Only 16% of customers feel truly understood. Are you ready to lead the shift?
CX IN 2030: FUTURE OF THE OMNICHANNEL CONTACT CENTER MAY 19, 2026 | 12PM EST
CX IN 2030: FUTURE OF THE OMNICHANNEL CONTACT CENTER MAY 19, 2026 | 12PM EST
Agenda Day 1
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Analyst Chat: Is your CX ready for 2030?
Brian Cantor -
Managing Director,
CCW Digital
Brooke Lynch - Divisional Director, CCW Digital
Audrey Steeves - Content Analyst, CCW Digital
Join CCW Digital Analysts Brian Cantor and Brooke Lynch to unpack the CX checklist for 2030. As customer contact trends evolve and technology charges ahead, CX leaders must prepare for the future of experiences.
This session will dive into new research on the CX of 2030: what the modern customer expects, how the agent role will evolve and what the next-steps look like for achieving key outcomes. With customers increasingly complaining that experiences are getting worse, it is clear that this is the moment to finally focus on what matters: innovation, tech and strategy.
Kick off the seminar series with an enlightening discussion on the future of support and start building your checklist for the CX of 2030.
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm
CX in 2030 Won’t Be Defined by Omnichannel. It Will Be Autonomous.
Nirmal Mukhi -
Chief Architect,
ASAPP
Chris Arnold - VP, CX Strategy, ASAPP
The industry has invested heavily in omnichannel, connecting touchpoints and reducing friction. Yet experiences still fall short. Customers lack control, personalization is inconsistent, and resolution depends on human effort at scale.
By 2030, that model is no longer enough. Customer experience is shifting to autonomous resolution, where AI agents handle most intents, adapt in real time, and improve with every interaction.
This shift redefines the human role. As AI becomes the primary layer of service delivery, human expertise moves upstream to focus on exception handling, AI guidance, and continuous performance improvement. AI delivers the experience, and humans ensure it performs.
Join this session to explore how organizations are moving beyond omnichannel to build intelligent, adaptive, and scalable customer experience systems.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why omnichannel alone will not meet 2030 expectations
- How AI agents are becoming the primary interface for service
- How human roles evolve toward AI optimization and governance
- What it takes to deliver autonomous, personalized experiences at scale
Sponsored by: ASAPP
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm
The Collab Your Customers Are Looking For: Cross-Departmental Teamwork for CX
Maria Dillard -
Previous Vice President, Customer Experience & Operations,
AT&T and DirectTV
How can teams better collaborate in order to deliver the best customer service? Maria Dillard, former AT&T and DirecTV executive, weighs in. With rich experience in call center management, her perspective is one that prioritizes delivering value to the customer through operations, product, and marketing initiatives, not only customer service teams. Understanding the dynamics of cross-departmental collaboration can drastically improve experiences as organizations form a united front.
In this session, CCW Digital and Maria Dillard explore how organizations can build a more comprehensive and holistic customer service function through deep collaboration. She will also share her experience leading through times of change, scaling experiences and building a CX function from the ground up.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to scale teams for effective collaboration
- How CX leaders can garner support across the organization
- Insight on the importance of collaboration and team dynamics in an ever-changing CX environment
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm
CX in 2030: Why Voice AI Deployments Stall and What High Performers Do Differently
Merlin Bise -
CTO,
Inbenta AI
Voice AI is running in most enterprise contact centers. So why are escalation rates still climbing?
Merlin Bise, CTO of Inbenta AI, and Brooke Lynch, Principal Analyst at CMP, break down what separates deployments that deliver from those that don't, and map the path from today's voice AI to the agentic contact center of 2030. This session covers:
· Why escalation rates stay high even after Voice AI is deployed
· What real-time live agent guidance looks like when it's working
· The four-stage evolution from today's GenAI deployments to full agentic AI
· What high-performing contact centers are building toward right now
The contact center is undergoing its most significant transformation since the move to the cloud. The organizations that will lead in 2030 are making specific architectural decisions today. This session helps you understand where you are, what comes next, and what to build toward.
Sponsored by: Inbenta
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Analyst Office Hours: FCC Proposal on Contact Center Outsourcing
Stuart Discount -
Chair at the Enterprise Communications Advocacy Coalition,
ecacusa
Brian Cantor - Managing Director, CCW Digital
Audrey Steeves - Content Analyst, CCW Digital
On March 26, 2026, the FCC voted to advance a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) — while this is an early step, it signals the potential reality of major changes in the contact center.
The FCC is considering incentives to encourage the return of call center operations to the US. If enacted, this proposed rule will significantly impact how telecommunications organizations manage contact center operations, specifically those relying on offshore and nearshore support.
When thinking about the future of experiences, leaders must prepare for potential operational challenges. These proposed changes represent more than just a change to cost structures, they have major implications on the entire customer experience.
Join this session to learn more about the FCC proposal and stay informed on key changes and real-time updates.
This session will cover:
- Highlights of the FCC proposal on contact center outsourcing
- Industry insights from the Enterprise Communications Advocacy Coalition
- Implications beyond telecommunications policy
- How to prepare for whatever comes next
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Beyond the Pilot: An Honest Look at AI Agents in the Contact Center
James Wood -
SVP, Engineering,
SoundHound
AI agents were supposed to transform CX so why are so many deployments still stuck in pilot? In this fireside chat, join Soundhound and CCW for an unfiltered conversation about the state of agentic AI in the contact center: what's working in production, what's quietly failing, and what separates the operators who succeed from those who stall.
