Enterprise Connect AI – The Inaugural Event

By Blair Pleasant

7 Oct 2024

The inaugural Enterprise Connect AI (ECAI) show in Santa Clara, CA was heavy on customer use cases and experiences, highlighting what businesses are doing today and the results they’re receiving from AI.

Throughout the event I spoke with enterprise customers, vendors, and consultants about AI trends, challenges, and more. Some key discussions topics during the conference included:

Deploy AI slowly and gradually: Start small with easy wins to minimize risk.
Identify use cases: Identify the right use cases that create value and solve real business problems.
The role of AI as an augmentation to humans and not a replacement of the human workforce: Businesses need to acknowledge that workers’ roles may change but AI won’t replace them (yet). AI acts as an assistant and makes us more efficient and effective, creating more opportunities to work on high value initiatives.
The cost of AI and how to budget for it: AI is expensive but it’s not clear what the total costs will be. Businesses need to identify how to budget for AI projects and where the budget will come from (there were various discussions on this, but no real answers or consensus).
Working with the right vendor partners: Many different types of vendors offer similar capabilities (transcription, summarization), so it’s hard to know which vendor to use for which capabilities.
Staffing: Most attendees acknowledged that they didn’t have the right internal resources and staff with the necessary skills to manage and deploy AI projects.
End-user adoption: I was happy to see that the role of end-user adoption came up in several sessions. Several presenters acknowledged the importance of involving end users and stakeholders early, and suggested forming working groups or councils to help define use cases and help increase user adoption.
The essential role of knowledge and data: Organizations need to curate knowledge sources, and carefully identify who does and doesn't have access to the data.
Ethical and compliance risks can’t be overlooked or understated.

One area getting a lot of attention throughout the event, in both the sessions and in various discussions, was “Agentic AI.” Agentic AI can go beyond simply responding to prompts or executing predefined tasks, to making decisions, handling complex situations and even acting on its own to achieve specific goals and perform tasks.

In this video interview, Alan Ranger, CMO at Cognigy, discusses Agentic AI and Cognigy’s Agentic AI capabilities.

As expected, AI for customer experience (CX) was another hot topic, and there were several CX vendors in the exhibit hall demonstrating their AI capabilities. I had the opportunity to spend time with Sanket Amberkar, Head of Applied AI Marketing at Google Cloud, to discuss AI Agents and Google’s new Customer Engagement Suite with Google AI.

Google Customer Engagement Suite with Google AI builds upon Google’s Contact Center AI (CCAI) by adding conversational agents, agent assist, and conversational insights. I also had a chance to get an in-depth demo of the Customer Engagement Suite with Google AI, as shown in the video below.

Speaking of customer experience solutions, I also had a chance to speak with Edwin Margulies, Chief Evangelist for Nextiva, about Nextiva’s evolution. With its acquisitions of Simplify360 and Thrio, Nextiva now focuses on what it calls Unified Customer Experience Management (UCXM). Nextiva’s unified platform connects customer interaction data across channels along with intelligent automation and AI capabilities such as GenAI knowledge base, speech to text transcription, sentiment analysis, AI classification, and language detection and translation to deliver personalized experiences throughout the customer journey. I’ve been following Nextiva for many years, so it was interesting to hear about the company’s evolution and expansion from its early days as a VoIP provider to the Unified-CXM platform, leveraging AI and automation.

Final Thoughts

I was impressed with the conference and enjoyed the various discussions in the sessions I attended and throughout the event. The attendees seemed extremely engaged and appreciated the information shared by the presenters, vendors, analysts, and others. It was a good start for what hopefully will be an annual event.

