Insider Report December 2025

Curated Enterprise Communications News and Insights from December 2025

Featured

AI is not new. It’s been in the background of our lives and careers the whole time, although it’s really been more of a promise than anything else. A promise of a powerful tool that assists us, exemplified by Captain Kirk talking to “Computer.” The promise remains, but it’s no longer in the background. 

Currently, AI is all that matters. This is both exciting and a problem. Bill Gurley, a prominent venture capitalist and a general partner at Benchmark, recently confirmed that “institutional investors have zero interest in non-AI deals.” He clarified that “institutional investors” are “people who are paid both a salary and a piece of the return to be active investors of other people’s money using other people’s money.” This means many firms, ripe for acquisition, will falter from neglect. 

AI is now the dominant narrative across nearly every industry, and indeed across enterprise communications. The technology is advancing rapidly. The previously state-of-the-art consumer AI tools, such as Siri and Alexa, are now eschewed as parlor tricks. We end 2025 with Google Gemini 3, and it’s far more helpful than ChatGPT 4o (“Omni”) from a year ago.

Simultaneously, there are concerns about an AI bubble. Many consider the current return insufficient, and the promise of the future is getting long in the tooth. Observers speculate that AI tech improvements will slow, costs won’t be recouped, and the circular deals between chip makers, LLMs, and data centers will collapse. We don’t yet know if OpenAI is the next Google or Netscape. 

There were no AI moments or breakthroughs in 2025. We didn’t hit AGI, we still don’t have robot butlers, and most of us still don’t have self-driving or flying cars. 2025 did have a series of exhausting disappointments. GPT-5 disappointed many people who were expecting a singularity. And “agentic,” an inescapable term, was mostly attached to demos that broke if you veered off-script. 

However, 2025 did mark the beginning of two profound shifts. The first is the disappearing line between “technical” and “non-technical” people. There has always been a distinction between those who create the tech (technical teams) and those who use it (users). That gap seemed permanent, a natural feature of knowledge work. 

AI is now enabling non-techies to create via natural language. We saw something similar with VisiCalc, which critically enabled the PC revolution. Generative AI is lowering the threshold for what counts as a “technical skill.” The bar is lower than “plain English” as modern AI is multilingual. The barrier of syntax is disappearing, along with function names and loop statements. The new barriers are curiosity, willingness to iterate, and comfort with ambiguity. 

I find it remarkable how easy it is to stretch domain expertise. Two simple examples: First, I didn’t understand something my accountant mentioned. Instead of asking him to explain it, I asked Gemini, which provided a surprisingly thorough and straightforward explanation. Also, my European boiler has always been a mystery. I can’t even figure out the manufacturer. I uploaded a photo to Gemini, and it gave me more than a link to a manual. It provided specific recommendations based on the settings and gauge in the photo. 

The second significant shift that began in 2025 is the move from how AI can reduce headcount to how AI can improve quality. Early 2025 was dominated by one question: “How many people can we replace?” Headcount reduction was the primary goal and driver of interest in every conversation and keynote (though it often masqueraded as “freeing time for more important tasks”).

But by the third quarter, more sophisticated users started asking different questions, such as, How do we do something we couldn’t do before? How do we deliver a truly best-in-class customer experience, at scale, at a price point that actually works? 

Cost-cutting is necessary, but dull and limited. You cut a few times, and then you’re done. And if you cut too far, you’ve just made yourself worse at a lower price point. Quality lift, on the other hand, compounds. New capabilities open new markets. New offerings deepen customer relationships. Previously unprofitable segments become viable. The ceiling is so much higher. 

In 2025, AI moved from being a “tool you talk to” to a “utility that works for you.” While 2024 was the year of multimodal chatbots, 2025 was defined by Agentic AI – systems capable of reasoning, planning, and autonomously executing multi-step tasks. In 2026, we will see these new capabilities radically transform most industries – including enterprise communications. 

