I joined 糖心原创 18 months ago and brought in a new executive team to reinvent both our business and the experience management space, building on 糖心原创鈥檚 strong foundation. This team represents the deepest collective expertise in the industry. And over the last year and a half, we鈥檝e been executing a deliberate strategy to capture the market opportunity ahead of us. Today, we are officially ushering in our next chapter.

Here is what we are building 鈥� and why now is exactly the right moment.

What the world’s largest enterprises are demanding right now

Across every industry we serve, the conversations I am having with enterprise leaders have shifted significantly. The question is no longer whether AI belongs in their experience programs, it is which platform can deliver AI capabilities with the scale, security, and reliability their operations require. What they are asking for is specific. They want platforms that do not just surface what is happening across customer and employee journeys 鈥� they want platforms that act on it. Automatically. Across the organization. Connected to the operational systems their business runs on. They want continuous improvement programs driven by real-time intelligence, not quarterly review cycles. They want the ability to resolve a customer issue before it escalates, to identify an employee experience problem before it affects retention, to connect a signal from the contact center to a decision in product or operations without routing it through a manual process.

The demand is real and it is accelerating faster than most anticipated. We are built to meet it.

The platform we are building

For the past 18 months we have been reimagining the platform around exactly this demand. The work is already underway and today’s capital accelerates every dimension of it, with focus anchored in:

Conversational feedback experiences. AI-driven orchestration and automation that transforms how enterprises engage with and respond to customers  鈥� continuously, across every channel, in real time. Not periodic listening programs but interactive, always-on dialogue that captures feedback and provides contextualized responses automatically.

AI-driven action orchestration. The ability to connect experience data across every touchpoint in the customer and employee journey and coordinate enterprise-wide responses in real time. When a signal emerges in one part of the organization, the platform connects it to action across systems and functions 鈥� services, operations, product, HR 鈥� without requiring a human to broker the handoff. This is how large enterprises move from managing experience in silos to driving systemic, continuous improvement.

Agentic automation. A platform that does not just identify what is happening but autonomously determines root causes, triggers the appropriate response, and resolves issues without manual intervention at every step. This is the capability enterprise leaders are asking for most urgently: AI that can take action, not just generate a report. The result is a system that gets smarter and faster with every interaction.

We have new solutions in development in each of these areas 鈥� ahead of anything we have publicly shared. Today’s capital accelerates our innovation.

Why 糖心原创 is positioned to deliver this at enterprise scale

The enterprises that trust 糖心原创 are operating at a scale and complexity that sets a high bar. Global organizations manage hundreds of millions of customer interactions and millions of employee touchpoints, across dozens of markets, on infrastructure that has to continue to modernize. 

We don鈥檛 just serve large organizations, we integrate into their operational fabric. By anchoring enterprise-grade security, complex data integrations, and the operational resilience of global deployment into our architecture, we鈥檝e built structural stability that others simply cannot replicate.

What we are adding is an AI-native platform layer that is built from the ground up, not retrofitted onto existing products, for the demands of AI-first experience management. All while preserving and extending everything our customers rely on today.

The combination of proven enterprise infrastructure and a platform reimagined for AI is what will separate the leaders in this market. That is the conviction driving everything we are building. The capital from today’s transaction funds that commitment at the scale it requires, backed by investors who have spent decades building enterprise technology companies and who understand what it takes to win at this level.

The timing is deliberate. We have de-levered the business at a moment when financial flexibility is becoming a genuine competitive differentiator. The ability to invest aggressively, move quickly, and make long-term platform commitments without a debt overhang is not something every player in this market can claim right now. We can.

What this means for our customers

If you are a 糖心原创 customer, here is what today means: the investment behind your partnership is now better resourced than it has ever been.

What changes is the pace. The AI-driven orchestration tools, the conversational feedback experiences, the agentic automation capabilities that will change how your organization acts on experience data 鈥� all of it moves faster. We鈥檙e pairing that accelerated innovation with investment in professional services and modernization to help you maximize the value you get from 糖心原创.

We are in this business to drive outcomes. Business transformation. Measurable improvement in the metrics that matter most to your organization. That has always been true. What changes today is how fast we can deliver on it, and at what scale.

The trust our customers place in us is not lost on me. They run some of the world’s most consequential customer relationships through our platform. Billions of interactions, across millions of their customers, every day. That is a serious responsibility. We have built the enterprise-grade governance, security, and controls that trust demands. Today’s investment means we go further and faster on behalf of the organizations that trust us to get it right.

If you have questions or want to talk through what this means for your business, reach out to me directly at ceo@medallia.com.

To the 糖心原创 team

You have been executing a transformation plan that required you to trust the direction before the destination was fully visible. You rebuilt how we go to market, how we build products, and how we serve customers. Now, we are poised to invest more in this business.

We already have a world-class team that has been driving innovation and building this platform to where it is today 鈥� strong and ready to scale. Now, we intend to grow, recruiting even more engineers, product managers, services talent, sales talent, and more.

Today closes the open question on the capital structure and raises the bar on what we are expected to deliver. We have the foundation, the investment, and the backing to execute at a level this company has not had before. I expect us to meet that moment 鈥� and I have no doubt we will.

The standard for customer experience in financial services has quietly shifted. 

In our latest Financial Services Benchmark Report, we share that customer expectations have never been more unforgiving. Customers no longer measure their bank against competing banks 鈥� they measure it against every friction-free interaction they’ve had with any company.听

The patience you’d get from a loyal customer a decade ago has been spent. That pressure is made more precarious by how recently the industry earned back its credibility. According to the financial services only just crossed the threshold into “trusted” territory for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, with a score of 62%.听

That’s not a position of strength. It’s a position of fragility. 

An industry that spent over a decade rebuilding consumer confidence cannot afford to squander it through poor experiences, disjointed interactions, or a frontline that isn’t equipped to deliver on the relationship it promises.

