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Where Have All the Hotlines Gone? New Parloa Study Signals Growing Risk in Customer Accessibility

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First AI agent-conducted benchmark of enterprise customer experience finds automation is everywhere, but resolution and connection are rare

NEW YORK, Apr. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Before a chatbot fumbles a question or an interactive voice response (IVR) tree traps a caller in menu purgatory, there is a more fundamental problem. Nearly half of the world’s largest companies display no visible phone number or chat option on their websites, leaving customers with no obvious way to reach support, according to a new large-scale study by agentic platform developer and global CX leader Parloa.

Parloa study: Nearly half of the world’s largest companies display no visible phone number or chat on their websites.

Releasing today, the State of Agentic CX in 2026 publishes in-depth findings from their market study, in which Parloa deployed purpose-built AI discovery agents to review more than 10,000 enterprise websites, including those of the Forbes Global 2000, then conducted nearly 4,000 “secret shopper” interactions across more than 800 companies in 27 industries. The three-phase operation, conducted in early 2026, is the largest AI agent-led benchmark of global enterprise CX across web, chat and voice channels. The conclusions describe an enterprise CX landscape in which modern interfaces mask outdated infrastructure, and system design consistently prioritizes customer deflection and dissuasion over resolution and connection.

Findings across channels highlight room for improvement

The “digital front door” is closed at 43.3% of the websites analyzed, which displayed neither a visible phone number nor a chat option for customer support. Among those that did, phone remained dominant at 54.1%, while only 28.9% offered chat. More than half of all sites required scrolling to locate support information, and nearly 95% of chat widgets appeared only on the homepage rather than on the support pages where customers with active problems land.

“We developed this study with the hypothesis that companies think of customer experience, particularly the service aspect, as a cost center, and not as a chance to deepen customer relationships,” said Latane Conant, chief marketing officer at Parloa. “The data show this to be the case, given a clear contact deflection strategy starting at the front door. Savvy companies that shift their CX execution to focus on and enrich the actual customer experience, including service journeys, will gain the competitive advantage and rightfully earn stronger customer lifetime value.”

Is chat all that?

Chatbots, a once highly anticipated option for digital self-service, proved to be rarely effective at actually solving customer problems. Of thousands of customer agent-led chat sessions, fewer than 1 in 11 resulted in the resolution of the customer’s stated goal. When automation failed, and customers tried to reach a human, the handoff succeeded only 10% of the time. Regarding the adoption of more conversational AI to better the chat experience, less than 8% of classifiable chatbots showed modern large language model capabilities. The remaining 92.5% still ran predominantly on restrictive rule-based systems. The study also found that 4 out of every 5 chatbots did not proactively disclose they were AI-powered, a finding currently attributed to brand preference but with growing regulatory implications.

Voice is choice, but stumbles when agents call

Voice systems told a similar story. Parloa researchers mapped more than 100 enterprise IVR systems after its own production AI voice agents, deployed early in the study, were blocked by touch-tone menus, rigid authentication gates and call flows built exclusively for humans. Reaching a person typically required three to four menu levels. Hold times stretched past 90 minutes. Most systems offered neither callback nor queue transparency, deepening the divide in connecting with the customer.

That breakdown pointed to the report’s most forward-looking finding: just 1% of tested enterprises demonstrated readiness for agent-to-agent interaction, the emerging model in which a customer’s personal AI agent communicates directly with an enterprise service agent. As consumers continue to leverage AI solutions to manage their day-to-day lives – initiating product returns, tracking deliveries, lowering bills, booking reservations, and more – the brands they’re trying to contact are treating their personal agents as security threats, reinforcing misconceptions about how AI works at scale. Legacy systems cannot process natural-language requests from AI callers, and authentication designed for humans breaks down when the caller is software.

“The limited readiness is not a reflection of insufficient ambition,” the report states. “It is a reflection of architectural constraints.”

The study outlines strategic imperatives and tactical approaches for enterprise CX leaders to overcome these findings and process gaps, and is designed for annual repetition and industry-level segmentation. The full report is available now at stateofcx.parloa.com.

Parloa empowers global enterprises to build, train, and manage AI agents for premier customer experience. Founded by Malte Kosub and Stefan Ostwald, Parloa began with the belief that every great conversation is the start of a relationship, a principle that still guides how the company builds technology today. Leading global brands use Parloa’s advanced AI agents to improve service at scale, increase customer loyalty, and unlock new revenue. Parloa employs 430 people across offices in New York, Berlin, London and Munich.

Parloa Press Team
press@parloa.com

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Greenzie releases 2025 Annual Safety Report, documenting multi-year safety performance at commercial scale

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April 23, 2026

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The data shows zero lost-time injuries, zero OSHA medical attentions and zero human near-misses across real-world operation

ATLANTA, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Greenzie, the technology platform powering commercial autonomy across multiple OEMs, today shared multi-year safety data from real-world commercial operation, documenting more than 150,000 autonomous miles with zero lost-time injuries, zero OSHA medical attentions and zero human near-misses. The data is published in Greenzie’s 2025 Annual Safety Report, available at greenzie.com/safety.

The report is based on extensive operational data spanning more than 5.4 billion square feet of turf mowed, 68,000+ hours of autonomous mowing and more than 50,000 operator days, the equivalent of 265 mowing seasons.

“Greenzie is helping define safety in autonomous landscape operations, and transparency is a critical part of that,” said Steve Bush, chief operating officer of Greenzie. “These results show that commercial autonomy is operating safely at meaningful scale in the field. Transparency matters because as this category matures, real-world data helps build confidence in what responsible deployment looks like.”

