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Leading in 2026: Reclaiming Connection in an Age of Intelligent Isolation
As AI accelerates, CX leaders confront a quieter challenge: isolation. This article explores why connection is now a strategic leadership imperative and how leaders can actively rebuild it.
by Execs In The Know
There has never been a more capable generation of customer experience (CX) leaders. Today’s CX executives oversee global operations, artificial intelligence-(AI)-enabled service ecosystems, predictive analytics, omnichannel orchestration, and frontline teams navigating relentless change. The scope of responsibility is broader, the pace faster, and the expectations higher than at any point in the industry’s history.
And yet, beneath that sophistication, a quieter reality is emerging. Many CX leaders are carrying their work, their decisions, and themselves more alone than ever before. Not because they lack people around them, and not because they lack the tools or data. But because the nature of leadership itself has fundamentally shifted. Responsibility has intensified, expectations have expanded, decision cycles have shortened, and the spaces where leaders once processed complexity together have slowly, almost invisibly, eroded.
We are more operationally connected, yet more emotionally isolated. And for leaders tasked with designing connection at scale, that tension deserves deeper examination.
The Rise of Intelligent Isolation
Isolation today doesn’t look like disengagement or withdrawal. It shows up in calendars filled edge-to-edge with purposeful meetings, conversations optimized for alignment rather than exploration, and in moments where uncertainty is managed privately because public processing feels risky. Leaders are present, informed, and decisive, yet increasingly alone in how they carry the weight of their role.
In a recent Psychology Today1 analysis of executive loneliness, leaders reported maintaining confidence and capability outwardly while privately experiencing exhaustion and disconnection. The higher the role, the more pressure leaders feel to appear confident, even as uncertainty grows. Over time, that sustained emotional masking doesn’t just drain energy; it deepens isolation by removing safe spaces to process doubt aloud.
This is what can be described as intelligent isolation: a form of isolation shaped by progress and systems designed for speed, scale, and clarity. These systems excel at execution, but they rarely pause to ask what leaders need to remain grounded, human, and connected. As we explored earlier this year, curiosity and courage aren’t soft traits.2 They’re the conditions that allow leaders to process uncertainty together rather than in isolation.
Research increasingly reflects what many senior leaders already sense. Gallup3 has found that workplace loneliness affects employees at every level, including executives, and that frequent loneliness is associated with lower engagement and higher stress. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Social Connection,4 loneliness is a public health concern with implications for both mental and physical well-being. Importantly, this research points to a paradox: increased communication does not guarantee increased connection.
The Leadership Paradox
Even as AI adoption accelerates, the emotional and cognitive burden on leaders hasn’t eased. In fact, while 90% of organizations have deployed or plan to deploy AI,5 more than half of CX leaders say a significant portion of customer interactions remain too complex for automation. That unresolved complexity doesn’t disappear; It shifts and lands squarely on leaders and frontline teams.
For CX leaders, this paradox is especially acute. Their role is fundamentally relational. They serve as stewards of trust between brands and customers, leaders and agents, systems and humans. They are tasked with designing experiences that feel personal at scale, even as technology introduces new layers of abstraction.
CX leadership carries a distinct kind of weight. They translate emotion into metrics and metrics back into human outcomes. Along the way, they absorb customer frustration, agent fatigue, executive urgency, and technological promise while being expected to remain steady, optimistic, and decisive.
This burden is structural, not personal. In fact, recent Execs In The Know research found that just one-third of CX leaders believe their organization is effectively aligning AI, data, and human judgment across teams.6 When systems fail to connect, leaders become the connective tissue and burnout, doing integration work that should be shared across the organization.
Burnout Isn’t Just About Exhaustion
Burnout is often framed as a capacity issue: too much work, too little rest. But among experienced CX leaders, burnout more often stems from compression; the gradual shrinking of space where leaders can reflect, question, and connect without consequence.
Compression happens when:
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Complexity increases faster than processing time | |
Stakes rise faster than support structures | |
Expectations for certainty outpace the reality of ambiguity |
When leaders consistently absorb pressure without shared sensemaking, something subtle occurs. Curiosity narrows, emotional range tightens, and risk tolerance shifts. Decisions become heavier, not because leaders are less capable or the work itself has become harder, but because they are carrying too much context alone.
In CX, where empathy and judgment are core competencies, this matters deeply. CX leaders do not just manage systems; they model how humans show up inside them. Their presence influences frontline confidence, leadership trust, and ultimately, customer perception.
Isolation doesn’t make leaders ineffective, but it does make leadership more fragile.
Why Connection Feels Harder Even as Tools Improve
It would be easy to blame technology for this moment. But most CX leaders know that narrative doesn’t hold up. Leadership isolation didn’t begin with AI; it existed long before copilots and predictive automation entered the picture.
CX leaders were already navigating rising complexity with fewer peer forums, limited protected time for reflection, and mounting expectations for decisiveness. Intelligent systems simply arrived in an environment that had already been optimized for efficiency, not connection.
A recent workplace survey7 of 1,000 U.S. knowledge workers found workplace loneliness is rising as employees practice “cognitive outsourcing.” Employees encouraged to rely on AI tools report significantly higher levels of loneliness, suggesting that as work becomes more automated, the need for intentional human connection doesn’t disappear; it intensifies.
When deployed thoughtfully, AI does something profoundly valuable. It reduces friction, absorbs repetitive work, surfaces insights faster, and creates operational breathing room. It allows leaders to spend less time assembling information and more time interpreting it.