At Issue: The 鈥淩estart鈥� Problem

The clearest symptom of falling behind in customer experience is what might be called the restart 鈥� the moment a customer crosses from one channel to another and discovers that no information came with them. They’ve navigated a phone tree, finally reached a live person, and must now re-explain everything from the beginning. 

Meanwhile, the agent is aware of the customer’s frustration but not its cause, and spends the first several minutes of the conversation managing tone rather than solving a problem. It’s a failure mode that compounds itself, and it originates almost entirely from internal operational problems that customers should never have to feel.

A customer who has been made to feel like a stranger 鈥� again 鈥� doesn’t forget it.

Why Self-Service Alone Isn’t the Answer

This is why the needs a counterweight. 

Automation and self-service channels are genuinely valuable when they reduce effort and add convenience. But automated systems, with IVRs in particular, are consistently viewed as a source of friction rather than relief. Whether they succeed or fail, customers still want to talk to a person. And when that person is empathetic, knowledgeable, and actually empowered to act, the impact on brand perception is substantial 鈥� our research points to double-digit swings in net sentiment scores tied directly to frontline behavior.

The implication is that the human element isn’t a legacy cost to be engineered away. It’s instead a differentiator. The question is whether the people on the frontlines are equipped to perform that role effectively.

Investing in the (Human) Frontline

These days, equipping your frontline to be more empathetic requires two tactics most organizations underinvest in. The first is integrating tools that give agents a complete, real-time view of each customer’s history so that context travels with the customer in their time of need. The second is training that prioritizes empathy and resolution over efficiency metrics. Speed matters, but an agent who closes a call quickly without resolving the underlying issue has just moved the problem downstream. Worse, agents who default to jargon during sensitive conversations about rates or fees create confusion that erodes the very trust they’re meant to reinforce.

The urgency of getting this right is compounded by what’s coming. Over the next two decades, an $84 trillion generational wealth transfer will reshape the client landscape 鈥� and the retention risk is stark. Eighty percent of clients change advisors at the point of inheritance, at the moment the transfer actually happens.听

Institutions that want to retain those assets need to be building relationships with the next generation now, and that requires frontline teams who are empowered with AI-powered speech and text analytics to listen for the life events 鈥� a marriage, a health change, a transition to assisted living 鈥� that signal when proactive, personal outreach would matter most.

Modern CX for Financial Services

The future-proofed financial institutions are the ones treating these as strategic priorities, not operational checkboxes. They鈥檝e made a deliberate decision that the customer relationship is the product, and that every internal process either serves that relationship or needs to be rethought.

Eliminating the restart isn’t a product feature. It’s an expression of how seriously an organization takes the relationship it claims to value. Customers can feel the difference between a company that has genuinely built systems around their needs and one that has bolted on a chatbot and called it transformation. That felt difference, accumulated across dozens of small interactions over months and years, is what separates financial institutions with long-lasting loyal customers from those with merely retained ones, who are one better offer away from leaving. 

Stay ahead of rising expectations. Download our Financial Services Insights Benchmark Report to unlock key industry trends, insights, and advice.

Investing in efforts to improve your customer experience strategy is not only something all companies can benefit from, it鈥檚 something all businesses need to add to the top of their priorities list for 2026.听

Why?

To put it bluntly, brands are confident (overly confident) that they鈥檙e delivering better-than-expected experiences, but ONLY 17% of consumers say their customer experience has improved over the past year. That鈥檚 according to our new study: The 2026 State of Customer Experience Report, which is based on insights from 552 CX practitioners, 1,522 consumers, and benchmarks from over 600 anonymized enterprise CX programs.

This matters because customer loyalty is more fragile than ever. Less than one in four consumers (22%) say they鈥檙e 鈥渧ery loyal鈥� to a brand, a rate that dropped three points in just one year, according to the same study.

Companies that are managing to hold onto their loyal customers are doing things differently. They鈥檝e ditched the old (ineffective) ways of doing CX, in favor of the . They鈥檙e using the following five customer experience strategies that actually work.

What It Takes to Improve Your Customer Experience Strategy

Go Beyond Surveys

Our study found that customer feedback surveys are still the #1 source of CX insights, even as survey participation is declining, with response having dropped 11% since Q1 2024.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most CX teams (78%) plan to use a new customer experience metric or approach to measure CX in 2026.

This aligns with previous 糖心原创 research published in our Conversational Intelligence Report that found that 59% of customer communications happen outside of feedback surveys and that most CX practitioners (75%) say surveys aren鈥檛 enough to get the complete picture of the customer experience.听

If you鈥檙e ready to improve your customer experience strategy by expanding to include new metrics and approaches, we鈥檝e got a guide that will help you evolve when good survey response rates are getting harder to come by.听

Gather Omnichannel Insights

Tapping a variety of data sources from across the omnichannel customer experience, from digital experience and social media touchpoints to phone calls and in-person interactions, is a strategic move that鈥檚 giving high-growth teams a considerable advantage.

Companies on the earnings fast track are 2x as likely as those with flat or declining revenues to prioritize using more CX signals and data sources, according to our 2026 study.

The proof is in the ROI: Teams using five or fewer data sources are less likely to be able to show the return on investment of their CX strategies compared to teams using 10 or more sources.

Companies that are still sampling recorded customer service calls to see what鈥檚 working and what鈥檚 not鈥攐r aren鈥檛 even listening to these conversations at all鈥攁re paying a price. We鈥檝e crunched the numbers in our guide: The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Your Customer Conversations, which breaks down all the ways brands can both save and uncover new revenue by adding customer conversations to their omnichannel insights mix.听

Use Conversational Intelligence to Accelerate Your CX Program鈥檚 Maturity Level and Success

Powered by AI, conversational intelligence (CI) helps companies turn unstructured data from conversations between customers and organizations across channels like voice, chat, email, and messaging into insights they can use to improve the customer experience.听

Conversational intelligence is a powerful engine that enables brands to take what they know about their customers to deliver more effective, personalized upselling and cross-selling in the moment. It can also instantly analyze the sentiment and intent of these customer interactions to coach agents in the moment, analyze conversations in the aggregate to instantly get to the root-cause of issues, and improve the overall quality of customer service interactions.

