Insider Report April 2025

Curated Enterprise Communications News and Insights from April 2025

Featured

This month’s big milestone was the first 100 days of Trump’s second term as president. Most agree that it is likely the most consequential of any in modern history. It’s been an intense 100 days that have introduced change, panic, and uncertainty. The American People voted for significant change, and it has arrived (mostly in April). 

The Insider Reports are not intended to be political. The issue isn’t credit or blame; it’s about adapting to a new America. The business climate is very different. Businesses do not know the tax regime they will operate under, nor can they predict the cost or availability of goods or financing. They cannot make sound decisions about expansion or hiring. 

Simply stated, there are too many variables: How long will tariffs last, at what rate, and for which countries, as well as what the president might do next. The prospect of a self-inflicted recession has become a real possibility. Most of the tariffs are on hold, but the closure of the duty-free import loophole, which allows items valued at less than $800 to be shipped from China to the US without duty, is imminent. The intent is to favor US-made goods, but the transition won’t be quick or painless. For starters, blocking Temu and Shein means they will advertise less. Google and Meta were quick to cut their revenue forecast. Snap is expected to see a drop, too. UPS said it plans to cut about 20K jobs and close 73 facilities as the firm handles fewer packages for Amazon. The bigger tariffs will unleash havoc. Many companies have suspended financial guidance. 

More tariffs are coming …. or are they? 

Meanwhile, the dollar has seen a significant drop in value, making foreign goods even more expensive on top of tariffs. The dollar’s drop is a sign that the world is betting against the US economy. The past 100 days have made Americans and the world question several long-held assumptions, including free trade, global alliances, access to foreign talent, the USD as a reserve currency, and more. The administration has reversed significant trends and commitments in areas such as clean energy, scientific and climate research, food safety, cryptocurrencies, education, and more, not to mention various DOGE cutbacks, which significantly impacted major federal divisions and vendors. 

2025 will be a year of retrenchment for business. This type of reversal headline is illustrative of what we can expect to see all year: “BP to Focus More on Oil and Gas in Strategy ‘Reset.’ The energy giant said it would cut planned investment in clean energy and redirect spending toward fossil fuels.”

Fortunately, most enterprise communication vendors are now cloud-first. Twenty years ago, the sector would have been much more vulnerable to disruption from tariffs (on hardware). Recessions were also brutal on equipment-based sectors, as customers sweated their assets. Though comms is far from immune to these economic changes. Last month, we reported that IPOs were on hold. RIFs seem inevitable, and job seekers will have to compete with bots like never before. #InterestingTimes

General News

Power to the People: Spain and Portugal experienced a major power outage that lasted most of a Monday in April. The outage disrupted everything. Flights were canceled at airports across both countries, including Madrid and Barcelona, two of Europe’s busiest airports. Businesses and schools closed, and electric mass transportation sat idle. The worst-case scenarios were averted: Spain’s nuclear sites were declared operational and safe, and hospitals in both countries ran on backup generators. Michels was in Portugal during the event. 

“At first, it just seemed like a typical power outage, no big deal. But hours went by. I grabbed my laptop to head to a shared Wi-Fi area, but a neighbor mentioned the outage was impacting ‘all of Europe.’ Just as well; with cell coverage down, I couldn’t call an Uber anyway. Even if I had a battery-powered AM/FM radio, I doubt it would have coverage in English. A nearby gas station was selling warm beer and melting ice cream. Happy to report, it was a calm outage. I heard some gas-powered yard devices, but there was no violence or looting.”

Michels somehow managed to exchange a handful of SMS messages, primarily with Glenn Goldberg of Parallel Communications. Glenn provided a few helpful news updates. 

Zoom Down: On April 16, Zoom experienced a nearly 2-hour outage attributed to a domain issue involving GoDaddy. A communication error between Zoom’s domain registrar, Markmonitor, and GoDaddy Registry led to the temporary blocking of the zoom.us domain, affecting services like Zoom Meetings, Phone, and Contact Center. GoDaddy confirmed it made changes that caused the problem, just as Zoom clarified that the disruption was not due to a security breach or DDoS attack (which some had reported). This points out how essential it is to have more than one service ready for business continuity.

NAB 2025: Danto attended the National Association of Broadcasters conference for about the 36th year in April, and reports that “broadcasters” continue to have an identity crisis, straddling the line between a traditional conference about television and a catch-all event for content creators across all platforms. Once a haven for massive hardware, today’s NAB Show reflects an industry where mobile phones and compact devices like the DJI Osmo or old iPhones are “good enough” for professional-grade content. The term “BroaderCasters,” coined by the NAB years ago, is now more fitting than ever, as booths focused exclusively on broadcast TV are nearly extinct. Instead of trying to wow with resolution and specs, the show now embraces affordability, flexibility, and content-first approaches. While the event hasn’t figured out exactly who it serves anymore, it was at least refreshing to hear AI discussions focused on the ethics of its use instead of the hype around what the latest agent might be able to do. More here.

Namaste iPhone: Apple is increasing iPhone production in India to cover all US sales, a significant ramp-up from the 20M made there last year (under 10% of total production). While framed as supplying the US, this involves assembling components from various Asian countries in India using foreign equipment and contractors, not exactly returning manufacturing to the US (Making India Great). 