This erosion of reflection time mirrors what’s called the “age of distraction,” where leadership clarity doesn’t disappear; it gets crowded out.8
How CX Leaders Are Actively Rebuilding Connection
What’s changed over the past year is not the presence of isolation, but how leaders are responding to it. Many CX leaders have moved beyond simply naming the challenge. They are redesigning how connection functions inside their leadership practice by creating fewer, higher-quality spaces for shared sense-making.
Some leaders are reclaiming connection by restructuring how decisions are made. Instead of carrying AI governance, ethical judgment, or escalation logic alone, they are formalizing shared ownership through cross-functional councils and peer advisory forums. These groups don’t dilute accountability; they distribute judgment in a way that reflects the reality of complex CX environments.
Others are using AI itself as a lever for reconnection. Rather than allowing efficiency gains to be absorbed by volume, they are deliberately reinvesting reclaimed time into coaching, frontline listening, and leadership reflection. In these organizations, automation doesn’t just accelerate output; it creates space for presence.
We’re also seeing leaders normalize uncertainty earlier in decision cycles. Leaders are pressure-testing assumptions with peers, inviting disagreement before positions harden, and acknowledging what they don’t yet know. This doesn’t slow execution; it strengthens it. Shared thinking surfaces blind spots sooner and builds collective confidence rather than performative certainty.
Perhaps most important, CX leaders are rebuilding peer connection outside formal reporting lines. Trusted communities, private forums, and closed-door conversations are becoming essential leadership infrastructure. These spaces allow leaders to speak candidly about the emotional realities of AI adoption, frontline fatigue, and ethical tension.
These practices don’t eliminate isolation entirely, but they do interrupt it.
AI and Emotional Bandwidth
This shift from isolation to intentional connection is where AI’s real leadership impact begins.
As AI becomes embedded in CX operations, it introduces a subtle leadership inflection point. Intelligent systems now support summarization, drafting, forecasting, and decision support. When used well, they reduce cognitive load and create room for judgment, coaching, and strategic thinking. At its best, AI is not a replacement for human leadership. It amplifies existing priorities.
This helps explain why more than half of CX leaders report no meaningful improvement in customer satisfaction following AI deployments.9 Efficiency alone does not resolve the human side of leadership. CX leaders understand this instinctively: automation handles scale, but humans handle meaning.
Community as a Strategic Leadership Layer
This is where the conversation shifts from observation to opportunity. Community is no longer a “nice to have” for leaders. It is a strategic layer, one that strengthens judgment, accelerates learning, and mitigates the hidden costs of isolation. True leadership community is not just about networking or visibility but about being in conversation with peers who understand the realities of CX leadership: the tradeoffs of AI deployment, the emotional demands of frontline work, and the complexity of balancing cost, care, and credibility.
True leadership community is about shared sense-making. It’s where leaders can explore complexity, exchange lived experience, and test ideas. Our Know It All (KIA) Community is designed for this exact purpose. It’s a private, sales-free forum where CX leaders build on collective intelligence through honest, peer-level exchange. As intelligent systems take on more execution, leadership increasingly centers on where humans stay in the loop, how trust is maintained, and how values are operationalized at scale.
What We’re Seeing Across the CX Landscape
CX leaders are asking different questions than they were even two years ago as they navigate a paradox: AI is now firmly embedded in customer operations, yet human connection feels more fragile than ever. Adoption is accelerating, but trust remains conditional. Customers aren’t rejecting AI; they’re rejecting experiences that feel inaccurate or disconnected from context. At the same time, internal fragmentation is surfacing as a critical risk. Siloed data, disconnected front- and back-office workflows, and unclear ownership are eroding both employee confidence and customer continuity.10
What’s emerging is a clear shift in leadership thinking: performance matters more than novelty,
ethics and transparency are now table stakes, and value must be realized in weeks, not years. The most forward-looking organizations are using AI not to distance themselves from customers, but to strengthen the system around them by cleaning data, carrying context across journeys, supporting agents at moments of emotional intensity, and reinforcing a simple truth customers already know. There is only one brand experience, and it either feels connected, or it doesn’t.
What these patterns reveal isn’t a technology problem but a leadership moment. As AI systems become more capable, leaders are being asked to operate in environments that are faster, more complex, and less forgiving than ever before. Each decision carries greater consequences. Missteps (ethical, operational, or human) travel further and faster. And the expectation to “have the answer” has quietly intensified, even as the variables multiply.
Many CX leaders describe a familiar tension of more tools, more data, and more dashboards, yet fewer moments to pause, pressure-test assumptions, or sense-check decisions with peers who truly understand the weight of the role. In the drive to modernize, optimize, and scale, leadership itself has become increasingly solitary. But the next era of CX won’t be won through individual endurance. It will be shaped by leaders who recognize that connection is not a soft skill; it is a strategic capability. One that influences how trust is built, how teams perform, and how organizations respond when complexity inevitably shows up.
One leadership reframe is this: strength is no longer characterized by how much a leader can carry alone. It’s defined by how intentionally leaders stay connected to their peers, to their teams, and to their own sense of clarity and purpose. In CX, where trust is both the outcome and the operating principle, this distinction matters. Leadership practiced in isolation creates fragile systems that fracture under pressure. Leadership grounded in connection builds resilience across people, processes, and the moments that matter most to customers.
The future of CX will not be shaped by intelligent platforms or advanced analytics alone. It will be shaped by leaders who choose to lead with others, not simply over them.
