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“Demos are easy. Contact centers are hard..” That line from Five9 President Andy Dignan gets right to the heart of our conversation ahead of Five9 CX Connect Europe, being held September 15-16 just outside London. We talked about AI, the human handoff and what it takes to move beyond a compelling demo to deliver real outcomes at scale. I’ll be at CX Connect Europe later this month, covering the event and bringing you more conversations from customers and Five9 leaders. Take a look. 👇 And if you’re going to be there, let me know. I’d love to meet up!

Navigating the Future of AI: Ethics, Biases, and "Pooping" Dogs The latest segment of AI Bytes is officially live! In this episode, Thomas Brannen, Melissa Swartz, and I dive back into the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence with the authentic, unrehearsed commentary you've come to expect. This week, we tackleone of the more nuanced—and occasionally bizarre—realities of AI integration: The Berlin Art Scene: A deep dive into the provocative "AI Dogs" exhibit, featuring robotic dogs with the faces of tech leaders. We also kept the AI-generated outro—typos and all—because nothing captures the current state of "work in progress" AI better than a Pac-Man animation that spells "with" with two 'i's. Check out the full clip below: #AIBytes #ArtificialIntelligence #TechEthics #FutureOfWork #AI

8x8 Analyst Summit 2026: Taking an Offensive Position - my writeup on the #8x8AnalystSummit Several themes stood out at the summit: ·      8x8 positions its “One Platform” as a fully integrated environment spanning telephony, digital channels, IVA, video, and #CX. ·      Its AI strategy centers on partnering for models rather than building them internally. ·      The company placed strong emphasis on frontline workers, or “the 70% the market forgot.” ·      8x8 is leaning in on usage-based AI pricing ·      The partner ecosystem is central to 8x8’s strategy. Video interviews with Dhwani Soni, Hunter Middleton, Igor Mostovoy, and Synthflow AI's Matt A. Thanks to John Sun, Samuel C Wilson, Bruno Bertini, and the 8x8 team for a great event. For the full article, https://lnkd.in/g_3KpaCF BCStrategies.com

Healthcare organizations are under pressure to improve patient access and engagement while dealing with staffing shortages and strict compliance requirements. What are some of the communications and #CX challenges and use cases that are unique to healthcare providers today? GoTo's Malachi Threadgill provides insights to help healthcare organizations identify when and how to best use AI for customer interactions. For the full interview, discussing various verticals including automotive and education, visit https://lnkd.in/gKDYMgjs BCStrategies.com

The emphasis for #UCaaS has shifted to focus on getting things done, versus who has the longer feature list. #AI plays a strong role in this, and Zoom and Microsoft bundle capabilities in very different ways. In this article, I explore how #UC has evovled from simply converging multiple communication tools into the platform that drives business outcomes. I detail how #Zoom and #Microsoft bundle capabilities core to UC and adjacent to the expanded definition of UC.

Zendesk Relate and the Autonomous Service Workforce - my writeup on the #ZendeskRelate event, including a great video interview with Keith Pearce. Zendesk has evolved significantly from its origins as a ticketing vendor. The company now has a broader vision centered on an AI-first operating model and the changing relationship between humans and AI in customer service. The company’s focus on resolution rather than tickets aligns well with broader market trends, and the outcome-based pricing model reinforces that positioning. You can read it on the BCStrategies.com website https://lnkd.in/g4tDZHHc Thanks for a great event Tara Gregory Cindi Kleckner Tracy Delphia #CX#CXAI#CRM

At #CrescendoLive San Francisco, I had the opportunity to speak with Tod Famous about what's new at Crescendo. Among other things, Tod described Crescendo Connect, an agentic integration workspace that lets #CX teams ship production-ready tools for Crescendo assistants in days, not months.

Organizations today have more customer data than ever before. And yet, the core issue in customer experience isn’t a lack of insight, it’s the inability to act on it. AI, for all its promise, is amplifying this gap more than closing it. The issue isn’t visibility, it’s execution. AI is great at speeding up analysis, but not making decisions. CX leaders need to shift their focus to connecting insight generation to day-to-day decision-making. That means embedding intelligence into contact center platforms, CRM systems, and workflow tools. There are solutions out there to tie analytics to action. One example is NiCE’s AI-powered analytics capabilities that move beyond dashboards and into real-time decision support. Read more below. #CX #CXAI #Analytics