibr uses AI agents to turn static websites into personalized, one-to-one experiences for every visitor.
Kaggle’s Game Arena: Google DeepMind launched updates to its arena where AI models compete to rank their actual performance.
Musical AI Funding: The firm raised $4.5M to scale a platform that ensures artists get paid when AI uses their music.
Microsoft’s Agentic Web: Microsoft is building a content marketplace to help creators get paid as AI agents start browsing the web.
The AI Infrastructure Crisis: Some tech firms show signs of financial distress as they struggle to afford the trillions needed for AI data centers.
Copyright Exposed: A new analysis argues AI didn't break copyright law, but rather showed how broken the old human-scale rules already were.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
Email Bankruptcy Calculator: Decide if you should nuke your inbox, save what matters, and start fresh without the guilt
Build a fully functional Email Bankruptcy Calculator as an interactive React app. Render the working application immediately - no code display.
**Current inbox count**: [How many unread emails]
**Oldest unread email**: [Days/weeks/months old]
**How this makes you feel**: [Anxious, overwhelmed, numb, defeated]
Create these sections:
1. **Inbox Debt Assessment**
• Enter your numbers:
- Total unread emails
- Oldest unread message age
- Average emails per day incoming
- Minutes per email to process
• Calculate total hours to reach zero
• "At your current pace, you'll hit zero in... NEVER"
• Debt-to-income ratio (incoming vs. processed)
2. **Bankruptcy Eligibility**
• Do you qualify?
✅ 500+ unread emails
✅ Oldest email 30+ days
✅ You've "given up" on catching up
✅ Important stuff gets buried
✅ The number causes anxiety
• Score: "You qualify for Chapter 11 Inbox Relief"
• "Search Email Management Strategies" button
3. **The Nuclear Option**
• Full bankruptcy protocol:
💣 Select all → Archive (not delete)
💣 They're not gone, just reset
💣 Anyone who needed you will email again
💣 Set a "fresh start" date
• Guilt reducer: "If it was urgent, they called"
• Big red "DECLARE BANKRUPTCY" button
• Satisfying explosion animation
4. **Selective Bailout**
• If full nuke feels too extreme:
- Search for emails from your boss → save
- Search for emails with "urgent" → review
- Search last 7 days → keep
- Everything else → archive
• Filter templates to run
• "Save the important 5%, nuke the rest"
• Step-by-step triage guide
5. **Fresh Start Protocol**
• Post-bankruptcy setup:
- Filters to auto-sort incoming
- Folders/labels structure
- "Touch it once" rules
- Unsubscribe spree checklist
- Email checking schedule (not constant)
• Prevent future bankruptcy
• New inbox rules template
6. **Accountability Tracker**
• Post-reset monitoring:
- Daily inbox count
- "Zero inbox" streak
- Creeping back up? Warning alert
- Weekly debt check-in
• Relapse prevention
• "You've been debt-free for X days"
Design specs:
- Financial debt payoff dashboard aesthetic
- Credit score and debt meter styling
- Red "overdue" warnings
- Progress bars showing payoff timeline
- Bank statement / ledger layouts
- Explosion animation for bankruptcy declaration
- Green "debt free" celebration
- Calculator and spreadsheet vibes
- Serious financial app colors (navy, red, green)
- Satisfying "balance: $0" moments
- Confetti when inbox hits zero
When "Search Email Management Strategies" is clicked, use web search to find inbox zero techniques and email productivity systems.What this does: Gives you permission to stop pretending you'll ever read those 3,000 emails. Calculates whether you qualify for inbox bankruptcy, walks you through the nuclear option (or a selective bailout), and sets up systems so you don't end up back in email debt.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Better replicate human organ functions to test life-saving drugs.
❌ Still Can't: Maintain long-term memory across complex tasks without constantly resetting its "context window."
✅ AI Can Now: Predict market shifts and handle retail banking tasks autonomously.
❌ Still Can't: Guarantee the "truth" of its outputs without human verification processes.
FROM THE WEB
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
Yudkowsky argues that we won't get a clear warning sign before transformative AI arrives, and this lack of obvious alarm makes preparation harder. He uses historical examples of things people didn't see coming even with evidence. Provocative and important for AI timeline discussions.
Global HR shouldn't require five tools per country
Your company going global shouldn’t mean endless headaches. Deel’s free guide shows you how to unify payroll, onboarding, and compliance across every country you operate in. No more juggling separate systems for the US, Europe, and APAC. No more Slack messages filling gaps. Just one consolidated approach that scales.
Thank you for reading. We’re all beginners in something. With that in mind, your questions and feedback are always welcome and I read every single email!
-James
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