Our 2026 State of CX report finds that teams that use conversational intelligence data are 63% more likely to say they鈥檙e exceeding their goals than teams that do not, but despite this massive advantage, conversational data remains vastly underutilized, with only 30% of teams leveraging it frequently.

Similarly, our 2025 Conversational Intelligence Report found that CX leaders are 6x more likely to use CI in a meaningful way vs. laggards and that investing in CI helps brands improve first-call resolution (FCR), upsell rates, revenue per customer, 狈笔厂庐, overall satisfaction (OSAT), cost savings, compliance risks, and churn, but only almost half of CX teams aren鈥檛 using it at all.

As part of our 2025 CI study, we found that most CX practitioners (64%) plan to increase their use of CI, with fast-growing brands being even more likely to say so (73%).

Curious about giving conversational intelligence a try? Use our Conversational Intelligence ROI Calculator to see how much revenue you could recover by acting on the conversations you already have.听

Empower the frontline with AI

While 36% of CX teams report their company鈥檚 use of AI-based data analytics is advanced, a smaller share (29%) say they鈥檙e using AI for internal employees, according to our 2026 State of CX report. 

Companies are aware this needs to change, with the majority (83%) saying empowering the frontlines is a key part of achieving their goals this year and a similar amount (85%) saying they feel confident that equipping their employees with AI will help them serve their customers better.

This investment appears to be a differentiator between companies with leading CX programs and those at the bottom of the CX maturity curve. Leaders are more likely to feel confident about their plans to integrate AI into workflows vs. laggards. 

Want to join the CX teams at the head of the pack? The world鈥檚 leading brands are already using our Frontline-Ready AI capabilities to give employees access to AI that鈥檚 specifically designed for their needs and skillsets (no prompting expertise required) to help their customer-facing teams act faster, solve problems smarter, and deliver results in the moment.

Don鈥檛 Chase Scores鈥擳ake Action on Insights to Drive Business Outcomes

The most successful CX teams aren鈥檛 stopping at measuring metrics like 狈笔厂庐. They鈥檙e unlocking the full potential of customer experience to deliver meaningful business outcomes鈥攚hether that鈥檚 to empower their organizations to make more money, save more money, or lower their risk.

This was a central theme at , where CX leaders shared the ways their teams are translating CX measurements and strategies into quantifiable financial impact and going from being perceived as cost centers to earning recognition for being revenue generators.听

The Real Cost of Not Doing the Work to Improve Your Customer Experience Strategy

Inaction comes at a steep price. It leads to stagnation, stalled progress, missed revenue opportunities, and customer turnover. 

And it鈥檚 not just theoretical. This is what鈥檚 currently happening. 

According to our 2026 State of CX report, 30% of consumers say they experienced an issue during their most recent interaction with a company. When that happens, the likelihood of customers considering switching brands more than doubles. That鈥檚 something no business can afford to ignore. 

For more insights into what CX leaders are doing to prove value and earn priority with their C-suite leaders, check out the complete 2026 State of Customer Experience Report.听

Over the past year, 糖心原创 has been driving a fundamental shift in what experience management can do for the business.

The market changed. AI accelerated everything. Expectations intensified.

The question in the boardroom moved from 鈥淗ow are our CX metrics performing?鈥� to 鈥淲here are we losing money, and what are we doing about it?鈥�

That shift raised the stakes for every experience program. Measuring is no longer enough. Organizations need a system that translates insight into decisions and action across the business.

糖心原创 has been leading through that change, working with our customers to create engines of revenue growth, operational efficiency, and resilience.

We are proud to be redefining the industry.
Proud of the innovation we continue to deliver.

And now our brand reflects that evolution.

We are no longer a system of record.
We are a system that drives action.

A declaration, not decoration

Our evolved brand identity reflects who we are today and where we are taking the industry next.

It is bold because leadership should be unmistakable.
It is focused because attention is finite.
It is minimal because distraction is expensive.

This is not about aesthetics.

It is a signal to the market.

糖心原创 is not here to measure experience.

We are here to transform it.

Designed for the changemakers

This shift is bigger than just our brand, and the notion of being all in on action is one that stems from a group of people that inspires us every day 鈥� our customers.

The experience leaders working to connect the customer journeys they curate to true business impact and building relationships across the organization to eliminate systemic friction, resolve issues quickly, and prove that the work they do drives growth, retention, and brand loyalty.

These changemakers need a platform and a partner that matches their ambition 鈥� and this is our way of saying confidently we are doing just that.

Built for what comes next

Passive listening is over.

Experience is your competitive advantage.

Powered by enterprise scale.
Frontline-ready AI.
Relentless action tied to measurable business results.

This is more than a rebrand.

It is a commitment.

Built for the changemakers who refuse to stand still.

Experience 鈥�26 felt different.

Not because of the scale. Not because of the production. Not because of the announcements.

It felt different because the industry itself has crossed a line.

Across financial services, hospitality, retail, logistics, automotive and more, leaders are no longer asking how to measure experience better.

They are asking how to help transform their business as experiences are evolving at an ever increasing rate of change.

How to connect experience to revenue.
How to remove structural inefficiency.
How to reduce risk.
How to unify fragmented journeys.
How to adapt to a world of human, hybrid, AI-powered, and soon, agentic experiences.
How to embed intelligence into the operating model itself.

The shift is no longer incremental.

It is structural.

Here are my biggest takeaways.

Experience friction is a financial problem

For many years, CX was structured around measurement. Surveys were deployed. Scores were tracked. Dashboards were reviewed.

Measurement matters. But measurement alone does not change performance.

In many organizations, metrics were a proxy for progress because surveys were the only signal available. Movement in a score was interpreted as improvement. But improvement only happens when the underlying system changes. It doesn鈥檛 explain the why, or the how, or the root cause of experience failure or excellence.

Today, experience no longer lives in a single survey response.

It lives in calls, chats, digital sessions, behavioral signals, and operational data across the full journey.

