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88% resolved. 22% stayed loyal. What went wrong?
That's the AI paradox hiding in your CX stack. Tickets close. Customers leave. And most teams don't see it coming because they're measuring the wrong things.
Efficiency metrics look great on paper. Handle time down. Containment rate up. But customer loyalty? That's a different story — and it's one your current dashboards probably aren't telling you.
Gladly's 2026 Customer Expectations Report surveyed thousands of real consumers to find out exactly where AI-powered service breaks trust, and what separates the platforms that drive retention from the ones that quietly erode it.
If you're architecting the CX stack, this is the data you need to build it right. Not just fast. Not just cheap. Built to last.
Today, I ordered from Matsuya on Uber Eats. It came with wakame miso soup. Obviously.
It always comes with wakame miso soup.
Walk into any teishoku restaurant in Japan and there it is — a small bowl of miso soup, dark broth, soft pieces of wakame floating on top. You don’t order it. It just appears. Like it’s part of the air.
I grew up eating this. My mother grew up eating this. Her mother grew up eating this.
We never once thought of it as a “superfood.” It was just… soup.
Let Me Introduce the Family:
Wakame (わかめ) — The one in your miso soup
Soft, slightly slippery, with a gentle ocean flavor. This is the one most people outside Japan have actually eaten without realizing it. It’s in miso soup. It’s in sunomono salad. It’s everywhere. Rich in minerals, iodine, and something called fucoxanthin — an antioxidant that exists almost nowhere else on earth.
Today’s lunch — udon with wakame. Because of course there’s wakame in it.
Wakame, just before it hits the hot broth. This is what it looks like dry.
Kombu (昆布) — The invisible one
You’ve probably never seen kombu on your plate. That’s because it works in the background. Drop a piece into a pot of water and it becomes dashi — the foundational broth of Japanese cooking. Every ramen, every hot pot, every soup you’ve ever loved in a Japanese restaurant probably started with kombu. You ate it. You just didn’t know.
Nori (のり) — The one you already know
The dark sheet wrapped around your sushi. But in Japan, nori is so much more than that. It’s in furikake. It’s crumbled over noodles. And honestly? We just eat it as a snack. Flavored nori — seasoned with soy sauce and a little sweetness — sits on the dinner table and you just… eat it. Piece by piece. Without thinking. My mom thought foreigners eating nori was unthinkable. Now it’s a global obsession. I love that.
Aosa (アオサ) — The fragrant one
This one is less famous outside Japan, but it deserves its moment. Bright green, delicate, with an aroma that is — honestly, there’s no other word for it — extraordinary. When you drop aosa into hot water, the smell alone is enough to calm your whole nervous system. This is the one I use for my daily suimono.
The Morning Soup I Make Every Single Day
Every morning, I make a simple clear soup.
Hot water. Aosa. One umeboshi. A splash of dashi soy sauce.
That’s it.
After I had my baby, my hair started falling out. A lot. It’s something nobody really prepares you for — postpartum hair loss. I started drinking this every single day, and slowly, things got better.
I’m not a doctor. I can’t prove it was the aosa. But I’ve been drinking it every day since, and I’m not stopping.
Seaweed is full of iodine, folate, iron, and minerals that are almost impossible to get in the same concentration from land-based food. Japanese people have been getting these nutrients naturally, through food, for centuries. Not through supplements. Not through powders. Through soup. Through rice. Through Tuesday lunch.
The Real Superfood
The wellness industry discovered seaweed recently and called it a superfood.
In Japan, we just call it dinner.
My grandmother never counted iodine. She never tracked her mineral intake. She just made miso soup, the way her mother taught her, the way her mother’s mother taught her.
That quiet, unbroken chain — that’s the real superfood.