Strivenn founder Matt Wilkinson named to Marketing Week CX50 2026

Matt Wilkinson, founder and CEO of Strivenn, has been named to the Marketing Week CX50 2026 in the life sciences category. The recognition highlights how life science commercial teams are using AI to deepen buyer understanding while protecting trust, accuracy and brand credibility.

Why it matters: - The CX50 spotlights customer experience leaders shaping how life sciences uses AI in commercial work. - Wilkinson’s inclusion reflects a broader shift from using AI only for speed to using it to improve buyer insight and decision-making. - In life sciences, trust and accuracy matter more because customer relationships are long, regulated and highly dependent on reliability.

What happened: - Matt Wilkinson, founder and CEO of Strivenn, was named to the Marketing Week CX50 2026 in the list’s life sciences strand. - Marketing Week compiles the CX50 with Cognizant and Google Cloud. - The list recognises customer experience professionals it says are setting the standard for the year ahead. - Wilkinson is one of this year’s new entrants.

The details: - Wilkinson has spent nearly 15 years helping life science companies get closer to their customers. - Strivenn builds AI-powered representations of buyers so customer insight can shape commercial decisions. - The company uses synthetic customers, described as queryable and evidence-grounded representations of real buyers. - Strivenn says those synthetic customers help commercial teams test messaging and strategy before launch. - The firm’s approach is “synthetic for directional, human for decisional.” - Strivenn operates in the UK and US. - The consultancy has been a HubSpot Solutions Partner since 2012. - Wilkinson holds a PhD, an MBA and a BSI ISO/IEC 42001 credential. - Wilkinson is the author of the forthcoming book The Buyer in the Loop, with a foreword by Mark Schaefer. - Strivenn directs readers to more information.

Between the lines: - Wilkinson argues the biggest divide between leading teams and the rest is cultural, not technical. - He says successful AI adoption needs an organisational imperative, bottom-up learning and a safe space to experiment. - Wilkinson also frames responsible AI use as a brand issue, saying dependability matters more than novelty. - Cognizant UK and Ireland managing director Rohit Gupta said the leaders on the list are building with AI, not just adopting it. - Gupta said life sciences teams are using AI to rethink patient and practitioner relationships and to deliver more individualised experience at scale.

What’s next: - Wilkinson says Strivenn’s work will continue to focus on creating better output while helping teams get closer to customers. - The CX50 selection process will keep highlighting people judged on impact, innovation and influence across their careers and the past year. - Strivenn’s broader pitch is that AI should support commercial judgment, not replace it.

The bottom line: - The recognition puts Strivenn and Wilkinson in the middle of a larger life sciences reset: using AI to sharpen customer understanding without weakening trust.