Reclaiming Connection
Reclaiming connection doesn’t require slowing innovation or retreating from technology. It requires integrating progress more deliberately into the human systems that sustain it.
The most effective CX leaders aren’t choosing between AI and humanity. They’re designing environments where technology delivers speed, scale, and consistency, and leadership anchors meaning, ethics, and trust.
Connection is not a personality trait or cultural nicety. It is a leadership practice that must be modeled, protected, and normalized at the most senior levels.
The future of CX will not be shaped by intelligent platforms alone. It will be shaped by leaders who choose to lead with others, not simply over them. Because no matter how advanced our systems become, leadership was never meant to be a solitary endeavor. And in an age of intelligent isolation, choosing connection may be the most strategic decision a leader can make.
Article Links
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/body-meet-mind/202507/what-happens-when-leaders-feel-invisible-at-work
- https://execsintheknow.com/magazines/july-2025/curiosity-and-courage/
- https://www.gallup.com/workplace/645566/employ-ees-worldwide-feel-lonely.aspx
- https://www.who.int/news/item/30-06-2025-social-connection-linked-to-improved-heath-and-reduced-risk-of-early-death
- https://execsintheknow.com/knowledge-center/customer-experience-research/cx-leaders-trends-in-sights/cx-leaders-trends-insights-2025-corporate-edi-tion/
- https://execsintheknow.com/knowledge-center/customer-experience-research/cx-leaders-trends-in-sights/cx-leaders-trends-insights-2025-corporate-edi-tion/
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250724315281/en/MOO-Survey-Finds-79-of-Knowledge-Workers-Feel-Lonely-at-Work-Gen-Z-Most-Affected
- https://execsintheknow.com/magazines/october-2025/leading-with-clarity-in-the-age-of-distrac-tion/
- https://execsintheknow.com/knowledge-center/cus-tomer-experience-research/hot-topics-research/state-of-the-tech-ai-in-the-contact-center/
- https://execsintheknow.com/breaking-down-the-back-office-what-cx-leaders-told-us-about-the-next-era-of-customer-experience/
Making CX a C-Suite PriorityCX friction is easy to spot on the front lines and far harder to elevate into an executive priority. Too often, CX leaders come armed with anecdotes or dashboards that resonate locally but fail to translate into enterprise-level urgency. This session explores how leading organizations bridge that gap by pairing a clear narrative with hard data tied to business performance, risk, and customer outcomes, and turning CX pain into an executive ready business case. Through real customer examples, Reddy will examine how a small, focused CX pilot delivered measurable wins that earned CEO attention and sponsorship. Attendees will leave with a practical playbook for translating frontline insight into boardroom language and how to build the internal momentum needed to scale CX initiatives across the enterprise. Thanks to Our Partner: |
Next Level Learning & Development: The Operational Advantage of Learning Done RightEffortless customer experiences begin with effortless learning—learning that happens inside operations, not alongside them. Next-level Learning and Development blends seamlessly into day-to-day execution, transforming operations into an operational learning environment where learning is strategic, immediate, and continuous. Grounded in cognitive science and adult learning research, these approaches require no new tools or budget, yet deliver immediate, measurable improvements in performance and customer ease. This session challenges the outdated, siloed model where Learning and Development is solely responsible for performance. Instead, it positions performance as a shared operational continuum—owned by leaders, reinforced in the moment, and sustained through science-backed practices. In an era where organizations are racing toward AI without understanding how people actually learn, this conversation returns to the foundations of research, demonstrating how trusted, evidence-based strategies can be applied immediately to maximize performance in dynamic environments. Attendees will learn:
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| Kevin McDorman serves as Vice President of Customer CARE at Southwest Airlines, assuming the role on May 12, 2025. He leads a hybrid workforce of more than 3,500 Employees across the continental U.S., overseeing all Customer-initiated service channels—including phone, email, and social platforms—as well as proactive customer communications, travel disruption strategy and execution, and Southwest’s partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Under Kevin’s leadership, Customer CARE supports more than 140 million Customers traveling through 117 airports across 11 countries, managing over 20 million Customer contacts anually. His organization plays a critical role in delivering the legendary hospitality that defines the Southwest brand—whether helping Customers navigate irregular operations, providing real-time digital communications during travel disruptions, or resolving complex issues with empathy and expertise. Kevin is focused on modernizing the end-to-end Customer journey by integrating digital, operational and voice-of-customer insights; strengthening alignment with departments across the Company; and enabling a consistent Customer support model that reflects Southwest’s culture of service and connection. Prior to joining Southwest, Kevin built a distinguished 22-year career at AT&T, where he held senior roles spanning customer service, call center operations, finance, vendor management, and strategic development. He led organizations supporting more than $100 billion in revenue, oversaw international operations in 16 countries across 12 global outsourcing partners, and delivered a call-center transformation that generated $700 million in operating-expense savings while reducing customer contacts by 32% and lowering cost-to-serve per subscriber by 18% year-over- year. He has a history of delivering best-in-class customer service by leveraging groundbreaking innovation in Big Data, Gen AI, Robotics, and Global Sourcing. Known for his collaborative leadership style, strength in building high- performing teams and ability to connect people, process, and technology, Kevin mentors leaders across functions and drives performance through clarity of vision, purposeful innovation, and customer-centric culture.