For the first time, we can see the system in motion.
Where it breaks.
Where effort increases.
Where emotion shifts.
Where revenue is exposed.

That was the shift at Experience 鈥�26.

The conversation moved from observing sentiment to addressing structural friction.

Because friction is not abstract.

A failed redemption in an app.
A broken API.
A transfer from chatbot to IVR.
A repeat contact that should never have happened.
A customer who simply does not come back.

Individually, these appear operational. At scale, they are financial.

, Mark shared the story of a single high value customer whose journey broke across three departments. The digital failure was invisible to the contact center. The contact center failure was invisible to operations. The customer left.

One customer lost is unfortunate.

Twenty thousand customers lost for the same reason is a structural flaw.

At a lifetime value of $20,000 per customer, that is a $400 million problem.

Not a CX issue, a business problem.

That is the difference between score watching and transformation.

The role of modern experience leadership is not to observe sentiment. It is to identify structural friction, trace it to its origin, and remove it systemically.

As I said on stage:

鈥淲e are more than the survey people.鈥�

We have to be connectors across silos.
Conductors of the journey.
Architects of systems that did not exist five years ago.
Business leaders who map experience directly to outcomes.

That is what this moment requires.

AI is becoming operational infrastructure

Last year, many organizations were experimenting with generative AI.

This year, the focus has shifted to operational integration.

The question is no longer whether to use AI. It is how to embed it responsibly into daily workflows.

Capabilities like conversational analytics and automated topic discovery lower the barrier to insight. But insight alone does not create value.

Value is created when signals are unified across journeys and tied directly to outcomes:

Revenue growth.
Cost to serve efficiencies.
Risk mitigation.
Operational performance achievement.

When you can quantify the financial impact of friction and launch action within the same environment, experience becomes a management system.

The advantage in 2026 will not belong to the company with the most dashboards.

It will belong to the organization that can consistently close the loop between insight and action.

That requires governance.
Clear ownership.
Defined accountability.

Technology enables the shift.

Leadership operationalizes it.

Alignment is the new advantage

One of the most powerful aspects of Experience 鈥�26 was seeing how organizations are reshaping their internal models.

From the to the Expy Awards.
From the Customer Advisory Board sessions to MUG roundtables.
From the Partner Summit to the Executive Summit.
From masterclasses and workshops to a product hub that never stopped buzzing.

Everywhere you looked, .

Leaders from Shipt, Hyatt, Maersk, Verizon Business, Bank of America, Toyota Financial Services, CIBC, and so many more shared how they:

• Elevated experience metrics into company objectives
• Connected feedback directly to revenue and retention
• Embedded intelligence into frontline workflows
• Built executive sponsorship across finance, operations and technology

What stood out was not perfection.

It was alignment.

Experience is no longer being managed as a reporting function.

It is being positioned as a strategic capability.

And the organizations leaning into that shift are moving faster because of it.

Change is built between sessions

Transformation is strategic. It is also deeply human.

Yes, we spent our days debating models. Reviewing use cases. Walking the product hub and seeing new capabilities in action.

But we also created space to connect.

The dog park was one of my favorite stops.

There is something grounding about watching leaders who manage experiences at global organizations sit on the floor for a few minutes and reset.

The 糖心原创 Market brought a different kind of energy. Shopping brands like the Disney Store, Kate Spade, and Vuori. Testing reflexes in the McLaren simulator. Conversations that started in breakout sessions continued over dinner, music, and a lively dance floor.

These moments are not side notes.

They build relationships.
They build trust.
They build the informal networks that make real change possible.

Strategy scales faster when relationships are strong.

Looking ahead

Experience 鈥�26 was not defined by features.

It was defined by direction.

Experience is moving from measurement to management.
From dashboards to decisions.
From insight to institutional change.

The organizations that win in this next chapter will:

• Tie experience directly to revenue, efficiency and risk
• Embed AI into disciplined operating models
• Empower leaders across the enterprise to act on intelligence
• Build accountability into how work gets done

This is a defining moment for our industry.

The opportunity is significant.

And it belongs to the changemakers.

Experience ’26 marked a defining moment for the future of customer experience. The conversation has shifted decisively from reactive, survey-led programs to a proactive, agentic model where every signal 鈥� voice, digital, social, and employee feedback 鈥� is converted into measurable business impact.

Central to this transformation is the evolution of experience professionals from scorekeepers to changemakers. Rather than simply reporting on the past through static dashboards, these leaders are now acting as conductors of organizational change, using real-time insights to drive the growth that the C-suite actually cares about. (As 糖心原创 CEO Mark Bishof noted in his , 鈥淐EOs kind of care about scores and sentiment, but they really care about impact and financial outcomes.鈥�)

Leading the charge are the recipients of this year’s 糖心原创 Expy and Partner Awards. These organizations represent the forefront of what modern experience excellence looks like in practice, driving meaningful gains in revenue, retention, and cultural transformation 鈥� proving that a bold commitment to experience is, above all else, a competitive advantage.

These awards celebrate organizations and individuals who are leading the way in this transformation, turning insights into action, empowering employees, and delivering measurable impact. These changemakers set the standard for what鈥檚 possible when experiences are truly transformed. 

糖心原创 Expy Award Winners

CIBC: The Growth Accelerator

CIBC took home the Growth Accelerator Award by proving that CX belongs at the center of the business model. , who leads enterprise client experience strategy for CIBC, shared that their journey began a decade ago when they realized their brand felt fragmented and they were lagging behind peers.

The solution was a massive cultural and operational overhaul. “We built a really mature operating model so that we were listening, learning, and acting from our client insights in a meaningful way,” Leheta said. Crucially, they moved beyond NPS to a “Client Experience Index,” tracking 20 metrics tied to variable compensation for everyone from the frontline to the CEO.

Perhaps the most actionable takeaway for practitioners was CIBC鈥檚 governance model. “We actually built CX into our enterprise delivery framework,” Leheta explained. “Projects do not get funded unless they complete this client experience assessment. We get to be at the table, and we’re actually evaluating client risk.”