The Opposite of Trust: Google and Meta were in court this month for antitrust trials. Google is in the remedies phase regarding search, while Meta’s trial concerns the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The actual impact of these cases remains uncertain. The DoJ proposed splitting off Chrome, but this might create a new monopoly if OpenAI and Yahoo acquired it. The FTC’s case against Meta faces challenges as it must argue that Meta doesn’t compete with TikTok, YouTube, or iMessage. The trials involve speculation about past and approved decisions by WhatsApp and Instagram founders.

AI News

ShopifAI: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke issued a memo mandating that all employees integrate AI into their jobs and stating that AI usage will be factored into performance reviews. To ensure Shopify stays competitive, Tobi is making AI usage a fundamental expectation and requiring teams to demonstrate why AI couldn’t meet their needs before requesting additional resources. Tobi uses AI extensively and insists his employees do the same. He noted that not enough employees have taken advantage of the AI tools provided by Shopify. The company intends to add AI usage questions to performance reviews to further encourage AI adoption.

How many pieces of flair? In the fictional movie “Office Space,” management won’t actually communicate the required number of pieces of flair staff should wear. Corp-speak often obfuscates the intended message, so let’s take a moment and applaud Tobi for clear and direct communication. Nor did he delegate the “AI Memo” to a Chief Innovation or Transformation Officer. 

It’s a kick-in-the-ass memo. Many employees (and teams) are hesitant to adopt AI, waiting for perfect tools, company-approved training, or explicit instructions on how to integrate AI into their daily tasks. However, there is no structured AI curriculum yet, and the responsibility of learning, adapting, experimenting, and automating falls on individuals. 

However, there are a few concerning aspects. AI has very limited use cases. Part of knowing and understanding AI is using it where appropriate, so measuring employee use of the technology sends a dangerous Big Brother message. Another error is to put all of the responsibility on the employee. Transformational change requires more than providing tools and pressure to comply. An equipped and stocked kitchen does not make a great chef. Employees will require coaching to improve prompting, contextualization, and/or evaluation of AI output. 

Tobi wrote what every CEO is thinking: Hire an AI before hiring more humans. Or, more simply: More impact per employee. AI is a force multiplier in certain kinds of roles. It has not (yet) proven to be effective at human replacement. 

Related?? Shopify has a flexible return-to-work policy that prioritizes remote work.

Bot Swipes: Mastercard has launched Mastercard Agent Pay, an AI-integrated program with Agentic Tokens to make it easier for AI agents to handle card payments on behalf of users. The goal is to unlock an agentic commerce future where consumers and businesses can transact with trust, security, and control. Mastercard will collaborate with Microsoft on new use cases to scale agentic commerce, with other leading AI platforms to follow.

Google Workspace AI: At Google Cloud Next 2025, Google unveiled significant AI enhancements to Workspace, integrating Gemini AI across tools like Docs, Sheets, Meet, and Chat to streamline content creation, data analysis, and real-time collaboration. New and enhanced features include AI-generated audio clips, better podcasts from documents, advanced video creation via Veo 2, and workflow automation through prompt-based agent creation. Additionally, Google expanded third-party integrations with platforms like HubSpot and ServiceNow, and introduced capabilities that allow users to query Gemini directly within chat channels and meetings. Multiple analysts pointed out that the conference lacked updates on Google Voice, leaving questions about its future role in Workspace’s unified communications strategy.​

More Copilot Changes: Microsoft’s latest update to Microsoft 365 Copilot introduces “AI agents” with memory, reasoning, and delegation capabilities, signaling a move toward persistent, proactive digital assistants. The update also launches an Agent Store and expands extensibility, positioning Copilot as a platform for ongoing task automation. While powerful, Microsoft’s ever-shifting Copilot branding, features, and architecture make it increasingly difficult for enterprises to keep up. At this rate, customers may soon need a Copilot-to-English decoder or a daily scorecard just to keep track of what the product includes and its costs.

Copilot Hovers: Microsoft Copilot has been flat at only 20M weekly active users for about a year. ChatGPT’s growth continues to soar toward 400M weekly users. Google’s Gemini has about 350M MAUs.

Zoom Tasks: Zoom’s previously announced AI-powered Zoom Tasks is now officially available to users. The feature lets people create, assign, and manage tasks directly from meetings, chats, and emails — automatically capturing action items using Zoom AI Companion. It appears under a new "Tasks" tab in Zoom Workplace and includes tools for setting deadlines, scheduling follow-ups, and even creating video clips to support task completion. With this release, Zoom continues pushing its “AI-first” narrative, adding more workflow functionality to compete with platforms like Microsoft Loop and Google Workspace. It remains to be seen how thoroughly and accurately Zoom’s AI companion can create and prioritize a to-do list when looking at an individual’s activity across all apps. Any significant mistake will require manual intervention, likely more than what would have been needed to complete the task without AI.

Agent Assist for the Rest of Us: Agent Assist is such a great concept. It monitors conversations and provides real-time guidance to contact center agents. Now, we can all get similar coaching from Cluely. 

Cluely runs in a browser window and monitors conversations, which can be anything, including interviews, sales calls, and even exams. Without anyone knowing, Cluely provides helpful hints (answers) during the conversation. The app/tool is marketed as a productivity booster. It’s also going to be a can of worms for enterprise IT chartered to secure conversations. “I was surprised how dull Jack was in person; he’s so insightful in meetings.” It does seem like a logical progression for AI. Why should the agents get all the coaching? 

