Guest Speakers Reveal Where AI Belongs In CX — And How Leaders Protect Trust CX Forum East Speakers Reveal Where AI Belongs In CX Strategy

AI is no longer a side conversation in customer experience. It’s influencing how experiences are designed, how personalization scales, how self-service operates, and how leaders make decisions — often faster than organizations can establish clarity, governance, or shared intent.

For CX leaders, the question is no longer should we use AI? It’s where AI belongs inside CX strategy, how to deploy it intentionally, and what must remain unmistakably human as automation accelerates.

Those questions sit at the center of several guest speaker sessions at CX Forum East, taking place June 16–17, 2026, in New York City. Leaders from financial services, technology, and other global enterprises will share how they’re navigating AI’s growing role in CX while protecting trust, creativity, and accountability.

Moving From AI Adoption To AI Intent

Many organizations can point to AI initiatives. Far fewer can clearly explain why those initiatives exist, what success looks like, or where human oversight still matters. As interest in agentic AI accelerates, this gap is pushing CX leaders to move beyond experimentation and begin preparing for how these technologies could reshape both internal operations and customer-facing experiences.

That shift — from adoption to intent — anchors a CX Forum East panel focused on how organizations are planning for a future where agentic AI becomes more integral to day‑to‑day work. Amy Hu, chief marketing and experience officer at New York Life; Nancy Flowers, vice president of customer experience strategy and design at Voya Financial; and Santosh Gunaseelan, director of creative personalization, optimization, and design at Amazon Ads will discuss real-world priorities and trade-offs.

The session offers perspective on where peers across marketing, digital, and CX are beginning to prioritize agentic AI use cases, how these technologies may affect roles and processes, and what leaders should consider now to prepare for what comes next. Rather than treating agentic AI as a blanket solution, the conversation emphasizes deliberate planning, clarifying where AI adds value and how accountability should be maintained as capabilities mature.

Designing Experiences That Stay Coherent As AI Scales

As AI becomes more embedded in CX platforms and workflows, the speed of execution increases — and so do the risks. Faster iteration can unlock innovation, but without strong design discipline, experiences quickly fragment.

That tension shows up in a CX Forum East session on building better experiences with AI-enabled design workflows. Caleb Schmidt, senior vice president and head of enterprise experience design at U.S. Bank, explores the practical realities that surface as AI accelerates production, including questions around governance, shared standards, and keeping experiences cohesive as teams move faster.

For many CX organizations, this is where specificity becomes essential. AI can help teams work smarter, but only when design foundations are clear and resilient enough to support it.

What “Great” Customer Self-Service Really Looks Like

Customer self-service is often the most visible — and unforgiving — expression of AI in CX strategy. Customers don’t judge self-service by how advanced the technology is; they judge it by whether it helps them solve a problem.

That reality shows up in a CX Forum East session focused on how CX leaders are thinking about customer self-service as automation becomes more common. Dror Avieli, managing director and vice president of customer success at ConsenSys, joins a discussion examining how self-service design is evolving as automation expands.

The session looks at intentional design choices, including when automation supports customers, when escalation matters, and how trust is shaped in moments that define the overall experience.

Creativity That Works In Harmony With AI

As AI becomes more capable, it’s easy to see it as a threat to the work humans once owned. But what if, instead, AI could be used to unlock more of what makes people uniquely valuable?

In his keynote session, Duncan Wardle challenges leaders to rethink AI’s role in modern organizations. Rather than treating AI as a replacement for human talent, he reframes it as a way to remove the friction that prevents teams from doing their best work. By taking on repetitive, time‑consuming tasks, AI can create space for the skills that differentiate experiences and drive innovation: creativity, intuition, empathy, and imagination.

Drawing on his experience as head of innovation and creativity at Disney, Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar, Wardle shares a leadership perspective shaped by years of helping global teams embrace new technology as an opportunity, not a threat. Today, he brings that lens to executives across industries, showing how organizations can use AI to support their people — not sideline them.

At CX Forum East, leaders will come away with ideas for creating a more human-centered approach to AI adoption, one that strengthens creativity, culture, and long‑term competitive advantage.

Why Specificity Is Becoming A CX Advantage

Taken together, the guest speakers at CX Forum East point to a clear theme: The CX leaders shaping this moment aren’t focused on using more AI — they’re focused on using it more deliberately.

They’re examining how AI fits into design workflows, self-service strategies, operating models, and leadership responsibilities, and being explicit about where human oversight remains essential. At CX Forum East, these perspectives come together to help CX leaders move the AI conversation forward, from possibility to practice and from ambition to intent.

Guest Speaker Sessions At CX Forum East

Registration for CX Forum East is required to attend guest speaker sessions, including:

“Ready, Set, Agentic: How Real Companies Deploy AI With Intent,” Wednesday, June 17, 2:55–3:40 p.m. EDT
“Build Better Experiences With An AI-Enabled Design Workflow,” Wednesday, June 17, 4:10–4:55 p.m. EDT
“What Great Customer Self-Service Looks Like,” Wednesday, June 17, 11:50 a.m.–12:20 p.m. EDT
“Working in Harmony With AI,” Wednesday, June 17, 5:25–5:45 p.m. EDT

If you’re navigating similar questions in your CX strategy, these guest speakers offer a grounded look at how leaders across industries are getting specific about AI and what that specificity makes possible.

Space at CX Forum East is limited. Buy your ticket to learn from these guest speakers, along with more than 20 Forrester analysts available for one-on-one meetings, and get the clarity you need to make confident AI decisions.