CCW 2026: From Crisis Moments to Contained: easyJet's Contact Center Transformation with Microsoft

A packed Academy Ballroom at Caesars Forum. Thousands of contact center leaders on their feet. And a conversation about what AI-first service actually looks like when it is no longer a roadmap — it is running, right now, inside one of Europe's most recognised travel brands.The moment the session closed, Rob Scott pulled three of the people who built that story into a room and kept the cameras rolling.What followed was something the main stage format simply does not allow. No moderated talking points. No polished announcements. Just the airline, the transformation partner, and the Microsoft product leader behind the platform — talking honestly about what it took, what broke, what surprised them, and what they would do differently.This is not the version you heard on stage.easyJet handles millions of customer contacts at the most pressurised moments in travel — and John Leighton, Head of Customer Experience, shared how the expectations on their service team have never been higher. Aggie Pulawski, Executive Vice President at Concentrix, came in not as a vendor, but as a partner sitting inside a genuinely complex three-way relationship — customer, implementer, and ecosystem ally all at once. And Darya Mazandarany, Microsoft's Head of Product for Dynamics 365 Contact Center, was there to answer the questions that do not get asked when a moderator is managing four thousand people and a 30-minute clock.The result is one of the most candid contact center transformation conversations CX Today has produced — and one of the most relevant for any leader who is serious about what comes next.The transformation drivers. The partnership dynamics no one talks about publicly. The reality of building a modern contact center when the pressure is live and the margin for error is low. The point at which automation goes too far. The lessons that never make it into a business case. And where all three of them believe this is heading.