In this release webinar, we walked through the latest features and enhancements shipped as part of the FY26 Q1 Staircase release, covering new AI-powered capabilities, expanded integrations, improved data accessibility, and a preview of what is coming next.
Please find the recap, slides and webinar recording below.
Webinar Highlights
1. Proactive Churn Detection with Risk Analyst
- We opened with Risk Analyst, a new AI-powered capability that proactively detects churn risk and helps teams understand not just that an account is at risk, but why, and what to do about it.
- Automatically triggers when churn risk or extremely negative sentiment is detected, analyzes root causes across nine risk types, and generates AI-powered playbooks informed by what has worked in similar past situations.
- Built on the same agentic infrastructure as Expansion Analyst, with a continuous Experience Library that learns from past outcomes, all insights, stakeholder context, and recommended actions centralized in a redesigned right-side panel.
2. Topic Trends in the Topics Report
- We covered a new addition to the Topics report that gives teams visibility into which topics are gaining or losing traction across customer interactions over any selected time period.
- New growth metrics include Current Period Volume, Previous Period Volume, Absolute Growth, Growth %, and a Data Over Time graph — all of which automatically recalculate when you adjust the date range filter.
- Subtopic-level visibility lets teams catch spikes in specific areas like Bug Resolved or Case Activity across all parent topics, with no additional configuration required.
3. Ask Staircase Enhancements
- We covered two key enhancements to Ask Staircase this quarter, expanding it beyond account summaries to handle more of the questions teams ask every day.
- Ask Staircase product questions like "how do events work?" and get instant answers without leaving the platform, or ask it to build a table based on your criteria and follow up with deeper questions on that data.
- Query and aggregate key metrics like ARR, health score, sentiment, and engagement across your book of business by tier, owner, or journey stage.
4. AWS S3 Bucket Scheduled Reports Delivery
- We covered a new option for teams running data pipelines: exporting scheduled Staircase reports directly to an AWS S3 bucket in CSV format, in addition to email delivery.
- Configure an S3 bucket from the new Outbound tab in the AWS integration page, set a file path and cadence once, and reports land automatically on schedule.
- Particularly useful for teams using data lakes like Snowflake or Databricks, eliminating manual data extraction entirely.
5. Salesloft Meeting Connector
- We introduced a new native integration with Salesloft Meetings, bringing call transcript data into Staircase alongside all other customer communication channels.
- Automatically analyzes transcripts for sentiment, topics, action items, attendance, and engagement, with up to three months of historical data imported upon initial connection.
- Closes a real coverage gap for teams where Salesloft is a primary customer touchpoint.
6. Webex by Cisco Integration
- We also introduced Webex by Cisco as a native integration, ensuring Webex-based interactions are automatically reflected in Staircase engagement insights without manual uploads.
- Webex meetings are logged directly into the Staircase Timeline with participants, timestamps, and metadata captured automatically, with click-through links back to the original recording.
- Admins have visibility into sync status and errors for quick diagnosis of any ingestion issues.
7. Manage Multiple Email Addresses Per User
- Also released at the beginning of May, this update gives admins better control over user profiles when contacts change companies or email addresses.
- Admins can designate a primary email when multiple addresses are associated with a profile, and all associated addresses are visible in the UI for easy identification.
8. Preview: Handoff Analyst (Coming Soon)
- We closed with an early look at Handoff Analyst, a new capability designed to give CS teams a structured, AI-generated playbook before their first call with a new customer.
- Reads up to 90 days of pre-close emails and meetings and automatically surfaces goals, concerns, commitments, stakeholder dynamics, and onboarding readiness — with every insight backed by the exact communication it came from.
- The full playbook is downloadable as a PDF or can be copied directly into other tools. More details and documentation will be shared as availability approaches.
Key Takeaways
- Act on risk earlier: Risk Analyst continuously monitors customer communications and surfaces churn signals with context, playbooks, and proven next steps.
- Share insights beyond the platform: PDF exports, Ask Staircase enhancements, and AWS S3 delivery all make it easier to get Staircase data where it needs to go.
- Expand coverage and context: Salesloft, Webex, Topic Trends, and multiple email support ensure your team has a more complete, accurate picture of every customer relationship.
Didn’t catch our FY267 Q1 Staircase Release webinar live? Check out the on-demand recording