While reinvention promises many improvements, it is also a threat. We are headed into a disruptive period, compounded by political polarization and socioeconomic unrest. – Michels

General News

Vonage Ericsson Partners with LotusFlare: In this latest chapter of Ericsson’s pursuit to drive 5G network-layer API adoption, Vonage Ericsson took a minority stake in BSS provider LotusFlare. The goal is to accelerate the global adoption of network APIs and position its 5G network API venture, Aduna, as a network API exchange. 

Aduna was created as a network API exchange, co-owned by Ericsson and several major providers. Ericsson had the same motivation when it acquired Vonage. LotusFlare emphasizes that identity and consent management are crucial components of the network API scheme, defining it as the system that manages digital identities and enforces consent regarding personal data use. The combo special now includes Ericsson’s programmable network infrastructure, LotusFlare’s network abstraction capabilities, Aduna’s global network API aggregation capabilities and Vonage’s network-powered enterprise solutions. The goal is to (once again) “accelerate CSPs’ ability to unlock new network capabilities for innovation.”

LotusFlare is a full-stack business support system (BSS) technology provider based in Santa Clara, California, that specializes in cloud-native digital monetization and customer experience software for the telecommunications industry. It was founded in 2014 by former Facebook executives. 

CES 2026 – Not Just Consumer Electronics: CES is happening as you read this, and for the enterprise communications and AV community, it finally matters in a way that can no longer be ignored. The show has moved well beyond VHS players. The silicon roadmaps, display advances, sensor platforms, optics, robotics, and embedded AI unveiled at CES are the same building blocks that later emerge as room systems, endpoints, workplace platforms, and management tools. What has changed in 2025 is not CES itself, but the industry’s recognition that the long-standing divide between “consumer” and “enterprise” technology is collapsing. As a result, enterprise analysts, AV professionals, and collaboration leaders are increasingly treating CES as the required context for understanding where markets, products, and buying decisions are headed.

TV Changes the Channel: The Oscars will move to YouTube in 2029. For decades, moving from broadcast to anything else was assumed to mean less reach, less prestige, and less relevance. That assumption no longer holds in a world where streaming and OTT platforms dominate how audiences consume long-form video. Beyond whatever financial arrangements were struck, this shift is proof that the center of gravity for television has permanently moved. The Oscars landing on YouTube is a marker that the television game has fundamentally changed.

AI News

MS 365 Price Increases: Microsoft has announced that it will raise prices across its commercial Microsoft 365 portfolio starting in mid-2026, affecting bundles that include Microsoft Teams alongside Office apps, security, and management tools. The increases generally land in the 10%-20% range, with some small business and frontline plans seeing higher jumps. In contrast, increases for enterprise tiers like E3 and E5 range from high single-digit to low-teens percentages. Microsoft is framing the move as its first broad pricing reset in more than a decade, citing added security features, compliance tooling, and the steady layering-on of AI capabilities as justification. 

What goes mostly unsaid is that Microsoft has already acknowledged that adoption of its many Copilot offerings is not accelerating at the pace it originally projected, leading to revised internal sales expectations for AI. In that context, the price increases look less like a response to runaway demand for AI and more like an effort to backfill slower-than-expected Copilot uptake by spreading the cost across the core productivity base that still treats Teams and Microsoft 365 as unavoidable infrastructure. – Danto

McOutrAIge: After only three days, McDonald’s Netherlands pulled its Christmas campaign, “The Most Terrible Time of the Year.” The 45-second spot was fully AI-generated and intended to highlight the stress of the holidays humorously. Instead, it triggered a significant public backlash. 

The primary criticism focused on the “Uncanny Valley” effect. The imagery was widely described as “creepy” and “glitchy.” Inconsistent facial expressions and distorted character physics turned what was intended to be a lighthearted parody into an unsettling viewing experience. That’s a valid and avoidable criticism. The public was also upset that the notion that December is the “most terrible time” was out of touch with the festive spirit. 

Agreed that the ad’s quality was not excellent, but that was stylistic. There are also complaints about AI-generated content that is too realistic. Complaints about the messaging being out of line are silly. Christmas is a big deal, and big deals come with stress. Christmas made Scrooge angry. George Bailey wanted to commit suicide in It’s a Wonderful Life. The McCallisters were so stressed that they left their kid Home Alone. Ralphie shot himself in the eye, and who can’t relate to the Griswolds’ experiences in Christmas Vacation? Poking fun at Christmas is as old as Burgermeister Meisterburger. 

