Empathy is often described as a human quality. But among the 2026 Genesys Orchestrators Innovation Awards’ Humanitarian Impact finalists, it’s also a deliberate design principle.
These nonprofit organizations are using AI, data and experience orchestration to deliver support that is more accessible, responsive and human.
The finalists for the 2026 Genesys Orchestrators Innovation Awards – Humanitarian Impact category are:
- Child Bereavement UK
- InspiriTec
- Lifeline Australia
- Refuge
- StepChange Debt Charity
- World Vision Australia
Their missions differ, but they share a common challenge: supporting people during moments of vulnerability, uncertainty, crisis or profound life change.
And while their work focuses on humanitarian outcomes, the approaches they’ve adopted offer valuable lessons for organizations in every industry — approaches that demonstrate how empathy can be scaled, operationalized and embedded into customer and employee experiences.
Design experiences that reduce emotional effort
One common theme among finalists is the recognition that customer effort is not only measured in clicks, transfers or wait times. It’s also rooted in emotion.
For someone navigating grief, financial distress, abuse, mental health challenges or other deeply personal situations, having to repeat their story or navigate confusing processes can become an additional burden. Most finalists have prioritized eliminating those moments of friction.
They’ve implemented the Genesys Cloud™ platform to connect previously siloed customer experience (CX) systems. The platform enables them to optimize journeys, preserve context across channels and ensure support teams have immediate access to relevant information. Rather than asking people to start over with each interaction, they’ve created experiences where conversations can continue naturally.
The results are delivering more than operational efficiency. These organizations can now provide more compassionate experiences that help reduce stress during already difficult moments.
Organizations in most any industry can achieve similar outcomes by asking a simple question: How much emotional effort are our customers expending to get the assistance they need? Resolving an issue, especially one that’s critical or otherwise time sensitive, can be stressful for anyone — whether a business customer, consumer, patient or other type of constituent.
Another theme that emerged is the importance of adapting to people’s needs. Many organizations do this by giving people choice in how they seek support.
Even finalist organizations that offer services where the human touch is essential have expanded beyond traditional voice channels to offer messaging, chat, SMS and other digital options. In many cases, these channels do far more than improve the convenience and availability of service. They make support accessible to entirely new groups of people.
Some individuals feel more comfortable messaging than speaking. Others may need discreet ways to ask for help. Some may need to reach out outside traditional operating hours or during situations where a phone conversation is difficult or impossible.
By creating multiple pathways to support, these finalists have increased accessibility, expanded reach and reduced barriers that might otherwise prevent people from seeking help.
For customer experience leaders in any industry, this serves as a reminder that channel strategy is ultimately a human strategy. People seek support in different ways and at different moments. Meeting them where they are, through the channel that feels most comfortable and accessible to them, is empathy in action.
Perhaps the most consistent lesson across the finalists is that technology works best when it creates space for empathy.
Supporting people through emotionally charged conversations can be demanding work. Whether serving callers in crisis, individuals experiencing hardship or families facing life-changing events, employees need the tools, context and support required to perform at their best.
Many finalists have invested in reducing cognitive load, simplifying workflows, providing real-time guidance and improving access to information. Others are using solutions like copilots, speech and text analytics and workforce engagement management to help expand coaching, quality management and employee support resources.
Most of the finalist organizations have deployed AI, automation and analytics to streamline routine interactions and make agent-led conversations more meaningful. Automation handles simple requests, improving the self-service experience. AI surfaces relevant context and insights. Real-time guidance from copilots helps employees respond more effectively, while automated summaries reduce their administrative work.
Some finalists use data and contextual information to personalize interactions, helping ensure employees understand a customer’s circumstances before a conversation even begins.
This approach enables these organizations to serve significantly more people while maintaining — and in many cases improving — the quality of individual interactions.
Together, these capabilities allow employees to spend less time managing systems and more time focusing on the person in front of them, while also improving their own experience. The goal goes beyond operational efficiency. It’s creating environments where employees can remain present, engaged and emotionally available for the people they serve.
Ultimately, the most successful organizations are using AI to make empathy easier to deliver consistently and at scale — demonstrating that better employee experiences frequently lead to better customer experiences.
This year’s Humanitarian Impact finalists demonstrate that empathy is not simply a cultural aspiration. It can be designed into journeys, supported by technology and reinforced through operational decisions.
Their missions may focus on everything from grief, crisis intervention and domestic abuse support, to financial wellbeing, disability inclusion and humanitarian aid. Yet the principles behind their success have broad relevance for any organization seeking to improve customer and employee experiences.
Together, these finalists illustrate that:
- Reducing emotional effort improves experiences
- Accessibility begins with meeting people where they are
- Technology should strengthen human connection
- Employee well-being drives better customer outcomes
- Empathy and efficiency can scale together
These organizations have thoughtfully implemented AI, automation, and CX technology, and designed systems, journeys and processes to allow people to be more human when it matters most — setting a new standard for what empathetic experiences look like.
Winners will be announced on September 1 at Xperience 2026. Learn more about the awards.
