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
2:00 pm - 2:30 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
1:00 pm - 1:30 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
2:30 pm - 3:00 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
8:00 am - 8:30 am
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
