Observed Signal · Jun 18, 2026 · Industry Conference · Source: CMSWire · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Trust, Governance and Focus Emerge as CX Priorities
Forrester's CX Forum East, held June 16-17 in Brooklyn, focused on trust, governance, and operational discipline as key priorities for customer experience. CEO George Colony urged building experiences AI can't replicate, while the firm introduced an expanded Total Experience Score incorporating employee experience. Analysts highlighted that consumer distrust is now the default, with answer engines and AI agents reshaping brand discovery. Sessions emphasized that AI failures are often strategy failures, citing an example of a payment provider's CSAT collapse after deploying agentic service. The conference stressed moving from FOMO to focus, with companies like Wyndham showcasing hyper-personalized guest experiences. Overall, the event shifted attention from technology features to the human and operational foundations that enable successful CX transformation.
Conference coverage highlighting strategic focus on trust, governance, and AI deployment in customer experience, relevant to MarTech but not industry-shifting.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Forrester held its CX Forum East from June 16-17, 2026, at Discover Brooklyn.
- Forrester expanded its Total Experience Score to include employee experience (EX Index).
- Several sessions covered building brand visibility across answer engines and preparing for AI agents as a target audience.
- A case study involved a payments provider that backtracked after CSAT scores declined when it replaced human agents with AI.
- Wyndham shared a hyper-personalized guest experience built on its customer loyalty and booking data.
Connected Companies & Entities
4 Entities mapped“Forrester's CX Forum East, held June 16-17 at Discover Brooklyn...”
“co-led with Pepsico's head of change management...”
“put New York Life, Voya and Amazon Ads onstage...”
“Wyndham used the Five9 keynote to walk through a hyper-personalized guest experience...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
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