Vanguard: Insights to Impact

Vanguard was honored with the Insights to Impact Award for their ability to look beyond what customers say to what they actually do.

, who leads the engagement technology team, highlighted the power of digital behavioral signals. “Prior to us having digital insights, our CX experts really struggled to understand what clients were doing based on our experiences,” Civera noted.

By utilizing session replays and heatmaps, Vanguard could visualize friction points that surveys missed. This shift led to a massive bottom-line win: “We were able to pinpoint and address an issue with why we weren’t converting sales leads. Now we’re seeing double the amount of sales leads from our website.”

Verizon Business: The Power of Employee Empowerment

Verizon Business received the Employee Empowerment Award, proving that a world-class customer experience is impossible without an engaged frontline. , who leads CX and EX for Verizon Business, shared how they bridged the gap between internal jargon and customer reality.

 “Customers don’t speak Verizon,” Scott pointed out. To fix this, they brought the Voice of the Employee under the same umbrella as CX. They also launched the “Experience Hero” program to drive a cultural shift. “It was a required training for the entire organization, not just the sales and service teams. Everyone needed to know that the work you do on a daily basis eventually produces something that your customer will see.”

Santaluc铆a: Leading Experience Transformation

, CX Manager for Santaluc铆a in Spain, was named the Experience Transformation Leader of the Year. 

In the insurance industry, interactions are often high-emotion “moments of truth,” such as a home fire or the loss of a loved one. Paraja recognized that relying solely on NPS was insufficient due to a lack of context and timing. “We were just measuring dissatisfaction, but we were doing nothing to prevent it,” she said. By transitioning to an omnichannel model 鈥� listening to 100% of calls and over a million digital sessions 鈥� Santaluc铆a moved toward prevention. “We are avoiding 54% of churn risk that we detect over all these patterns,” Paraja shared, adding that “listening is not a project鈥t鈥檚 a discipline.”

糖心原创 Partner Awards: Celebrating Innovation and Growth, Together

During the Partner Summit, 糖心原创 also recognized the partners that make these large-scale transformations possible. As 糖心原创 CSO Sid Banerjee noted, these partners are “critical in helping drive value across the CX landscape.”

糖心原创鈥檚 Annual Partner Awards Program celebrates partners who go above and beyond to deliver customer value, drive innovation, and accelerate growth through collaboration. 

糖心原创 Partner Award Winners

: Services Partner Award, for the services partner with the highest sourced revenue for 糖心原创 in 2025.

: Technology Partner Award, for the technology partner with the highest 糖心原创 software revenue impact.

: Fastest Growing Partner Award, for the partner with the highest percentage growth for sourced revenue year over year for 糖心原创.

: New Partner Award, for a new partner with the highest sourced revenue for 糖心原创.

: Business Impact Award, for the partner that delivered the greatest overall business impact.

: Solution Innovation Award for the partner with most impactful solution innovation built on the 糖心原创 platform.

: EMEA Partner of the Year, for the partner with the highest sourced revenue for 糖心原创 in the EMEA region.

: LATAM Partner of the Year, for the partner with the highest sourced revenue for 糖心原创 in the LATAM region.

: APAC Partner of the Year, for the partner with the highest sourced revenue for 糖心原创 in the APAC region.

鈥淲inning together matters. These achievements reflect shared accountability, strong execution, and a deep focus on client outcomes 鈥� and we鈥檙e incredibly grateful for the partners who make that possible,鈥� said Eric Din, 糖心原创 SVP of Alliances.

Closing Advice from the Award Winners

For experience leaders looking to mirror the success of these winners, our spotlight panelists offered three final pieces of advice:

Prioritize Progress over Perfection: “Momentum matters,” said CIBC鈥檚 Stephanie Leheta. “Even if those first few steps aren’t perfect, you’ll actually build confidence.”

Normalize Failure: Verizon鈥檚 Samantha Scott urged leaders to “be bold and to normalize failure as a moment to learn.”

Change the Language: As Santaluc铆a鈥檚 Paloma Paraja emphasized, when you stop speaking “CX speak” and start speaking the language of business value, you earn your seat at the table.

The award winners of Experience 鈥�26 proved that CX is no longer a “survey shop.” It is a growth engine, a risk-mitigation tool, and the ultimate differentiator in an AI-driven world.

Day one of Experience 鈥�26 introduced our rally cry: be a changemaker.

Day two proved why standing still is no longer an option.

The morning opened with the Expy Winner Spotlight featuring CIBC, Verizon Business, Santaluc铆a Seguros, and Vanguard. These teams weren鈥檛 celebrated for running polished experience programs. They鈥檙e recognized for changing how value actually gets delivered inside their organizations.
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The conversations were raw, tactical, and refreshingly honest. Leaders talked about the moments they chose to challenge convention instead of accepting it. The decisions that felt risky at the time, but created real momentum. And the hard-earned lessons that come from turning millions of experience signals into insight the business can act on.

This was not victory lap storytelling. It was a clear look at what happens when experience stops chasing scores and starts shaping decisions. Driving growth. Improving efficiency. Empowering frontlines to fix what is broken and scale what works.

Across sessions moderated by 糖心原创鈥檚 Sid Banerjee and Jodi Searl, and reinforced through a full day of deep dive breakouts, one message landed with force: The old CX playbook does not just slow you down. It makes you irrelevant. Measuring experience without mobilizing the organization around it leaves teams stuck while the business moves forward without them.

, who led the first American Women鈥檚 Everest Expedition, closed the day by bringing the urgency home. Drawing on what it takes to survive and succeed when conditions are constantly changing, she made the parallel unmistakable.

In moments where hesitation has real consequences, one truth holds on mountains and in business: complacency will kill you.

Experience programs can no longer run on soft metrics.

The blunt reality of 2026: NPS alone won’t get you budget.

The advanced programs have built rigorous valuation frameworks. They translate sentiment into specific financial figures. The kind CFOs actually care about.