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Exporting Culture: How to Extend Your Brand’s Soul Into an Outsourced CX ModelEvery brand has a culture—few know how to export it. As more companies blend internal CX teams with outsourced BPO partners, the central challenge becomes ensuring that customers experience the same authenticity, empathy, and values no matter who answers the call. In this interactive workshop, GTCX CEO Bill Colton and Azure Standard’s CX leader Karen Slusher unpack how a brand’s “internal DNA” can be successfully extended beyond its four walls. Azure Standard, with its uniquely passionate customer following and deeply relationship-driven approach, has cultivated a CX model where agents are empowered to spend real time with customers, prioritize connection over speed, and build long-term trust. Translating that ethos to an external partner might seem impossible—yet Azure and GTCX have built a blueprint for doing exactly that. Attendees will learn:
This session blends strategic insight with practical guidance from two leaders who have done it in the real world—not in theory. Thanks to Our Partner:
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The Standard Is the StrategyCX excellence isn’t created by software, scripts, or perfectly defined processes. It’s created by leaders, and the standard they’re willing to set for themselves. In this keynote, Travis Brown, former NFL quarterback and current pastor, delivers a direct challenge to CX executives: your team’s performance will never exceed the standard you personally embody. Travis explores the uncomfortable but liberating truth that success can often mask slipping standards, and teams will always follow the tone the leader sets, especially when conditions aren’t ideal, pressure is high, or you’re leading teams you didn’t personally handpick. This session will reshape how you think about standards, how they’re created, reinforced, and multiplied across the enterprise, and why EX will always dictate CX. Through powerful stories and practical leadership insight, Travis helps leaders see that the most scalable strategy for CX excellence is not a system… it’s a standard. And it starts with you. About Travis: Travis Brown is a former NFL quarterback who played for 6 seasons (Seahawks, Bills, Colts). He now channels his passion for leadership, teamwork, and culture into developing others. He oversees campuses at Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV)—one of the largest churches in the country with 19 campuses and over 55,000 in attendance every weekend—helping shape environments where teams thrive and people grow. He is also the founder of 180 Sports, a nonprofit dedicated to using sports to impact culture by training coaches, supporting athletes, and providing equipment. Through his experiences on and off the field, Travis has gained a deep understanding of what it takes to build strong teams, cultivate winning cultures, and help individuals reach their full potential. Beyond his professional work, Travis has been married to his wife, Corinna, for nearly 25 years, and together they have five children. His greatest passion is investing in people—whether on the field, in the workplace, or at home—helping them maximize their potential and lead with clarity, resilience, and purpose.
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Delivering Care Without Compromise: The Human-Tech Partnership at VisaFrom her first job behind a supermarket checkout to leading Visa’s Global Client Care organization, Katie Beaudry has always understood that customer experience begins with empathy. What once required face-to-face presence has evolved into a world where data, AI, and predictive design enable care at scale — yet the heart of CX remains human. In this keynote, Katie will share how Visa is reimagining every stage of the service journey, building “self-healing” experiences and agentic AI systems that empower both customers and care teams to deliver seamless, personalized solutions in real time. But transformation isn’t about technology alone; it’s about foresight, culture, and connection. Katie explores how her teams are blending human intuition with intelligent automation to deliver care without compromise. She’ll challenge leaders to rethink what preemptive service looks like in practice, how to equip teams for success in an AI-powered ecosystem, and how to keep the human touch alive at a global scale. Attendees will walk away inspired to raise the bar, not just by solving customer problems, but by anticipating them. About Katie Katie leads Visa’s Client Care organization, which is part of Client Services. Client Care’s purpose is to provide superior customer support for Visa’s products and services across a full range of client types, from cardholders whom Visa interacts with ‘on behalf of’ banks and credit unions (our revenue-generating managed services departments), to helping merchants, acquirers, fintechs, and other financial institutions directly with their service queries and technical issue resolution. Client Care has more than 1,500 highly skilled team members who support 18 languages, and our award-winning team annually handles 18M customer touchpoints across six channels, including phone, email, live chat, self-service portals, chatbot, and social media. Before joining Visa in February 2022, Katie spent 13 years with HSBC Bank, both in London and New York. Her first role with HSBC started in Corporate Communications, supporting large, multi-year transformation programs for the Finance and Risk functions. She then moved to New York to lead Employee Communications for the US business and progressed to lead the Customer and Employee Experience teams. Later, she ran the US contact center and international banking organizations. Before HSBC, she was a Senior Corporate and Legal Affairs Manager at Tesco in the UK, handling national media and other public relations. She is a co-active coach trained through the Coaches Training Institute and has a joint first-class honors degree in English and Media from Sussex University, UK. She lives in Florida with her husband and has three children. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, cycling, and eating out.
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Walmart’s People-Led, Tech-Powered Approach to Customer SupportAs customer and associate support reaches a defining moment, CX leaders are being challenged to evolve faster than ever without losing the human connection that defines great service. In this keynote, Meghan Nicholas, Vice President of Customer Engagement Services at Walmart, will explore how large, complex organizations can modernize their service operations through a people-led, tech-powered approach. Drawing from real-world experience at scale, she will examine how today’s leaders are balancing rising expectations, accelerating technology, and the enduring need for empathy and trust across every customer touchpoint. Attendees will gain perspective on designing service models that are both operationally resilient and deeply human, where innovation enhances, rather than replaces, meaningful connection. With the continued growth of automation, AI, and self-service, this session offers a timely, high-level look at how CX leaders can drive efficiency, clarity, and care simultaneously, setting a new standard for performance without compromise. About Meghan: Meghan Nicholas is a leader in digital transformation, customer experience, and operational strategy. As Vice President of Care Experience and Operations at Walmart, she leads customer and associate contact centers, driving innovations that enhance customer satisfaction while optimizing operations at scale. Meghan is passionate about leveraging technology, data, and AI to streamline processes and eliminate friction in customer interactions. Before joining Walmart, Meghan held leadership roles in supply chain, operations, and analytics at Peloton, Dollar General, and The Home Depot. With deep expertise in operational strategy and customer care, she has led large-scale transformations that drive efficiency, innovation, and business growth in complex, high-volume environments. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Auburn University.
