Atonom AICX 2026 Summit Drew 9,500 Participants From Over 15 Countries

21 speakers. 101 crowd-sourced award nominees. 11,000 votes. A free virtual summit for people who actually run customer experience.

SILICON SLOPES, UT, UNITED STATES, August 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Atonom's AI Customer Experience Summit did not play like another vague AI webinar. On Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, more than 9,500 participants from 15-plus countries logged into the free three-hour virtual program. 21 speakers who actually run support and CX walked through what is working, what is not, and where AI belongs in a service organization.

This was a working session for people who own cost, CSAT, and scale. Topics included Agentic Customer Success, BPOs in the Age of AI, where automation belongs, and scaling with the proper foundations. The stream is still up. Replay is at https://atonom.ai/events/aicx-26-summit.

"People don't need another vague AI keynote," said Dave Elkington, Founder and CEO of Atonom. "They need playbooks, real numbers, and straight talk about what works in support and CX. That is what AICX is for."

The speaker list was operators, not a panel of theorists. It included Andrew Carothers, Global Head of Digital Customer Success at Proofpoint; Rachel Orston, Chief Customer Officer at Instructure; Hanna Fredriksson, Head of Global Customer Care at Arrive; Denise Quaglia, SVP of Client Experience at Sotheby's; Drew Schafer, Head of Global Customer Support at Webflow; Nate Christiansen, Director of Ascend Operations, Strategy and AI Operations at Henry Schein One; Elyse Mankin, Head of Support at Attio; Maria Dillard, former VP of CX at DirecTV and AT&T; Dave Elkington, Founder and CEO of Atonom; and Gabe Larsen, CRO of Atonom. The full roster of 21 is on the summit site.

The other half of the morning was the AICX 2026 Awards. The community put up 101 nominees. The crowd cast 11,000 votes. Winners were announced live during the summit, in four categories: Customer Experience Leader, Customer Experience Thought Leader, Customer Experience Operations, and Customer Experience Outsourcing Leader.

Nominations were open. Finalists went through the AICX advisory board. The vote belonged to peers, not a closed vendor panel.

"These awards should feel like peer recognition, not a trophy from a vendor," Elkington said. "When nominees and voters are the same community of CX and support leaders, the honor means more."

Top winners, announced live:

Customer Experience Thought Leader
• Thaysa Starling, Founder, Dexgrowth.ai
• Kate Nelson, Managing Director, Sales and Client Relationships, CX Consulting Partners
• Kristi Faltorusso, CEO and Principal Advisor
• Carol Buehrens, Chief Experience Officer, Zschool

Customer Experience Leader
• Nino Cavenecia, CEO, Customer First
• Aleksandar Lazarevic, Senior Director of Customer and Partner Success, Remote
• Beth Reedy, Manager of Integrated Systems and Customer Solutions, Black Rifle Coffee Company
• Mercer Smith, Senior Director, CX Strategy and Solutions, Boldr

Customer Experience Operations
• Ekwutosi Cynthia Okeh, Senior Customer Success Manager and Customer Success Trainer, Digital Witch
• Rita Saoud, SVP of CX, Horatio
• Nandish Dave, Director of Technical Support, BitGo
• Manish Mishra, CX Product Manager, HSBC

Customer Experience Outsourcing Leader
• Jim Iyoob, CRO, Etech Global Services
• Jose Herrera, Co-Founder and CEO, Horatio
• Bryce Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, Volo NXT
• Sarah Caminiti, Head of Business Transformation, SupportNinja

Atonom builds Cloud Employees: AI agents built to own full jobs across sales, marketing, support, and HR. They work inside company systems on high-volume work. People still set direction, standards, and judgment calls. AICX is how the company puts that work in front of the leaders who own CX budgets and service outcomes.

Elkington previously founded InsideSales, later known as XANT. The company raised nearly $400 million from partners including Salesforce and Microsoft and grew past 1,000 employees. That background shows up in how AICX was built: a short agenda, practitioner speakers, and awards that start with open nominations and end with a public vote.

Recordings from Aug. 19 and the awards page are at https://atonom.ai/events/aicx-26-summit and https://atonom.ai/events/aicx-26-awards. Atonom: https://atonom.ai.

About Atonom
Atonom builds Cloud Employees, autonomous AI agents that execute real work across sales, marketing, support, and HR. Headquartered in Silicon Slopes, Utah, Atonom helps organizations scale capacity, improve speed, and free human teams for higher-value work. Learn more at https://atonom.ai.

About the AI Customer Experience Summit (AICX 2026)
The AI Customer Experience Summit is a free virtual event hosted by Atonom for customer experience and support leaders. The 2026 program was Aug. 19, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific, with 21 speakers, more than 9,500 participants from 15-plus countries, and the live AICX 2026 Awards. Replay is at https://atonom.ai/events/aicx-26-summit.

About the AICX 2026 Awards
The AICX 2026 Awards recognize work in AI-powered customer experience in four categories: Customer Experience Leader, Customer Experience Thought Leader, Customer Experience Operations, and Customer Experience Outsourcing Leader. The 2026 cycle drew 101 crowd-sourced nominees and 11,000 votes. Nominations come from the community. Finalists are reviewed by the AICX advisory board. Winners are selected by public vote and announced at the summit. Learn more at https://atonom.ai/events/aicx-26-awards.

Pete Ketchum
Atonom
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