Perplexing Siri: Perplexity’s new iOS app offers basic assistant features like email drafting and appointment setting, capabilities Siri has had for a decade. 

New Comms: Amazon’s Project Kuiper launched 3,236 satellites in a single launch this month. The goal is to create a massive constellation of internet-beaming satellites to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, as well as other satellite and wireless companies. Starlink already has about 8K satellites in orbit and at least 4.6 million customers worldwide. These birds fly in a low Earth orbit at 17K MPH. It’s an expensive and challenging race. Speed is of the essence, especially since the FCC gave Amazon a deadline to deploy half its constellation, 1,618 satellites, by mid-2026 (Amazon is behind schedule). Conversely, the technology keeps improving. It’s nice to see startups like Amazon taking on giants like Starlink. 

Meta AI: Meta Platforms has launched a standalone Meta AI assistant app powered by Llama 4. The app offers reasoning, multilingual support, and personalized responses that leverage user data from Meta’s social platforms. This move, announced at LlamaCon, positions the company to compete more directly with other standalone apps. 

Atlassian Expands AI Offerings: At its Team ’25 event, Atlassian announced the general availability of Rovo, an AI assistant designed to enhance enterprise knowledge access by integrating with platforms like Jira, Confluence, Google Workspace, and Slack. The company also introduced the Teamwork Collection and the Strategy Collection, designed to enhance cross-functional collaboration and project management. These tools are part of Atlassian’s effort to address challenges such as information overload and team silos. Rovo is now included in Jira and Confluence subscriptions.

Meetings and AV

No Cloud Transcripts: AudioCodes announced Meeting Insights On-Prem, an AI-powered solution that lives on-prem for meeting recaps, transcripts, and more. It uses AI to assist organizations in regulated and security-sensitive industries by automatically generating meeting transcripts and more, without the need for cloud services. Available exclusively for on-premises deployment, and designed for compliance in sectors such as government, financial, and healthcare. In addition to transcripts, summaries, and actionable insights, it also offers automatic speaker separation and intelligent punctuation. Good old telephony allows this to work with most meeting services and easily integrates with major UC solutions. 

Neat Meet: Neat has announced it will soon integrate with Google Meet. This integration will allow users to host Meet sessions directly on Neat devices such as its video bars and boards. It will also support Meet’s AI features, including automated note-taking and companion mode.​ 

The move positions Neat to expand its TAM beyond Zoom and Teams integrations, tapping into Google’s enterprise user base. By supporting multiple major video conferencing platforms, Neat is adapting to the increasing demand for flexible, platform-agnostic meeting room solutions, which is particularly relevant as hybrid work models continue to evolve.

Neat also announced that Neat Select — their lower-cost BYOD-only solution — is now generally available.

Neat 25 in 2025: Neat announced the release of OS version 25.1. Key features include independent Neat Center camera support for Zoom and Teams, smarter video input switching, remote admin password updates via Teams Admin Center (TAC), and support for Zoom’s multi-stream mode. Neat continues to strengthen its position as a premium device partner by addressing both usability and IT manageability.

High Impact Meets Meet: Q-SYS and Logitech have announced a partnership to deliver Google Meet Room functionality to high-impact spaces such as multipurpose rooms and auditoriums. The collaboration integrates certified hardware with intelligent AV solutions and full-room control, aiming to provide a seamless meeting experience across various environments. This move reflects a growing trend toward platform-agnostic, scalable AV solutions that cater to the evolving needs of hybrid workspaces. By aligning with Google Meet, Q-SYS and Logitech are expanding their reach within enterprise collaboration ecosystems, positioning themselves to meet the increasing demand for flexible and integrated meeting room technologies.

Remember MS Reminders: Microsoft is pushing automatic updates for Teams Android devices to move to Intune’s AOSP device management starting May 15, 2025, and they’re making sure nobody can claim they didn’t get the memo. Microsoft is being unusually clear and repetitive in warnings that firmware updates will roll out automatically. The overcommunication here isn’t accidental — it’s a rare moment when Microsoft seems to know that too many admins are tuning them out.

QSC Tariff Pause: QSC has temporarily halted orders on over 200 products, including amplifiers, speakers, cameras, and control systems, due to the current tariff climate. This pause aims to mitigate the impact of a 125% tariff rate on goods sourced from China, although inventory already in US warehouses remains unaffected. While this strategy may offer long-term financial benefits, it poses immediate challenges for dealers and integrators managing ongoing projects. Like DHL above, this is just one of what will be many responses to the current volatility. 

Shure MTR is “About the Audio”: We mentioned last month that Shure had its IntelliMix Room Kits certified for Microsoft Teams when partnered with video camera solutions from Huddly, and that the bundle aspect presented some support responsibility challenges. At NAB 2025, Shure explained that it is the only MTR partner taking an “Audio First” perspective, critical for AI summaries and speaker attribution. Danto is not sure that ceiling microphone arrays do a better job with audio than alternatives, but you can listen to Shure explain it here. 