Start YourCustomized Search

SOLUTION AREA

Unified Communication (4279) Apply Unified Communication filter
Business Phone Systems (2874) Apply Business Phone Systems filter
Contact Center (1913) Apply Contact Center filter
Team Collaboration (3325) Apply Team Collaboration filter
Video Collaboration (1036) Apply Video Collaboration filter
- Audio & Video Conferencing (730) Apply Audio & Video Conferencing filter
Operations (1547) Apply Operations filter
Infrastructure (3002) Apply Infrastructure filter
Mobility (2232) Apply Mobility filter

SELECT ALL
CLEAR ALL

SOLUTION PROVIDERS

8x8 (40) Apply 8x8 filter
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (50) Apply Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise filter
AT&T (44) Apply AT&T filter
AudioCodes (49) Apply AudioCodes filter
Avaya (397) Apply Avaya filter
Cisco (574) Apply Cisco filter
Dell (11) Apply Dell filter
Five9 (56) Apply Five9 filter
Fuze (39) Apply Fuze filter
Genesys (100) Apply Genesys filter
HP (98) Apply HP filter
IBM (171) Apply IBM filter
Jabra (9) Apply Jabra filter
Logitech (56) Apply Logitech filter
Lumen (4) Apply Lumen filter
Masergy (50) Apply Masergy filter
Microsoft (766) Apply Microsoft filter
Mitel (233) Apply Mitel filter
NEC (128) Apply NEC filter
Nectar (58) Apply Nectar filter
Polycom (95) Apply Polycom filter
Ramp (37) Apply Ramp filter
RingCentral (127) Apply RingCentral filter
Sennheiser (18) Apply Sennheiser filter
Slack (13) Apply Slack filter
Tata Communications (59) Apply Tata Communications filter
Unify (186) Apply Unify filter
Vonage Business (80) Apply Vonage Business filter
Yealink (8) Apply Yealink filter
Zoho (6) Apply Zoho filter
Zoom (22) Apply Zoom filter
Acme Packet (24) Apply Acme Packet filter
Allworx (2) Apply Allworx filter
Arkadin (22) Apply Arkadin filter
Aspect (34) Apply Aspect filter
BT (25) Apply BT filter
CaféX (8) Apply CaféX filter
CallTower (14) Apply CallTower filter
Clarity Connect (10) Apply Clarity Connect filter
Continuant (1) Apply Continuant filter
Damaka (4) Apply Damaka filter
Dialogic (5) Apply Dialogic filter
Dimension Data (44) Apply Dimension Data filter
Empirix (11) Apply Empirix filter
Enghouse Interactive (17) Apply Enghouse Interactive filter
Inference Solutions (9) Apply Inference Solutions filter
IntelePeer (27) Apply IntelePeer filter
IR (11) Apply IR filter
Jive (21) Apply Jive filter
Kurmi Software (21) Apply Kurmi Software filter
Lifesize (33) Apply Lifesize filter
Lightware (3) Apply Lightware filter
Mavenir (6) Apply Mavenir filter
Modality Systems (8) Apply Modality Systems filter
Momentum (36) Apply Momentum filter
Netfortris (5) Apply Netfortris filter
NetSapiens (6) Apply NetSapiens filter
NewVoiceMedia (31) Apply NewVoiceMedia filter
Nureva (26) Apply Nureva filter
NUWAVE (5) Apply NUWAVE filter
Orange (32) Apply Orange filter
OVCC (8) Apply OVCC filter
Panasonic (18) Apply Panasonic filter
PanTerra Networks (9) Apply PanTerra Networks filter
ScanSource (21) Apply ScanSource filter
SIPPIO (3) Apply SIPPIO filter
Snom (20) Apply Snom filter
Star2Star (8) Apply Star2Star filter
StarLeaf (12) Apply StarLeaf filter
Tadiran Telecom (2) Apply Tadiran Telecom filter
TekVizion (9) Apply TekVizion filter
Unimax (7) Apply Unimax filter
Verint (44) Apply Verint filter
Voice4Net (2) Apply Voice4Net filter
VOSS (85) Apply VOSS filter
Voxbone (14) Apply Voxbone filter
West (28) Apply West filter
XO Communications (3) Apply XO Communications filter
Yorktel (17) Apply Yorktel filter
Zultys (2) Apply Zultys filter
3CX (8) Apply 3CX filter
ADDASOUND (1) Apply ADDASOUND filter
Aerohive (1) Apply Aerohive filter
Aryaka (1) Apply Aryaka filter
Asurion (22) Apply Asurion filter
Avnet (7) Apply Avnet filter
Bandwidth (5) Apply Bandwidth filter
Calabrio (5) Apply Calabrio filter
Consilium Software (13) Apply Consilium Software filter
Drum (5) Apply Drum filter
ESI (6) Apply ESI filter
Esna (16) Apply Esna filter
Exinda (2) Apply Exinda filter
EZuce (3) Apply EZuce filter
GUnify (6) Apply GUnify filter
Highfive (4) Apply Highfive filter
Huawei (47) Apply Huawei filter
Imagicle (3) Apply Imagicle filter
IPCortex (1) Apply IPCortex filter
KnoahSoft (1) Apply KnoahSoft filter
KOVA (1) Apply KOVA filter
Logmein (9) Apply Logmein filter
Metropolis Technologies (4) Apply Metropolis Technologies filter
Mutare (2) Apply Mutare filter
NextPlane (27) Apply NextPlane filter
Ooma (16) Apply Ooma filter
Patton (11) Apply Patton filter
Radish Systems (1) Apply Radish Systems filter
Radisys (3) Apply Radisys filter
Shango (1) Apply Shango filter
SMART (163) Apply SMART filter
Stack8 (1) Apply Stack8 filter
Swyx (1) Apply Swyx filter
TrueConf (4) Apply TrueConf filter
UJET (13) Apply UJET filter
Voximplant (3) Apply Voximplant filter