Together, we'll dive into:
● Where AI agent adoption truly stands today, including real outcomes versus stalled pilots
● The operational and technical decisions that make or break production deployment
● What "good" looks like for voice-native AI agents
Designed for CX leaders who are done waiting on pilots to prove themselves, this is an unfiltered, experience-backed conversation about what it actually takes to move AI into production.
Sponsored by: SoundHound
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Agentic AI in the Real World: Lessons from Early Adopters
Dave Vernon -
Sr Solution Architect,
Cyara
Agentic AI is evolving faster than traditional testing models were built to support. As organizations move from deterministic automation to adaptive, AI-driven systems, new challenges are emerging in validation, oversight, and operational readiness.
In this session, Dave Vernon, senior solution architect at Cyara, will share practical insights from early adopters actively testing and operationalizing Agentic AI in real-world environments. The discussion will explore what's working, what's breaking, and where legacy QA approaches are struggling to keep pace.
You'll gain a grounded perspective on how enterprises are testing non-deterministic AI behavior, addressing governance and risk, and evolving their validation strategies as agentic systems scale. This session focuses on real-world patterns, hard-earned lessons, and the concrete challenges Cyara is helping organizations solve today.
Sponsored by: Cyara
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Tackling Digital Complexity: How Nellis Auction Scales Real-Time Customer Conversations with Synthflow’s Agentic AI
Hakob Astabatsyan -
CEO & Co-founder of Synthflow,
Synthflow.ai
Kyle Johnson - Chief Communications Officer, Nellis Auction
Customer service was built around resolution—tickets, queues, and delays. But in a world of real-time voice AI, customers don't want resolution. They want immediacy.
Join us for a deep dive into how Nellis Auction is evolving beyond traditional support to operate a real-time, customer-first experience at scale. Managing high volumes of customer interactions across nine U.S. markets, Nellis is rethinking how conversations happen—moving from reactive support to continuous, always-on engagement powered by Synthflow's agentic AI.
As a digital-first auction platform, Nellis Auction operates in a highly dynamic environment with complex customer needs and time-sensitive interactions. In this session, Kyle Johnson (Chief Communications Officer at Nellis Auction) will share how his team scales operations while reducing friction—supporting curbside pickup, handling edge cases, and maintaining consistency without relying on traditional ticket-based workflows.
Alongside him, Hakob Astabatsyan, CEO & Co-founder of Synthflow, will showcase how AI-native CX infrastructure transforms how enterprises operate. Synthflow doesn't just automate conversations—it executes workflows, coordinates systems, and resolves customer needs in real time. With over 65 million customer calls processed across 100+ enterprise customers, Synthflow is helping companies move from resolving problems to removing them entirely.
Together, they'll explore:
- Why resolution is a lagging metric—and what real-time experience looks like instead
- How agentic AI handles complex, high-volume interactions without creating tickets
- Real-world examples of AI agents operating in production at Nellis Auction
- How to shift from contact center automation to AI-native CX infrastructure
- The role of orchestration in delivering seamless, end-to-end customer outcomes
- Whether you're in operations, customer experience, or exploring AI-driven transformation, this session will show how to turn digital complexity into a competitive advantage—by eliminating the need for support altogether.
Sponsored by: Synthflow AI
4:00 pm - 4:30 pm
AI Agents and the Hybrid Workforce: What Data Reveals About the Future of Customer Experience
Devon Mychal -
VP of Product Marketing,
Cresta
AI adoption is reshaping how modern customer experience teams get work done. Drawing on findings from the Future of Work in Customer Experience survey, this session offers a data-driven view into how leading organizations are redesigning roles, workflows, and workforce strategies in AI-powered organizations.
In this session, we'll explore:
- How AI is redefining the hybrid workforce of human and AI agents
- The emerging roles and skills teams need, and where to invest
- Where AI is delivering measurable impact across productivity, CX, and agent experience
- The biggest barriers to scaling AI, including complex use cases, integration, and data readiness
Join us to understand what's changing now and what it means for staffing, workforce planning, and the future of CX teams.
Sponsored by: Cresta
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm
From Lanes to Loyalty: Designing Retail CX for 2030
Eugene Shvartsman -
Chief Revenue Officer,
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions
John Samuel - COO, CGS
By 2030, the most decisive competitive advantage in retail will not be price, product, or promotion. It will be the seamless, intelligent experience a brand delivers at every touchpoint, from the first click to the checkout lane. Retailers who lead will have transformed their service infrastructure from a cost center into a revenue engine: one that senses opportunities and friction points before customers feel them, resolves issues autonomously across every device and channel, and continuously learns from every interaction.
In this fireside chat, Eugene Shvartsman, Chief Revenue Officer of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, and John Samuel, Chief Operating Officer of CGS Group, explore how one of the world's leading retail technology companies is engineering that future today. Drawing on 15 years of partnership and the latest advances in AI, computer vision, and omnichannel service design, they share how Toshiba is modernizing retail infrastructure at-scale, driving measurable increases in revenue per lane, reducing field dispatches, and raising the bar for what retailers and shoppers alike expect from the in-store experience.
This session reveals how the sense-and-respond retail service desk of 2030 is being built right now, in real stores, with real results. Attendees will leave with a concrete understanding of where the industry is heading and the strategic moves that are creating distance between leaders and the rest of the field.
Sponsored by: CGS Nexus