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CX as a Growth Engine: Proving Value in the BoardroomCustomer experience leaders know that delivering exceptional service drives loyalty, retention, and long-term business value. Yet, securing investment for new tools, talent, and innovations often requires more than intuition or anecdotal wins. Many CX leaders still face challenges in articulating a compelling financial case for investment, translating the less tangible benefits of customer care into metrics that resonate with CFOs, CEOs, and boards. Without a strong internal case, initiatives risk being deprioritized in favor of more easily quantified projects. This panel will dive into proven strategies for building persuasive ROI models that tie customer care excellence directly to revenue growth, reduced churn, and operational efficiency. Panelists will share best practices for quantifying knock-on effects like customer lifetime value, brand advocacy, and competitive differentiation, while also offering guidance on how to educate senior leadership on the true business impact of CX. Attendees will leave with practical tools and storytelling techniques to strengthen their internal advocacy and secure the resources needed to elevate customer experience initiatives. Thanks to Our Partner:
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Beyond Deployment: The Quality Assurance and Measurement Essentials for AI-Powered CXAs AI reaches new levels of deployment within the contact center, the focus is all too often on speed to market rather than sustained quality and performance. Without rigorous monitoring, these solutions can drift from intended outcomes, generate inconsistent or inaccurate responses, and even erode customer trust. The difference between AI-powered solutions that delight versus ones that frustrate often comes down to how well performance is measured, tuned, re-tuned, and governed over time. This panel will explore why monitoring AI quality must be as much a priority as implementing AI itself. CX leaders will share emerging best practices for establishing performance benchmarks, aligning AI outputs with business and customer goals, and setting up governance models that evolve alongside the technology. Attendees will gain practical insights on how to track both quantitative and qualitative results, run an effective QA layer, detect bias or drift, and create feedback loops that ensure AI remains a reliable extension of the customer experience strategy. During this panel you’ll learn about:
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CX Livewire: Polling, Predictions, and Instant FeedbackJust as data drives the vital operational adjustments that CX leaders make every day, data also fuels the strategic decisions that power entire programs. During this session, panelists will dive into the data of critical CX topics the goal of contrasting results from recent Execs In The Know’s CX research with live polling of the CRS Amelia Island audience. Real-time insights will help audience members benchmark themselves against the room, while panelists provide headlights into some of the biggest challenges and successes at their own organizations. Come prepared to participate during this high energy, fast-paced session which is sure to produce both surprises and confirmation.
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Beyond Recovery: Shaping a CX Model That Anticipates, Prevents, and DelightsMost service organizations remain focused on reacting to issues after they arise, yet the real opportunity lies in anticipating and preventing problems before customers ever need to reach out. This panel will explore how CX leaders are rethinking their approaches to become more predictive and proactive, leveraging a mix of customer data, journey signals, and emerging AI capabilities to spot friction points early and deliver pre-emptive support. Panelists will discuss both the opportunities and the challenges in shifting from recovery to prevention — from making the internal case for investment in predictive solutions, to building the right organizational support, to ensuring governance and trust remain at the center. Expect practical insights into how companies are both executing and thinking about proactive outreach and empowering agents with “next-best actions,” all while learning from both successes and setbacks. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of how proactive strategies can reduce preventable contacts, elevate satisfaction, and lower costs while strengthening long-term customer relationships.
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Thanks to Our Partner
Uncompromised Leadership — When Self-Respect Becomes PricelessWhen the stakes are high and the pressure is on, real leadership is revealed not by strategy decks or polished statements, but by the courage to act with integrity, even when it costs something. In this intimate discussion, two EITK advisory board members and seasoned senior CX executives share candid stories of when their values were tested under fire. When the easiest choice isn’t the right one, and when standing firm carries personal or professional consequences, this is when true leaders stand firm. We’ll explore how leaders evolve from good intentions to becoming “the one” others can count on: the person who speaks up, takes risks, and acts on their convictions when everyone else stays quiet. The conversation will examine how self-respect becomes the source of leadership courage, fueling trust inside organizations and loyalty among customers. In this session, you’ll learn:
Expect real stories of integrity under pressure—from culture flashpoints to customer-impacting crises—and leave with practical insights on how courage, vulnerability, and personal accountability can transform organizations. Attendees will walk away inspired to embrace self-respect as a leadership operating system that not only protects employees and customers but also creates the foundation for authentic, lasting trust. |
Thanks to Our Partner:
 Lisa Oswald
Senior Vice President, Customer Service  |
 Carolyne M. Truelove
Vice President, Customer and Operations Excellence  |
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From Data to Experience: Transforming the Consumer Journey at Michelin Consumer care is evolving, and Michelin is setting a new standard in pairing advanced analytics with human expertise. As a premium brand, Michelin demands a premium consumer experience that anticipates needs and caters to personalized consumer situations. Through innovative technology from IntouchCX and Michelin, agents are empowered with real-time knowledge prompts, surfacing critical information for complex or uncommon scenarios. Combined with AI-driven roleplay and adaptive training, this approach equips agents to operate beyond rigid scripts, balancing autonomy with precision. This also provides the groundwork for better Voice of the Consumer reporting and CRM predictive insights to guide future personalized journeys without overcommunication. Key takeaways:
This session will feature an interactive breakout exercise, giving participants the opportunity to experience the workshop concepts firsthand and apply them in a collaborative setting. Thanks to Our Partner
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How Peloton Fixed Its MSAT Headache Peloton was facing member experience challenges across its global partner network. To fix this problem, Peloton did what any great brand would do: they hit the reset button. The result? A laser-focused turnaround on their new north star metric: MSAT. Join this session to see how Peloton and ibex:
If you want to see how one of the world’s most recognizable brands turned MSAT from a pain point into a proof point, don’t miss this Moment of Brilliance. Thanks to Our Partner
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From Transformation to ROI: Lessons from CX Leaders The contact center is at a turning point—leaders are under pressure to deliver efficiency without eroding the customer experience. In this Shop Talk, Todd Stanley, former COO of Achieve and former senior CX leader at Intuit, will share candid lessons from years of leading large-scale transformations. Drawing on his experience deploying enterprise AI, Todd will discuss how organizations can:
In this session, we’ll explore what’s next for contact centers as AI Agents move from concept to reality, reshaping how routine work is handled and how human expertise is elevated. Leaders will gain perspective on how to prepare their organizations today to capture these opportunities tomorrow. Thanks to Our Partner
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The AI Menu in Action: Reimagining the Customer Journey with AI at Every Phase AI has the potential to transform every touchpoint of the customer journey, but only if leaders know where and how to apply it for measurable impact. In this highly interactive session, you’ll work alongside fellow CX decision-makers to identify critical challenges across the pre-interaction, interaction, and post-interaction phases. Using “The AI Menu” as a framework, you’ll explore real-world examples, from AI Receptionists and Intelligent Virtual Agents that predict customer needs to AI-powered analytics that uncover post-call insights, and co-create targeted, AI-driven strategies to overcome these challenges. You’ll leave this session with actionable opportunity statements, fresh perspectives from your peers, and practical tools to integrate AI across your customer engagement processes. Whether you’re optimizing the moments before a customer ever speaks to an agent, enhancing live interactions with real-time intelligence, or using post-call insights to drive continuous improvement, this session will equip you to design seamless, impactful customer experiences powered by AI at every phase. Thanks to Our Partner |
 Glen Tillman
Senior Director Product Marketing |
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Next-Gen Agent Onboarding: How Reddy and Morgan & Morgan Transformed Training Outdated training tools are failing modern customer service agents—leaving them underprepared, under-coached, and overwhelmed. In this interactive Shop Talk, Reddy invites you to step into the shoes of a newly hired agent navigating legacy onboarding and the daily grind of frontline support. Through hands-on simulation, reflection, and role-play, you’ll uncover the gaps in traditional enablement and see why it’s time to get your LMS truly “Reddy” for your agents. Key Takeaways:
Thanks to Our Partner
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Building Empathetic Voice AI: Architecting Real-Time Conversations at Scale What makes a voice AI experience feel genuinely human? It’s not just about getting the words right. It’s about understanding tone, intent, and emotion in the moment, and responding in a way that builds trust. Behind every seamless voice experience is a complex orchestration of intent recognition, sentiment analysis, and real-time decisioning. This workshop takes you inside the engine of a truly AI-native voice platform where you’ll explore how LLMs, NLU, and proprietary tuning come together to create voice agents that actually feel human. Through a live product demo, you’ll see what’s possible when empathy meets engineering. This workshop will explore:
Thanks to Our Partner
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Pilot with Precision: Aligning Generative Agent Pilots to Risk Tolerance and ROI Launching a generative AI pilot is easy. Launching the right one—one that aligns with your risk tolerance, delivers measurable outcomes, and sets you up to scale—is far more difficult. Presented by ASAPP and PTP, this session will help CX leaders to choose, test, and take generative agent pilots to the next level, with confidence. You’ll explore:
If you’re looking to quickly accelerate your AI journey and maximize ROI—without overpromising or overengineering—this session is for you.
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How AI Is Powering the Next Wave of Omnichannel Customer Service Today’s customers don’t think in channels. They expect fast, personalized support, wherever they are. From chat and social to messaging apps, email, and phone, customer service is now omnichannel. But with this flexibility comes a new challenge: delivering consistent, contextual, and cost-effective service at scale. In this session, Freshworks will explore how AI is transforming customer support across every channel, not by adding more tools, but by making every interaction smarter. Through a live demo and collaborative discussion, they’ll break down how Freddy AI works across chat and email to resolve common queries, empower agents with insights, and simplify tool complexity. You’ll get a practical look at how it all comes together, including:
Attendees will leave with clear strategies for scaling intelligent support without sacrificing the human touch.
Thanks to Our Partner
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TripAdvisor’s Playbook for AI That Gets 5-Star Reviews: How to Avoid the Implementation Mistakes That Break Customer Experience You’ve seen the pattern: AI projects that start strong, then somehow make everything more complicated. What looked like a quick win turns into months of integration headaches, frustrated teams, and executives asking uncomfortable questions about ROI. TripAdvisor made this exact mistake. Then Tim Barker and his team developed a holistic approach that transformed their entire customer support operation—dramatically improving resolution times while reducing costs and boosting agent satisfaction. In this hands-on session, Tim and Laivly’s Matt Bruno will walk you through the same methodology that delivered these results. What You’ll Experience Real-World Case Study Strategic Framework Deep-Dive Interactive Workshop Walk out with your personalized AI workflow map and phased implementation plan.
