Final programme brings together senior CX leaders, practical workshops, technology showcases and high-value industry conversations from 18–20 August 2026
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, 14 August 2026 – 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
- Dean McCoubrey, Chief AI Strategy Officer, Humaine
- 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.
One of these conversations, “The Last Mile of CX: Why the Brand Promise Breaks at the Point of Sale”, will bring together Dominic Wilhelm of The Global Trust Project, Tarun Sobhani of SingleInterface, Dean McCoubrey of Humaine, Tsheko Mabuela of Mr Price Group and Thabo Chiloane of Spur Corporation.
The panel will examine the gap between what brands promise through marketing, technology and customer experience strategy and what customers actually experience at the point of decision, purchase and human interaction.
For McCoubrey, this “last mile” is becoming even more important as organisations introduce AI across the customer journey. “The brand promise is ultimately tested in moments, not in strategy documents,” says Dean McCoubrey, Chief AI Strategy Officer at Humaine. “A business can invest heavily in brand, data, personalisation and AI, but the customer judges all of it through the experience they actually receive. As AI takes over more routine interactions, the human moments that remain become more consequential. The opportunity for African CX leaders is to design that handover between technology and people exceptionally well, because that is where trust is either reinforced or lost.”
The people behind customer experience
Technology is only one side of the CX equation. CEM Africa 2026 will look closely at employee experience, organisational culture and the changing capabilities required of customer-facing teams. Sessions will cover customer-centric culture, employee resilience, burnout, hybrid CX teams, human-centred service, AI upskilling, cross-functional collaboration and change management. The programme will also explore the relationship between employee experience and customer outcomes, recognising that organisations cannot sustainably improve CX without equipping and engaging the people responsible for delivering it.
Looking towards the future of African CX
Day Two turns the focus towards human impact, business value and the future direction of customer experience in Africa.
The afternoon programme will move from strategy into execution, exploring AI-powered WhatsApp journeys, voice AI in the South African market, the point at which brand promises break down, self-improving human and AI service models and how CX leaders can prove ROI in language that resonates in the boardroom.
McCoubrey will also moderate a forward-looking discussion with leaders from Africa’s BPO and customer experience sector examining what the industry needs to become by 2030.
The conversation will explore how AI is already changing lower-complexity customer interactions, whether future growth should still be measured primarily through headcount and volume, how Africa develops talent for increasingly sophisticated customer work, and what the continent must do to strengthen its value proposition with international buyers.
“The next few years will require us to rethink what growth in customer experience actually means,” says McCoubrey. “AI will handle more of the predictable work, while customers will expect faster, more personalised and more seamless experiences. That increases the value of judgement, empathy, problem solving and trust. Africa has a young and increasingly capable talent pool. If we combine that human capability with AI, quality, security and commercial competitiveness, there is a significant opportunity to move further up the global CX value chain.”
The final workshop block will look further ahead, with delegates exploring CX designed for measurable ROI, the Future African Customer 2030, organisational trust, scalable experience design, the risks of poor AI, emerging CX research and Human First experience design.
Across both days, the programme reflects the central theme of CEM Africa 2026: Trust, Technology and the Human Future of CX in Africa, with a clear emphasis on moving beyond theory towards customer experience strategies that create stronger relationships, better operational outcomes and measurable business value.
More than a conference programme
Alongside the conference and workshops, attendees will have access to the CEM Africa exhibition, Expo Spotlight Stages, technology demonstrations, networking functions and opportunities to engage directly with CX solution providers and peers facing similar transformation challenges.
For senior leaders, the value lies not simply in hearing what is changing, but in comparing approaches with peers, interrogating technology choices, finding practical solutions and building relationships across Africa’s customer experience community.
CEM Africa’s broader 2026 positioning, “Excellence in Every Experience: Shaping the Future of Customer Engagement Across Africa”, reflects an industry that is increasingly being asked to connect customer experience directly to business growth, loyalty, trust and resilience.
With the event now days away, CEM Africa 2026 offers organisations a timely opportunity to understand where customer experience is heading next and what leaders need to do now to stay relevant.
CEM Africa 2026 takes place from 18–20 August 2026 at the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.
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