Neat-Shure Bundle: Neat and Shure achieved Microsoft Teams certification for an integrated solution that combines the Neat Bar Pro with Shure’s MXA920 Ceiling Array Microphone and P300 Audio Conferencing Processor. Shure wanted more than one partner to mitigate the risks of bundling.​

Microsoft Places Updates: Danto attended Microsoft Places Demo day and saw how Places is about to add individual desk booking with more granular management modes, allowing organizations to define usage policies at the desk level. The system includes automatic location detection features via IP/subnet. Integration with Microsoft Teams will also enhance the ability to coordinate presence and in-office planning directly within existing collaboration workflows. With individual desk resource allocations, Microsoft joins Cisco and Zoom at the needed level of granularity for desk bookings. This type of AI-based hybrid work management and reservation tool is rapidly expanding with some UCaaS providers. See the TalkingPointz Report on Hybrid Spaces, planned for revision this summer.

Cisco Patches Webex Vulnerability: Cisco released an update to address a critical vulnerability in Webex that allows attackers to execute malicious code through specially crafted invite links. The issue affects Windows versions of the Webex App before 43.6.0, Mac versions before 43.6.0, and VDI versions before 43.6.0. Users should be reminded never to click on meeting links from untrusted sources.

IR’s Prognosis: IR has released Prognosis 13.1, the latest update to its UC&C monitoring platform. The release adds tools for cloud migration assurance, enhanced visibility into Webex Dedicated Instances, IPv6 support for Cisco, and improved discovery dashboards. From a market perspective, IR is reinforcing its relevance by focusing on multi-platform observability — a wise move as they highlight their role as one of the few remaining independent UC monitoring platforms after Vyopta’s sale to HP. 

8x8 Spaces: 8x8 has reintroduced “Spaces,” its free and open-source video room solution built on Jitsi that repurposes existing conference room gear into a native 8x8 Meetings room system. It supports HD meetings, calendar integration, and wired screen sharing, without vendor lock-in. 8x8 has not been able to leverage its huge Jitsi base effectively. Open source rooms might be the trick. Although it offers simplicity and affordability, the need for IT-savvy staff to deploy it may limit mass-market appeal. 

Frozen AV Transactions: The fluctuating tariff issues that the US government has been signaling have essentially frozen the US AV and Collaboration hardware market. Yes, their impact has been and will continue to be far-reaching across all industries, but the nature of purchasing expensive hardware to handle AV makes it an enormous casualty. When integrators and VARs are approached to provide a quote or bid on a project, they can no longer guarantee the cost to the buyer in the current fickle environment. It’s not that it’s double the price … or triple … or worse — it’s that the integrator won’t know the cost until it's received in the US and whatever tariff is in effect at the time is applied. The integrator won’t place that order until it receives a purchase order from the client, and the client will not issue purchase orders unless the cost is known. Catch-22. 

Multiple VARs and integrators have been told that projects they were going to supply and install have been canceled in the last few weeks. If there is a “shoot yourself in the foot award” somewhere in the world, the US government just won it, hands down.

Xyte Now Managing Cloud Plus Local: Xyte launched Connect+ Edge, an extension of its device management platform that enables enterprises and integrators to monitor and manage devices on local networks alongside cloud-connected ones through a single interface. This, plus Xyte’s release of new APIs, eliminates the previous divide between cloud-only and on-prem systems, providing complete visibility and control over all devices via Connect+. It addresses a central blind spot in enterprise device management by unifying control of cloud and locally connected systems — something organizations have struggled with since the COVID-19 pandemic, as hybrid architectures became more common.

Zoom Updates Legacy Connectors: Zoom emailed customers to notify them of an upcoming migration of its Cloud Room Connector (CRC) service to new data centers, scheduled for May 3, 2025. This change involves switching to previously published IP addresses, and Zoom is urging administrators to update firewall rules to avoid service disruptions for SIP/H.323 devices. The company emphasized that these IP ranges have been publicly available since 2021, but it’s proactively reaching out to minimize risk. Glad to see Zoom is again ahead of issues with proactive notifications, but this also highlights the persistent complexity of maintaining legacy protocol support, such as SIP and H.323, within modern video platforms.

Utelogy Adds Lens: Utelogy has integrated HP|Poly’s Lens management with the Utelogy Platform, allowing IT teams to manage Poly devices alongside other AV and UC systems through a unified interface. Utelogy is quietly expanding its user base by adding features like this. 

AVI Transforms to FORTÉ: AVI Systems (unrelated to AVI-SPL) has rebranded as FORTÉ, signaling a strategic evolution beyond traditional AV integration to offer more complete communication and collaboration solutions. CEO Jeff Stoebner emphasized that the new name is meant to reflect the company’s expanded capabilities, including managed services, global deployment, and specialized practice areas. This is an attempt to position the firm as a holistic partner for modern workplaces. As the AV and IT integration world continues to consolidate, many integrators will begin touting skills outside their traditional areas to capture additional market share.

Ummmm…: mmhmm has rebranded as Airtime and launched a suite of new products focused on asynchronous and AI-powered video communication. The new Airtime Studio offers editing tools for creating short, engaging video messages, while Airtime Rooms introduces persistent, asynchronous video chat rooms for teams. The rebrand signals a shift from pandemic-era video novelty toward more practical, structured communication. At least now, it can be judged on its merits rather than being burdened by a stupid name.