There was some pushback on not using (employing) humans. Melanie Bridge, the CEO of the company that made the ad, defended its use of AI on LinkedIn. “It’s never about replacing craft; it’s about expanding the toolbox. The vision, the taste, the leadership … that will always be human,” she said. “And here’s the part people don’t see: the hours that went into this job far exceeded a traditional shoot. Ten people, five weeks, full-time.”

Hmm. First, it won’t always be human; secondly, invisible suppliers should remain invisible; and lastly, it took more hours with AI than with humans. Makes one wonder what the objective was. Santa’s toolbox does not need expansion. 

Coke also received pushback on its AI ad for using “manufactured” AI content over human talent. Unlike McDonald’s, Coke did not pull its ad.

A few brands took an anti-AI angle. Brands like Aerie, Polaroid, and Heineken ran “Anti-AI” campaigns. Aerie saw a 28% jump in engagement by explicitly pledging: “No AI-generated bodies. 100% human.”

These are the times, but times are changing fast. This will be the last year anyone cares. Henceforth, complaints will come from stakeholders when an ad actually uses humans. That was the feeling I had when a human answered my call to activate my new credit card. WTF? The good news is the tech is getting better. 

ChatGPT Enterprise: ChatGPT boasts the highest consumer adoption, but it’s quickly running into stiff competition from Gemini and Meta, mainly because of their parent companies’ huge distribution networks. With only 5% of ChatGPT’s 800 million monthly active users actually paying, rivals like Anthropic and Gemini are building strong enterprise API businesses. OpenAI is now gearing up for an aggressive push into the enterprise space – a move confirmed by the hiring of Slack’s CEO as CRO. Enterprise AI is the software industry’s fastest-growing category, expected to hit $37.5 billion next year. Success here would validate their new funding and back OpenAI’s colossal $1.4 trillion infrastructure plans. Plus, their new deal with Microsoft gives them more breathing room to zero in on enterprise requirements.

AAIF: A new standards body, the AI Agent Interoperability Forum (AAIF), has been launched by major tech companies, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, AWS, Twilio, and Microsoft, under the Linux Foundation to ensure interoperability and shared safety patterns for AI agents. Anthropic contributed its MCP protocol to the AAIF, signaling that the standard will not be controlled by a single vendor. 

While the AAIF is funded through corporate membership dues, the Linux Foundation asserts that project roadmaps are set by technical steering committees, preventing single-member control. The main question remains whether AAIF will become essential infrastructure or just another alliance. The widespread adoption and evolution of these shared standards would indicate success. The creation of standards bodies is a typical part of platform evolution, often arising when the field is nascent and broad adoption is prioritized over proprietary lock-in.

Meetings and AV 

David Danto is the primary author of this section. 

Year-End Thoughts on Meetings and AV: Some manufacturers treat meetings and AV as if they are already solved, commoditized, and no longer worthy of serious attention, which is unfortunate because the reality is exactly the opposite. Core problems persist, particularly around interoperability, reliability, and the basic mechanics of getting people connected across platforms without friction. The industry still struggles with dropped calls, inconsistent video, brittle integrations, and the ongoing challenge of seamless interop. 

At the same time, the hardware side of the business is under real strain. Many AV integrators are operating on razor-thin margins, often around 3% on hardware, leading some to deemphasize hardware altogether and others to exit the industry entirely. This stands in sharp contrast to the relentlessly optimistic messaging coming from the AV industry association, which glosses over the economic reality. 

Complicating matters for some manufacturers and simplifying them for others, Microsoft’s MDEP has now clearly asserted itself as the dominant force in the Android-based meeting appliance space, reshaping vendor roadmaps and leaving less room for differentiation among hardware manufacturers. I fully expect at least one manufacturer to leave the crowded space in the coming year.

