Dion is Head of Global AI Strategy at Connect, an AI-enabled CX specialist and digital transformation partner.
He will share his unique combination of business experience from his time as a leader at Deloitte, Investec, and Foodlovers Market, together with the hands-on experience of having founded and lead an AI CX business from ideation to exit.
Dion founded and lead Elerian AI, a conversational AI company delivering Voice AI Assistants in South Africa, before it was acquired by Connect in 2025. He serves on the boards of FoodLovers Market, Insight Private Wealth and Insight Strategic Growth & Investment.
Session Overview
Inside the 5% Club: Turning AI Ambition into Value
The AI rush left a trail of stalled pilots behind it. The independent evidence is blunt:“95% of corporate generative AI pilots deliver no measurable P&L return.”— MIT, State of AI in Business 2025“46% of AI projects are scrapped between proof of concept and broad adoption.”— S&P Global Market Intelligence, 2025
The problem is typically not technology. It is alignment. Pilots fail when they are experiments in search of a purpose, disconnected from key business KPI’s, understanding of customer journeys and contact centre data.
This talk presents a strategy to approaching contact centre transformation, beginning by aligning with company purpose and developing a vision of transformation, measured by key metrics such as channel contact rates, automation levels and productivity. It explains how historical contact centre data is used to build and prioritise a roadmap of use cases, each chosen to deliver ROI while improving customer satisfaction. Lastly it explores reimagining customer journeys to take advantage of technology and taking your people along on the ride.
When alignment is in place, the evidence changes:MIT found the successful 5% evaluate AI by business outcomes rather than technical benchmarks, customise tools for specific use cases, and demand systems that integrate with existing operations.— MIT, The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025“Of 25 organisational attributes, the redesign of workflows has the biggest effect on an organisation’s ability to see EBIT impact from AI.”— McKinsey, The State of AI 2025
Ensure you are part of the 5% by aligning your roadmap: purpose, vision and people pulling in one direction.
Attendees will leave with a practical framework for defining transformation metrics, building a roadmap that funds itself, turning pilots into production and transforming contact centres into engines of customer value.
Three Tangible Learnings
Learning1: Align purpose, vision and people to transform your contact centre.
Learning 2: Leverage data to build a transformation roadmap and business cases.
Learning 3: Reimagine customer journeys to deliver business ROI and improved customer satisfaction.
Alternatively, please email sales@eventfulpeople.com for quote, invoice or any queries and we’ll be glad to assist.
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Dion is Head of Global AI Strategy at Connect, an AI-enabled CX specialist and digital transformation partner.
He will share his unique combination of business experience from his time as a leader at Deloitte, Investec, and Foodlovers Market, together with the hands-on experience of having founded and lead an AI CX business from ideation to exit.
Dion founded and lead Elerian AI, a conversational AI company delivering Voice AI Assistants in South Africa, before it was acquired by Connect in 2025. He serves on the boards of FoodLovers Market, Insight Private Wealth and Insight Strategic Growth & Investment.