More Providers

SELECT ALL
CLEAR ALL

CONTENT TYPE

BC Expert Insights Market (44) Apply BC Expert Insights Market filter
BC Expert Insights Objective - Vendor Neutral (42) Apply BC Expert Insights Objective - Vendor Neutral filter
BC Expert Insights Planning (15) Apply BC Expert Insights Planning filter
BC Expert Insights Solution (12) Apply BC Expert Insights Solution filter
BC Expert Insights Vendor (82) Apply BC Expert Insights Vendor filter
BC Expert Insights Vendor Solution (154) Apply BC Expert Insights Vendor Solution filter
BC Expert Roundtable (136) Apply BC Expert Roundtable filter
Bcs Webinar (0)
Bcs Webinar Registration (0)
Best Practice (38) Apply Best Practice filter
Buyer Guide (14) Apply Buyer Guide filter
Case Study (29) Apply Case Study filter
Executive Interview (145) Apply Executive Interview filter
Expert Roundtable (453) Apply Expert Roundtable filter
Guest Contributions (35) Apply Guest Contributions filter
Multimedia (38) Apply Multimedia filter
News Analysis (2081) Apply News Analysis filter
Newsfeed Article (1303) Apply Newsfeed Article filter
Newsfeed Article (1) Apply Newsfeed Article filter
Thought Leadership (21) Apply Thought Leadership filter
Vendor Collateral (211) Apply Vendor Collateral filter
Vendor Resource Best Practices (24) Apply Vendor Resource Best Practices filter
Vendor Resource Buyers Guides (2) Apply Vendor Resource Buyers Guides filter
Vendor Resource Multimedia Content (4) Apply Vendor Resource Multimedia Content filter
Vendor Resource White Paper (4) Apply Vendor Resource White Paper filter
Webinar (13) Apply Webinar filter
Webinars (7) Apply Webinars filter
White Paper (64) Apply White Paper filter

SELECT ALL
CLEAR ALL

MORE FILTERS

INDUSTRY

Banking And Investment (800) Apply Banking And Investment filter
Education (446) Apply Education filter
Energy And Utilities (487) Apply Energy And Utilities filter
Finance (12) Apply Finance filter
Government (675) Apply Government filter
Healthcare (482) Apply Healthcare filter
Hospitality (180) Apply Hospitality filter
Insurance (100) Apply Insurance filter
Manufacturing (704) Apply Manufacturing filter
Media/Publishing (422) Apply Media/Publishing filter
None (43) Apply None filter
Professional Services (745) Apply Professional Services filter
Retail & Distribution (798) Apply Retail & Distribution filter
Technology (1611) Apply Technology filter
Transportation (110) Apply Transportation filter

SELECT ALL
CLEAR ALL

AUTHOR

Expert (2028) Apply Expert filter
Guest (156) Apply Guest filter
Staff (333) Apply Staff filter
- Peter Santeusanio (2) Apply Peter Santeusanio filter
- Robbie Pleasant (331) Apply Robbie Pleasant filter
Vendor (366) Apply Vendor filter