AI has yet to significantly improve the substance and resilience of meetings. The hard questions remain largely unanswered. Can AI mitigate or mask failures when video or audio breaks down mid-meeting? Can it enable true interoperability between competing meeting platforms without requiring fragile gateways or complex setups and UIs? Can it reduce or eliminate the need for expensive, installed microphones? Early signs suggest we are nearing that inflection point, with products beginning to emerge that hint at these capabilities. The coming year is likely to be one of transition and consolidation, particularly in hardware and integration.

Pre-ISE Announcements: With Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) returning to Barcelona in the first week of February, a familiar pattern is already taking shape in the run-up to the show. Increasingly, vendors are choosing to pre-announce their ISE news by the third week of January, rather than saving everything for the show floor itself. This year, that is expected to include announcements from Crestron, Logitech, and others, creating early buzz and giving attendees clear reasons to prioritize specific booths once they arrive. The growing reliance on pre-ISE announcements suggests the AV and collaboration industry is shifting toward building momentum in advance, treating the show less as a surprise reveal moment and more as the culmination of a longer, carefully staged launch cycle.

LG Adds Copilot: Microsoft Copilot has begun appearing on some LG smart TVs following a recent webOS update, showing up on the home screen without user opt-in and with no straightforward way to remove it. Users report that the Copilot tile behaves like a system component rather than a standard app, and even factory resets may restore it. The same update also enables LG’s Live Plus content recognition feature by default, though that setting can be disabled manually. This quietly reinforces a broader pattern where AI features are being pushed into consumer devices at the system level, often prioritizing platform strategy over user choice – a move that risks eroding trust if opt-out controls remain limited.

Promethean and MAXHUB: Promethean and MAXHUB have teamed up to launch a Microsoft Teams-certified meeting-room solution that bundles Promethean’s ActivPanel 10 touchscreen and ActivPen 2 with MAXHUB’s cord-free 4K ePTZ camera and audio, targeting hybrid office environments. The system comes in multiple configurations (Xcore Kit Pro, V50, U50) and is designed to simplify wireless presenting, annotation and hybrid collaboration for in-room and remote participants. This product marks Promethean’s strategic expansion from its education market roots into corporate hybrid workspaces amid the rising importance of certified Teams Rooms hardware. The move underscores how Microsoft’s certification regime is shaping enterprise purchasing toward integrated Teams-focused solutions at the expense of platform-agnostic flexibility.

Mersive Going Private Again: Led by its current executive team, including CEO Damian Blazy, Mersive announced that management has taken back a controlling stake in the company, marking a return to internal ownership after years under private-equity control. That move is the latest chapter in a history defined by change rather than continuity. Mersive is best known for Solstice, its software-centric wireless collaboration platform that enables cable-free content sharing, multi-user collaboration, and integration into modern meeting and learning spaces, all managed centrally for enterprise use. While Solstice itself has remained a relatively consistent presence in the AV and collaboration market, the company behind it has moved through repeated phases of reinvention, from its early startup roots to private-equity ownership beginning around 2017-2018, followed by periodic leadership and strategic resets. For longtime observers, the pattern has been less about any single transaction and more about the cumulative effect of constant course corrections, making the company feel perpetually in motion even as its core product stays familiar.

Demant Finally Sells EPOS: Demant has signed an agreement to sell EPOS to ACCO Brands for €7 million in cash, with up to €3 million in additional milestone-based payments, marking the final step in Demant’s long-stated plan to focus exclusively on hearing health. The decision follows a divestment process that stretched over several years, during which EPOS products effectively sat in limbo as customers, partners, and employees waited for clarity on the brand’s future. That prolonged uncertainty took a toll, with many experienced and well-regarded people leaving the company well before a deal was finalized. While ACCO Brands may provide EPOS with a more natural home alongside Kensington, the drawn-out exit underscores how strategic indecision can quietly erode both talent and market momentum long before a transaction is complete.

Google May Cost You: A recent LinkedIn post raised concerns that Google Meet on mobile devices may fall back to cellular data during calls, even when connected to strong Wi-Fi, resulting in unexpectedly high mobile data usage. We found forum discussions and user reports going back several years that suggest similar behavior has occurred in the past, with Google generally advising users to manually restrict cellular access rather than treating it as a defect. We have not independently verified this behavior ourselves, but the lack of clear in-app notification when switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data is notable. If accurate, this places the burden on users and IT teams to proactively manage data settings rather than relying on Meet on mobile to behave transparently.