Customer Experience

Forrester’s CCaaS Wave: Forrester published its biannual CCaaS Wave report this month. It evaluated 10 CCaaS providers and organized them into three groups: Leaders (AWS, Genesys, and NICE), Strong Performers (8x8, Cisco, Five9, Sprinklr, and Talkdesk), and Contenders (Twilio and Vonage). 

The Wave and the MQ are probably the most influential reports with users. Both follow meticulous processes, but the reports and criteria differ in many ways. The MQ has nine providers, and the Wave has 10. The differences are that Content Guru only appears in the MQ, and Sprinklr and Twilio only appear in the Wave. 

They agree that the Leaders are AWS, Genesys, and NICE. The most recent MQ also included Five9. The Wave does give Five9 strong and consistent scores, so the discrepancy can be partially attributed to the Wave having only three categories instead of four quadrants. The Strong Performers Group roughly aligns with the MQ’s Challengers and Visionaries. Both firms agree on Cisco and Talkdesk. The Wave also includes 8x8, and the MQ has Content Guru, which offers a highly scalable, secure, and non-US alternative. Forrester did include Sprinklr, which made a strong debut on its first Wave appearance. 

The inclusion criteria are very dissimilar, which is surprising considering how similar the vendor lineups are. The Wave is simpler, primarily anchored to a minimum of $100M in annual CCaaS revenue. That’s a high bar, but there are no additional revenue requirements. For example, the MQ has revenue minimums for global regions and inbound traffic, and excludes certain revenue, such as from BPOs. 

Both reports continue to raise their minimum revenue requirements, but some bigger shifts are on the horizon. CCaaS has historically been tied to voice interactions with live agents. While it’s unlikely to disappear, it probably won’t remain as central as it is today. The industry is transitioning away from “CCaaS” to “CX” while simultaneously disrupting key components with AI-first approaches. Expect significant changes to the inclusion criteria to allow providers such as Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and possibly Salesforce and ServiceNow to be included in the reports. 

TalkingPointz will publish a more detailed analysis of the CCaaS Wave, similar to the report on the CCaaS MQ. Meanwhile, the 2025 CCaaS MQ is nearing its kickoff. 

Agentic AI at Google Next: Google gave us a good preview in its EC25 keynote but knocked it out of the park at Google Next just three weeks later. The company made a few more Customer Engagement Suite announcements (agents can interpret streaming video and adjust shopping carts), but the demo stood out. This agentic demo was customer-facing, natural, controlled, and delightful. Google has been found guilty of faking demos, but they said this one was live. 

The demo involved an online shopper needing product assistance. The customer initiated a verbal conversation with an agentic bot. The customer recently purchased plants and needed help selecting the ideal potting soil. The bot enabled a video session so it could identify the type of plant. The bot recognized the plant and determined the right type of soil. With permission, the bot replaced the wrong soil in the customer’s cart with the correct product. 

A casual comment led the bot to offer an upsell for a planting service. The customer requested a 50% discount tied to a price match guarantee, but the bot was not authorized to offer such a considerable discount. Instead, the bot escalated itself to a human supervisor. The human didn’t interact with the customer. Instead, the human supervisor reviewed the notes and authorized the bot to offer a smaller discount. The bot extended the discount, and the customer accepted it. The two then negotiated a time and day for the service. 

The nonescalation to a human agent was particularly intriguing … maybe. We are accustomed to seeing bots escalate to a human when they can’t resolve an issue — that didn’t happen. This reminds me of how car dealers usually don’t let customers negotiate directly with the sales manager. Typically, the salesperson (the bot here) ferries offers and counters to and fro. I can see this becoming a point of frustration. 

The entire interaction was natural and relatable. When the conversation ended, the bot wished the customer luck on his upcoming tournament. That was a nice touch. The tournament was casually mentioned while coordinating times for the planting service.

It was an effective demo for Google AI, though not Google CCaaS. The interaction never involved an escalation to voice. Google positions its agentic AI as CCaaS-agnostic, and it has its own, integrated CCaaS, should the customer want one. 

8x8 Analyst Event: 8x8 hosted an analyst event and made several announcements from Southampton, UK. The location was the home of the Southampton Football Club, an 8x8 customer. Eight is building momentum by most measures and wanted to make it clear that they are playing offense — nicely aligned with Southampton, which has no defense.

8x8 wants to make a big deal about its single stack for UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS, while simultaneously wanting to downplay these acronyms. I agree, as the boundaries are blurring. I like 8x8’s focus on outcomes as it emphasizes workflows. 

The most significant announcement was its release of two flavors of RCS: RCS Business Messaging (RMB) and RCS as part of its CCaaS omnichannel suite. 8x8 is likely the first provider to offer both, and the two go hand in hand. RBM is about brand conversations with customers, and CCaaS is about customer conversations with brands. 8x8 being first was a surprise, but it makes sense because its CPaaS is strong in APAC, where RCS adoption is ahead of the US. This is an essential lesson as so much of enterprise comms is viewed and developed from a US POV. RCS is expected to be readily available globally later this year. 

8x8 also announced JourneyIQ, which enables businesses to better track, predict, and optimize every step of the customer journey across channels, departments, and other touchpoints. JourneyIQ supports 360° customer journey intelligence, intelligent orchestration, and smart workflow optimization. Viber, WhatsApp, email, and soon RMB will be added as channels to 8x8 Engage. Lastly, 8x8 announced AI Orchestrator, which allows organizations to create seamless decision flows and orchestration across multiple bots and vendor solutions. 