CIBC didn’t just track customer satisfaction. They built a four-stage maturity model: Driver Simulators, Operational Analysis, Financial Linkage, Valuation. The company partnered with their digital and analytics teams to create driver simulators that predict how operational changes impact NPS. Reduce wait times. Watch NPS move. Watch revenue follow.

They didn’t work in a silo. They embedded themselves in the teams that control the levers.

They did the analysis to understand that promoters generate 15% more revenue and have lower attrition than detractors. With that evidence, CIBC’s CX team stopped being a cost center. They became a strategic value partner. They are building the capability to prioritize initiatives based on projected revenue generation, not gut feeling.

Maersk demonstrated what this discipline looks like in B2B at massive scale. They built a CX program across over 100 countries, incorporating relationship and touchpoint feedback through multiple channels. 100,000 employees. 130 countries. Five years of work to drive business engagement, senior sponsorship, and strong ROCXI.

Maersk wasn’t afraid to step back, review, and challenge their approach to chart a way forward. They proved that even in complex B2B environments (and occasionally real-life crises) the partnership between agency, technology, and brand can deliver tangible impact. Now they have a powerful, embedded CX program with a clear roadmap.

If you can’t connect your work to the P&L, you’re not getting funding. Period.

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The customer journey doesn’t care about your org chart.

Today鈥檚 discussions hammered home a reality that should be obvious, but isn’t.

Customer Experience. Employee Experience. Contact Center operations. These are not separate functions. Treating them that way is organizational malpractice.

This came to life in our panel with Verizon Business and Hyatt Hotels. Both have stopped pretending these teams can operate independently. They’re co-owning initiatives across CX and EX. Linking customer feedback directly with employee experiences. Finding root causes of friction that isolated data sets miss entirely.

Employee engagement is a leading indicator of customer loyalty. When your frontline staff is struggling, your customers feel it. Verizon Business and Hyatt treat this connection as operational fact, not theory.

U-Haul, AdventHealth, and Exelon have also aligned priorities between CX and contact center teams 鈥� two groups that historically chase different goals and leave customers caught in the gap.

When these teams are aligned, resolution is faster. Agents are happier. The contact center stops being a complaint department. It becomes a strategic insight hub.

Santaluc铆a Seguros demonstrated what this looks like at scale. Millions of customer signals turned into “human insights” that drive empathy and active listening. Not just in the contact center. Not just in the CX team. The entire organization.

Data doesn’t change minds. Stories do.

The final theme of day two acknowledged something most practitioners learn the hard way: Data alone rarely inspires change. You need the soft skills to drive hard results.

Alison Levine, who captained the first American Women’s Everest Expedition, closed the conference with a keynote that drew parallels between high-altitude mountaineering and modern business leadership. In environments of uncertainty, clarity and decisive action are the only paths forward.

For experience leaders, this means navigating “extreme altitudes.” Uniting teams to make progress even when the path isn’t fully visible. 

It’s not about having all the answers.

It’s about moving forward anyway. As Alison decreed, 鈥淐omplacency will kill you.鈥�

Vuori demonstrated this leadership when sharing how they use 糖心原创 signals to pinpoint behaviors of top-performing stores. The team doesn鈥檛 try to make store teams 鈥渕ore data-driven.鈥� They reduce noise and give managers clear operational priorities tied to customer friction and business outcomes. They turn insights into repeatable playbooks that actually work because it fits how stores actually operate, not how HQ wishes they would. Leadership now coaches specific behaviors that drive sales and consistency.

Many sessions throughout this event demonstrated that to secure executive buy-in, you must move beyond charts and dashboards. You need narratives that resonate with the C-suite and frontline alike.

What did Experience 鈥�26 actually prove?

Overall, Experience 鈥�26 made one thing unmistakable: the age of watching and waiting is over.

This is a new era.

Experience is no longer something you track. It鈥檚 something you operate. The leaders winning today aren鈥檛 chasing NPS. They鈥檙e connecting omnichannel signals and turning them into real business outcomes.

They鈥檙e changemakers. 

Partners across the enterprise. Leaders who use frontline-ready AI to democratize insight, fix root causes, and deliver measurable value.

This isn鈥檛 a moment. It鈥檚 a seismic shift.
And it鈥檚 only the beginning.

Follow #糖心原创Experience on social media and .

The first day of Experience 鈥�26 is complete! 

糖心原创 CEO Mark Bishof, CSO Sid Banerjee, and CPO Fabrice Martin opened our conference with a declaration: the “Next Era of Experience” is here. 

Their keynote laid out a new rally cry for experience leaders to step into a bigger, more impactful role 鈥� moving from scorekeepers to changemakers who bring the business together and turn insight into action. How? Unite the organization, democratize the data, and establish operating models that empower everyone.

No more vague measures of success. Just results the business can鈥檛 ignore.

In line with this vision, 糖心原创 has been focusing on evolving Frontline-Ready AI toward Agentic AI. We鈥檙e blending proven analytics with generative AI to uncover insights you wouldn’t know to look for, while maintaining the governance and consistency that global enterprises require. 

It was a bold opening, amplified by inspiring stories from our special guest speakers from Bank of America and Accenture. 鈫�

Our closing keynote shined a light on real changemakers from Hyatt, Shipt, Maersk, and Toyota Financial Services, who spoke candidly about how they鈥檙e turning insights into influence to move their organizations forward. Attendees left with a renewed belief in what鈥檚 possible inside their own organizations. 鈫�

Here are the other important themes from day one of Experience 鈥�26.

Some of the best growth stories worked with lean budgets and smarter strategies.

It may be unexpected, but some of the most impressive results shared on day one came from world-renowned companies with the tightest constraints.

Santander had walked into a perfect storm: core cloud migration, branch closures, cost containment mandates, and exactly zero dollars for CX improvements. So they stopped asking for tools and started demanding discipline. Instead, they focused on governance and specific behaviors 鈥� the inputs they could control.

