Next Webinar - with Cognigy, Agentic AI

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Agentic AI is arguably the hottest trend in AI, especially for the contact center, and if you need to get up to speed - especially for CX leaders - you’ll want to join us on April 24. The webinar is being hosted by TMCnet’s CUSTOMER Magazine, with Erik Linask moderating.

I’ll be in conversation with Cognigy’s Alan Ranger, and we’ll be covering the latest developments, along with how agentic AI is being used to great effect today. We’ll also share learnings from Cognigy’s recent Nexus 2025 conference, where several success stories were shared for both agentic and conversational AI.

We hope you’ll join us - it’s at 2pm ET on April 24 - and details to register are here.

8x8 Analyst Summit - Photo Highlights

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Been going full-out since back from last week’s 8x8 analyst event in Southampton, UK. I’ve written an extensive review on the BCStrategies website, which has just been updated, so that’s another reason to go visit.

My review just went live - read it here - and before doing that, I’ll share some of my photos from the event, along with some social time while there. I hope you enjoy these, along with my review of the event.

Below - CMO Bruno Bertini and CEO Sam Wilson

Hunter Middleton and Fabio Ramos

At the harborside hotel, and an obligatory Guinness at the soccer match

Customer panel, onsite at the stadium; some images from their new branding

Partner panel, executive Q&A panel near the end of the event

More social - at the soccer stadium, pub stop with Blair Pleasant, followed by dinner with Simon Harrison

Inside the stadium before the game, and the marching band outside - loved it

Cognigy Nexus 2025 - Quick Take and Pix

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Coming out of back-to-back events, I’m behind on, well, just about everything.

Two weeks ago, I attended Cognigy’s Nexus 2025 event in Dusseldorf, where the company’s HQ is. This is their customer event to showcase their technology, and more importantly, the kind of successes their customers are having with AI-driven CX. Pretty impressive, and I don’t think anyone is doing it better at the moment.

Too much time has passed for an in-depth writeup, but if you follow my LinkedIn posts from the event, you’ll have a pretty good sense of that. I’m also doing a webinar next month with Alan Ranger about all this - details coming soon.

In lieu of that - and for the record - here are some of my photos from the event, both for the sessions, and the social side of being there. Loved the experience, and can’t wait to go back!

Below - opening welcome from Alan Ranger; CEO and co-founder, Philipp Heltewig; Kane Simms doing the final keynote talk on the impact of AI on automation

Customer demos and success stories from DHL, Bosch and Santander. Each would make for a great case study - all were quite different, but tangible results, both for ROI and improving CX.

Another customer session - Skoda; presentation from Metrigy sharing some new CX research; and a technical breakout from Deepgram, a company I’ve followed for some time.

As seen when arriving at Dusseldorf airport - can’t-miss-advertising, right off the plane - love it. Upstairs view of the venue for the conference - was twice the size from last year - another indication for how well the company is doing.

Customer panel, and a vendor panel, led by Jarrod Davis on the theme of AI or Die

When in Germany - outing to Fuchschen - one of seven bars that brew their own Altbier - a special type of beer that Dusseldorf is known for - why would you drink anything else?

Some old-town flavor, by day and by night

With Nicolas Ehrlacher, RingCentral and Jessica Gopalakrishnan, Cognigy; Amy Stapleton from Opus Research; my beer!

Out with folks from 8x8, and colleague/he’s-everywhere, Dave Michels

VR demo with Lufthansa, checking out what flying first class kinda looks like (pretty good idea for upselling, actually!); Victor Belfor from 8x8 and that Dave again; riverfront walk by the Rhine - that’s a first for me.


Podcast with PolyAI - Agentic AI and Customer Experience

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Got a few posts to catch up on for sharing after travel to back-to-back events the past two weeks. This one is for the latest Tech Transformed podcast with EM360. For this episode, I interviewed Nikola Mrksic, CEO of PolyAI, talking about AI’s impact on customer experience and the contact center.

It’s a broad topic for sure, and yes, we touched on the trend-du-jour, agentic AI, among other things. If you missed it earlier, here’s the link, and I hope you give it a listen.

RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos

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Am back now from RingCentral’s 2025 Analyst Summit, and it was time well-spent. Hosted at the upscale Bardessono hotel in Yountville - the heart of Napa - the setting was more than comfortable, making the almost two-hour drive from SFO a small inconvenience. More importantly was the intimate setting with a small group of analysts and pretty much all the key people we need to know and hear from at RingCentral.

