The Wire (Page 18)

Industry Leaders Recognized Across Growth, Insight, Employee Empowerment, and Experience Transformation Categories 2026 Winners Showcase the Power of Real-Time Action and Evidence-Based Decision Making in the Next Era of Customer Experience TYSONS, VA. – January 14, 2026 – Medallia, Inc., the global leader in customer and employee experience, today announced the winners of the 2026 Medallia Expy Awards. The awards recognize Medallia customers who transcend departmental silos to listen comprehensively, act decisively at scale, and drive measurable impact through fundamentally transformed connections with customers and employees.

The new solution helps brands unlock high-margin revenue from first-party customer data, with built-in privacy and no new infrastructure to manage SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #AdTech -- Amperity, the leading AI-powered Customer Data Cloud, today announced Audience Monetization, a new solution that helps brands unlock high-margin revenue from first-party customer data. The launch reflects a broader market shift, as privacy changes and signal loss heighten demand from advertisers for high-quality, permissioned audiences, giving brands a new opportunity to monetize their first-party customer data through second-party partnerships.

New Center Demonstrates How AI Can Drive Business Performance, Enhance Customer Experience and Improve Financial Outcomes Collaborations with Microsoft and Other Tech Leaders Helps Fuel Innovation Pipeline FLORHAM PARK, N.J.--( BUSINESS WIRE)-- Conduent Incorporated (Nasdaq: CNDT), a global technology-driven business solutions and services provider, today announced the opening of its AI Experience Center at Conduent’s corporate headquarters in Florham Park, New Jersey. The AI Experience Center is a curated, collaborative space where clients can explore how Conduent’s AI- and GenAI-powered solutions are designed to address their needs and deliver measurable outcomes to improve business process performance, enhance customer satisfaction and drive better financial outcomes.

AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstComm today announced the launch of AscendOne, a next-generation unified communications platform that brings voice, messaging, meetings, contact center, and AI-powered productivity tools together in one seamless solution. Designed to simplify how organizations connect with customers and employees, AscendOne helps businesses modernize communications, improve continuity, and scale with confidence.

Customers average 24% chat-to-order conversion, with peaks as high as 58%, by unifying service and shopping to drive higher engagement and ROI NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At NRF 2026, Crescendo announced the launch of its Multimodal AI Shopping Assistant on the Shopify App Store, with chat-to-order conversion rates as high as 58% — roughly four times the industry benchmark of 5-15%. The result transforms chat from a support cost center into a primary revenue channel, as the same AI that resolves questions can seamlessly guide customers to the right product in the moment.

Community-focused broadband provider upgrades customer engagement by replacing siloed systems with a unified platform ALPHARETTA, Ga., Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- GOCare, a leading SaaS provider of digital customer experience solutions for broadband service providers (BSPs), today announced that Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative ( PVT), a broadband provider serving southeast New Mexico for more than 100 years, has selected GOCare and Dialpad as strategic partners to modernize customer engagement and deliver more connected, people-first digital experiences. By consolidating digital customer communications via the GOCare integrated toolset, PVT is eliminating manual workflows, improving staff efficiency, and realizing a single view across voice and digital channels.

Tredence's New Agentic Commerce Accelerators Bolster its Accelerator Ecosystem and Enable Retailers to Quickly Unlock Truly Personalized Shopping Experiences NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Tredence, a global data science and AI solutions provider, today announced the launch of its Agentic Commerce accelerators. These enterprise-grade accelerators serve as configurable starting points to design, build and scale agent-driven shopping experiences speeding time to value by 60%.

Collaboration gives retailers fresher visibility, increased discoverability, and new influence across AI-powered shopping channels SAN FRANCISCO--( BUSINESS WIRE)-- Algolia, the AI Search and Retrieval Platform, today announced a collaboration with Microsoft to provide retailers and brands with greater influence, accuracy, and visibility in AI-driven shopping experiences. The collaboration integrates Algolia’s real-time enriched product attributes (product data, inventory availability, and product pricing) into Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Bing Shopping, and Microsoft Edge, helping retailers ensure their products appear correctly and competitively across emerging AI discovery surfaces.

AI Agent brings trusted, unified customer data and AI together so marketers can activate insights without relying on engineering teams SEATTLE--( BUSINESS WIRE)-- Amperity, the leading AI-powered Customer Data Cloud, today introduced its Customer Data Agent, the first enterprise AI agent that combines AI insights with actionable results. Built on unified customer data, the Customer Data Agent builds on Amperity’s proven segmentation and journey capabilities by making insights even more accessible.

Industry-specific cloud platforms bring proactive, orchestrated agentic AI to every commerce moment PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Talkdesk®, Inc. today introduced Customer Experience Automation (CXA) -powered Commerce Orchestration and announced a new Talkdesk Consumer Goods Experience Cloud™. Commerce Orchestration will be showcased at NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show, where Talkdesk will demonstrate how agentic AI is reimagining conversational commerce across the end-to-end consumer journey.