Erik Delorey, Director of Innovation Engineering at Miratech shares post-event Enterprise Connect 2024 thoughts
It was great to attend Enterprise Connect 2024 again to meet clients, hear and see the latest new ideas and products from top CX and communication companies.
The areas covered include unified communications, contact center technology, and hardware like conference room equipment. Anything or everything a large enterprise may want to research, consider, or more importantly purchase in the upcoming 24 months.
This year, I’ve seen an incredible shift in messaging and a push for the inclusion of AI into contact center technology. The event represented a turning point where realistic expectations for AI are becoming paramount.
AI in CX Positions: Reshaping the Landscape
Companies are beginning to understand that a one-size-fits-all approach with large language models (LLM) isn’t sufficient. Multimodal AI is required to bridge the gap between generic LLM and the specific needs and unique workflows of your business.
Additionally, there’s more speculation on future regulatory requirements around privacy and international data transmission. Many companies are moving their systems to the Cloud, which makes things more complicated. In the end, most enterprises are looking to accelerate value, unify communications, and simplify workflows.
Business Value of Gen AI in CX
Businesses have started to see tangible benefits of using AI, especially in simple situations like reducing the time employees spend on tasks after calls and making sure employees follow the company’s rules in their conversations.
These examples represent the quickest routes to ROI for Generative AI, particularly at the individual contact center employee’s desktop level. However, the challenge arises when we delve deeper into customization and tuning the model to suit specific business contexts. This often disrupts existing workflows and contractual agreements tied to ongoing platform migrations or augmentations.
Challenges and Lessons Learned in CCaaS Migrations
The era of ‘lift and shift’ and ‘like for like’ migrations is behind us. We’ve surpassed the simplistic notion of merely ‘putting it in the cloud.’ Despite this reality, some executives remain resistant to this shift in mindset. Moreover, the current IT teams advising them are entrenched in their positions and hesitant to embrace the risks associated with uncertain outcomes in the migration process.
To navigate these challenges effectively, enterprises must engage strategic vendors equipped with technology-savvy design and development teams. These teams can deconstruct and reassemble vendor offerings into globally compliant architectures without compromising security and privacy.
Failure to do so may result in short-term gains in employee and customer experience, overshadowed by regulatory non-compliance stemming from platform limitations or insufficient due diligence on the vendor’s data strategy.
Looking Ahead: Future of AI Integration
Our experience in creating Integrations as a Service for CCaaS migrations with MiraCloud means that we often uncover and challenge our clients’ assumptions.
These assumptions are shaped by the lofty promises made in sales and marketing materials, requiring a reality check post-Enterprise Connect events. However, I’m pleased to note a shift towards more realistic expectation-setting in this year’s sessions compared to previous years.
Conclusion: Embracing AI for Future Advancements
Looking ahead, a significant portion of my focus in the next 12 months will revolve around re-architecting enterprise data lakes to support zero-copy and data anonymization pipelines. These efforts are not merely tools for healthcare providers but also unlock the potential of AI for enterprises, preparing them to meet evolving regulatory requirements that were traditionally unforeseen.
In conclusion, Enterprise Connect 2024 has underscored the critical role of AI integration and automation in reshaping customer experience paradigms. As we anticipate future advancements in the field, it’s imperative for organizations to approach these innovations with a trusted strategic CX partner.
