The AI and CX Masterclass in Helsinki was not just a two-day event filled with talks, panels and workshops. It became a shared moment of clarity. Across very different industries, roles and viewpoints, the same signals kept repeating. AI matters only when it creates real human value. Structure matters more than speed. And expertise should not disappear when the lights go down and the stage is cleared.

Across both days, the CX Masterclass managed to avoid the two traps that many AI events fall into. There was no buzzword-driven optimism, and no distant future speculation detached from reality. Instead, the conversations stayed grounded in how organisations actually work today, what is already changing, and where people are genuinely struggling to adapt.

Several themes stood out clearly

1. First, AI is not the goal. Human value is. Whether the topic was machine customers, AI governance, agentic commerce, AI search, leadership or personal AI use, every strong example tied technology back to better outcomes for people. Better decisions, clearer experiences, more trust, less friction, and more sustainable ways of working.
2. Second, structure beats speed. Many speakers highlighted that adding AI on top of existing complexity often makes things worse, not better. Legacy processes, unclear ownership and fragmented systems are the real blockers. The organisations making progress are those willing to pause, regroup and redesign how work is done before scaling AI.
3. Third, machines are already part of the customer landscape. Discovery, comparison, and decision-making are increasingly mediated by systems, not just humans. Designing only for human journeys is no longer enough. At the same time, designing only for machines is a mistake. The challenge is learning to design for both without losing accountability, trust or meaning.
4. Fourth, AI is becoming an everyday capability. Day Two in particular showed that AI is no longer abstract. People are already using it to tune content for AI search and machine customers, extend their own thinking through personal assistants, build AI twins, deploy agents inside organisations, govern them responsibly, and rethink interfaces entirely. The barrier is no longer access to tools. It is clarity of intent and habit.

These themes did not live in isolation. They echoed across sessions and speakers. And that convergence pointed to something deeper than individual presentations.

When Speaker Expertise Continues Beyond the Session

One distinctive aspect of the AI and CX Masterclass was that several speakers did not leave their expertise behind when they stepped off the stage. Many arrived with their own personal AI twins already in use in their professional lives. What became clear during and after the event was that these twins are at different stages of maturity, reflecting where each person is in their AI journey.

These AI twins are not event-specific demos. They are persistent, public representations of how each speaker thinks, explains and reasons about their work. At the same time, they differ meaningfully in depth, scope and evolution.

Some twins currently contain essential background information, role descriptions and core viewpoints. Others already include additional knowledge from the CX Masterclass itself, such as the full speech content, frameworks, and examples shared on stage. And a few represent years or even decades of accumulated expertise, refined over time into a deeply expressive digital counterpart.

Speakers with active AI twins include:

• Katja Forbes, Executive Director and Head of Client Experience, Insights and Development, Corporate and Institutional Banking, Standard Chartered Bank
  Topic: Machines Are Customers Too
  Twin maturity: Core professional background and perspective, with ongoing expansion planned following the event
• Kieran Gilmurray, CEO, Author, AI Strategist, Kieran Gilmurray & Co
  Topic: Supercharge your CX: AI Agents, SEO, GEO and AIO In Action
  Twin maturity: Actively updated, including insights from his keynote at CX Masterclass
• Hanna Kivelä, Managing Director, Fujitsu Finland
  Topic: AI Native Organisations and Leadership Reset
  Twin maturity: Foundational profile enriched with leadership viewpoints and early reflections from the CX Masterclass
• Mari Eklund, VP, Communication Solutions, Corporate Business, DNA
  Topic: Elevating Customer Experience With AI in Communication Systems
  Twin maturity: Professional role and domain expertise captured, with selected session themes integrated
• Pasi Örn, AI Influencer, Founder of PodStudio, AI and Automation Manager, Visma Amplio
  Topic: Let AI Spark Your Process and Everyday Workflows
  Twin maturity: Actively used personal assistant with lived workflows, habits and practical AI usage patterns reflected
• Markku Pelkonen, Growth Resilience Expert and Educational Transformation Pioneer
  Topic: Amplifying Human Impact With Personal AI Twins
  Twin maturity: Highly advanced, built on decades of experience, extensive documentation, frameworks, teaching material and real-world projects across countries and cultures
• Reidar Wasenius, AI Researcher, Aalto University
  Topic: How AI Can Enable One-Person Companies at Massive Scale
  Twin maturity: Strong conceptual foundation combining research, applied examples and emerging long-form content
• Pia Aaltonen-Forsell, Chief Financial Officer, Finnair
  Topic: Leadership, Governance and Responsible AI in Large Organisations
  Twin maturity: Early-stage professional representation focused on leadership perspective and governance themes
• Mark Hayton, Head of Leadership Development, Compensation and Rewards, Wolt
  Topic: Leadership in Complexity and Trust-Based Cultures
  Twin maturity: Core leadership philosophy and cultural insights captured, with room to expand into deeper case material
• Sirte Pihlaja, CEO, Shirute & Head of Team, CXPA Finland & CXO, Partu AI
  Topic: Winning in the World of GEO and AIO – How To Be Found By AI And Loved By Customers
  Twin maturity: Advanced, built on decades of CX leadership, pioneering research on machine customers, and hands-on AI readiness work, including her insights from the event.
• Valto Loikkanen, Co-Founder and CXO, Prifina, Senior Advisor, Digiole
  Topic: Designing and Owning Your Personal AI Twin
  Twin maturity: Continuously evolving personal twin built across roles, products and long-term thinking on personal AI ownership

Together, these AI twins demonstrate that personal AI is not a single finished product but a journey. Some twins start narrow and grow with time. Others already carry years of accumulated insight. The AI and CX Masterclass made this visible in practice, showing how expertise can live on, deepen and remain accessible long after the sessions themselves have ended.

Introducing CX Masterclass Genie

At the same time, another challenge became obvious. The most valuable insights from an event like this do not live in a single keynote or workshop. They live between sessions. In patterns. In repeated signals. In how different perspectives align across industries and roles.

CX Masterclass Genie was created to capture exactly that.

CX Masterclass Genie is not a chatbot version of a speaker. It is not a generic assistant. And it is not a replacement for attending the event or watching the recordings.

CX Masterclass Genie is a living CX companion built from the collective intelligence of the AI and CX Masterclass. It reflects the shared themes, tensions and practical lessons that emerged across both days. It allows people to explore questions such as what machine customers really mean in practice, how organisations approach AI responsibility, where AI-native efforts get stuck, and how AI twins, agents, governance, and interfaces connect into a coherent whole.

Instead of searching through hours of recordings or static summaries, participants can engage directly with the event knowledge, grounded in what was actually said, shown, and discussed.

A New Model for Events and Learning

Together, CX Genie and the speaker AI twins point to a new way of thinking about events.

The speaker twins represent individual depth. Each reflects a specific leader’s experience, language and way of reasoning.

CX Genie represents collective understanding. The cross-cutting patterns and shared insights that emerge only when many perspectives converge.

Combined, they turn a moment in time into an ongoing learning environment.

In that sense, the AI and CX Masterclass was not only about AI as a topic. It quietly demonstrated how AI can reshape how expertise is shared, revisited and kept alive.

AI is reshaping organisations, markets and customer behaviour. But this event made one thing very clear. Direction still comes from people. The role of AI is to help that direction stay visible, accessible and useful long after the event itself is over.

Did You Miss The CX Masterclass?

The full set of recordings for both days of the AI & CX Masterclass is available to purchase (www.cxmasterclass.fi), and is worth watching for anyone interested in where customer experience is heading. The replays are free to watch for live event and live stream attendees.

If you haven’t read it by now, take your time to explore the first part of this blog series, summarising Day 1 of the CX Masterclass, and the second part of this blog series, summarising Day 2 of the CX Masterclass. We will also publish individual posts that dive deeper into each of the main topics and key findings from the Masterclass. These will explore the insights from the speakers, the frameworks they shared, and the patterns that emerged across both days.

Valto Loikkanen is the Co-founder of Digiole and Prifina. Both companies were our partners co-hosting this event.