Best Use of AI for colleagues & customer

North East Contact Centre Awards 2026 | Fresh Start Events

Description

This award recognises an organisation that has successfully implemented Artificial Intelligence to deliver measurable improvements in performance, efficiency, customer experience, colleague experience or business outcomes.

The judges will be looking for organisations that have moved beyond experimentation and can demonstrate how AI has created tangible value through innovation, adoption and delivery.

Any contact centre operation based in the North East may enter this award.

The nominated organisation should describe:

The challenge, opportunity or objective that led to the adoption of AI

How AI was implemented and embedded within the organisation

The outcomes achieved and how success has been measured

What makes the approach innovative and worthy of recognition

The winning organisation will demonstrate outstanding achievement against some or all of the following criteria:

Achievement & Delivery

Clearly identified a business challenge, opportunity or objective that AI helped address

Successfully implemented AI within a contact centre, customer experience or operational environment

Demonstrates strong planning, governance and stakeholder engagement throughout implementation

Evidence of effective adoption and integration into existing processes

Impact & Commercial Performance

Delivered measurable improvements in customer experience, operational performance or colleague effectiveness

Demonstrates quantifiable business benefits such as increased productivity, efficiency, quality, revenue growth, cost reduction or risk mitigation

Provides clear evidence of outcomes and sustained results

Shows how success has been measured and monitored

Innovation & Best Practice

Demonstrates innovative thinking in the application of AI

Has adopted or developed best practice approaches that differentiate the organisation from others

Uses AI responsibly and ethically, with appropriate governance and controls

Shares learning, influences best practice or acts as a role model within the industry

Why Should This Win?

The strongest entries will demonstrate not only how AI has been implemented, but how it has delivered meaningful and measurable outcomes for the organisation. Judges will be looking for evidence of innovation, impact and sustainable business value rather than technology for technology's sake.

This aligns much better with the 2026 framework of Achievement, Impact and Innovation, while still giving judges enough flexibility to recognise a wide range of AI use cases.