Back by popular demand, Brad Cleveland returns with a mid-year 2026 update addressing—in rapid-fire format—the questions contact center leaders across the ICMI community are asking. With his signature blend of deep insight, objective analysis, and engaging humor, Brad helps leaders distinguish meaningful progress from persistent hype, focusing on the strategic priorities that truly matter.

Contact centers are navigating contradictions—AI promises versus AI reality, retention challenges despite record investment, leadership confidence that doesn’t always match frontline experience. In this session, Brad decodes what’s actually changing, what’s stubbornly stuck, and what you must do now to stay ahead—offering practical insights to help you succeed today while positioning your contact center for 2027 and beyond.

Agentic AI is quickly becoming one of the most talked-about concepts in customer experience (CX), yet it remains poorly defined and widely misunderstood. Is it simply another term for chatbots? A replacement for human agents? Or does it represent a fundamental shift in how AI operates within the contact center?

In this session, we cut through the hype and explain Agentic AI in practical terms, with a specific focus on contact centers and the modern customer experience. You’ll learn how Agentic AI differs from traditional Conversational AI, why the shift from intent-based automation to goal-driven execution matters, and where organizations are already putting Agentic behaviors into production today.

Through real-world examples, we’ll show how Agentic AI enables systems to plan, decide, and act, not just answer questions. We’ll examine organizations already deploying agentic behaviors in production environments and explore what makes them successful. You’ll also learn the critical requirements for implementation, including data infrastructure, system integrations, and governance frameworks that protect both operational efficiency and customer trust.

Whether you’re evaluating new AI/CX investments or expanding existing capabilities, this session provides practical guidance to help you separate genuine innovation from marketing hype and build a realistic, actionable roadmap for your organization.

Key Takeaways: 
1. Clearly explain what Agentic AI is and is not. Understand how Agentic AI differs from traditional conversational AI and generative AI, without the buzzwords.
2. Identify where Agentic AI creates real value in the contact center, recognize practical, production-ready use cases where AI moves from assistance to execution and drives measurable outcomes.
3. Apply a pragmatic approach to adoption. Learn how to start with focused, goal-based workflows, keep humans in the loop, and avoid the risks that derail many AI initiatives.

What does it take to develop and promote talent not in years, but in months?

In this session, you’ll learn a proven leadership framework designed to accelerate the growth of early-career professionals with clarity, intention, and impact. Developed by a manager who has successfully onboarded, stretched, and promoted multiple high-potential employees in under 18 months, Build. Stretch. Prepare. (TM) is a system that transforms onboarding into development, 1:1s into strategy sessions, and stretch assignments into launchpads.

Key Takeaways: 

1. Understand how Intentional Onboarding Accelerates Readiness and Results

2. How to use Leadership Mindset & Self-Awareness to Fuel High-Potential Growth

3. How to Use Strategic 1:1s to Grow Confidence, Readiness, and Trust

CX and Service Functions are always underinvested because initiatives are not as sexy as ad campaigns or new product introductions. Further, management fails to understand several fundamental factors of customer behavior, non-complaining, failing to read, the impact of problems on loyalty and price sensitivity and the power of word of mouth. Nestle Purina, working with Customer Care Measurement & Consulting, has created a program to both educate executives on these factors and to operationalize the to address specific tactical and strategic points of pain to gain buy-in, investment and action. This program is rooted in hard data derived from Purina’s own Voice of the Customer process so that is totally credible. Further, it draws on multiple data sources from multiple functions so that each manager feels a part of the analysis. Critical additions to the business case format are word of mouth (WOM) and delight, both of which are hot buttons for Marketing. New customers acquired via WOM are 25% less price sensitive. Customers acquired via delight are also willing to pay significantly more for a product.
John Goodman of CCMC will provide the research basis and general model including results of a recent study of 8,500 consumers for Purina, Pepsi, Kraft, Colgate and Kellogg on complaint behavior. Terri DeMent, Director of Consumer Affairs for Purina will describe how the model was developed in tested with internal skeptics prior to rolling out. A soon to be added tool will be a flexible economic model that can take data from multiple sources for any major product group and add key parameters such as damage to loyalty by type of point of pain, e.g. product appearance vs. packaging issue vs. loyalty program concern, to convert complaint data into revenue at risk per month. Goodman will wind up with two mini-case studies from technology and financial service, showing how the same template can be applied.