The report’s findings are particularly significant in the context of the U.S. landscaping industry, which employs roughly 1.3 million workers and experiences a higher-than-average rate of workplace accidents compared to other fields. Greenzie’s multi-year operating data shows that autonomy is not theoretical; it is already being deployed consistently and performing safely at scale.

“Greenzie Powered Autonomy™ has been validated through years of sustained use in the field,” Bush said. “That level of real-world performance reinforces both the reliability of our platform and the broader readiness of commercial autonomy.”

Greenzie attributes this performance to a disciplined safety approach that includes robust perception, tested operating standards and continuous validation in real-world commercial environments.

For more information about Greenzie, visit greenzie.com.

About Greenzie

Founded in 2018, Greenzie is the technology platform powering commercial autonomy. Created to solve the landscape industry’s labor and productivity challenges, Greenzie works with leading equipment manufacturers to deliver the software, navigation and safety systems that enable mowing and other outdoor power equipment to operate autonomously in real-world commercial environments. Today, Greenzie’s platform is running on hundreds of machines in active use, helping manufacturers bring autonomy to market and allowing operators to get more done with limited labor—moving autonomy from early experimentation to everyday operations. For more information, visit greenzie.com.

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CGI renews global SAP S/4HANA operations and SAP BTP operations certifications, reinforcing its consistent, quality delivery at scale

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April 23, 2026

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MONTRÉAL, April 23, 2026 /CNW/ – CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, announced that it has achieved the following recertifications for its global operation capabilities:

SAP S/4HANA operations and works with RISE with SAP SAP BTP operations and works with RISE with SAP

These recertifications highlight CGI’s ability to deliver consistent, high-quality managed SAP services and operations across regions, including services aligned with RISE with SAP. CGI’s SAP-based services help clients reduce operational risk, improve performance and efficiency and scale transformation with greater predictability. This also builds on CGI’s SAP alliance relationship momentum, including its recent AWS SAP Competency Partner status which highlights CGI’s expertise in modernizing mission-critical SAP workloads with AI-enabled cloud solutions.

“Running SAP at enterprise scale requires a partner with proven capabilities, delivery discipline and the ability to innovate securely, including through the integration of AI to deliver tangible outcomes,” said Didier Thérond, President, CGI France operations, and Global Executive Sponsor for CGI’s partnership with SAP. “These global recertifications reinforce CGI’s end-to-end SAP capabilities, including AI-enabled services, helping clients operate mission-critical systems with confidence and advance their modernization and cloud strategies.”

“CGI remains a trusted partner in our SAP Operations Partner program, consistently demonstrating a structured and disciplined approach to certification,” said Rudolf Scheipers, VP, Head of SAP Operations Partner Certification, SAP Partner Innovation Lifecycle Services. “These recertifications highlight the company’s mature operating model and commitment to the high standards we expect globally, ensuring clients running SAP environments can rely on consistent, secure, and efficient operations.”

CGI’s global alliance strategy features partnerships with more than 150 technology companies and supports its local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network. Through its SAP alliance, CGI helps organizations accelerate innovation, deploy and manage SAP solutions globally, and deliver industry-specific business outcomes with rapid, scalable, and AI-enabled cloud and ERP services.

About CGI
Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 94,000 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2025 reported revenue is CA$15.91 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com.

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SOURCE CGI Inc.

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Scholastic Corporation Announces Final Results of Modified Dutch Auction Tender Offer

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April 23, 2026

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NEW YORK, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Scholastic Corporation (the “Company” or “Scholastic”) (Nasdaq: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, today announced the final results of its “modified Dutch Auction” tender offer for shares of its common stock, which expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on April 20, 2026.

Based on the final count by Computershare Trust Company, N.A., the depositary for the tender offer, a total of 2,834,018 shares of Scholastic’s common stock, par value $0.01 per share (each share of Scholastic’s common stock, a “Share,” and collectively, “Shares”), were properly tendered and not properly withdrawn at or below the purchase price of $40.00 per Share, including 989,343 Shares that were tendered by notice of guaranteed delivery.

Scholastic has accepted for purchase a total of 2,834,018 Shares through the tender offer at a price of $40.00 per Share, for an aggregate cost of $113,360,720.00, excluding fees and expenses relating to the tender offer.  The total of 2,834,018 Shares that Scholastic has accepted for purchase represents approximately 13.7% of the total number of Shares outstanding as of April 19,  2026.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as the dealer manager for the tender offer. Georgeson LLC served as the information agent. Holders of common stock who have questions or need information about the tender offer may call Georgeson LLC at (866) 539-9980 (toll free). Banks and brokers may call Georgeson at (866) 539-9980 or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at (877) 371-5947 (toll free).

About Scholastic 

For more than 100 years, Scholastic Corporation (Nasdaq: SCHL) has been meeting children where they are – at school, at home and in their communities – by creating quality content and experiences, all beginning with literacy. Scholastic delivers stories, characters, and learning moments that empower all kids to become lifelong readers and learners through bestselling children’s books, literacy- and knowledge-building resources for schools including classroom magazines, and award-winning, entertaining children’s media. As the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books through school-based book clubs and book fairs, classroom libraries, school and public libraries, retail, and online, and with a global reach into more than 135 countries, Scholastic encourages the personal and intellectual growth of all children, while nurturing a lifelong relationship with reading, themselves, and the world around them. Learn more at www.scholastic.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including the conditions of the children’s book and educational materials markets generally and acceptance of the Company’s products within those markets, and other risks and factors identified from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated.

SCHL: Financial

 

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SOURCE Scholastic Corporation

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