Their internal global NPS benchmark ranking increased 15 points in three years. During branch closures, they realized only 21% of projected attrition. All because they executed a sound strategy of investing in behaviors, not systems.

Mazda took this even further. The team radically decoupled dealer incentives from survey scores. The pressure to score high was creating survey manipulation, not better service. Their internal analysis revealed that a customer who gave a 10 but left no comment spent the same as a passive customer. But a customer who gave a 10 and left a positive comment, indicating a genuine relationship, spent substantially more and returned for service more often.

So they shifted from outputs (the score) to inputs (behaviors). They emphasized Omotenashi, or Japanese hospitality, and removed the score pressure entirely. And customer service retention increased 15%.

This is what a changemaker strategy looks like: the willingness to kill the metric you’ve been optimizing for years because you found a better way to measure what actually matters.

Digital isn’t where brands listen. It’s where customers are.

The leaders who stood out today aren’t chasing customers with surveys. They’re listening where customers already are: online, in-app, and in the actual flow of their experience.

Mayo Clinic Laboratories walked through their pivot away from standard relationship surveys. Their digital-first approach captures real-time web interactions 鈥� the kind of signals that tell you what’s breaking before customers have to tell you it’s broken. This allows the teams to view actionable insights that flow across the organization, not just pile up in a dashboard.

BAC Credomatic showed what happens when you actually use those insights. BAC didn’t just track digital banking errors; they systematically eliminated friction in navigation and security verification. The logic is straightforward: reduce digital friction upstream, prevent contact center volume downstream.

This isn’t revolutionary. It’s just smart. But somehow, most companies are still treating digital as one channel among many instead of the connective tissue of the entire customer journey.

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GenAI joined the frontline, and it’s already pulling its weight.

If 2025 was the year everyone experimented with generative AI, 2026 is the year it has become a teammate that makes frontline staff faster and more confident.

The Venetian Resort Las Vegas shared a number that made people sit up: 25% more work with 25% less investment, with no quality drop. How? AI summaries became the single source of truth, which killed what they called “operational bias” 鈥� the game where different departments blame each other for low scores instead of fixing the actual problem.

Case in point: Pool sentiment scores dropped. Pre-AI, that would’ve triggered weeks of finger-pointing. With AI analysis, they identified the root cause in days: there were not enough chairs. Not service failures, not staff issues 鈥� chairs. Sometimes the answer is that simple, but you need the data infrastructure to see it.

Sekisui House also demonstrated an interesting case: AI as a trust-builder in high-stakes industries. By using Smart Response to close the loop with customers, Sekisui House pushed response rates from the low 30s to nearly 90%. They emphasized that in homebuilding, responsiveness is a proxy for competence. When a builder responds quickly to feedback, customers assume they’ll be equally attentive to building the actual house.

Alyse Fuller from United Rentals also showed what AI means for small teams punching above their weight class. Operating as a team of one supporting 20 regions, Fuller used to cut regional analysis time from a full day to two hours. United Rentals managers are now closing alerts six hours faster on average using AI drafting tools. The result: more time solving problems, less time describing them.

Action over scores. Every time.

In high-stakes industries, a survey apology can’t fix a failed live event.

As Material and Encore highlighted, real impact stems from action, not just data collection. Encore moved beyond score-watching by treating CX as a managed, ongoing capability rather than a one-time project. In the events business, the experience is the product, and there are no second chances.

By anchoring insights to customer emotions and operational standards, Encore ensured that feedback fueled real-time strategy instead of sitting in a static report. This shift from passive monitoring to active enablement allowed their frontline teams to anticipate risks and pivot before issues escalated. They effectively redesigned how insights move through an organization, making data digestible and immediately useful for the whole team.

This disciplined approach led to a staggering 87% customer satisfaction rate and maintained venue retention above 90%. 

This serves as a meaningful reminder that while scores provide a pulse, it is the systemic change in behavior that actually moves the needle. True business value is won through agile execution and emotional resonance.

The real takeaway of day one? True changemakers sit on experience teams.

The leaders who stood out today aren’t keeping score. They’re changing the game, partnering across business lines to fix systemic root causes 鈥� not isolated issues. They’ve embedded themselves into the financial and operational engines of their companies. They’ve established operating models that democratize insight and drive decisive action at scale.

The proof is in the execution: operational excellence beats unlimited resources.

Day two of Experience 鈥�26 will prove this value to the C-suite. But day one already answered the fundamental question: can you transform CX without infinite resources?

Yes, if you’re willing to lead like a changemaker.

Follow #糖心原创Experience on social media and .

Unparalleled networking opportunities. The chance to ask CX experts anything, and get the unvarnished truth. Insights you can actually use to make the lives of your customers better, and deliver business impact that proves your worth. That鈥檚 what you can expect when you attend Experience 鈥�26. 

Plus, a whole lot more.

Attendees come for sessions that give a play-by-play on measuring CX ROI with real-world examples, and show how category leaders (like Verizon, Mazda, and Hyatt) are breaking down silos for a greater impact. (Peruse the full list of sessions here, and you鈥檒l see what we mean.)

They also come to learn from and connect with global leaders from Bank of America, Mayo Clinic, Kantar, and more.

But that鈥檚 not all. There鈥檚 also the magic that happens between the sessions. 

Experience combines high-impact learning with a lot of fun, offering a rare chance to recharge and connect with over 1,500 peers in a luxury setting. 

This isn鈥檛 just a conference: This is the smartest room in CX. 

What makes 糖心原创 Experience the best customer experience event?

The Venue & Vibe

The Wynn Las Vegas Resort is the picture-perfect backdrop for Experience. This resort offers five-star accommodations, where attendees can let loose and unwind between sessions and after the conference events.

This is the epicenter of the CX renaissance鈥攁 place for fresh tech and real answers.

Last year鈥檚 participants couldn鈥檛 stop buzzing about this conference:

鈥淚 get treated like a VIP when I am here.鈥�

鈥淭he networking opportunities and the learning experience is phenomenal.鈥� 

鈥淭here鈥檚 fun, there鈥檚 people, there鈥檚 networking, I get to learn, and just hang out.鈥�

Watch our 2025 recap video for a behind-the-scenes look at 糖心原创 Experience, and hear what past participants say are the top highlights of the event.