Key Takeaways:
1. The top four learnings that executives must internalize if they are to understand and support investment in CX and customer service; and how to get the needed data.
2. How the voice of the customer (VOC) process can leverage AI and contact center quality programs to make the business case more compelling.
3. A specific template that can be taken back to your company and completed to highlight the cost of inaction on customer points of pain that will precipitate ACTION! Parts of the template can be applied to “”selling”” the CX investment to each key function, from Marketing to Quality, Operations and HR.
4. How to master the politics of presenting bad news (complaints) in a non-blame manner that appeals to greed and need for positive recognition.

Volatile demand, seasonal spikes, and unexpected disruptions have made traditional, fixed staffing models increasingly ineffective. Yet many contact centers are still trying to solve today’s challenges with yesterday’s workforce designs.

In this real-world case study, Jeremy Hyde, Sr. Director of Customer Service at Sun Country Airlines, shares how his team built a flexible, on-demand staffing model by blending full-time agents, part-time work-from-home staff, unscheduled part-time roles, and BPO partners to respond to demand in real time.

The session explores practical tactics such as micro-shifts, using text messages to quickly ask available agents to log in when volume unexpectedly surges, and unscheduled agents who can pick up and trade shifts–approaches that improve coverage while also reducing burnout, absenteeism, and attrition. It will also touch on emerging options, including employer-of-record (EOR) and international gig talent, and how these models further expand what’s possible.

Key Takeaway: 
The biggest constraint on modern contact center staffing is no longer technology or location–it’s imagination. Attendees will leave with clear design principles and real examples they can adapt to build workforce models that better match the volatility of their demand.

Contact center leaders spent $2.1B on AI tools last year. A significant portion of that investment is actively degrading productivity because nobody taught them how to evaluate where automation helps versus where it adds friction. This session cuts through vendor promises and consultant frameworks to show you exactly which operational functions benefit from AI, which ones don’t, and how to measure the difference before you sign another contract.

We’ll cover real-time agent assist, conversational analytics, and automated quality monitoring through the lens of actual deployments – what worked, what failed, and the specific patterns that predict each outcome. You’ll leave with a decision framework you can use Monday morning to evaluate your current tools and prioritize your next pilots based on measurable productivity impact, not vendor roadmaps.

Key Takeaways: 
-A decision framework for evaluating AI tool fit across different contact center functions
-Implementation patterns for agent-assist tools that improve productivity without adding cognitive load
-Methods for measuring AI effectiveness against productivity outcomes rather than adoption metrics
-Common deployment failures and how to avoid them
-Change management approaches that build agent trust in AI-assisted workflows

What does it take to build an award-winning contact center? In this panel, 2025 Global Contact Center Award winners will share the secrets to their success. From employee engagement and CX strategies to metrics and more, they’ll break down what worked, what didn’t, and what they would do differently today.

Bonus: Learn how these teams documented their work so you can prepare to build your own winning entry for 2026!

Key Takeaways: 
1. Spot improvement opportunities within their own team by learning how award-winning leaders addressed problems, even with limited time or budget.
2. Apply practical tactics to improve performance, engagement, or CX, without needing large-scale transformation or new technology.
3. Capture and communicate team wins in a clear, simple way, making it easier to gain buy-in, build momentum, and share results with leadership.
4. Prepare a nomination for the 2026 ICMI awards cycle that boosts team morale and earns recognition.”