Less Lonely Websites: Mobeus was featured in the Innovation Showcase a few years ago for helping people improve their video meetings. The company has evolved into agentic AI-powered digital teammates called telehumans, or teles. Mobeus claims its teles are gaining traction in retail, pharma, and the automotive industry. Teles guide users through a variety of website tasks, including content discovery, form completion, and support inquiries. 

It’s a good example of how agentic CX use cases will occur outside the contact center (and invite new vendors into new adjacencies). This approach doesn’t replace anything; it simply provides human-like assistance where it wasn’t offered before. 

Seeing a human-like video avatar is odd. That said, cartoons seem even less desirable. Of course, the look, sound, and behavioral characteristics are customizable. The teles with rainbow hair and butterfly halos are less likely to be confused with real people. 

Intermedia Agent Assist: Intermedia announced AI Agent Assist, which leverages real-time AI insights to equip teams with instant access to business-specific knowledge and personalized sentiment feedback. It is part of Intermedia’s Intelligent Contact Center and intended to help agents effectively engage before, during, and after interactions.

Avaya Infinity: Avaya announced Infinity as its new cloud-delivered CX platform. Infinity is the convergence of the Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) and its Edify acquisition, spearheaded by the acquired team. It is not a multi-tenant CCaaS solution, at least not from Avaya. There’s a possibility some partners may host multiple tenants. Avaya pitches it as a SaaS, not a CCaaS. It’s designed to run on public cloud infrastructure as a dedicated instance, under Avaya’s control. 

For customers that want it in their own data center, Avaya is using hyperscaler edge solutions. The instance (and data) runs locally, and cloud infrastructure acts as a VPN for SaaS management and upgrades. It is primarily aimed at existing Avaya customers as a means to modernize their investment, though suitable as a standalone offering as well. It is essentially the ‘innovation without disruption’ the prior CEO promised, but Avaya no longer uses that expression. 

One of the things that made Edify stand out was how it converged UCaaS and CCaaS into one solution. However, Avaya sold UCaaS exclusively to RingCentral, so it had to remove that functionality. Though Infinity can and wil be used for SaaS UC too. Its development has prioritized contact center services, but UC is planned. The targeted enterprise customers will likely be cautious when implementing, but if Infinity demonstrates scalability and stability, it could work out well. 

The lead executives are all relatively new to Avaya. Tony Lama, SVP & GM of Product (formerly Edify/Twilio/AWS/Aspect), lists nine job titles on LinkedIn since 2018. David Funck, newly named CTO, also came from Edify. 

Avaya is reemerging from its hibernation. The company launched a new look and feel to refresh the brand, and executives are active on social media. 

WhatsApp Web Video: WhatsApp is testing voice and video calls in its web app, aiming to enhance its usefulness for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by allowing browser-based communication features. Outside the US, WhatsApp has become the de facto method for communication.

Agentforce for Consumer Goods: Salesforce Agentforce for Consumer Goods offers digital labor for customer service, sales, and field teams. All of the use cases are internal, such as providing service reps with relevant customer account information. It can help with scheduling/dispatch, recommending products to telesales reps, identifying opportunities proactively, and providing sales managers with actionable insights. 

Five9 & Salesforce: Five9 and Salesforce are deepening their partnership with the release of Five9 Fusion for Salesforce. This offering integrates Five9’s core voice, routing, and transcription features with Salesforce Service Cloud. Later, Five9 will also integrate its digital channels, leveraging Salesforce’s BYOC for CCaaS. Five9 struck a similar arrangement with ServiceNow, and Salesforce reached similar arrangements with AWS and Genesys.

UC and Messaging

ZAIC Workvivo: Zoom has launched Workvivo AI, an intelligent workplace assistant integrated into its Workvivo employee experience platform. Powered by Zoom AI Companion, this tool helps users find company information, create internal communication content, and generate employee surveys. Zoom has anchored ZAIC to its entire suite at no additional charge. 

Pro Phone: Phone.com jumped on the (small) UCaaS Mobility 3.0 bandwagon. ProSIM puts a native Phone.com UCaaS number on a mobile SIM, making the cell phone a full-featured business phone. Phone.com worked with Tango Networks to create this advanced offering. Other UCM3 solutions include Webex from AT&T and any of the Microsoft Teams Mobile Phone solutions from an MNO. Vodafone also offers this with its RingCentral partnership. ProSIM facilitates BYOD and easily separates personal and business use on the same device, without the need for software. 

TalkingPointz believes this will be a natural evolution for UCaaS. There’s simply no reason businesses should split their calling plans between wired and wireless partners anymore. The costs, complexity, and compromises of multiple carriers are no longer necessary. Phone.com is ahead of the pack with a seamless approach to mobile business communications. More in this interview. 

Samsung Warns About RCS on iOS: Samsung has raised concerns about Apple’s implementation of RCS in iOS 18, noting the lack of end-to-end encryption for cross-platform messages. This is a bit silly, but let’s dive in. SMS is not encrypted. RCS is sometimes encrypted, and it’s getting better. 

