The data foundation for AI ROI
15 - 16 September 2026
| Free CX Network Webinar Series
16th September, 2026
10:00 am - 10:30 am
The EU AI Act explained: What does it mean for your insights function?
On 2nd August 2026, the EU AI Act came into force, meaning customers must legally be told when they're interacting with AI, and AI-generated content must be clearly labelled, with severe penalties for non-compliance. Even with the "Digital Omnibus" extending the deadline for high-risk systems, businesses should act now to get ahead. Organizations using conversational AI to gather customer feedback or generating synthetic research will be subject to new disclosure obligations from this August, and may have to adjust.
In this session, our expert speaker will break down the most immediate impact of the EU AI Act, explaining clearly what it means for CX and insights teams and how to approach compliance in this new light.
Attendees will learn:
- What is already in force, and how it builds on what was already there.
- How synthetic data use is impacted in light of the new regulations.
- Rebuilding data unification and governance strategies for the EU AI Act.
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Making the financial case for your insights and VOC programs
Despite holding value in customer retention, product development, cost savings and beyond, VOC and insights programs have traditionally struggled to prove ROI, with one particularly startling 2023 report stating that 70 percent of B2B businesses don't link CX programs to financial data. Metrics such as NPS, CSAT and CES can be disconnected from financials, with lag between actions and outcomes creating challenges in attributing financial outcomes directly to VOC initiatives.
AI has opened up new possibilities in this domain, with tools and teams now able to aggregate feedback and indirect signals and behaviors into a connected view that can help solve the "proving ROI" problem. In reality, VOC programs require the same data infrastructure as any other AI investment.
In this session, we'll explain how to link VOC programs directly to "hard" ROI figures and how to communicate this to the board and the rest of the enterprise. We'll take a look at what teams most commonly miss in their measurement frameworks and what AI's role is in proving overall ROI.
Attendees will learn:
- Why the current metrics you're tracking may not save your budget, and how to link NPS, CSAT and CES to financials.
- How to design a measurement model that tracks the actual impact of VOC-driven changes to create sturdy attribution.
- What AI-ready data infrastructure looks like in practice for VOC and insights teams and why it requires the same approach as other AI investments.
11:00 am - 11:30 am
Building the data-literate CX function
CX Horizons research found that the most anticipated change AI would bring to enterprises in 2026 is increased need to upskill teams. Previous research identified that four out of the top ten challenges facing CX pros were data-related. The reality is that AI initiatives will stall if there is an unaddressed skills gap in an organization. Investing in the right tools is critical, but these will work only to a limited extent without matching the investment in people.
In this session, we'll look at how businesses have built data literacy among teams, supporting wider data and AI initiatives. We'll explain how to uncover skills gaps and how to address them meaningfully. We'll walk through real-life examples of companies undertaking a data literacy drive and examine the results and ROI.
Attendees will learn:
- Democratization versus governance, and why you don't have to choose.
- New roles and structures emerging in data-literate CX teams, with examples from companies investing in true data literacy.
- Where to start when addressing data literacy skills gaps in the enterprise.
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
Tutorial | Is your data good enough to get recommended in a world of agentic commerce?
The emergence of agentic commerce since the beginning on 2026 marks a change in how products and services are discovered and purchased, with AI agents doing the whole process on behalf of customers who no longer have to interact with the businesses they're buying from at all. McKinsey has predicted that AI agents could execute $3 to $5 trillion of commerce by 2030. AI agents, though, will not recommend – or purchase from – businesses they cannot understand or trust: they depend on structured, real-time data. Businesses that don't have this will be left behind.
AI agents will increasingly use first-party data to personalize recommendations and purchase behaviors, meaning that businesses will need to do more to protect customers' data and conduct careful negotiations with AI partners to retain control.
In this session, we'll explore what agentic commerce means for CX and insights teams, and how to prepare for it. We'll explain what "good enough" data will look like in the age of agentic commerce, and the strategies and tools businesses will need to stay ahead.
Attendees will learn:
- What agentic commerce actually means for CX and insights teams and what customer data you need to ensure discoverability.
- Practical principles for building a data foundation that AI agents can access and act on.
- How to measure your current data readiness, identifying where customer data may fall short and how to plug the gaps.
