Day 2 (25 February)
8:00 am - 8:30 am
BREAKFAST AND NETWORKING
8:30 am - 8:40 am
CHAIR'S OPENING REMARKS
Nate Brown -
Founder & Executive Director,
CX Accelerator
8:40 am - 9:10 am
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: Change Without Churn: Communicating AI-Driven Updates So Your Network Actually Adopts Them
Alex Schaeffer -
Senior Director of Product Marketing (AI),
Ford Motor Company
A major AI investment only pays off if the people it's built for use it. Every update changes someone's daily work, and how it's communicated determines whether it earns trust or adds friction. Assuming "they'll get used to it" is how adoption stalls, workarounds spread and good people leave.
Drawing on work to connect franchise operations into a singular AI-enabled experience, this session covers:
- How to communicate change in a way that builds trust, drives adoption and proves value early
- Why fragmented updates, such as duplicate tools and conflicting asks, create hidden churn, and how to give people one consistent experience
- Closing the feedback loop: how to listen in the flow of work, validate patterns and show people what changed because of them
- How to predict and prevent friction before it reaches the people (and customers) who feel it
9:10 am - 9:40 am
SPONSOR PRESENTATION: Credit vs Customer: Attributing Customer Data More Accurately to Identify Growth Opportunities
Every team in your organization thinks they understand what drives customer behavior, but fragmented measurement approaches between functions often lead to competing narratives, with each team attributing success to its own activities.
This creates siloed attribution models, an unclear view of the impact of touchpoints, lack of understanding of customer intent and a sense of competition between functions and teams.
• Building a more accurate attribution model across the customer lifecycle that connects touchpoints, behaviors and outcomes to understand what genuinely drives customer decisions
• Moving beyond channel-based measurement by aligning teams around shared customer outcomes rather than competing claims for impact
• Using customer insight to optimize when and how each function's messages and interactions create the greatest value
9:45 am - 10:15 am
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
9:45 am - 10:15 am
THINK TANK: Harnessing GenAI, Data, & Automation to Optimize Spend & Scale Personalization
Anu Madhusudan -
Vice President of Marketing Transformation,
Target
How are leading organizations are leveraging generative AI, data intelligence, and automation to drive greater efficiency, improve decision making, and deliver personalized customer experiences at scale?
Explore practical strategies, lessons learned, and emerging opportunities to maximize impact while controlling costs.
- Identify high-impact GenAI and automation use cases that reduce operational spend and improve business outcomes
- Explore how unified data strategies enable more relevant, real-time personalization across customer touchpoints
- Share best practices for balancing innovation, governance, and measurable ROI as AI adoption scales
10:20 am - 10:50 am
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
10:20 am - 10:50 am
Peer Exchange
10:55 am - 11:25 am
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
10:55 am - 11:25 am
THINK TANK: Turning Customer Insights into Action & Impact
Daniel Pullo -
Global Customer Care - Director, Performance, Process & Transformation,
Stellantis
Collecting customer feedback is only the starting point, knowing what to do with it and driving action is where the real work begins.
Stellantis
This session will explore how CX leaders can move beyond simply collecting customer feedback to identifying the insights that matter most, prioritizing them based on impact and ensuring they are carried through to meaningful resolution.
How do you ensure customer insights translate into tangible improvements rather than sitting in a dashboard?
How do you identify and focus on the insights with the greatest potential impact and lift for both customers and the business?
Using downstream insights to ensure true or measurable resolution of friction
If you haven't built this capability yet, what should you consider first?
Daniel Pullo
Global Customer Care - Director, Performance, Process & TransformationStellantis
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
HOT SEAT PANEL: To AI or Not to AI: When Is Automation Not Appropriate?
Venkat Iyer -
Chief Safety, Quality & Patient Experience Officer,
Allina Health
Tacha Gregory - Executive Vice President of Digital & Customer Experience, State Farm
Bryan Moyer - Vice President of Customer Experience, Home Depot
As automation capabilities continue to expand, the real challenge is no longer identifying where automation is possible, but whether automation is appropriate.
Hear from this cross-industry panel on their real-life learnings and how and why they defined boundaries for automated service, and how they ensure a 'human is in the loop' when required.
• How do you define your brand's no-gos and identify the moments where human expertise and empathy should never be compromised?
• Preventing 'approval fatigue' through strict audit trails
• Building continuous monitoring processes that protect both your customers and your brand, ensuring automation enhances experiences without creating unnecessary risk or eroding trust
• What can you do to ensure you are meeting customers where they are and on their terms, not yours?
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
SPONSOR PRESENTATION: Pulling the Right Levers: The Mechanics Behind Interactions that Seamlessly Blend Automated Efficiency with the Human Advantage
As Agentic AI becomes an increasingly integral part of customer interactions, success is no longer determined by automation alone, but by the ability to balance efficiency with the human touch.
Explore the operational, technical and orchestration capabilities that enable organizations to deliver seamless, efficient experiences without sacrificing empathy, context or human connection.
• Building guardrails into Agentic AI workflows to ensure interactions remain contextual, personalized and aligned with your brand values
• Leveraging customer signals, intent and behavioral data to determine the next best action in real time
• Continuously refining your model through testing, feedback loops and performance monitoring to improve decision-making over time
• Establishing a clear route that ensures customers are always able to access the 'escape hatch'
12:35 pm - 1:05 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
1:05 pm - 2:00 pm
LUNCH
2:05 pm - 2:35 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
2:05 pm - 2:35 pm
THINK TANK: Leveraging Design and Research to Reduce Churn
Paul Weaver -
Vice President of Global Digital Product Design,
Hyatt Hotels
AI is changing how quickly teams can move from an idea to a working product. But speed is only valuable if teams can make sound decisions about what they're building, and prove it's impact on customers and business priorities.
Drawing on experience across video games, education, healthcare and hospitality, Paul will explore the role of design, research and human judgment in making AI truly useful and beneficial for customers, not just faster.
- How are organizations approaching AI in design and research?
- How can design systems and research help teams shape and validate AI-generated products before they reach engineering?
- Are teams measuring AI's impact honestly and do KPIs reflect productivity, quality and value?
2:40 pm - 3:10 pm
ROUNDTABLES: Leveraging Post-Purchase Experiences to Build Loyalty
Stephanie Stafford -
Senior Director of Customer Experience,
YETI
Oftentimes, the moment when things go wrong, whether through a return, refund or support request, is the one that determines whether a customer remains loyal or decides they no longer want to deal with your brand.
So, learn from the industries that do it best, and come prepared to swap notes with your cross-industry peers
Roundtable 1: Unlocking Faster, Frictionless Resolution & Returns
Roundtable 2: Quantifying the ROI of Post-Purchase Experiences
3:10 pm - 3:40 pm
PRESENTATION: Proactive by Design: Creating Customer Journeys That Inspire Confidence & Drive Loyalty
Customers no longer just compare your experience with others in your industry - they compare it with the effortless transparency of emerging brands that have taken the consumer industry by storm. They expect realtime
updates, proactive communication and the freedom to engage on their terms. So, how can organizations deliver connected, customer-led communications that deliver confidence?
• The importance of proactive, real-time communications that keep customers informed and engaged
• Leveraging technology to meet customers on their preferred channels while carrying over context
• Bridging the gap between infrastructure limitations, budget constraints and modern customer expectations to create experiences that feel seamless and deliver on your brand promises
