Authentic natural beauty and artificial intelligence came together at NiCE’s annual analyst summit, held on the beautiful island of Maui. Against a backdrop of palm trees and crashing waves, the discussions focused on AI, particularly agentic AI, and how it is changing the customer experience (CX) landscape. The theme was “Huliau,” Hawaiian for turning point. And our industry is certainly at one. In just a few short years, we’ve gone from the introduction of generative AI and

Unified communications has traditionally been built around the needs of the desk worker. Give employees a phone, softphone, messaging, meetings, presence, and a collection of collaboration tools, and then try to make those capabilities work for everyone else. Mitel is taking a different approach with its new Mitel Workforce Experience (Mitel WX). Rather than starting with the communications client and trying to make it work across the organization, Mitel is starting with the

Five9 held its annual analyst summit in a new location this year: Seattle, WA. While some of us initially assumed the location was chosen because Seattle is such a cool city (which it is), the real reason was more practical: Five9’s new CEO, CMO, and CTO all reside there. Yes, there’s a new leadership team at Five9, along with new energy, positioning, branding, and more. While some things - and people - remain the same, there are definitely changes afoot. As CEO Amit Matradha

I recently had a discussion with Mitel's Paul Ginn, Verticals PLM, and Tom Boyle of the NHS and Mitel User Group (MUG) board member, about unified communications in healthcare. Tom's enthusiasm for communication technology in healthcare in general, and Mitel in particular, is impressive. In this video interview, we discuss: - What does a ‘communications failure’ actually look like on the ground for healthcare organizations — and what’s the human cost? - The top communication

At the 8x8 Analyst Summit in Silicon Valley, CEO Sam Wilson made it clear that the company is playing offense. With four consecutive quarters of growth and 21 quarters of profitability, 8x8 is building on a stable foundation as it uses its network, platform, and past acquisitions to compete in an AI-driven market. Wilson was direct in describing how he views the market’s AI messaging and why 8x8 believes its approach is more practical. As he put it, "Companies that say they

Set aside any preconceived notions about Zendesk. While the company built its reputation around service and ticketing, its focus today is on the Autonomous Service Workforce, AI agents, and resolutions. At Zendesk Relate 2026, the company’s annual event that brought together more than 2,000 attendees, Zendesk outlined its vision for the Autonomous Service Workforce, built on the Zendesk Resolution Platform. Service and ticketing remain core parts of the business, but the comp

Zoom held its Zoom Perspectives analyst conference at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, giving analysts the opportunity to hear about the company’s latest AI developments. The central theme of the event was “conversation to completion.” It's not about meetings any longer - it's about how conversations kick things off, but the real work is in how AI is used to deliver outcomes, completed tasks, and resolutions. A conversation may start in a meeting, on a phone call, in a custom

Mitel’s introduction of Mitel WX (Workforce Experience) signals a meaningful shift in how enterprise communications are built and used. Instead of focusing primarily on meetings and messaging for desk-based employees, WX is designed as a communications framework that embeds real-time, voice-first interactions directly into day-to-day workflows. It brings together frontline, mobile, office, and contact center workers into a single, role-aware experience, while supporting flexi

Enterprise Connect 2026 has come and gone—and as always, it was a whirlwind. I spent nearly all of my time in vendor meetings and recording video interviews, attending only a handful of sessions in addition to the one I moderated. Unsurprisingly, the event centered on AI—particularly agentic AI—including virtual agents, workflow and agent studios, analytics, testing, and more. Below are the key themes that emerged across conversations. Key Themes The word of the week: “vibe

RingCentral has had a busy year, with new products, ongoing innovation, and several leadership additions. At the company’s 2026 Analyst Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, analysts received an update on RingCentral’s business momentum and a preview of upcoming announcements—some of which will be formally introduced at Enterprise Connect. In her first year as President and COO Kira Makagon, opened the event by framing the broader industry shift. She described the current moment as

At its Zoho Day analyst event in Austin, TX, Zoho marked several key milestones. The company celebrated its 30th anniversary and reported more than one million paying customers and 150 million users. For a privately-held company with a long-standing emphasis on engineering over marketing, these figures reflect sustained growth at scale. Strategic Context Vijay Sundaram, Chief Strategy Officer, outlined the trends shaping Zoho’s strategy: AI has moved from experimentation to o