SAN FRANCISCO - s4story -- CMSWire (http://cmswire.com), the world's foremost publication covering digital customer experience, today announced the 2026 Customer Experience Leader of the Year and the full list of CMSWire IMPACT Award recipients across eight categories.

The program's most prestigious honor, Customer Experience Leader of the Year, recognizes an individual who demonstrates excellence in improving customer experience through cross-organizational collaboration and the effective use of digital technologies.

CMSWire's 2026 Customer Experience Experience Leader of the Year is Suzie Dieth, Vice President and Chief Experience Officer of NRG Consumer Energy.

Judges were impressed by Dieth's success in breaking down organizational silos and uniting teams around the customer experience. They also recognized her pioneering mindset and leadership in maintaining customer trust and loyalty during complex mergers and acquisitions.

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Leader of the Year finalists receiving  honorable mentions include Abhii Parakh, Head of Customer Experience at Prudential Financial; Amy Sessions, Division Manager for the City of Clearwater; and Charlotte Gilmour, Managing Director, Environmental Impact at Yulu Impact Communications.

CMSWire also announced winners in the Customer Journey Innovation practitioner category, which honors team-based achievements. The 2026 winners are:

• Gold: Quadient, Global Operations
• Silver: NRG Energy, CX & Insights

In addition to the practitioner categories, CMSWire recognized winners across several vendor categories. These categories honor vendors for the strength of their products, platforms and solutions, as well as the impact delivered for their clients.

The 2026 vendor award winners are:

• Best Use of AI in Customer Experience (Gold): Talkdesk
• Best Use of AI in Customer Experience (Silver): Concentrix
• Best Customer Experience Transformation (Gold): Firstsource
• Best Customer Experience Transformation (Silver): Netcracker Technology
• Excellence in CCaaS & Customer Service (Gold): Crescendo
• Excellence in CCaaS & Customer Service (Silver): Transaction Network Services
• Excellence in Chatbots & Conversational AI (Gold): RingCentral
• Excellence in Chatbots & Conversational AI (Silver): Ada
• Excellence in DX Analytics, Observability & Intelligence (Gold): BLOX Digital
• Excellence in Digital Experience & Journey Optimization (Gold): Optimizely
• Excellence in Digital Experience & Journey Optimization (Silver): VOZIQ AI

Winners were selected from a pool of qualified nominees, including customer experience leaders, teams and vendors that deployed impactful customer experience initiatives over the past year. Judging was conducted by a panel of practitioners and industry specialists, led by CMSWire Editor-in-Chief Dom Nicastro. Winners and honorable mentions were determined based on information provided through the nomination process.

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CMSWire congratulates all winners and finalists of this year's awards program. To learn more about the CMSWire IMPACT Awards and to apply for the 2027 program, which opens in August 2026, visit https://www.simplermedia.com/impact-awards/cmswire/