In healthcare, quality isn’t just a metric — it’s a matter of patient well-being. With a 600-person contact center supporting dialysis patients and clinical partners across the Americas, Vantive recognized that traditional quality programs could no longer keep pace with rising expectations, growing complexity, and the demand for real-time insight. The answer was AIQA, an AI-driven quality assurance program designed to evaluate 100% of interactions, surface coaching opportunities instantly, and elevate both agent performance and patient outcomes.
In this session, Jason Mercer-Pottinger will share how Vantive implemented AIQA across three countries, how the organization shifted from manual scoring to AI-enabled behavioral analytics, and how frontline leaders now coach using real-time insights rather than weeks-old samples. Attendees will learn the operational blueprint, change-management model, governance structure, and quantifiable results — including improved service consistency, reduced variability, and more engaged agents.
This session is designed for leaders who want a practical, proven pathway to modernizing QA without losing the human touch.

Key Takeaways: 
1. How to Design an AI-Driven Quality Framework
From data ingestion to scoring models to governance.
2. How AIQA Improves Coaching & Agent Development
Moving from subjective scoring to objective, behavior-based feedback.
3. How to Implement AIQA in a Regulated Healthcare Setting
Ensuring compliance, safety, and patient-centric experience standards.
4. How to Scale AIQA Across a Multinational Contact Center
Techniques Vantive used to deploy across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
5. How to Measure ROI, Accuracy, and Adoption Success
What changed, what improved, and what leaders should watch for.

Contact center culture isn’t built during offsites or engagement initiatives–it’s built in the gaps between policy, workload, tools, and expectations. This session helps leaders understand how everyday operational decisions quietly shape trust, ownership, and psychological safety on their teams. Attendees will learn how to identify the cultural signals they’re unintentionally sending and how to strengthen the foundations that allow teams to perform sustainably under pressure.

Key Takeaways: 

• Why culture degrades even when leaders have good intentions
• How inconsistency and “invisible work” erode trust
• The leadership behaviors that reinforce accountability without fear
• Practical ways to strengthen culture inside live operations

Join Steve Campbell, ICMI Sr. Consultant, and Todd Piccuillo, ICMI Sr. Director, for a discussion on how contact centers can prepare for AI in a practical, human-centered way. We’ll cover how to build an AI roadmap by defining and prioritizing use cases, assessing data readiness evaluating technology options, modeling costs and benefits and establishing clear governance and guardrails.

Key Takeaways: 
Attendees learn how to bring their people along through 1:1s, focus groups and workshops to understand concerns, demystify AI and actively involve staff in shaping how AI is applied. By integrating both perspectives, participants will leave with a clear, actionable approach to AI readiness that strengthens employee experience, improves customer experience and supports a positive, resilient culture.

AI vendors are everywhere–filling inboxes, calendars, demos, and LinkedIn messages–while contact center leaders are still expected to run daily operations, support agents, and deliver results. Choosing the right AI solution isn’t just complex; it’s exhausting.

In this customer-led case study, Sarina Swan-Allen, Senior Director of Customer Contact Center at Vitalant, and Gina Gibson, CEO of Think Forward, share how one organization moved from vendor overload to confident AI adoption–without pausing the business. While the case takes place in healthcare, the challenges, approach, and outcomes apply to any contact center navigating AI evaluation and implementation.

Told from the customer’s perspective, the session walks through how Vitalant went from being inundated with AI vendors to using a structured, side-by-side comparison approach that simplified decisions, aligned IT and operations, and clarified real trade-offs. By leveraging external support to manage vendor engagement and evaluation, the internal team was able to stay focused on their core responsibilities while still making informed, strategic choices.

Rather than chasing a “”perfect”” platform, Vitalant identified the right first use case and adopted an iterative, test-and-learn approach that reduced risk and accelerated adoption.

Attendees will leave with practical, immediately applicable guidance to reduce decision fatigue, evaluate AI vendors effectively, and implement AI in a way that works–regardless of industry, size, or maturity level.