Another Emmy: The Insider previously covered Zoom’s win of an Emmy for its Zoom for Broadcast technology solution that connects Zoom meetings to broadcast network gear. However, another Emmy story can also be told in the Insider. The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) won an Emmy for its AV1 video codec. 

The battle between VP8 and H.264 was a decade-long tug-of-war between the “Open Web” and “Proprietary Hardware” philosophies. The battle ended in a pragmatic ceasefire that paved the way for the modern AV1 era. Developers stopped fighting over which one was better and simply started supporting both. H.264 became the king of mobile/hardware, while VP8 became the workhorse of the early browser-based video call.

The next-generation video codec needed to be a team effort. In 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed by a Dream Team of rivals, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Cisco, and NVIDIA. AV1 is an open video codec (royalty-free) designed to deliver high-quality video with less bandwidth than previous codecs. It is built from the best parts of Google’s VP10, Mozilla’s Daala, and Cisco’s Thor. AV1 is deployed across a variety of popular platforms and devices.

Customer Experience

Year-End Thoughts on CX: CCaaS is disintegrating. For a decade or so, CCaaS existed as a modern alternative to a premises-based contact center. That narrative has played out. The CCaaS providers themselves are distancing themselves from the cloud, exemplified best by Five9 shedding its cloud logo. Providers now want to be associated with the larger CX solution. Still, many additional companies and sectors view themselves as part of the CX solution, including CRM and service ticket vendors. 

While CX is hard to narrow as a sector, it’s also clear that AI is redefining it. The contact center’s moat has traditionally centered on ACD (routing and queuing), reports, and analytics, but the conversation has shifted to intents, automation, and insights. The new moat isn’t clear, but it’s smaller. Again, there are many established and emerging companies and sectors savvy in AI, and they flaunt labels such as CCaaS, CPaaS, UCaaS, CAIP, and CRM.

It’s going to be a rough ride as a new sector emerges. The prerequisites for success are cash, momentum, AI, data, customers, and luck. The bundle play is working now, but best-of-breed will rise once the breed is determined. What’s particularly interesting is how CX is becoming ACD agnostic. Google, NiCE, Talkdesk, UJET, and Verint are fine with BYO ACD. 

Amazon Connect at re:Invent: At AWS re:Invent, Amazon Connect unveiled 29 new capabilities, repositioning the platform around the concept that “Connect is AI.” The focus was heavily on Agentic AI, creating systems where AI acts as a reasoning, action-taking “teammate” for both customers and human agents.

AWS made numerous Connect announcements, roughly organized into four categories: Action with AI, Elevate your workforce, Transform data to relationships, and Accelerate outcomes. Selected key announcements include: A continuum of choice for mixing autonomous agents, deterministic workflows, and human interaction. Connect now offers prebuilt, first-party autonomous AI agents. New technologies like the Nova Sonic model enable bidirectional speech-to-speech. Connect adopted the MCP standard for interacting with back-end systems and introduced tools for orchestrating third-party AI models.

To aid human agents, Real-Time AI Assistance “whispers” detected customer intents. Connect can now automatically flag issues like vulnerable customers. A significant theme was the unification of data and the rigorous management of AI agents, mirroring human staff with dedicated dashboards and evaluation forms that show the AI’s “thought process.”

The event also highlighted its “all-inclusive” pricing model, charging by the minute for usage, with AI features included, to encourage experimentation and remove cost-based adoption barriers. There were an impressive number of announcements in total, and Connect received remarkable attention at Reinvent. 

Amazon Connect has earned a reputation as a fast-moving and innovative solution. The platform is only eight years old, yet it has been soft-launched as an AI-first solution. It is positioned as a cure to its “Franken-stack” competitors. Connect is, of course, just one of many AWS services that strengthen and complete the CX data and process picture – at least for those that willingly desire or implement other AWS solutions. 

