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 employee’s role and the workflows associated with that role. That distinction could be particularly important as enterprises look beyond the traditional knowledge worker and try to bring better communications capabilities to the large - and often underserved -frontline workforce. UC Isn't One-Size-Fits-All During a recent analyst briefing, Mitel executives talked about what they see as a fundamental problem with UC - most UC platforms have historically been designed primarily for knowledge workers sitting at desks. That works reasonably well for employees who spend their days in desktop applications, but it doesn’t necessarily work for a nurse, field service technician, hotel employee, retail associate, or manufacturing work who may spend most the day away from a computer, who represent 80% of the workforce. While the communications requirements of these workers may be dramatically different from deskbound workers, many organizations have essentially given all of them the same communications -tools, which has led to implications like shadow IT. . Mitel’s answer is a role-based communications framework that can be tailored to the job an employee actually performs. Mitel WX takes a role-based approach instead. Administrators can create different roles and templates and determine which capabilities are presented to different groups of employees. The demo presented to the analysts illustrated how this works. Users can have different widgets and applications available depending on their role, while administrators control which capabilities are provisioned. Employees can then customize aspects of their own interface without having to navigate functionality they don't need. This is more than a user-interface change. If done well, it could make communications technology more relevant to employees who don't spend their days sitting in front of a PC. That includes what Mitel describes as the frontline or deskless workforce, which represents a significant portion of employees in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, hospitality and the public sector. The Hybrid Architecture May Be Just as Important For Mitel customers, however, I think the architecture may ultimately be as important as the user experience. Mitel has been an early leader in the hybrid architecture approach, which is now seeing a resurgence and is being embraced by companies of all sizes in the AI era, where privacy and security are paramount for both regulated and non-regulated businesses. Mitel has a large installed base, and many of those customers aren't necessarily looking to rip and replace their communications infrastructure. They may have significant investments in existing Mitel platforms, while also having good reasons for keeping some communications capabilities on-premises or in a private cloud. Mitel WX is designed with that reality in mind. The new customers can work with existing Mitel call-control platforms, allowing customers to introduce the Mitel WX experience without immediately replacing the underlying infrastructure. The architecture also supports combinations of on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud deployments, including multi-domain environments, providing customers some flexibility in how they modernize. The cloud migration conversation has often been framed as a binary choice: move everything to the cloud or stay on-premises. That's increasingly unrealistic for large enterprises, particularly in regulated or mission-critical environments. Mitel is instead betting that customers want to determine where different pieces of their communications environment should live. For existing Mitel customers, that could provide a more practical modernization path. Bringing Communications Into the Workflow Another interesting aspect of Mitel WX is its emphasis on workflow integration. Mitel is positioning the Mitel WX less as another standalone communications application and more as a platform that can incorporate the applications and information employees need to do their jobs. The company demonstrated the ability to integrate applications such as CRM and EHR systems and described a marketplace and SDK approach that can allow partners and customers to develop additional widgets and integrations. This concept isn't entirely new, as most UC vendors talk about integrations. The difference is that Mitel is tying those integrations to the employee's role. The objective isn't necessarily to put every possible application into everyone's communications client. It's to give a particular employee the applications and information that are relevant to the job. That is an important distinction as organizations try to reduce application overload rather than adding another application to the pile. Where AI Fits In AI is also part of Mitel's longer-term strategy. Mitel executives talked about voice as a natural interface for AI, particularly for frontline workers. That's an interesting area to watch because much of the current enterprise AI discussion still revolves around knowledge workers interacting with AI through a screen. For a worker in a hospital, factory, hotel or field environment, voice may be a much more practical interface. Mitel isn't positioning WX simply as an AI product, and I think that's the right approach. The more interesting question is how AI becomes part of the role-based workflows over time. For example, an employee shouldn't necessarily have to open a separate AI application to get assistance. If AI can be embedded into the communication and workflow tools the employee is already using, it becomes much more useful. What This Means for Mitel Customers The big question for Mitel customers will be whether Mitel WX can deliver on the promise of modernization without forcing them to abandon what already works. That is particularly relevant for organizations with complex communications environments and significant investments in Mitel infrastructure. If Mitel WX can provide a modern, role-based employee experience while allowing customers to maintain existing call-control systems and choose where workloads are deployed, it gives Mitel customers another option besides a wholesale platform replacement. There are still questions around the breadth of integrations, the depth of the workflow capabilities and how the platform will evolve as Mitel adds more AI functionality. Those will be important factors in determining how differentiated WX ultimately is. But I think the basic premise is sound. The future of enterprise communications isn't necessarily about finding one UC application that works equally well for everyone. It may be about delivering the right communications experience for the job an employee actually performs. That's a somewhat different way of thinking about UC, and for Mitel customers with large frontline workforces and complex hybrid environments, it could be a useful one.