Key Takeaways: 

• Identify the right AI vendor by using structured evaluation criteria and side-by-side comparisons that simplify decision-making and reduce vendor noise
• Understand the importance of internal alignment across IT, operations, and leadership to minimize friction and accelerate adoption
• Determine the right first AI use case without “”boiling the ocean”” or over-engineering the solution
• Apply iterative implementation practices that support faster rollouts, reduce risk, and enable long-term success

Contact centers are among the most critical functions in modern organizations. They sit where customers experience the consequences of policies, products, operations, and technology, and they are where failures in the system show up quickly and repeatedly. Despite that, contact centers have historically been treated as cost centers, designed primarily for transaction handling and efficiency. This session makes the case for a different, practical view: contact centers can be value centers when the organization can clearly articulate the value they create and intentionally builds the conditions to deliver that value in a sustainable way. That includes the way the contact center is set up, the technology stack that supports employees and customers in context, the processes that turn interactions into action, how contact center leadership shows up, and how the rest of the organization uses the signals that come from customer interactions. Grounded in a healthcare case study, the session shows what changes when a contact center is designed to do more than handle demand. It demonstrates how the organization can systematically surface enterprise problems customers feel, prevent downstream cost, protect and generate revenue through retention and resolution, reduce risk, and improve experience at scale, while still maintaining efficiency. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of what has to be true for a contact center to operate as a value center in practice, what specifically enabled that shift in a healthcare environment, and how to apply the same principles in their own organizations.

Key Takeaways: 
1. Why contact centers create the most value when they are designed to resolve problems fully, not just handle interactions quickly, and how this reduces repeat work, downstream cost, and customer frustration at the same time.
2. How using contact center interactions as evidence of what is broken elsewhere in the organization leads to better decisions, including fixes to policies, products, and digital journeys that reduce demand instead of shifting it.
3. What changes when contact center leaders are positioned as enterprise partners rather than operational managers, including earlier visibility into risk, clearer prioritization, and faster resolution of systemic issues.
4. How the right technology and processes enable agents to understand customers in context rather than in fragments, leading to higher-quality resolutions, stronger trust, and better retention without sacrificing efficiency.
5. What actually worked in a large healthcare organization to move from absorbing problems to preventing them, and how those same principles can be applied in other industries without replicating the exact structure.

• The true cost of agent burnout and attrition
• Why traditional performance metrics often tell the wrong story
• What the 10×10 Rule is–and what it is not
• Real-world examples of the 10×10 Rule in action across sentiment, network quality, and behaviour metrics
• How to distinguish burnout signals from perceived “bad behaviour”
• Shifting from surveillance-driven management to empathy-led intervention

Agent burnout is one of the most expensive and least understood problems in modern contact centres. Despite massive investments in analytics, organisations continue to misinterpret “bad” metrics as bad behaviour missing early warning signs that could prevent attrition, lost productivity, and declining CX.

Drawing on one of the largest contact centre studies conducted in Australia, combined with global academic research and over a trillion operational data points, this session introduces the 10×10 Rule: a powerful lens for identifying small groups of agents experiencing disproportionately high friction long before burnout becomes inevitable.

Rather than focusing on performance policing, this talk reframes how leaders interpret operational, technical, and experience data, revealing how systemic issues, not individual shortcomings, are often the true drivers of poor outcomes. This session debunks some of the industries relied upon models like the vitality model from Jack Welch. Attendees will learn how to spot hidden patterns, act earlier, and intervene with empathy, protecting both agent wellbeing and business performance.

Key Takeaways:

•  A practical framework to detect burnout risk early using existing data
• New ways to interpret CX, CCaaS, sentiment, and observability metrics together
• How small, targeted fixes can prevent large-scale attrition and disengagement
• A mindset shift: trusting the data as a way of trusting your people
• Tools to lead with empathy while still driving performance outcomes