Thanks to Our Partner
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RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG) is a leading provider of AI-driven cloud business communications, contact center, video and hybrid event solutions. RingCentral empowers businesses with conversation intelligence, and unlocks rich customer and employee interactions to provide insights and improved business outcomes. For more information, visit: ringcentral.com . |
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Powered by purpose, TELUS Digital leverages technology, human ingenuity and compassion to fuel remarkable outcomes and create inclusive, thriving communities in the regions where we operate around the world. Guided by our Humanity-in-the-loop principles, we take a responsible approach to the transformational technologies we develop and deploy by proactively considering and addressing the broader impacts of our work. Learn more at: telusdigital.com |
TELUS Digital ibex delivers innovative BPO, smart digital marketing, online acquisition technology, and end-to-end customer engagement solutions to help companies acquire, engage and retain customers. ibex leverages its diverse global team and industry-leading technology, including its AI-powered ibex Wave iX solutions suite, to drive superior CX for top brands across retail, e-commerce, healthcare, fintech, utilities and logistics.For more information, visit: www.ibex.co |
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Flip It Live: How Belk Launched Voice AI in Record Time Why talk about launching AI when you can watch it be deployed in minutes? In this interactive session, you’ll see a real retailer, Belk, set up Flip’s Voice AI from scratch to fully operational in minutes, proving what most vendors call “impossible.” Belk’s Senior Director of Customer Experience, Jessica Patel, joins Flip’s Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, Sam Krut, and Vice President of Demand & Partnerships, Shawn Li, to share how the 137-year-old retailer replaced its IVR with a modern Voice AI experience and went from first conversation to launch in only 74 days. They’ll reveal early results from successfully putting customer-facing AI on phones without a long, custom, expensive build, and the early results Belk is seeing in its most important channel. Join this session for laughs, learnings, and a guide for how your brand can launch Voice AI, too. You’ll see and hear:
Watch a brand “flip the script” on phone-channel CX and walk away with a practical roadmap to launch Voice AI.
Thanks to Our Partner
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Unlocking Call Center Revenue: How Princess Cruises is Driving Growth Most call center agents spend more time figuring out who to call or what to say than actually talking to guests. Princess Cruises is flipping that model — using AI and real-time data to put the right leads, the right insights, and the right timing directly into agents’ hands, making their jobs easier and more rewarding. Join Alvin Stokes, VP of Global Reservation and Guest Services at Princess Cruises, and Scott Sahadi, CEO of harpin AI, as they reveal how new tools are helping agents close more bookings with less guesswork. You’ll learn how Princess Cruises is:
This isn’t about more calls. It’s about smarter calls that convert — faster. If you want to see what significant MoM revenue growth looks like in action, don’t miss this.
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Transforming Your Contact Center into a Modern Resolution Engine For too long, themes in CX have been focused on deflection, asking, “How many customers can we avoid?” The more meaningful question is: “How can we resolve their issues?” Customers don’t care how many steps you eliminated in your workflow or how much faster your team completed their post-call dispositions. They care about one thing: Was my problem solved quickly and effectively? As CCaaS continues to evolve, contact-center leaders must meet ever-higher demands for efficiency, personalization, and seamless omnichannel service. Teams can no longer tolerate half-baked channels, siloed agents, or reporting nightmares. Today, they’re embracing AI-powered, unified workspaces that weave rich contextual data with intelligent, empathy-driven tools so every interaction becomes fast, personal, and on-brand at scale. In this session led by Zendesk, you’ll explore real-world examples of contact centers around the world that have:
You’ll walk away with actionable strategies to transform your contact center into a modern resolution engine by:
Thanks to Our Partner
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Designing the Modern Contact Center Experience: Human + AI Collaboration, Omnichannel Orchestration, and Voice Platform Transformation As customer expectations evolve and AI continues to reshape service delivery, contact centers must transform into agile, intelligent experience hubs. This forward-looking workshop explores how to design the modern contact center by integrating the best of human empathy, agentic AI, and omnichannel strategy. Participants will dive into how to orchestrate seamless journeys across voice, chat, email, and social, creating consistent experiences regardless of channel. We’ll explore how to modernize legacy systems and elevate voice platforms through next-generation IVR (NGIVR) and agentic AI that empowers agents and streamlines customer interactions. A key focus will be on Human + AI collaboration: learning how to optimize handoffs between bots and humans, design emotionally intelligent experiences, and deploy next-gen agent assist tools that elevate frontline performance. Through practical frameworks, real-world case studies, and collaborative exercises, attendees will leave with a better understanding of:
A must-attend session for contact center leaders focused on delivering measurable, strategic value through every customer interaction. Thanks to Our Partner
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Sierra is the platform that helps businesses build better, more human customer experiences with AI. Founded by industry veterans Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, Sierra enables companies to deploy autonomous AI agents that provide fast, personalized, always-on support across channels. Trusted by brands like SiriusXM, Sonos, and ADT, Sierra’s flexible model meets customers where they are—offering everything from enterprise-ready, fully supported deployments to build-your-own no-code journeys. Both CX and Engineering teams can move fast, choosing the right approach to fit their evolving needs. For more information, visit: sierra.ai |
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The Human Advantage: Why People Still Power Great CX in the Age of AI In an era dominated by AI and automation, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most critical in delivering standout customer experiences: the people making them happen. Amid the tech-driven transformation of CX, one truth remains—companies that thrive are those where agents, and the teams supporting them, are engaged, empowered, and equipped to deliver at a high level. In this dynamic session, Terri DeMent, Director, Consumer Engagement at Nestlé Purina—and Amy Bouthilet, VP of Global Talent at Alta Resources, a leading end-to-end CX BPO, discuss what it truly takes to build and sustain an employee-first culture. Drawing from real-world examples, they’ll share the challenges and breakthroughs of scaling engagement across complex enterprises, and how placing people at the core of CX operations leads to measurable impact—from improved customer satisfaction scores to stronger revenue performance. With a 9-year partnership with Gallup, Alta’s proven approach to employee engagement and leadership development has redefined how to embed culture into the everyday fabric of CX delivery. Attendees will gain actionable strategies to overcome barriers, develop engaged teams, and elevate both employee and customer outcomes in a world increasingly shaped by technology. Key Takeaways:
Join us to discover why, amid rapid technological change, people still drive CX success.
