Findings From CX Live’s The Experience Show South Europe 2026

Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly across customer experience, but organisations across South Europe are confronting a fundamental challenge: scaling its use without eroding the trust and service quality on which customer relationships depend.

This tension emerged as a defining theme in the The Experience Show South Europe Intelligence Report 2026, published at CX Live’s The Experience Show South Europe 2026, held on 20-21 October at the Crowne Plaza Madrid.

The findings reveal a market investing in new AI capabilities while placing increasing emphasis on customer intelligence, operational effectiveness and the ability to demonstrate commercial returns.

For 49% of organisations, using AI without damaging customer trust or service quality is a leading challenge. The pressure extends beyond the customer interaction itself.

Some 36% are working to move from reactive support towards proactive experience management, while 35% grapple to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) and business impact of their CX initiatives.

The findings expose a gap between technological ambition and the outcomes organisations need to achieve.

Introducing AI may expand what customer-facing teams can do, but its value depends on whether businesses can apply it in ways that customers find useful, reliable and appropriate.

That may help explain why Voice of Customer (VoC) analytics features so prominently in organisations’ technology plans.

72% of organisations plan to upgrade their existing CX technology stack with VoC analytics, compared with 74% prioritising AI copilots and Agentic AI.

The near-equal emphasis suggests that investment in understanding customers is keeping pace with investment in the technologies reshaping how businesses serve them.

Adoption figures offer further context. AI copilots and Agentic AI are already in use at 63% of respondent organisations, while 53% use VoC analytics and 47% use customer journey orchestration. Automation and workflow orchestration is used by 42%.

The opportunity lies in bringing these capabilities together. AI can help organisations interpret information and support customer interactions at scale; VoC analytics can reveal where expectations are not being met; and journey orchestration can help translate those insights into action across customer touchpoints.

Their combined value, however, depends on the quality of the underlying data and the organisation’s ability to connect technology with day-to-day service delivery.

“Customer experience transformation is not just about introducing more advanced technology. It is about understanding what customers value, protecting the trust they place in organisations, and using intelligence to make experiences more relevant and consistent,” said Ayusha Tyagi, Managing Director, Customer Experience Live.

“The findings from South Europe highlight the importance of bringing customer insight and AI capabilities closer together, while ensuring that transformation delivers meaningful improvements for both customers and the business.”

Bringing together perspectives from across sectors, The Experience Show South Europe 2027 welcomed experts from leading organisations like Generali, Leroy Merlin, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Allianz Partners, Novo Banco, Schneider Electric, Bayer, Sanofi, Nissan Motor Corporation, E.ON Energie Deutschland, Moeve, Drei Österreich, Imagina Energía, Philip Morris International, Straumann Group, and Roche Diagnostics. Across the two days, discussions explored how organisations are responding to evolving customer expectations, embedding AI into experience strategies, and strengthening the customer intelligence, operational processes and service capabilities needed to deliver more connected, effective and customer-centric experiences.

Bringing together organisations at the forefront of customer experience innovation, the event was supported by sponsors Fin, Sierra, Capacity, HappyRobot, and Krisp.

The event’s partner network included The Contact Centre Helper as the Official Media Partner and the Customer Institute and BPO Search as Strategic Partners.

The event also acknowledged the support of its media partners: ACN Newswire, CrmXchange, StartupNews.fyi, CIOReview, AI Tools Network, Financial Service Review, Conference Alerts, Applied Technology Review, CIO Outlook, APAC CIO Outlook, Times of AI, CryptoNewsZ, NameCoinNews, CryptoMoonPress, CoinNewsSpan, TimesOfBlockchain, CapitalBay News, AllConfsBot, Knowledge Networks, and DevITJobs