The Five Capabilities CX Leaders Need Now — And How To Build Them At CX Forum East

2026-03-22 · Source: Featured Blogs - Forrester · Field: Business & Management — Corporate Strategy & Leadership, Project & Product Management, Marketing, Branding & Advertising · Depth: Intermediate, short

Summary

Forrester's CX Forum East, scheduled for June 16–17 in New York City, addresses the critical need for customer experience (CX) leaders to adapt to AI-driven shifts in customer expectations. The event focuses on five core capabilities essential for CX teams to thrive by 2026, moving beyond outdated strategies. These capabilities include transforming journey mapping into a continuous journey management operating model, ensuring responsible and strategic AI deployment, implementing trusted and intentional personalization, demonstrating CX value through ROI storytelling, and fostering cross-functional alignment and stakeholder leadership. The forum offers workshops and certification programs designed to provide practical, human-centric learning and problem-solving, emphasizing that while AI optimizes, human leadership defines direction, sets boundaries, and builds alignment.

Key takeaway

For CX leaders navigating AI integration, your focus must shift from legacy playbooks to building core capabilities that ensure AI amplifies clarity, not chaos. Prioritize establishing journey management as an operating model, deploying AI responsibly, and grounding personalization in customer intent to secure organizational alignment and demonstrate tangible ROI, thereby strengthening your strategic influence.

Key insights

Human leadership is crucial for defining direction and building trust in an AI-accelerated customer experience landscape.

Principles

• Journey mapping requires continuous governance.
• Responsible AI needs human judgment and boundaries.
• Personalization must prioritize customer needs.

Method

The CX Forum East employs interactive workshops and certification programs to build shared understanding, facilitate real-time problem-solving, and foster human-to-human alignment for CX leaders.

In practice

• Implement continuous journey governance.
• Design agentic interactions based on customer intent.
• Connect customer outcomes to financial outcomes.

Topics

• Journey Management
• Responsible AI
• Customer Personalization
• CX Value Demonstration
• Cross-Functional Alignment

Best for: Executive, Director of AI/ML, AI Product Manager, CTO

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Featured Blogs - Forrester.