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A Masterclass in CX Technology Sourcing Choosing the right customer experience (CX) technology partners isn’t just a procurement decision—it’s a strategic one. From discovery to delivery, the way you source, evaluate, and manage technology solution providers can make or break your ability to deliver seamless, high-impact customer experiences. In this expert-led panel, seasoned CX leaders will guide you on techniques to find and evaluate the best providers to deliver on your business requirements. You’ll hear real-world examples and gain practical tools for maximizing value from your technology partnerships while staying agile in a fast-evolving digital landscape.
Whether you’re looking to optimize current vendors or source new technology, this panel will offer a blueprint for smarter, more strategic CX technology decisions.
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Trista Miller|
Reality Check: Are AI & Automation Living Up to Their Promise in CX AI and automation are no longer emerging tools; they’re embedded in the DNA of today’s CX strategies. From transforming contact centers to driving operational efficiency and delivering more seamless customer interactions, they’ve promised smarter, more seamless customer experiences. But are they delivering? This panel takes a clear-eyed look at what’s really happening after implementation. What gains have proven sustainable? Where are expectations falling short? And how are CX leaders rethinking their approach as they face the hard truths of integration, training, measurement, and impact? You’ll hear from leading brands on navigating the evolving balance between humans and machines, including how they’re redefining agent roles, capturing the right metrics, and translating the voice of the customer into iterative, AI-fueled improvements. Whether you’re scaling automation or just beginning to integrate AI pilots, this session offers grounded insights, honest lessons, and forward-looking guidance for building the intelligent contact center of tomorrow. Thanks to Our Partner
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CX Livewire: Polling, Predictions, and Instant Feedback This fast-paced session brings together a panel of CX leaders who are deeply immersed in the challenges and opportunities facing the industry today. Drawing on their diverse backgrounds and day-to-day leadership, panelists will explore what’s driving progress, what’s standing in the way, and how leading organizations are turning insight into impact. Attendees will walk away with a clearer view of the CX landscape, real-time benchmarking from peer responses, and fresh strategies they can apply within their own teams. By pairing live polling with Execs In The Know’s latest research report’s core findings, we’ll use the session to test predictions, validate (or challenge) existing data points, and capture what’s changed in real-time. This approach gives attendees a rare opportunity to see how their organization stacks up, where their peers are headed, and what strategies are gaining traction across industries right now.
Thanks to Our Partner |
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The Talent Shift: Hiring, Training, and Compensation in an AI World Customer expectations aren’t the only thing evolving, so are the people behind every interaction. As AI and automation continue to reshape the contact center, they’re not just enhancing tools and workflows; they’re fundamentally transforming the agent role itself. In this new era, agents are expected to do more than follow a script. They’re problem solvers, brand ambassadors, and emotional first responders—navigating increasingly complex issues that require both high-tech fluency and high-EQ finesse. These changes are pushing organizations to rethink everything: how we recruit and train, how we compensate and support, what skills matter most in the modern CX workforce, and how entirely new roles may emerge. This panel brings together CX leaders to unpack how AI is reshaping the future of work: redefining the skills we hire for, influencing compensation models, and transforming how training, reskilling, and upskilling are delivered and absorbed. As the role of the agent evolves—shifting from repetitive tasks to higher-value, empathy-driven work—companies must balance automation with human augmentation and adopt strategies for building and supporting a workforce prepared to meet the demands of a more complex, tech-integrated customer experience. The future is faster, smarter, and more connected but success depends on leading with intention, investing in emotional intelligence, and designing roles that elevate both technology and humanity.
Thanks to Our Partner |
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Board Panel: The Signals We’re Missing In a world flooded with dashboards and metrics, the loudest signals often steal the spotlight—while the most powerful insights go unheard. This panel explores what it means to truly listen to the silent majority of customers: those whose feedback isn’t captured in traditional surveys, whose experiences are filtered through cultural bias, or whose voices are lost in outdated listening systems. Join the EITK Advisory Board as they challenge the current state of customer listening by asking hard questions:
We’ll also explore how AI-powered sentiment detection can help uncover unspoken truths and emerging emotions—if applied with intention and ethics. From tuning into passive signals to reshaping how and where we listen, this conversation will open new possibilities for creating a listening culture that is inclusive, intelligent, and alive. If we want to meet customers where they are, we must hear even what they don’t say. The future of customer experience depends not just on collecting more data—but on listening differently.
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