AI agents thrive when trust is designed in from the start, says vice president of product management at NICE, Neeraj Verma. Automation has become a defining force in the customer experience. Between the chatbots that answer our questions and the recommendation systems that shape our choices, AI-driven tools are now embedded in nearly every interaction. But the latest wave of so-called "agentic AI"--systems that can plan, act, and adapt toward a defined goal--promises to push automation even further. Every single person that I've spoken to has at least spoken to some sort of GenAI bot on their phones. They expect experiences to be not scripted.