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 Matradhas explained, the new leadership team and organizational changes are designed to remove internal friction and enable Five9 to build, think, and react faster. One of my favorite quotes from the event was: “We’re building for scale, for the next evolution. We’re using our past as an anchor but not letting it be an anchor.” AI and the Evolution of CX The growing role of AI in customer experience cannot be understated. Five9’s new tagline is “Smarter CX with every interaction,” highlighting how customer interactions feed into AI’s knowledge base in a continual learning loop for both human and AI agents. According to Jay Lee, CMGO (Chief Marketing and Growth Officer), smarter CX with every interaction means faster resolutions, better outcomes, stronger relationships, and deeper insights. As Matradhas explained, Five9 sees this as a whole new system where AI and humans come together to create new outcomes. As he put it, “Based on customer feedback, we’re on a direction to capitalize on this new wave.” When GenAI first came on the scene, many people - particularly on Wall Street - assumed that the role of contact centers and contact center agents would decrease, with AI taking over customer service interactions. That hasn’t happened. Matradhas noted, “AI was supposed to shrink contact centers, but it’s still growing, with new jobs and agents added.” The implication is important: AI isn’t replacing the value of the contact center; it’s expanding it, with Five9 putting the market expansion opportunity at $50 billion by 2029. Matradhas attributed this in part to a simple dynamic: when service gets easier and better, people engage more, not less. In today’s contact centers, AI and humans are increasingly working hand in hand, with each doing what they do best and the right resource being used for the right task. It’s not necessarily an either-or decision. It’s about finding the optimal combination of humans and AI. This is what Five9 refers to as “Humantic CX” - a combination of Human + Agentic. Humantic CX is Five9’s vision of a unified approach in which AI is a constant partner to human work, rather than a replacement for it. Humantic CX Humantic CX was clearly the star of the show, with demos - unfortunately under NDA - helping clarify what Five9 means by the term. Most CX vendors have been talking about “hybrid AI” or “hybrid workers,” generally referring to AI agents handing interactions, along with relevant context, off to human agents when necessary. Five9’s Humantic CX concept takes this a step further. Five9 describes Humantic CX as providing: Constant presence, where AI is always part of the interaction Elevated agent, enabling humans to focus where they matter most Compounding loop, where every interaction makes the next one smarter Optimal mix, with the right balance of human and AI for every situation The idea is to combine humans, AI agents, and channels in a single conversation, without losing context. Orchestration enables smooth handoffs during the interaction, while backend workflows can help resolve the underlying issue. It also brings together customer memory, domain knowledge, and real-time awareness. Five9’s ambition is to be “the customer outcome partner for the Humantic CX era, harnessing and orchestrating the best of humans and AI.” The company sees an open, unified CX platform as the foundation for achieving that goal - a platform that makes AI real, where voice and digital both play important roles, and where every interaction can contribute to a CX that compounds over time. Five9 intends to pursue this opportunity by focusing on several areas: Where humans will continue to exist and where humans and AI will work together The midmarket and above Key verticals and regulated industries, including financial services and healthcare, where complexity and compliance are essential Specific geographies, including North America and Europe, with a particular focus on markets such as the UK and Germany Differentiation With so many CX vendors now offering AI agents, AI studios, and related capabilities, differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult. Five9 believes its differentiation comes from its network, platform, and Humantic CX approach. Five9 is a global connected voice provider with a global telco network, providing global connectivity, voice analytics, and reliability. But the company is also placing significant emphasis on what it calls the interaction layer - the place where channels, orchestration, memory, intelligence, and customer interactions come together. As Matradhas noted, “If we can connect channels, provide orchestration, and pull memory into interactions, we’ll succeed.” That interaction layer could become an important battleground as AI agents become more capable and increasingly participate in customer interactions. Putting Humantic CX Into Context I spoke with Matt McGinnis about what Humantic CX is all about and how Five9 differentiates in an increasingly crowded market. In this video interview, McGinnis explains how Humantic CX brings humans and AI together to create synergies across the customer journey and customer experience. He also discusses how Five9 is differentiating through its single platform and by bringing together data, intelligence, analytics, and other capabilities. McGinnis also discusses how Five9 sees AI agents being deployed in the enterprise, including the importance of trust, security, and guardrails. He explains how Five9 is approaching these issues for customers in regulated industries and how the company sees trust as important for both contact center workers and consumers. I also spoke with Five9 President Andy Dignan about some of the key messages from the event, including: The speed required to operate in the AI era Five9’s focus on specific segments and geographies Executing on AI And, of course, Humantic CX In this video, Dignan also discusses customers’ readiness for AI and the growing importance of trust and governance, particularly in the regulated industries Five9 is targeting. He also explains Five9’s vertical approach and how it extends across marketing, product, go-to-market, sales motions, services, partner relationships, and more. Closing Thoughts Five9’s focus on Humantic CX definitely resonated with many of the analysts at the summit. The concept reflects where the market appears to be heading: toward a model in which humans and AI work together rather than AI simply replacing humans. Five9 presented a couple of interesting use cases, but the company will need to provide more examples to help businesses understand the practical value of Humantic CX and, more importantly, the measurable outcomes it can deliver. The concept is interesting; the next step is demonstrating what it means in practice. Five9 also recognizes that there are more and more players entering the space and that frontier AI companies could pose a challenge in the future. The company’s focus on the interaction layer, its open platform and ecosystem approach, customer and conversation insights, and its global network capabilities could help it stand out. Companies such as Sierra and Decagon are gaining both market share and mindshare, particularly among the C-suite. Five9’s opportunity is to position itself as a more complete solution rather than just one, albeit important, piece of the customer experience puzzle. Finally, Five9’s new executive team - Niranjan Vijayaragavan (CTO), Rob Hornish (CSO), Sevn Linsmaier (EVP of Transformation & Strategy), and Jay Lee (CMGO) - brings a fresh perspective to the company. While the team is relatively new to the CX market and has a significant learning curve ahead, its members have worked together at previous companies and appear to be moving quickly to reposition Five9 while focusing on growth and innovation. There’s clearly a lot changing at Five9. The next question is whether the company can translate its new Humantic CX vision into differentiated products, measurable customer outcomes, and sustained growth.

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 pain points in healthcare - How Mitel provides reliability and the right deployment model for healthcare organizations - Where AI actually adds value in a clinical communications context — and where is it not ready yet - What's next when it comes to providing patient care and much more

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