Automation is no longer the defining question for customer service and CX. For most organisations, it is already embedded, expected and increasingly invisible. The question for leaders
now is, what this changes and importantly what it does not.


Gallup | Office Design & Build | ⚫⚪ Conexus StudioCCA’s Future Scenarios to 2030 research highlights a clear shift: as automation removes routine demand, the work that remains is becoming more complex, more emotionally charged and more consequential. Customer service is increasingly where judgement is exercised, trust is tested and organisational values are experienced.


The 2026 Industry Council programme, Beyond Automation, focuses on how service models, roles and leadership approaches must evolve in this new reality. Rather than revisiting debates about technology adoption, the programme explores where value is now created, how responsibility is held, and what this means for leadership decisions over the next three to five years.


Across three sessions, senior leaders will engage with the strategic implications of this shift and the questions that arise, sense-check direction with peers and explore how customer service and CX must be led as automation becomes business as usual.


CCA Industry Council Programme 2026

This session explores where complexity now sits in customer journeys, how roles are changing as transactional work declines, and how service models can be designed to support judgement, care and accountability without overextending people or increasing risk. 


Leaders will explore:
  • Where customer service genuinely creates value beyond automation
  • The trade-offs involved in designing for both efficiency and care
  • How frontline roles, skills and emotional load are changing
  • What sustainable service design means for wellbeing and long-term capability


For more information or how to get involved, please contact the team.