CEM Africa 2026 will return to the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town from 18–20 August, bringing together senior customer experience, marketing, digital, customer service, technology and transformation leaders for the 14th edition of Africa’s leading customer experience summit. With organisations across the continent under growing pressure to improve customer outcomes while navigating AI adoption, automation, rising expectations, fragmented journeys and commercial scrutiny, the 2026 programme has been built around a central question: how can businesses use technology to improve customer experience at scale without losing trust, relevance or the human connection? Across three days, CEM Africa will combine strategic conference discussions, hands-on workshops, technology demonstrations, an exhibition, networking activations and peer-to-peer exchange, giving delegates the opportunity to move from big-picture industry questions to practical frameworks they can apply inside their organisations. A speaker line-up rooted in real CX leadership The 2026 speaker faculty brings together leaders working directly across customer experience, marketing, digital transformation, customer service, commerce, technology and organisational change. Among those joining CEM Africa 2026 are: Bruce Whitfield, business journalist and best-selling author Khensani Nobanda, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Nedbank Francois Retief, Head of Customer Experience, FNB Martin Urrutia, global toy industry leader Marnitz Van Heerden, Head of Customer Experience, Discovery Limited Grace Brown, Head of Customer Experience and Client Services, JSE Khwaṱhelani Tshikovhi, Head: Santam Experience and Client Care, Santam Insurance Shaun Edmeston, Director of Customer Experience, Absa Bank Mauritius Job Thomas, Chief Customer Officer, WooCommerce Richie Sobayeni, Group Head of Customer Experience Design, Equity Group Holdings Julia Ahlfeldt, Customer Experience Strategist and Business Advisor Rashid Toefy, Deputy Director-General, Department of Economic Development and Tourism Katie Stabler, Founder and Director, CULTIVATE Customer Experience by Design Charlie Stewart, CEO, Rogerwilco Omowunmi Akingbohungbe, Executive Director, WIMBIZ Wavi Mungala, Board Director, Institute of CX – Kenya The wider faculty spans financial services, retail, technology, insurance, e-commerce, public sector, consulting and customer operations, reflecting the increasingly cross-functional nature of customer experience. From AI experimentation to measurable outcomes Artificial intelligence will be one of the defining conversations at CEM Africa 2026, but the programme moves beyond broad speculation about AI to focus on where organisations are seeing - or still struggling to achieve - real operational and commercial value. Day One will examine how African organisations can move from AI pilots to production, including governance, data readiness, agent co-pilots, voice AI, speech analytics, conversational AI and AI-driven personalisation. The agenda also tackles the questions surrounding responsible adoption. Sessions will examine AI governance and ethics, privacy, POPIA, customer consent and the challenge of automating at scale without damaging trust. A dedicated discussion, “Will AI Make Your Brand More Trustworthy?”, will explore whether increased automation strengthens customer confidence or risks undermining it, before the day closes its content programme with the audience-led town hall “Will Humans Still Matter in a World of AI-Driven Customer Experience?” Data, insight and the business case for CX For leaders under pressure to demonstrate the commercial return on customer experience investment, CEM Africa will put measurement firmly on the agenda. Workshops will address customer data quality, real-time insight, first-party data strategy, predictive analytics and Voice of Customer, alongside practical sessions on building an end-to-end CX scorecard, customer lifetime value and mapping journey costs. Delegates will also be able to explore how to prove CX ROI to executive teams, connecting customer experience activity to revenue uplift, churn reduction, operational efficiency and cost-to-serve. The emphasis throughout is on turning customer insight into decisions and measurable business outcomes rather than collecting more data without action. Designing customer journeys that work in African markets The programme will also address the practical realities of customer engagement across diverse African markets. Topics include omnichannel journey design, mobile-first experiences, WhatsApp as a service channel, self-service, proactive CX and reducing friction across high-volume journeys such as onboarding, billing, claims and fulfilment. Sessions will examine how organisations can
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