The official CX Awards 2026 categories are now live.
These 25 carefully crafted categories reflect how enterprise leaders actively evaluate and procure customer experience technology, defined by Transformation, Trust, People, & more.
Rob Scott, Executive Chair of Judges, CX Awards 2026, shared:
“We redesigned the 2026 categories because enterprise buyers are no longer judging platforms by their roadmaps – they demand proof. If your technology is actively removing friction and driving real results, this is where you show the industry exactly how it’s done.”
The standard for 2026 is execution and measurable impact. Visit our official CX Awards website to explore the categories in more detail and to start preparing your application. Here’s a shortened list of what to expect:
Core Layer
Dedicated to the foundational technology powering modern customer journeys. This layer celebrates the platforms, contact center systems, CRMs, workforce tools, and analytics engines that vendors build, alongside the BPOs, CPaaS providers, and strategic partnerships that make exceptional experiences possible at scale.
- Best CX Solution (Large): For vendors with $1B+ annual revenue (USD) whose CX platforms deliver measurable outcomes at enterprise scale.
- Best CX Solution (Small-Medium): Awarding vendors up to $1B revenue (USD) delivering standout CX platform results above their weight class.
- Best Contact Center Solution (Large): Geared toward CCaaS and contact center technology providers with $1B+ revenue operating at enterprise scale.
- Best Contact Center Solution (Small-Medium): Spotlighting CCaaS and contact center providers up to $1B revenue delivering exceptional service technology.
- Best CRM and Customer Data Platform: For the CRM, CDP, and customer data management vendors powering personalization and insight.
- Best Workforce Engagement Solution: Championing WEM, WFM, and agent experience platform providers improving how teams serve customers.
- Best Analytics and Insight Platform: Showcasing customer analytics, VoC, and intelligence solution vendors turning data into action.
- Best BPO Provider: Dedicated to business process outsourcing providers delivering measurable CX outcomes for their clients.
- Best CPaaS Platform: Highlighting communications platform providers enabling embedded, programmable customer engagement.
- Best CX Alliance: A shared accolade for two or more vendors, partners, or integrators delivering results together.
Transformation Layer
Highlighting AI, automation, and genuine technical novelty. This layer celebrates the boldest innovations in the market, recognizing the solutions that move beyond the hype to fundamentally transform how work gets done and how customers are served.
- Best AI-Powered CX Solution: For vendors with proven AI deployments delivering measurable CX improvement.
- Best Automation & Orchestration Platform: Awarding platforms that use automation and orchestration to transform journey efficiency.
- Most Innovative CX Technology: Celebrating genuinely novel approaches, judged entirely on originality and potential.
Trust Layer
Honoring the infrastructure, privacy, compliance, and data foundations that underpin every great customer relationship. This layer recognizes the essential technologies that build lasting customer trust, ensuring experiences are secure, reliable, and resilient.
- Best Data Platform for CX: For platforms enabling a demonstrably effective, responsible approach to customer data.
- Best Privacy and Compliance Solution: Highlighting solutions that build trust through rigorous data governance and compliance.
- Best CX Infrastructure Provider: Dedicated to the providers delivering operational reliability and resilience at scale.
Engagement & Advocacy
Spotlighting the solutions that bridge the gap between brand promise and customer reality. This layer recognizes excellence in marketing alignment, community building, and employee experience – the vital spaces where true loyalty and advocacy are built.
- Best CX and Marketing Alignment: For solutions that genuinely unify CX and marketing technology.
- Best Community and Peer Engagement Platform: Showcasing platforms that scale customer communities as a measurable loyalty asset.
- Best Employee Advocacy Platform: Awarding platforms that successfully link employee advocacy and engagement to CX outcomes.
People & Momentum
Celebrating the human element of customer experience. This layer recognizes the visionary leaders, rising stars, and remarkable transformation stories driving the industry forward, honoring the people who turn great technology into exceptional reality. Open to all innovators – both technology vendors and in-house enterprise leaders.
- CX Leader of the Year: Honoring an individual whose leadership has driven exceptional customer experience.
- Rising Star in CX: For an emerging individual making an outsized, early-career impact in CX.
- CX Transformation of the Year: Highlighting a vendor or end-customer transformation with standout, measurable change.
Enterprise Impact
Built to celebrate the organizations adopting and deploying these powerful tools. This layer recognizes the in-house teams and end-user initiatives that have successfully turned technological potential into measurable ROI and outstanding business outcomes. Designed exclusively for end-user organizations and in-house CX teams.
- Best Customer Experience Innovation with Measurable ROI: For end-customer initiatives delivering innovation with proven return on investment.
- Customer Experience Team of the Year: Celebrating an in-house CX team demonstrating outstanding results and culture.
- Best Use of AI by a CX Team: Spotlighting in-house teams with AI in production and clear evidence of outcomes.
How to Choose the Right Category
- Prioritize Accuracy Over Prestige: Don’t just default to the most recognizable category. The strongest submissions align specific customer outcomes with the exact criteria of their chosen award.
- Vendors vs. Enterprises: If you build and sell the technology, look to the Core, Transformation, Trust, and Engagement & Advocacy layers. If you are an end-user organization that successfully deployed technology to transform your customer experience, head straight to the Enterprise Impact track. The People & Momentum theme is shared.
- Follow the Evidence: Choose the category where you have the strongest hard data. The judges score on measurable business impact and execution, not just theoretical capabilities or roadmaps.
Key Dates & Next Steps
- July 28: Applications open
- September 30: Applications close
- November 3: Winners Announced
If you are unsure which of the CX Awards 2026 categories best fits your technology, contact the CX Awards team before July 28. Review the full criteria, align your evidence, and prepare your entry at:
Frequently Asked Questions
The programme features 25 categories divided into themes including Core Layer, Transformation, Trust, Engagement & Advocacy, People & Momentum, and Enterprise Impact.
Every entry is evaluated by an independent panel of enterprise buyers and senior practitioners who score submissions entirely on measurable outcomes and evidence.
Yes, organizations can enter multiple categories, provided they tailor their submission and evidence to the specific criteria of each category.
The Enterprise Impact track highlights measurable business results, focusing on ROI, AI-powered transformation, and the internal end-user teams delivering the work.
Applications officially open on July 28, 2026. Entrants are encouraged to review the category guide early to prepare their evidence. What Are The CX Awards 2026 Categories?
How Are The Customer Experience Technology Winners Chosen?
Can My Organization Enter Multiple CX Awards 2026 Categories?
What Is The Enterprise Impact Track?
When Do Applications Open For The CX Awards 2026?
