Provide a "future" tag which has the image update applied one or two weeks before the "stable" tag has the update applied.
Announce these updates in the CircleCI Discuss "Announcements" channel so customers can subscribe to those updates and test their images before stable is applied.
The abrupt change to "stable" means that customers cannot proactively test, plan, and adjust to upcoming updates. A "future" tag combined with an update in the CircleCI "Announcements" channel will significantly improve that story.