With this year’s theme, The Intelligent CX Revolution, the spotlight was on how businesses can evolve their digital experiences with AI-driven personalization and intelligent content orchestration.
Keynote highlights
Sören Stamer: The Intelligent CX Revolution
Sören Stamer, CEO and Co-Founder of CoreMedia, shared how AI is redefining customer experience. His keynote invited the audience to rethink value creation in a world shaped by intelligent systems.
Here are some of the standout moments from his presentation:
We’re entering the steep part of the AI curve. Exponential growth is not intuitive, but it’s exactly what’s happening with AI right now — capabilities are exploding and are getting cheaper, fast. What seems underwhelming today could outperform humans tomorrow exponentially.
AI is no longer catching up, it’s pulling ahead. From image classification to advanced reasoning, AI models are outperforming humans in more tasks than ever. We’re now in the era of “augmented intelligence”, where the real power lies in how we choose to use it.
The next customer might not be human. Intelligent agents are already searching, comparing and even making purchases on behalf of real people. If your brand isn’t speaking machine language, through structured content and accessible data, you might not show up in the next buying decision at all.
For Gen Z, AI isn’t a tool, it’s a companion. Today’s younger consumers use AI to plan their day, manage their relationships, support their studies and even create art. It’s not just functional, it’s personal, emotional and always present.
Human + AI is the future of brand trust. While AI can automate and scale faster, real customer trust still depends on human oversight, ethical boundaries and clear governance.
To wrap up, Sören introduced CoreMedia’s approach to thriving in this new reality, where intelligent systems don’t replace humans, but elevate them. CoreMedia KIO, a Co-Pilot that empowers teams internally, is an example of that, allowing teams to orchestrate personalized experiences across channels with speed and precision.
Watch the presentation here.
Roy Smeets: Product Strategy & Agentic AI
Roy Smeets, Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) at CoreMedia, brought the audience back to earth, without losing sight of the stars. He presented the strategic roadmap and gave a first look at how agentic AI capabilities are transforming the world and being embedded into CoreMedia’s platform, empowering teams to work faster and more autonomously.
Highlights included:
Autonomous content agents are available now. CoreMedia KIO, our AI Co-Pilot, goes beyond just automating tasks. It works with your brand voice and performance data at its fingertips, offering not just assistance, but expert execution. From tone-of-voice adjustments to bulk metadata extraction, content variant creation and smart suggestions, CoreMedia KIO helps teams move faster, smarter and always on-brand. Brand voice rules, prompt libraries and approval workflows are just the beginning.
Native personalization made seamless. A major step forward: personalization is being reimagined at the platform’s core. Roy revealed the upcoming integration of engagement data directly into the editorial interface, enabling real-time insights, smarter decisions and faster iteration without switching tools.
New interfaces that put AI in the driver’s seat. In a bold preview of the "Studio of the Future," Roy showed how conversational AI will soon power the entire UI — turning goals into actions, data into insights and generic content into personalized experiences. The editor won’t just use AI. It will shape what the editor sees and does.
Agentic AI: The next frontier. Roy introduced the concept of “brand agents” that will soon engage directly with consumers’ personal AI assistants, negotiating, suggesting and completing transactions. In this future, the real CX begins before a human ever lands on your site. And your brand will need to be ready to serve not just people, but their digital proxies.
Roy closed with a simple but urgent message: the tools are here and the time to act is now. Whether it’s CoreMedia KIO, personalized content at scale or AI-powered customer support, teams can start today and prepare for the intelligent systems of tomorrow.
Watch the presentation here.
Jeroen Blaas: What makes CX intelligent
Jeroen Blaas, CoreMedia’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), kicked off CoreMedia Connect 2025 with a funny and provocative introduction, asking how many times we’d already said “AI” and presenting a buzzwords bingo.
He also outlined that intelligence in CX isn’t just about automation, it’s about intelligence. But what does this mean? It’s all about enhancing how brands serve, support and sell by making experiences predictive, personalized and proactive.
Predictive means anticipating customer needs before they become problems. It’s not about reacting to a breakdown, it’s about using intelligence to stay ahead. As Jeroen put it, “AI is no longer a side project. It is already completely reshaping how we design, deliver and personalize digital experiences.” Customers expect more and they expect it faster.
Personalized is more than adding a name to an email. It’s about delivering the right experience at the right time, in the right way. Customers expect more personalization and the companies that use intelligence smartly — not just in the tech, but in the whole holistic experience — are already pulling ahead.
Proactive means taking the lead. It’s about showing up where your customer’s AI is looking, because they won’t be scrolling. That means being present, useful and discoverable in a world where AI agents increasingly drive the journey.
So, intelligent CX isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a capability and, increasingly, it’s the baseline.
Watch the presentation here.
Bundestag.de & Babiel: Building Trust through Digital Transparency
The Bundestag's online platform, supported by Babiel and CoreMedia, sets new standards for digital transparency and accessibility in parliamentary communication. As Klemens Mangl, Vice President Digital Experience Platforms at Babiel, highlighted, the platform is designed to foster citizen trust through inclusive and barrier-free access to democratic processes.
Highlights included:
18M+ visitors in 2025 and 250K+ CoreMedia-managed documents.
