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CMSWire opens submissions for the 2027 IMPACT Awards. August 18, 2026 The program adds new categories recognizing the use of AI in customer experience; submissions are open through November 20, 2026. SAN FRANCISCO, CA - August 18, 2026 - Now in its 6th year, the CMSWire IMPACT Awards program has opened submissions for 2027, recognizing exceptional work in customer experience, digital experience and customer service. Entries will be accepted through November 20, 2026, and winners will be announced in spring 2027. Entries are judged on the outcomes an initiative delivered and the evidence provided to support them. Applications are reviewed by a panel of more than 200 volunteer judges - practitioners, specialists, consultants and CX experts - and each entry is evaluated by multiple judges. The practitioner awards are open to customer experience, digital experience and customer service leaders who have deployed impactful initiatives or technology over the past 12 months. Vendor awards recognize work a company has done for a customer or client. This year, CMSWire added three categories that recognize how customer experience teams and vendors are applying AI: * Best Use of Agentic AI in Customer Experience (Practitioners) * Best Use of AI for Customer Data, Identity, or Personalization (Vendors - Case Study) * Best AI-Powered Self-Service or Conversational Experience (Vendors - Case Study) For Practitioners * Customer Experience Leader of the Year * Customer Journey Innovation * Best Use of Agentic AI in Customer Experience (new for 2027) For Vendors - Case Study * Best Use of AI in Customer Experience * Best Customer Experience Transformation * Best Use of AI for Customer Data, Identity, or Personalization (new for 2027) * Best AI-Powered Self-Service or Conversational Experience (new for 2027) For Vendors - Platform / Solution * Excellence in CCaaS & Customer Service * Excellence in Chatbots & Conversational AI * Excellence in DX Analytics, Observability & Intelligence * Excellence in Digital Experience & Journey Optimization Recent winners. Recent CMSWire IMPACT Award honorees include Talkdesk, Optimizely, RingCentral, Quadient, Concentrix and Firstsource. Full lists of past winners are available on the IMPACT Awards site: simplermedia.com/impact-awards/cmswire/ "The IMPACT Awards recognize the customer experience teams that can show real results from their work. We added the new AI categories this year because that's where a lot of the most interesting work is happening right now. We want to recognize the teams doing it well." - Dom Nicastro, Editor-in-Chief, CMSWire How to enter. * Submissions are open now through November 20. * Early Bird: Register and start an application during August-September and a 30% discount applies automatically to vendor fees - including applications completed after September. * Multiple entries: Use code TWOORMORE at checkout for 40% off total application fees. * Pricing: There is no cost to enter Customer Experience Leader of the Year. Other practitioner awards are $149 per application; vendor awards are $995 per application, before discounts. Applications are submitted at awards.simplermedia.com/cx. Full category descriptions, judging details and FAQs are available at simplermedia.com/impact-awards/cmswire. Recognition. Winners will be announced in March 2027. They are recognized in a feature article on CMSWire, in a listing on the IMPACT Awards site and with digital badges for their own promotion. Gold winners also receive a physical trophy, and Leaders of the Year are invited to an interview with the CMSWire editor-in-chief. About cmswire. CMSWire is the leading digital community for customer experience, customer service and digital experience professionals, published by Simpler Media Group. Through editorial coverage, original research and digital events, CMSWire helps practitioners advance their careers via high impact knowledge, networking and recognition. Learn more at cmswire.com. About Simpler Media Group. Simpler Media Group (SMG) is a B2B technology information and research services company serving a global community of more than 7 million digital business leaders. SMG publishes CMSWire, Reworked and VKTR, and operates a research division producing annual benchmark reports, market guides and custom insights for enterprise clients. SMG's annual IMPACT Awards recognize outstanding achievement in customer and employee experience, with honors for both practitioners and vendors. Learn more at simplermedia.com. MEDIA CONTACT: Tim Harnett Awards Director [email protected] (800) 939-1913, ext. 726 Featured Research

Optimizely named a Leader and a Customer Favorite in Experience Optimization Solutions by leading independent research firm. calendar_month Aug 17, 2026 3 minutes The AI platform for marketing was recognized in an independent research firm's Q3 2026 evaluation NEW YORK, August 17, 2026 - Optimizely, the AI platform for marketing, today announced that it has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave(TM): Experience Optimization Solutions, Q3 2026. Optimizely was also named a Customer Favorite in the evaluation, a distinction recognized based on outstanding customer feedback among the evaluated vendors. According to the report, "Optimizely's vision is clearly focused on AI with a redefinition of the EO experience layers, including agentic experience beyond customer and marketing." It also noted that Optimizely's "pace of innovation is evidenced by recent releases like Opal AI, its agentic orchestration layer," and that the vendor "excels in experimentation." Optimizely received the highest scores possible in the vision, innovation, roadmap, and partner ecosystem criteria. Optimizely also earned the highest score possible in the generative AI, agentic AI, web experimentation, and feature experimentation criteria. "Agents are moving from generating ideas to taking action, and that only works if they understand your goals, your data, your brand, and what's worked before," said Rupali Jain, Chief Product Officer at Optimizely. "Optimizely's AI doesn't just suggest experiments, it runs them with the judgment of someone who already knows your business. To us, being recognized as both a Leader and a Customer Favorite proves customers are ready to hand agents real responsibility, and that our AI has earned it." The report also mentioned Opal AI's role in helping users create experiments without coding skills, accelerate time to value and improve experiment quality. Forrester's report noted that Optimizely's broad set of implementation options, combined with its warehouse-native architecture, enables it to address a wide spectrum of business and technical EO use cases while "Tight integration of EO products with Optimizely Data Platform helps customers power segments to deliver more-targeted EO campaigns." Customers also described Opal AI as a "game changer" and praised the quality of Optimizely's support. Forrester disclaimer Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such research publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester's objectivity here. Gartner Disclaimer Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Content Marketing Platforms, Jeff Cohen, Rene Cizio, Jess Walker, 9 April 2026. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines, Penny Gillespie, Jason Daigler, Michael Ro, Ross Cosner, 3 February 2026. Gartner, Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Agents for Marketing, Nicole Greene, Lizzy Foo Kune, Adam Sarner, 5 June 2026. Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. AI Announcements Digital experience platform About optimizely. Optimizely is the AI platform for marketing, built for the experience-makers who shape how brands show up in the world. Bringing together content management, content marketing, experimentation, commerce, personalization, and analytics into a single platform, Optimizely gives marketers the freedom to create, customers the experiences they remember, and AI agents the content they come looking for. With Optimizely, you're free to grow. Learn more at optimizely.com. Optimizely is the trademark of Optimizely North America Inc., and is registered (or registrations are pending) in the US, EU, UK and other countries. All third-party trademarks cited are the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference purposes. Media contacts. Rachel Teitt Gill Vice President, Global Communications & Events, Optimizely +1 202-630-8859 [email protected] Victoria Johnson Sr. Manager, Global Communications, Optimizely [email protected]