• Preserving empathy and service quality amid automation

• When customers want a person, not a process

• Empowering agents to deliver real value

• Where AI adds value (and where it doesn’t)

• Lessons from chatbot, IVR, and agent-assist tools that truly enhance and not replace people

• Avoiding automation fatigue and customer frustration

• Aligning digital, voice, and social touchpoints

• Personalisation strategies at scale

• Lessons learned from a recent NZ omnichannel transformation

During this session, attendees will have the opportunity to attend 2 x 30-minute interactive breakout sessions of their choice.

Breakout A:  Hosted by InMoment

Breakout B: AI & Automation

Breakout C: Omnichannel & Self-Service

Breakout D: Legacy Systems, Making Tech Work for the Future

• Moving beyond CSAT and NPS: What data actually reflects experience?

• Connecting operational metrics with experience outcomes (loyalty, effort, emotion)

• Building shared dashboards that unify CX and CS performance

• Rebuilding the role - What does the agent of 2026 look like?

• Repositioning the contact centre agent as a growth contributor, not a script reader

• Redesigning job structures to support more meaningful, sustainable work

• What younger and diverse talent actually value in CX careers

• How Flybuys is preparing for the next generation of customer

• Putting the customer at the heart of organisation and culture

• Balancing the demand of relevance and risk

• Avoiding over-automation or poor AI implementation that undermines trust or cultural appropriateness

• What’s actually delivering results in AI-powered CX across NZ

• Governance and ownership: who’s responsible for AI performance and risk?

• Driving and building trust throughout the customer journey

• What it means to be customer obsessed

• Aligning the organisation and customer delivery

• Capturing the right feedback, at the right time

• CX insights for agile decision-making

During this session, attendees will have the opportunity to attend 2 x 30-minute interactive breakout sessions of their choice.

Breakout A: AI-Powered Personalisation

Breakout B: Building a Connected Experience Stack

Breakout C: Predictive & Proactive Experience Delivery

Breakout D: Voice of Customer to Action at Scale

• How LIC linked customer behaviour to genetic gain in the national herd to unlock measurable impact and value

• Why rethinking cohorts and engagement strategies helped challenge assumptions about customer behaviour

• Building a CX function from the ground up — aligning data, CRM and operating models to drive long-term loyalty and better outcomes

• How brands can capture customer loyalty in a world of dispersed digital attention

• Shifting from transactional rewards to creating emotional connections and brand affinity

• Using data and AI to deliver personalised experiences that foster trust and retention

• Designing digital experiences that preserve human connection and how to implement CX technologies without losing emotional resonance and trust

• Using customer journey insights to deepen engagement in purpose-driven organisations

• Tracking emotional impact, satisfaction, and long-term loyalty beyond transactional metrics

• The evolution of customer expectations in a post-channel world

• What it really takes to deliver connected experiences (hint: it’s more than just platforms and pixels)

• AI as a CX enabler: from content generation to hyper-personalisation at scale

• The rise of agentic shopping: preparing for a future where your customer might be an AI

• Training for confidence, not just compliance, agent enablement in the AI era

• Designing AI support systems that boost performance and job satisfaction

• AI is changing the role, but are we changing the way we support the people doing it?

• Building trust and accountability in semi-autonomous systems

• Turning live customer signals into in-the-moment support and escalation

• Aligning data use with agent workflows to drive faster, better outcomes

• How contact centres can use customer data in real-time without breaching trust or privacy

• What leading teams are doing differently in 2025

• Using large language models (LLMs) and sentiment analysis to detect and respond to customer emotion

• Ensuring emotionally intelligent interactions in digital self-service and chatbots

• Reducing customer effort while maintaining empathy

• Shifting culture beyond one department

• Tools, rituals, and leadership practices for experience-first teams

• Lessons from successful internal transformation

• How Māori concepts like koha (reciprocal giving) are being used to reframe customer experience strategy and delivery

• Why values-led design creates inclusive, culturally resonant experiences that benefit all users — not just Māori

• Lessons from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s CX transformation journey, and how these principles can inspire broader systems change

• What does it take to build strong CX foundations without advanced AI or major system overhauls?

• How Goodman Fielder drives customer experience through process, people, and practical service excellence

• Exploring low-cost, high-impact opportunities to improve service without relying on large tech stacks

• Lessons learned from navigating CX improvement across two markets (AU and NZ) without over-engineering the solution

During this session, attendees will have the opportunity to join a discussion group with peers focusing on one of the below topics

• What does it take to embed self-service that customers actually use?

• How HillLabs reimagined their digital journey to achieve a 15x increase in self-service orders

• Balancing speed, satisfaction, costs and internal expectations—what data, insights, and conversations help drive and sustain self-service initiatives? 

• Creating emotionally intelligent leadership to remove fear from decision-making and unlock truly human-centred service

• In an AI-enabled world, how do we preserve connection, empower contact centre teams, and equip leaders for what’s next? 

• What boundaries should we set to ensure we don’t automate without regret?

• Exploring “agent-to-agent” service models—when tech supports people, not replaces them

• How to apply emerging risk and complexity frameworks to decide what stays human-led

• Reimagining the contact centre as a service engine for both customers and employees 

• Emerging roles and team structures that bridge experience and service

• What the next 3 years look like for customer-centric organisations

• AI, decentralisation, and leadership alignment