Every year at Pulse, we recognize industry leaders who have made significant contributions to the fields of customer success (CS), customer education, product experience, community, and beyond—driving innovation and transforming the way businesses engage with their customers.
Without further ado, put your hands together for this year’s Pulse 2025 GameChanger Award Winners, who have truly defied gravity to achieve greatness.
The Architect Award Goes to … Alkami!
This year’s Architect Award goes to Alkami! Alkami transcends the traditional role of a digital banking software and creates first-class user experiences that fuel long-term growth.
The Architect Award celebrates individuals or teams who have excelled in creating a vibrant customer community. These visionary leaders grasp the importance of community in enhancing customer engagement, loyalty, and success. They skillfully design environments that are both informative and supportive, cultivating a strong sense of connection and belonging among members.
Alkami relaunched their customer community with Gainsight just a year ago—and it’s already driving major impact. With a 96.6% adoption rate across their customer base and growing CSAT for community-hosted virtual events, it’s become a key part of how customers engage and learn. Even internally, sentiment around the community is strong. It’s what happens when a launch turns into a long-term engine.
Congratulations, Alkami!
The Challenger Award Goes to … Mentor Collective!
This year’s Challenger Award goes to Mentor Collective. Mentor Collective is the premier mentorship provider across education and the workforce, backed by the most extensive dataset on mentorship impact.
The Challenger award acknowledges an organization that has successfully navigated unexpected challenges and emerged even stronger, demonstrating an unwavering dedication to the well-being of its employees, customers, and community. Despite facing uncertainty, this Challenger prioritizes creating positive impacts for those they serve, looking beyond mere products and strategic plans.
Mentor Collective transformed their CS organization in a moment that called for serious reinvention. They consolidated tools, automated workflows, and gave both CSMs and customers real-time insights. As a result, they saw a 13% increase in GRR and a 58-point lift in internal NPS. In addition, they now have established over 180 partnerships across higher education, Fortune 100 companies, nonprofits, and professional associations, delivered over 1,400 unique mentorship programs, and have formed hundreds of thousands of mentoring relationships.
Congratulations, Mentor Collective!
The Defender Award Goes to … RD Station!
This year’s Defender Award goes to RD Station! RD Station, a business unit of TOTVS—the largest technology company in Brazil—is the leading provider of marketing, sales, and customer relationship solutions in Latin America. The company offers a comprehensive suite of digital tools designed to drive growth for businesses of all sizes and industries.
This award honors an organization that has strategically strengthened its defenses against churn by empowering customers through a strong and transformative education program. The Defender represents a proactive, knowledge-focused approach, utilizing Gainsight CE to provide customers with the essential tools and resources for success. This accolade celebrates visionary leaders who recognize that knowledge is the ultimate protection, reducing customer frustrations and fostering sustained success.
RD Station overhauled its customer success strategy by launching a centralized education and engagement hub through Gainsight CE. The content was tied directly to customer pain points and fully integrated with their CS workflows. This led to a 2.6x increase in product adoption, a 13% boost in recurring demand, and double the expansion rate among customers who used the content. It’s education as a growth driver—not just a support tool.
Congratulations, RD Station!
The Digital CS Disruptor Award Goes to … Lytho!
This year’s Digital CS Disruptor Award goes to Lytho! Lytho is a leading content operations platform built for in-house teams who need to move fast, stay on brand, and scale without chaos.
This award honors an organization that has transformed customer success through groundbreaking digital technology applications. The Digital Customer Success Disruptor is a forward-thinking leader who recognizes that the future of customer success depends on developing scalable, personalized experiences. Unsatisfied with merely maintaining norms, they are continually challenging limits to provide outstanding customer experiences that foster loyalty and promote growth.
Lytho reshaped their customer success model by shifting from traditional 1:1 interactions to a scalable, Gainsight-powered digital strategy. Through cross-functional collaboration with Marketing, personalized nurture campaigns, and programmatic live events, they drove adoption and engagement across their entire customer base. Central to their success is the Engagement & Adoption (EA) Score, a proactive measure that enables timely intervention and real-time insight into scaled programs. The result? A
39% engagement increase in previously unowned accounts, adoption gains across all segments, and a stronger, more connected customer community. A standout example of scale done right—with precision and creativity. Congratulations, Lytho!
The Dream Team Award Goes to … Amwell!
This year’s Dream Team Award goes to Amwell! Amwell offers payers and health systems a single, comprehensive, technology-enabled care platform. The Amwell platform enables care for millions of patients and their sponsors while delivering dependable outcomes. For almost two decades, Amwell has proudly served some of the largest and most sophisticated healthcare organizations in the U.S. and worldwide.