Momentum is strong on many fronts, and it adds up to continued growth through 2025. There were many updates to keep track of, most notably:

There were other updates of note as well, but I’m not doing a full-on review here. I posted commentary and photos regularly during the sessions on my LinkedIn feed, and with longer analysis coming on two video segments.

One is with UC Today on their Big UC News roundup, and another is a similar roundup with our group at BCStrategies. Both should run publicly next week or soon after, and I’ll share the links in case you don’t catch them.

To complement those takeaways, here are some of my photos, some of which you may have seen in isolation from my LinkedIn posts.

Below - nice overview visuals here. It’s easy to forget that RingCentral has been going for 25 years, and the first photo is a great timeline for their innovations and milestones. Second visual emphasizes a key message from the event - they have a complete, “multi-product portfolio”, and have a come a long way from from being a VoIP provider.

Some of the bright stars on their team, ball-hockey guy/MC/Mr. Canada - Amir Hameed, Kira Makagon, and Kristen Koenig (from their Hopin acquisition - another good growth story)

Zane Long leading the partner panel; RingCentral brain trust for the Exec Q&A, including Vlad Shmunis

More smart people, especially on the AI front - Jim Dvorkin, Dr. Antonio Nucci, John Finch

AI Receptionist demo (hard to see, but the 8 avatars on the screen represent the different personas that AIR can take on); the Two Mikes - Mike Stowe and Michael Brandenburg talking about what makes their platform distinct.

Thought you’d never ask - the hotel was right out of Central Casting for what you’d expect in Napa; world-famous, we-are-not-worthy French Laundry restaurant; and of course, an organic lemon tree in the garden area of the property.

This is how you do Zen at Bardessono; the personalized welcome screen in my room - nice touch, and it’s fair to say this hotel gets it with CX.

New Month, New Year, New Newsletter and Podcast

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I’ve definitely hit the ground running for 2025, and being the first full week of the month, the latest editions of my podcast and newsletter were published yesterday.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This marks the start of Season 8 for my podcast, and as you can see below, it’s got a new look. I hope you like it, and same for the episode itself, which you can listen to right here.

Finally, a quick heads-up - soon, you’ll be seeing an animated version of the WTS banner. It’s kinda fun, and better reflects the vibe we’re after. Watch for it on LinkedIn and on my website.

Getting Past the AI Hype - My Latest Contact Center Pipeline Article

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I’ve been a guest contributor to Contact Center Pipeline for some time, as well as being a member of their Advisory Board.

Getting Past the AI Hype is my latest article, running now in the January 2025 edition.

There’s great content in the current issue, which covers a lot of ground for the big themes and challenges facing contact centers in 2025. I hope you read my article, and here’s the link to explore the rest of the issue. If you like what you see, you can easily sign up for free to get the digital edition.

A good starting point would be long-time colleague Brendan Read’s overview - What Will 2025 Bring for Contact Centers? It’s a compilation of insights from various thought leaders - myself included - thanks - and here’s the link to read it. Plenty to digest in this issue, and am sure the CCP folks would love to hear from you.

Next Webinar - with NICE - AI, Automation and the Customer Journey

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I’ve been working on a few fronts with NICE about this topic, and we have a webinar coming up on Dec. 12 to talk it through. I’ll be leading with a presentation, and will be in conversation with Elizabeth Tobey. We make a good team, and hope you can join us! Details are here, along with the registration form to attend.

Next Stop - Talkdesk - Charleston, SC

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Today I’m off to Talkdesk’s analyst event - it’s been a few years since the last one, so there’s a lot of catching up to do. Am keen to get the latest updates and roadmap, and will post on LinkedIn as time allows during the event - hashtag is #TalkdeskAnalystSummit. Never been to Charleston - that will be a treat, so it should be a pretty good next few days.

Next Stop - NICE Analyst Summit - Destination...

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NICE doesn’t do anything in half-measures. If you follow me, you’ll know that they keep raising the bar each year, and clearly, they value what analysts bring to the table. Being a public company, they're pretty transparent about things, and if they choose to take us to an exotic location - not just to share their roadmap, but to nurture important relationships - so be it. With that backdrop, they’re taking us to….

Zambia. You heard right - Zambia. I’ll leave it to your imagination and Google searches to figure out what that might look like, and am sure it will be all of that and then some. As always, I’ll share updates and photos as time allows, and a whole lot more once back. Time to pack now…