Google pressured Apple to support RCS, which it did. But Apple only agreed to support the standard. The RCS standard does not address E2EE. Google has solved this in the Android world, but Android-iPhone RCS messages, like SMS messages, are not encrypted. The GSM Association has developed a solution for RCS E2EE encryption that is working its way through the process. Apple confirmed it intends to support E2EE on RCS messages in future updates. 

CISA Warns Against SMS for 2FA: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, under the US Department of Homeland Security, is recommending that users move away from SMS-based two-factor authentication following breaches at major carriers like AT&T and Verizon. The agency urges adoption of stronger methods, such as authentication apps or passkeys, to prevent interception of sensitive messages. This aligns with a broader industry trend of phasing out SMS for security-critical workflows. SMS is also a problem for those who use the internet while flying. 

Yealink Releases First MDEP Desk Phone: Yealink has announced that its MP E2 Series Teams Phones are now integrated with Microsoft’s Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), enhancing the security and management capabilities. As the first Android 13-powered Teams phones to support MDEP, the MP E2 Series positions Yealink at the forefront of Microsoft’s MDEP partners.

Mitel Moving Forward: Mitel received court approval to proceed with its financial restructuring plan, which eliminates $1.15B in debt and cuts annual interest payments by $135M. The move is intended to improve financial flexibility and support long-term investment in Mitel’s product and service offerings. The Biggest Loser award goes to Searchlight Capital. 

Unify, Not Power: Microsoft has renamed its third contact center integration model for Teams — previously known as “Power” — as Unify. It allows ISVs to build native applications on Azure Communication Services using Teams’ calling infrastructure. Unlike “Extend” (based on Graph APIs and bots) or “Connect” (via SBCs and Direct Routing), Unify offers a deeper SDK-level embedding of Teams functionality. General availability is expected mid-summer 2025. We wonder if Mitel will also acquire this Unify. 

GoToHopper: GoTo announced updates to its Grasshopper service. The updates include Smart Filters for organization, improved search, new analytics and contact management tools, and auto call recording and transcripts. GoTo also expanded its partner ecosystem for Grasshopper, now including small business resources for WordPress, digital listings, and banking.

It’s been a while since I’ve heard about Grasshopper. GoTo (or more accurately, its parent Citrix) acquired Grasshopper in 2015. It is a simple UCaaS offering designed for micro businesses with <10 employees. It remains a separate platform from GoTo Connect. Its GTM is primarily ecommerce, available in the US and Canada. 

The Business Section

Evolve IP Evolves: Evolve IP announced a series of new technology partnerships, a £600K network infrastructure investment, and various enablement and service innovations, such as Support-as-a-Service and Migration-as-a-Service, along with BYO Carrier and international regulatory compliance expansion. 

Pronetx and VT Team: Pronetx, a boutique CX firm focused solely on Amazon Connect, merged with VT Team to expand delivery capacity, accelerate innovation, and bring generative AI to the forefront of customer experience transformation. 

Leadership Changes

Zoom named Kimberly Storin as its new CMO. Storin brings experience from Zayo, IBM, AMD, and Dell, and will oversee brand, communications, product marketing, enterprise marketing, and regional marketing teams. That may sound like a lot, but she does have ZAIC to assist her. Zoom has been without a CMO for about two years since Janine Pelosi left Zoom (Pelosi now leads Neat). 

Zoom is quietly implementing a business unit (BU) structure. Most recently, Chris Morrissey was named GM and Global Head of CX Sales, Chris Moss was named Head of Platform, Vi Chau GM of Online Business, etc. The corporate team (CEO, CTO, CPO, CFO, etc.) is there to support these business units, and the time is right for that team to include a CMO. 

UJET promoted Baker Johnson to Chief Business Officer and Leslie Blanke to Chief Product Officer and Head of Engineering. Sprinklr named Scott Harvey as its Chief Customer Officer (a year and a half ago). Harvey brings experience from Stripe and ServiceNow. Also, Sanjay Macwan was named as CIO. Susan Lucas Collins, previously of Salesforce and Twilio, was named President of Mobeus. 

Vonage named Christophe Van de Weyer as President and Head of Business Unit API. He brings experience as CEO of Telesign. He succeeds Seckin Arikan, who has been appointed Vonage COO. Dialpad named David Sudbey as its Chief Customer Officer (Jan). He brings experience from Genesys and Cogito. 

At Avaya, Sherri Moyen was named CFO, and David Funck was promoted to CTO. Moyen has experience from Overhaul Group, Conductor, and Aspect Software (now Alvaria, Inc.). Funck came from Edify and its partner, CloudCall, with time also served at Alvaria. It’s an Alvaria reunion at Avaya (CEO Patrick, CPO Tony, CTO David, CFO Sherri, Chief People Officer John, and CMO Pete). 

Alex Doyle left Verizon after almost 12 years. He is now the VP of Product Management at Iridium. John Delozier is no longer the CRO at C1.

Meet Us

After both Dave and David attended ISE in Barcelona in February and Enterprise Connect in March, both Daves will again be together at infoComm in Orlando, Florida, June 10-13. If you plan to be at that event and haven’t scheduled a briefing with us, please reach out. Let us know if you need a discount code for event registration.

Dave Michels is Founder and Chief Protagonist at TalkingPointz and Editor in Chief of the Insider Report. [email protected]. David Danto is AV Aficionado at TalkingPointz. [email protected]. 

