Updated November 2026
What’s hot right now.
Useful technology trends—translated into practical moves for your business. No hype, no pile of buzzwords, and no pressure to adopt something just because everyone is talking about it.
First on the list
Text-message marketing is having a moment.
Not because businesses should send more noise—but because a useful, well-timed message can reach a customer in the place they already pay attention.
Text works best after someone gives permission and when the message has a clear purpose: following up with a lead, reminding someone about an appointment, answering a question, recovering an unfinished checkout, sharing an event update, or inviting a past customer back.
Figures: Meta and WhatsApp’s 2026 State of Business Messaging report. Read the source ↗
Build a text-message workflow with Jay →Your business•••
One opt-in can start a useful workflowLead captured → tagged → followed up → visible in your CRM
What makes text marketing effective
Helpful beats frequent.
Permission first
Make the opt-in clear, keep a record of consent, and make stopping messages simple.
Use the moment
Send something useful because of what the customer just asked, booked, bought, or left unfinished.
Connect the history
Let your CRM and workflow know who replied, what they need, and what should happen next.
Respect the person
Use quiet hours, sensible frequency, plain language, and a real path to human help.
ALSO RISING
RCS brings richer business messages to the phone inbox.
Verified business identity, images, buttons, suggested replies, and receipts can make a message feel more like a useful mini experience than a plain text.
57% estimated read rate37% estimated click rate21% estimated conversion rate
Twilio’s 2026 Communications Blueprint estimates for observed RCS campaigns; results vary by audience and offer. Read the source ↗
The AI shift that matters
AI is moving from a separate tool into the workflow.
The useful question is no longer “Do you have AI?” It is “Where can AI remove a delay, prepare a better next step, or help a person make a faster decision inside the systems you already use?”
Practical AI integrations
What this can look like in a real business.
Start with one repeatable problem and a clear human handoff. Expand only after the workflow proves useful.
Qualify and route inquiries
Read the message, identify the need and urgency, update the CRM, and alert the right person.
Draft replies with context
Prepare a response from approved business information and the customer’s history—then let a person review it.
Turn files into usable information
Extract details from forms, invoices, agreements, or manuals and place them where the team needs them.
Watch for the next step
Summarize activity, flag exceptions, create tasks, and keep routine work from disappearing between tools.
Answer internal questions
Search policies, product information, and process notes without exposing everything to a public chatbot.
Help before escalating
Collect the problem, suggest an approved answer, and hand the full context to a person when needed.
Google Cloud’s 2026 AI agent trends describe agents orchestrating end-to-end workflows, while Microsoft emphasizes documented workflows, human handoffs, and quality standards for agent-enabled teams.
Also worth watching
Four more shifts with practical value.
01
CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCEFrom social discovery to a real conversation.
Let people ask a question, get useful guidance, and move toward booking or buying without losing the context when they switch channels.
Useful move: connect messages, forms, customer history, and follow-up.02
FIRST-PARTY CUSTOMER DATAOne reliable record beats five disconnected lists.
As platforms change, the information a customer gives you directly becomes more valuable—especially when consent, source, status, and next step live together.
Useful move: make the CRM the memory of the relationship.03
FOCUSED INTERNAL TOOLSA small portal can beat another subscription.
Sometimes the right answer is a simple dashboard, calculator, approval screen, or client portal built around your exact process.
Useful move: build only the missing piece and connect it to the rest.04
AI WITH GUARDRAILSAutonomy needs boundaries.
Logs, approval points, limited permissions, clear fallback rules, and human review are becoming part of the design—not an afterthought.
Useful move: decide what AI may suggest, prepare, and complete.Jay’s practical recommendation
Do this in the right order.
Technology works better when each step creates a stronger foundation for the next one.
- STARTCapture every lead clearly
One place for the contact, source, need, consent, and next action.
- NEXTAutomate the obvious follow-up
Email, text, reminders, assignments, and status updates.
- THENAdd AI where context helps
Summaries, classification, drafting, document work, and recommendations.
- LATERGive agents carefully limited jobs
Multi-step work with logs, approvals, and a human escape route.
Turn a trend into something useful
Show Jay the part of your business that feels slow, disconnected, or too manual.
You do not have to choose the technology first.
Talk through the opportunity →