Audited accessibility and inclusive design (easy language, sign language, youth portals).
Seamless navigation through speeches, voting results and legislative content.
Scalable infrastructure and AI-driven features like real-time translation and text-to-speech.
Penguin Random House & Arvato Systems: A New Tuxedo for the Penguin - Tailoring the Digital Experience
With 40 publishers and over 2,500 new titles annually, Penguin Random House needed a flexible and scalable digital platform to meet the demands of modern publishing. Volker Tiggesbäumker, Senior Project Manager at Penguin Random House, joined forces with Michael Franke, Product Owner and Business Analyst, and Sergej Epp, Technical Product Owner at Arvato Systems, to showcase how their collaboration with CoreMedia led to the creation of an editorially powerful system that balances brand storytelling with performance and operational scale.
The spotlight was on:
Custom landing pages with dynamic product and author data.
Automated content enrichment (events, videos, awards).
Clean taxonomy mapped to user needs.
Optimized for mobile and performance peaks.
hamburg.de & ]init[: A Success Story in the North
The official portal of Hamburg underwent a major digital transformation in collaboration with CoreMedia and ]init[, focusing on accessibility, editorial ease and long-term scalability. Sebastian Ens, Project Manager at hamburg.de for the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and Tobias Gehring, Director Implementation at ]init[, shared how the joint effort led to a streamlined platform that serves both citizens and administration efficiently while preparing for future digital demands.
Key takeaways:
2M monthly visitors, 400 editors and 45+ tenant organizations.
Migration to CoreMedia v12 and full system handover to external hosts.
AI-assisted workflows and multilingual support with SUMM AI.
Lighthouse content strategy focused on relevance, not just navigation.
Renegade: A Philosophy for AI Systems
In his thought-provoking session, Andy Wood, Director at Renegade, shared a vision for AI systems grounded in empathy, intent and emotional intelligence. Far beyond a software upgrade, AI becomes a mirror of user intention and an incentive for reimagining customer journeys, team structures and digital labor.
What stood out:
AI as a co-pilot means augmented workflows and autonomous agents.
Digital labor boosts output and margins with AI-literate teams.
AI reflects curiosity, not shortcuts.
Techno-humanism: organizations thrive when humans and AI learn together.
Foundation for success: business logic, content and data paired with flexible AI integrations.
Oniverse: Enabling Growth - Evolution of Oniverse Content Teams with CoreMedia
Operating 15 brands across 57 countries, Oniverse (formerly Calzedonia Group) undertook a bold transformation of its global digital operations. By unifying content management on CoreMedia, the company struck the perfect balance between centralized control and local empowerment, enabling agile, brand-consistent execution in every market. Valeria Marconi, Front-end Architecture Coordinator, and Bojan Rodik, Business Manager, outlined how this transformation improved collaboration, enhanced localization and accelerated time to market across diverse regions.
Key results included:
20% increase in output through decentralized workflows.
Multichannel publishing across 35+ country sites and multiple brands from one single platform.
New levels of localization control with market-specific project views and faster approval processes.
Shortened go-to-market time with simplified translation and publishing flows.
Watch the presentation here.
NS Dutch Railways & IBM iX: The Omnichannel Content Challenge
NS Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) and IBM iX are jointly developing a headless omnichannel content platform to deliver a consistent, high-performance experience for over a million daily travelers across web, mobile and customer support touchpoints. Margje Tempelaars, Product Owner for the Content Foundation Teams & OCP at NS Dutch Railways, and Dr. Kristina Sahlmann, Solution Architect and Associate Director at IBM iX, presented how this strategic collaboration is transforming content delivery at scale.
Highlights included:
Unified content model powering all digital touchpoints from web to mobile and customer service.
AI-powered translation for fast and accurate localization.
High-performance frontend with static site generation.
One CMS for all audiences: domestic, international and business — reducing friction, boosting performance and streamlining releases.
A look back at Partner Engage
The morning was all about partnerships, innovation and shared growth. During the Partner Engage sessions, CoreMedia leaders Martin Schlüter, Roy Smeets and Tobias Stadelmaier shared updates on our evolving partner strategy, customer success initiatives and exciting upcoming developments in the CoreMedia DXP roadmap for 2025.
The event concluded with the Partner Excellence Awards, recognizing exceptional contributions across the CoreMedia partner network:
Delivery Excellence – Arvato Systems, for their outstanding ability to quickly deliver high-quality implementations with CoreMedia.
Business Excellence – Blue Reply, recognized for their deep technical expertise, long-term commitment and strategic vision across complex, global projects.
Rising Star – Adesso, a forward-thinking partner who brought fresh energy, first joint wins and innovative AI integrations to the table.
Outstanding Contribution – Dr. Kristina Sahlmann (from IBM iX), honored for exceptional leadership, dedication and impact across major CoreMedia projects over the years.
These partnerships continue to drive the innovation and impact behind the intelligent customer experience revolution, and we’re very grateful for the dedication, collaboration and vision our partners bring to the table. Together, we’re shaping the future of digital engagement.
For more highlights from the event, explore our playlist on YouTube. We hope to see you again in 2026!
