Innovation is a culture, not a program
Fast Company has named NiCE a “2026 Best Workplace for Innovators” in the Cybersecurity & Enterprise category. The list recognizes companies that build cultures where innovation can thrive at every level, not just in a lab or a single team.
We are proud of the recognition, but what it honors is a way of working. Customer service has become the front door of the enterprise, and NiCE is where it is being rebuilt: every interaction, every agent, human and AI, end to end. Innovation is how our people learn, experiment, develop ideas, and carry them through to real impact for the enterprises that run customer service on NiCE.
What Fast Company recognized
The Best Workplaces for Innovators program evaluates companies on investment in innovation, companywide programs, and workplace culture. Fast Company's editor-in-chief, Brendan Vaughan, framed this year's honorees as organizations that create the conditions for great ideas rather than simply asking employees to produce them.
That framing matches how we think about it. Our Executive Vice President of Human Resources, Shiri Neder, put it this way: the most meaningful innovation "starts with people who are empowered to challenge what's possible." In her words, this recognition belongs to NiCErs around the world who bring that culture to life every day.
The honor builds on momentum from earlier in 2026, when Fast Company named NiCE to its World's Most Innovative Companies list at No. 11 in the Applied AI category.
How the innovation engine works
The NiCE model follows an idea end to end: build the skills, create space to experiment, incubate what shows promise, and deploy it where customers can feel the difference. Four pieces make that possible.
- Build AI capability at every level. Through NiCE Wings and our leadership programs, employees develop practical AI skills before they are asked to apply them. Leading in an AI-driven world starts with people who understand the tools.
- Experiment boldly. Our annual Sparkathon is where ideas get tested. In 2026 it drew more than 2,300 employees across 21 sites, who produced over 700 prototypes.
- Incubate what is enterprise-ready. NiCE Labs benchmarks emerging technologies and turns the strongest concepts into AI built for customer service, grounded in decades of customer service data.
- Deploy with customers. Our Forward Deployed Engineers bring those concepts into live customer service operations as production AI systems, deployed with the security, governance and observability the enterprise demands, and measured on results.
No single stage is the secret. The connection between them, from talent to delivery at scale, is what this recognition reflects. It is how a company that already runs customer service for the world's most demanding enterprises keeps changing how it runs.
Awards are a snapshot. The culture behind this one is built by thousands of people who choose to question what is possible, test an idea in the open, and see it through to a customer outcome.
If you want to do consequential work in enterprise AI, with real data, real customers and real stakes, explore open roles at NiCE Careers, and read the full announcement in our press release.