The Dream Team Award honors the remarkable accomplishments of a cross-functional team that has transformed collaboration by rallying around the shared aim of customer success. This team exemplifies the strength of synergy, where various perspectives and expertise converge to deliver seamless and impactful customer experiences. They recognize that true success stems from dismantling silos and nurturing a culture of open communication, shared responsibility, and steadfast dedication to the customer.
Amid a pivotal moment for the industry, Amwell’s customer success function rose to meet the challenge head-on, successfully launching a new scalable customer success model and setting a new standard for excellence. By leveraging Gainsight’s Journey Orchestrator, they automated 30% of their operational customer communications, saving more than 24 days’ worth of manual work. Through this transformation, from reactive outreach to proactive engagement, they empowered their internal teams, strengthened customer confidence, and delivered a more seamless, scalable experience.
Congratulations, Amwell!
The Experience Maker Goes to … Apptio!
This year’s Experience Maker Award goes to Apptio! Apptio helps companies transform tech spend into business value.
The Experience Maker Award honors an organization that excels in crafting outstanding customer experiences. The recipient demonstrates a profound insight into customer needs and preferences, utilizing Gainsight PX to design personalized journeys that enhance engagement, loyalty, and advocacy. This award applauds trailblazers who exceed the conventional by integrating technology, data, and creativity to create experiences that deeply connect with their customers.
Apptio introduced its first in-app onboarding and engagement strategy—and the results were immediate. Onboarding time dropped by 33%, time-to-value by 20%, and training engagement jumped 55%. Engaged users were more likely to renew. They delivered innovation during a major organizational shift—proof that change doesn’t have to come at the expense of customer outcomes.
Congratulations, Apptio!
The Transformational Leader Award Goes to … Angel Rogers, Head of Global Customer Success, Rockwell Automation!
The Transformational Leader Award goes to an individual or a team member who has brought about transformative change within the organization by making customer success and product experience strategic priorities. This year, the award goes to Angel Rogers, Head of Global Customer Success and Renewals, Rockwell Automation.
The Transformational Leader embodies a profound understanding of the customer journey, utilizing Gainsight’s comprehensive platform to introduce innovative solutions, deliver measurable results, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth.
Angel Rogers has spent the last four years building something that’s now foundational at Rockwell: a CS strategy that’s tied to outcomes. She built the vision, rolled out the tools, and aligned the team directly to revenue. Her leadership helped reframe CS as a strategic growth driver. And that shift is still unfolding in ways that matter to both the business and its customers.
Congratulations, Angel!
The Visionary Award Goes to … Ryanne Laredo, SVP, Customer Experience, Nielsen!
This Visionary Award honors an organization that has led the way in innovation by utilizing AI to transform customer success. This year’s Visionary Award goes to Ryanne Laredo, SVP, Customer Experience, Nielsen.
The Visionary is characterized by a forward-looking mindset, employing Gainsight’s AI capabilities to achieve unique insights, enhance experiences, and predict future demands. This accolade celebrates trailblazers who have gone beyond the conventional, using AI as a guide to navigate the constantly changing customer environment and attain outstanding outcomes.
At Nielsen, Ryanne didn’t just adopt AI—she embedded it into the fabric of how the business understands its customers. Under her stewardship, Staircase AI is another powerful tool for senior leadership, surfacing insights that help shape their strategy. Her team describes it as “the light needed to shine on the darkness,” and that clarity is transforming how they manage risk and retention. It’s a glimpse into the future of customer success—and she’s already leading from there.
Congratulations, Ryanne!
The Golden Skillet Award Goes to … Airtable!
This year’s Golden Skillet award goes to Airtable. Airtable helps teams build, connect, and scale apps tailored to their exact business needs.
The Golden Skillet Awards celebrate outstanding customer education programs that leverage Skilljar to foster innovation, deliver tangible business results, and provide exceptional learning experiences. These accolades acknowledge companies that excel in educating, engaging, and empowering their customers, setting a high standard for excellence in customer education.
Airtable earned this year’s Golden Skillet Award for their innovative customer education strategy—built on Skilljar, backed by data, and delivered at scale. In just 75 days, the team launched Airtable Academy and created a blueprint for the future of scaled learning. By tightly integrating Academy and Community—alongside a full Gainsight Community relaunch—they’ve seen that customers who engage with these programs drive about 15% higher Net Dollar Retention than those who don’t. It’s a smart, AI-powered approach that’s redefining what customer education can achieve.
Congratulations, Airtable!
Pulse is a celebration, yes, but it’s also a spotlight—a chance to feature the people and teams doing the kind of work that quietly (or not so quietly) changes how businesses connect with their customers.
To the 2025 GameChangers: thank you for showing us what’s possible. You shared playbooks, lessons, and the kind of momentum that others can build on. We wouldn’t be able to change an industry without you.
Want more inspiration? Check out these amazing Gainsight customer stories.