1:1 Time with Your Tribe

From the Welcome Reception to the final goodbyes as we close out Experience 鈥�26 at XS Nightclub at the Wynn, there will be no shortage of opportunities to meet and connect with your people.

• Join industry networking sessions with leaders from across verticals like retail, healthcare, and finance
• Book 1-1 time with one of 糖心原创鈥檚 CX, EX, or product experts for new perspectives and hands-on solutions to your biggest challenges
• Wander the Experience Exhibit Hall and mingle in the hallways between sessions鈥攖hat鈥檚 when networking happens organically, connections that stick are made, and you鈥檒l find the minds that are moving the industry
• Get to know our ecosystem of partners who will be on hand to help you elevate your experience strategy

Nights to Remember

When the Training Labs and sessions wrap up each day, that鈥檚 when you鈥檒l get to experience the best of Vegas, where the night life shines.

We鈥檝e got three evenings of one-of-a-kind events lined up, offering plenty of ways to build connections and make memories, while enjoying views of the famous Sphere.听

• Global Street Fair Welcome: This world food tour serves up the bold cuisines of four iconic cities, immersive experiences, and keepsakes
• Expalooza: Interactive activations, headliner beats, and custom SWAG await at this festival set under a neon moon
• Queen of Hearts Masquerade: For our last bash, it鈥檚 all red, black, and masks plus glam, mischief, and unforgettable moments at a top-rated, upscale nightclub

Moments of Joy

Sometimes you need to step away from the data. That鈥檚 why we鈥檝e put together a thoughtful collection of fun activities to help you decompress throughout the event. Be sure to check out some of our favorites.

• The Dog Park: Join the pack! We鈥檝e created a designated area to hang out with dogs鈥攆or a cute and cuddly break from learning.
• The Need for Speed: Get behind the wheel of one of our McLaren Racing Simulators to get your heart pumping and enjoy a thrilling jolt of adrenaline.
• The Retail Therapy: Shop the 糖心原创 Market, which brings together favorite brands like Disney, Vuori, and Kate Spade.

What are you waiting for?

In case you couldn鈥檛 tell, this isn鈥檛 your average customer experience conference. The difference is in the details, from the speakers and the venue to the networking, nightlife, and thoughtful activities.听

Experience is where you鈥檒l find insights you can’t Google and moments you can’t miss. But don鈥檛 keep it to yourself! Bring the whole team, because the fun is better shared! Register now to attend this year鈥檚 hands-down best customer experience event, taking place February 10鈥�12, 2026.

It鈥檚 the start of a new year, and you know what that means: in with the new and out with the old.

With any luck, you鈥檝e Marie Kondo鈥檇 your closets and your kids鈥� piles, and if you鈥檝e been really ambitious, you鈥檝e even freed up some space in your basement or garage. What鈥檚 next? While you鈥檙e riding high on all those feel-good decluttering endorphins, let鈥檚 talk about one more thing that may be in need of a refresh鈥攜our customer experience (CX) tech stack. 

Whether you鈥檙e evaluating new customer experience software for 2026, or quietly wondering if your current tools are still pulling their weight, these four questions will help you get clear, fast.

OK, you鈥檝e completed the checklist. Now what? Let鈥檚 review why each of these components is so important. 

4 Critical CX Software Features Your Team Needs in 2026

1. Unified omnichannel data

Today鈥檚 best CX software companies provide omnichannel customer experience tools that bring together every customer experience signal into one system, using AI-powered Text Analytics and Conversation Intelligence to eliminate manual analysis and deliver faster, more accurate, and immediately actionable insights for your team in the moment. 

Why it matters: If your platform is still built around surveys alone, you鈥檙e missing out on most of what鈥檚 happening for your customers. Leaving you (and your leadership) with more questions, wasted opportunities and resources, and less timely, impactful action. 

2. AI designed for frontline employees

Not all AI for CX is created equally. You need AI that鈥檚 tailor-made for roles across the enterprise鈥攆rom the frontlines to the C-suite. It should come out of the box, and provide ready-to-use impact scores, risk flagging, and AI-powered coaching features that drive immediate, crucial business decisions. 

Why it matters: AI designed for frontline teams guides the people who have the greatest impact on CX鈥攕tore associates, brand staff, support reps鈥攐n how to serve customers better.

3. Enterprise-proof architecture

You鈥檝e got millions of pieces of customer experience data, operational data, employee insights, and financial data that can take your CX program to new heights, but only if your customer experience platform can keep up. Best-in-class systems offer a proven track record of enterprise deployments, ensure reliable performance, and provide key governance, security, and compliance features.

Why it matters: That one-size-fits-all CX platform? It鈥檚 not actually made for your size. It will leave you chasing answers rather than getting them. It won鈥檛 be up to the task of analyzing the massive amounts of customer data you have (that wealth of insights at your fingertips). And, at the end of the day, it won鈥檛 give you the comprehensive, enterprise-wide view of the customer experience that you need to keep delivering meaningful business results.

4. Dedicated support and innovation

You want to invest in a platform and technology partner that鈥檚 invested in you. You鈥檒l know that鈥檚 the case if they offer strategic advisory support and industry expertise, are able to fulfill product feature requests, and have a clear, long-term innovation strategy.

Why it matters: Unreliable, dated CX companies that are still cranking out last year鈥檚 (or last decade鈥檚) CX tools will create risk for your business, slow your progress, and drive up costs for your team鈥攊nstead of empowering you to serve up the results you鈥檝e promised your C-suite.

If you鈥檙e not 100% confident in your CX software, what are you waiting for?

Even if you think you made the best choice at the time, the tools in your tech stack or on your wish list may no longer be the best platforms available right now. Check out to get clear on what 鈥渂est in class鈥� actually looks like so you can make the right investment for your team.