Gladly named to Constellation’s 2026 Digital Customer Service & Support ShortList™

For the second consecutive year, Gladly has been recognized on the Constellation ShortList™ for Digital Customer Service and Support. This year, 13 solutions made the cut out of more than 40 evaluated. We’re proud to be among them, and we think the timing says something important about where customer experience AI is headed.

Why this recognition matters right now

Constellation Research is a Silicon Valley-based advisory firm that helps organizations navigate digital transformation. Their ShortList evaluations span more than 130 technology categories and are built on a mix of client inquiries, customer references, vendor selection projects, and independent analysis.

Their team includes former CMOs, service desk leaders, and contact center managers who’ve lived the operational challenges these platforms are designed to solve. Principal Analyst Liz Miller, a 28-year marketing veteran, leads coverage for this category with deep expertise across the full customer experience stack.

The category is changing fast, and that’s the point

This year’s ShortList description makes something clear: AI is no longer a feature bolted onto digital service platforms. It’s becoming foundational to how these platforms operate. Constellation Research notes the growing role of agentic and generative AI in personalizing responses, guiding decision-making, improving routing, and expanding workflows across service environments.

That shift aligns with how the Gladly platform was designed to operate. While many solutions have evolved from ticket-centric systems, Gladly was built around a continuous customer conversation model. As AI becomes more deeply embedded into service experiences, that architectural difference becomes increasingly relevant.

What Gladly delivers in this evolving category

The ShortList threshold criteria reflect the capabilities organizations now expect from modern digital service platforms. These include:

AI-powered engagement and guidance. Platforms are expected to leverage AI not just for automation, but to assist team members with recommendations, prioritization, and next-best actions.

True cross-channel engagement. Support for communication across messaging, email, chat, and social channels — unified into a consistent customer experience.

Knowledge as an operational asset. The category continues to evolve beyond static FAQ repositories toward more dynamic knowledge creation and distribution models that support both customers and internal teams.

Seamless collaboration between AI and human team members. Effective service platforms enable smooth transitions between automated and human-assisted interactions while maintaining context.

Analytics and workflow automation. Reporting, predictive workflows, and automated actions based on customer behavior are now foundational expectations.

Gladly was designed to deliver on these expectations through a unified platform that brings together conversations, knowledge, and AI-driven guidance in a single experience.

The foundation for what AI should actually do

What’s most exciting about this recognition is what it reflects about the direction of the industry.

Constellation’s criteria now include capabilities like generative AI for content personalization, AI-powered agent guidance, cross-functional collaboration, and knowledge creation. These capabilities work best when grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the customer across interactions.

That’s the approach Gladly has taken from the beginning: designing AI to support engagement, not just resolution. Efficiency remains essential — and Gladly helps organizations achieve it — but AI that understands customer context also supports longer-term outcomes like retention, loyalty, and lifetime value.

What this means for Gladly customers

Being named to the Constellation ShortList for the second year running reinforces that our approach aligns with where digital customer service is headed.

For our customers, it means building on a platform designed to support both operational efficiency and durable customer relationships.

As AI continues to reshape customer service, the platforms that lead will be those built to do more than resolve issues faster — they’ll be the ones that make every conversation count.

Want to see how leading brands are putting customer experience AI to work? Schedule a demo to explore how Gladly helps teams deliver both efficiency and lasting customer relationships.