Upcoming Research from TalkingPointz: Deep Dives on EC25 and Video Interop, both in May.

Goodreads

1. Top 20 European Alternatives to Major US Technology Services: You Could Change Right Now Many consumers and companies are searching for solutions that keep their data safe and inside the EU as GDPR enforces tougher data protection requirements.
2. 5 ChatGPT Hacks That You’ve Never Heard of (But Need to Know) It is important to dive into AI on a routine basis, and some of these tips are easy to implement. 
3. Q&A with Pete Lavache, Avaya CMO I thought he was fictional. 
4. What the Weak Dollar Means for the Global Economy 
5. What Will Trump’s Tariffs Do for U.S. Consumers, Workers, and Businesses? Some reality for a change.
6. ChatGPT Image Generation Is Now Free for Everyone. Here’s How Many Images You Get The AI competition continues to heat up.
7. A customer support AI went rogue—and it’s a warning for every company considering replacing workers with automation Be careful what you wish for.
8. The Rise of the Triple Peak Day After work, do you … get back to work? For some, a new pattern is replacing the 9 to 5.
9. A lot of Logitech products cost more now than two months ago Not singling out Logitech — but here comes the flood of price increases.
10. Sam Altman Admits That Saying “Please” and “Thank You” to ChatGPT Is Wasting Millions of Dollars in Computing Power It’s green to be rude. 
11. 601 real-world gen AI use cases Google published a list of enterprise use cases for LLMs. 
12. Consumers make their voices heard as Microsoft’s huge venture flatlines in popularity ChatGPT is growing, Copilot is flat. Compare which one has changed its name, offerings, and licensing every few weeks as a hint why.
13. Apartments for Rent in a Former Office, But You Have to Live in Midtown RTO and WFH. Once completed, the project would be the largest office-to-apartment conversion nationwide.
14. New Lawsuit Accuses Genesys of Recording Domestic Violence Hotline Communications Without Permission The lawsuit also alleges that the vendor used sensitive customer information “for its own purposes.”

Other Recent Stuff

Effective in 2025, we moved the Insider Lite to Substack. You can view it here. This is free content, and Substack makes things easier for everyone, but you will need to subscribe separately here. Insider Lites typically publish 1-3x a month.

• Phone.com launches ProSIM (Video)
• 8x8: Game, Set, Match 
• Escalator Keynotes #EC25: Generative AI summarizes, but look how an escalator shortens keynotes. (Video)
• Choosing Wisely: How To Select Partners In AV and Collaboration (Should a supplier’s layoffs or hiring influence users’ buying decisions? )
• Adapt or Fade Away (SCN on how AV has to change)
• NAB 2025: A Tale of Two Events
• Shure at NAB (Video)
• IEEE’s Broadcast Technology Society at NAB (Video)
• FOMO Facilitates Phishing (Maybe don’t make an action figure of yourself today.)
• Synergizing the Agentic Paradigm: A Generative Framework for Blockchain-Orchestrated CX Optimization (Parody that says nothing with a whole lot of big words)
• TalkingPointz UC Weekly News from Enterprise Connect (Video)
• Zoom at Enterprise Connect (Video)
• NetSpeek at Enterprise Connect (Video)
• Cyviz at Enterprise Connect (Video)
• Cisco at Enterprise Connect (Video)
• The TalkingPointz Swag Patrol at Enterprise Connect (Video)
• Enterprise Connect 2025: AI Everywhere, But Calling, Meetings and Video Still Matter (rAVe)
• Bundles: The rise of Certified Mixed-Manufacturer systems in UC
• MWC25 — CPaaS, RCS, and More
• The Power of Eye Contact in Videoconferencing
• Chatting with Amy about Overcoming Objections to Zoom CC
• Chatting with Vinod M about Webex CC
• Dave Musing: The Hypervisors are Coming for CX
• Zoom/Mitel Hybrid Cloud Communication Integration Now Available 
• AI and AV: ‘All the rules are out the window right now’ — AV Magazine interviews Danto (Video)
• 3D Video Meetings: A Glimpse into the Future 
• A roll-up description of all the TalkingPointz Pick Hitz from ISE 2025
• UC at ISE 2025: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
• I’ll Have What She’s Having: AV and Building Management May Finally Click
• Andreessen Horowitz wants to invest in Voice AI Agents
• Scott Russell, CEO of NICE, speaks

Recent Insider Reports (only new Insider Reports are behind the paywall) 

1. Insider Jan 2024
2. Insider Feb 2024
3. Insider March 2024
4. Insider April 20, 2024
5. Insider May 2024
6. Insider June 2024 
7. Insider July 2024
8. Insider August 2024
9. Insider September 2024
10. Insider October 2024
11. Insider November 2024
12. Insider December 2024
13. Insider January 2025
14. Insider February 2025
15. Insider March 2025

TalkingPointz Insider Reports are available through a subscription service at TalkingPointz.com.

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Insider Reports offer timely, curated, and opinionated news. The Insider Report is published the first week of every month. Enterprise subscriptions also include TalkingPointz research notes. These reports are geared toward the industry itself, though some enterprises subscribe, too. Core subscribers are vendors, providers, consultants, and (financial and industry) analysts. TalkingPointz offers Enterprise-vendor, channel, consultant, and personal subscriptions.