Sprinklr has released its Spring ’26 update for its customer experience platform, adding new artificial intelligence tools across marketing, customer service and insights.

Version 26.4 focuses on broader use of AI agents and copilots, alongside controls to help large organisations test, monitor and govern automated systems. It also includes updates to social listening, customer feedback analysis and contact centre operations.

One of the main additions is Autonomous Evaluation, a customer service feature that logs AI agents’ behaviour and tests their responses. It is designed to give companies clearer evidence of how automated agents perform as more customer issues are handled without human intervention.

The service update also includes a more proactive version of Agent Copilot, which can now provide real-time prompts to staff during service interactions, with a focus on metrics such as first call resolution and average handle time.

In workforce management, the release introduces automatic shift bidding to allocate schedules in line with employee preferences. It also adds guided service analytics to bring key performance indicators together in one place.

Marketing tools

For marketing teams, Marketing Copilot now includes conversational tools that explain changes in campaign performance, summarise engagement and generate analytics widgets. A Deep Research function also produces structured analysis with citations to support decision-making.

The update adds root cause analysis for sudden changes in campaign results and a dashboard that compares performance before and after boosted content. In social selling, teams can now monitor seller profile performance on LinkedIn.

Content workflows have also been updated. Marketers can now access TikTok’s Commercial Music Library for video content and use new workflows tied to Canva’s digital asset management system to import creative material while maintaining internal controls.

Listening and feedback

On the insights side, AI Topics has been updated to enable generative AI to remove irrelevant material and identify social and conversational mentions more precisely. The aim is to improve social listening by reducing noise in large data sets.

Sprinklr has also introduced governed customer profiles that combine feedback and signals from different channels into a single view. This is intended to give teams a more consistent picture of customers without switching between separate systems.

Web surveys have been expanded with broader global support, including one-click localisation, governance controls and sampling tools. Action Plans, a task management feature within the platform, has also been extended across the insights products so teams can assign follow-up work and track progress within the same system.

Platform controls

Another theme in the release is oversight of AI systems. AI+ Studio, Sprinklr’s no-code workspace for building and managing generative AI agents and workflows, now includes bulk testing and AI telemetry, enabling companies to review behaviour at scale.

Other platform updates include integration management via the Sprinklr Marketplace, automated ingestion via a connector with CRON scheduling, guidance via Sprinklr Assist, and compliance controls via what it calls DRP 2.0.

Sprinklr serves customer-facing teams across social media management, marketing, advertising, customer feedback and contact centres. More than 1,600 enterprises use the platform, including Microsoft, P&G and Samsung, as well as 59% of the Fortune 100.

In customer feedback software, Sprinklr pointed to recent recognition in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Voice of the Customer Platforms as it outlined the latest expansion of its VoC tools. The new Customer Feedback Copilot is intended to turn feedback into trend views, comparisons and drill-down analysis.

“With the Spring ’26 Release, we’re taking a major step forward in how enterprises drive outcomes with AI,” said Karthik Suri, Chief Product and Corporate Strategy Officer, Sprinklr. “As AI Agents resolve more customer issues autonomously, we’re giving teams the transparent, test‐backed validation they need to trust and scale them. Paired with a more intuitive AI+ Studio and smarter copilots across the Sprinklr suite, these advancements help brands turn automation into measurable impact – and ultimately into more seamless, personalized moments of customer delight.”

The Bradford-based grocer is to shut the Budgens store in Abingdon, on Sunday, April 12 for a makeover.

Morrisons is to turn the shop at Peachcroft Shopping Centre in Peachcroft Road into its new Daily brand of convenience stores.

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Peachcroft’s shop will be the first Morrisons in Abingdon. Other Daily convenience stores have recently opened in Botley, Blackbird Leys, Bicester, Wallingford and Thame.

Signs outside the shop confirm the new Morrisons Daily in Abingdon will open a week and a half after Budgens closes on Thursday, April 23.

Morrisons has full-size supermarkets in Banbury and Carterton.

New research from Flagstone suggests UK SMEs favour high street banks over challenger and online providers for business savings, even though many mid-sized firms hold cash above Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection limits.

The study of 500 UK SMEs found that 73% save mostly or entirely with high street banks. Another 13% use an even split between high street and challenger banks, while 13% save mostly or entirely with online or challenger providers.

That preference persists despite a clear gap in average savings rates. Flagstone compared instant-access and fixed-term products from four large high street banks and four challenger banks, finding that challengers offered higher average rates in every category.

For instant-access accounts, the average rate from a high street bank was 1.15%, compared with 3.87% from a challenger bank. On six-month fixed terms, the average rates were 2.25% and 3.80% respectively, while 12-month fixed terms were 2.60% and 3.95%.

Based on average cash reserve balances, a micro business with £66,232 in instant-access cash could miss out on £1,801.51 a year in interest by saving exclusively with high street banks. For a small business with £224,673 in instant-access reserves, the annual shortfall was estimated at £3,482.43.

Among mid-sized businesses with average instant-access cash reserves of £620,734, the missed interest opportunity rose to £8,379.91 a year. That means some larger SMEs could be earning as much as 237% less than they might secure with challenger providers.

Why it happens

The data points to a mix of caution, familiarity and administrative burden. Nearly two-thirds of SMEs said they prefer high street banks because they see them as safer, a view that was stronger among larger businesses and those holding bigger cash balances.

The research found that 75% of SMEs believe protecting company cash is more important than maximising returns, even if that means accepting lower rates. A further 60% said higher rates alone would not persuade them to switch banks.

Trust in newer providers remains a barrier. Some 61% said they would rather hold company cash with established high street banks even when those banks offer lower interest rates, while 68% said they would consider challenger banks if they had more confidence in their track record.

Convenience also featured strongly. Three in five SMEs said they know they could spread money across several banks to reduce risk and improve returns, but either lack the time or see the process as too complicated to manage. Three-quarters said they prefer to keep company savings with their main day-to-day banking provider.

“When the vast majority of UK businesses continue to favour traditional banks despite rate competition driven by challenger banks, it sends a clear signal: rates alone aren’t enough to encourage businesses to change their savings habits. The deeper we dig into the data, the clearer it becomes that SME finance leaders are looking for a number of benefits from the savings providers they use: trust, return, convenience and flexibility,” Lakhbir Sandhu, Chief Financial Officer at Flagstone, said.

Protection limits

The research also highlighted a gap between concerns about safety and how many businesses actually distribute their cash. Under the FSCS rules cited in the findings, an account holder should not hold more than £120,000 with a single banking group if they want full protection should that bank fail.

Among small SMEs, two in five were estimated to have cash reserves that were not fully protected by the scheme. The average small SME held about £225,000 in two or fewer savings accounts, and 43% said they kept all their cash with a single bank.

The picture was more pronounced among mid-sized businesses. At least 85% were likely to have cash reserves that were not fully protected, with average cash holdings of £621,000 spread across three or fewer banks.

These findings suggest many finance teams are prioritising institutions they view as safe while still concentrating sums above compensation thresholds in only a small number of places. The result is a mismatch between stated caution and actual protection.

“When over 4 in 5 SMEs with over £600,000 in cash save with three or fewer banks, it’s unlikely they are achieving full FSCS protection. However, when risk mitigation ranks so highly among SMEs, finding ways to ensure adequate FSCS protection on their cash should be a priority for finance leaders. While the financial services industry has more guardrails than ever, it’s not a market exempt from risk,” Sandhu said.