Atonom’s AICX summit draws 9,500 attendees and 11,000 votes

Atonom said its free virtual AI Customer Experience Summit brought in more than 9,500 participants from 15-plus countries on Aug. 19, along with 21 operator speakers and a peer-voted awards program. The event underscored growing demand for practical AI guidance in customer support and CX.

Why it matters: - Atonom is positioning AICX as a practical forum for customer experience leaders who want concrete guidance on AI, not broad marketing talk. - The summit’s turnout suggests strong demand for hands-on advice on support, cost, CSAT and scaling. - The awards format also matters because it uses open nominations and public voting instead of a closed vendor panel.

What happened: - Atonom hosted the free AI Customer Experience Summit on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. - More than 9,500 participants from 15-plus countries joined the three-hour virtual event. - The program featured 21 speakers focused on customer support and CX operations. - The live stream and replay are available at the summit replay. - Atonom also ran the AICX 2026 Awards during the summit.

The details: - Summit topics included Agentic Customer Success, BPOs in the age of AI, where automation belongs, and how to scale with the right foundations. - Speaker lineup included Andrew Carothers of Proofpoint, Rachel Orston of Instructure, Hanna Fredriksson of Arrive, Denise Quaglia of Sotheby’s, Drew Schafer of Webflow, Nate Christiansen of Henry Schein One, Elyse Mankin of Attio, Maria Dillard, Dave Elkington and Gabe Larsen. - The full roster of 21 speakers is on the summit site. - The awards drew 101 crowd-sourced nominees and 11,000 votes. - Winners were announced live in four categories: Customer Experience Leader, Customer Experience Thought Leader, Customer Experience Operations and Customer Experience Outsourcing Leader. - Nominations were open to the community, finalists went through the AICX advisory board, and peers cast the final vote. - Top winners included Thaysa Starling, Kate Nelson, Kristi Faltorusso and Carol Buehrens in Customer Experience Thought Leader. - Customer Experience Leader winners included Nino Cavenecia, Aleksandar Lazarevic, Beth Reedy and Mercer Smith. - Customer Experience Operations winners included Ekwutosi Cynthia Okeh, Rita Saoud, Nandish Dave and Manish Mishra. - Customer Experience Outsourcing Leader winners included Jim Iyoob, Jose Herrera, Bryce Hayes and Sarah Caminiti. - Recordings and awards details are available at the summit page and the awards page. - More about Atonom is available at Atonom.

Between the lines: - The summit format mirrors Atonom’s product pitch: AI agents that handle full jobs in sales, marketing, support and HR while people keep control of direction and judgment. - The company’s founder, Dave Elkington, previously founded InsideSales, later known as XANT, which raised nearly $400 million and grew beyond 1,000 employees. - That background helps explain the event’s operator-heavy speaker list and emphasis on measurable outcomes. - The awards process is designed to give the program more credibility with practitioners by avoiding a closed nomination system.

What’s next: - Atonom is expected to keep using AICX as a platform for CX and support leaders who are evaluating AI deployment. - The summit replay and awards pages remain live for attendees and future viewers. - Atonom says it will continue to build and promote Cloud Employees for organizations that want to scale capacity and speed.

The bottom line: - Atonom is using AICX to show that AI in customer experience is moving from theory to operations, with peer validation and practical use cases front and center.