Connect’s clarity comes from its founder, Pasquale DeMaio, who has earned recognigtion for delivering innovation on Connect for eight-years. The platform continues to attract new customers, and AWS claimed Connect processed 12B customer interaction minutes in 2025, roughly double from 2024 (the implication is new customers and growth, not poor resolutions, which can also increase interaction minutes). It is less clear how Pasquale prioritizes initiatives for Connect. For example, RCS is not a priority for AWS. The product and messaging struggle to find a balance between its personas as an enterprise monolith and best-of-breed sector player. 

Taldkesk and UiPath: Talkdesk teamed up with UiPath to create an end-to-end agentic AI ecosystem by connecting front-office and back-office systems to enhance customer-journey automation. Talkdesk + UiPath (+ previously announced Databricks) = agentic + document process + datalake. It captures how CX platforms are moving from AI-assisted interactions to agentic, outcome-driven customer journeys. The goal is to allow customers to orchestrate richer, more intelligent automations while dramatically reducing the time and friction involved in accessing and extracting critical information by connecting/coordinating robots, agents, and people across workflows.

Using Model Context Protocol (MCP), the integration combines Talkdesk’s multi-agent AI solution with UiPath’s agentic orchestration and intelligent document processing. An initial use case involves allowing a patient or provider to call a healthcare contact center to check an authorization for a procedure or prescription. This typically requires access to unstructured documents (records, lab reports, and insurance claims). Now, the Td AI agent receives the request and relies on UiPath IXP to classify, extract, and process documents. Td appears to be leveraging its depth in verticals with specialized pre-built automations.

NiCE Returns to Africa: NiCE made its AI-powered customer experience platform, CXone Mpower, generally available on a dedicated, local instance in South Africa. The platform is hosted locally with redundant data centers in Cape Town and Johannesburg, ensuring core applications and customer data remain within the country to comply with local data governance and regulatory requirements. The platform includes native AI capabilities such as AI-driven workspaces, AI-powered insights, and end-to-end journey orchestration to optimize workflows and unify experiences across the front, middle, and back offices. Additionally, NiCE has invested in local telecommunications infrastructure to keep voice traffic within the region.

UC and Messaging

End-of-Year Thoughts on UC: UC has simmered to a dull roar. The AI disruption has largely occurred. Microsoft’s dominance in UCaaS has likely peaked as the vendor has focused more on Copilot and Azure plays. The prem-bad, cloud-good narrative is also fading, possibly reversing as outages and privacy eat at UCaaS. 

The UCaaS Mobility 3.0 solution remains poised as the next significant evolution in UCaaS. We are starting to see some impressive wins. Primary offerings are available from AudioCodes, Cisco, Crexendo, Microsoft, and some RingCentral partners. The main inhibitors are general awareness and implementation difficulties. Expect to see faster adoption in Europe. Mobility is valued more in Europe than in the US, and the technology is not beleaguered by locked phones. 

A significant vulnerability for enterprise UCaaS is RCS. The new messaging protocol is gaining momentum, but mainly as an SMS alternative. As rich messaging becomes more popular, UCaaS solutions that don’t support it will be at a disadvantage. At this time, only RCS-ready UCaaS offers are available from MNOs.

6M More Dial Tones: Microsoft quietly updated its Teams Phone metrics in a recent presentation, indicating that the number of PSTN-enabled Teams Phone users has grown to 26M, up from the last publicly cited figure of 20M reported in May of 2024. There was no update on overall Teams MAU, but it’s likely around 350M. That means a paltry 6% have opted to purchase Teams PSTN services from Microsoft. 

Michels wrote about this disconnect in UCaaS is Stupid, arguing that the assumption of “unified” communications is wrong and misleading. However, Operator Connect and Direct Routing provide Microsoft the best of both worlds: desktop control without CSP hassles (such as 911, taxation, and wiretaps). Nonetheless, 30% growth over 19 months isn’t bad, especially considering how little marketing the company has done. Microsoft has continued to PSTN-enable new markets with traditional telephony and Teams Phone Mobile. Microsoft’s share in UCaaS is understated by its 26M subscribers. 

GammaUCX: Gamma Communications plc launched GammaUCX, a voice network designed to unify and manage communications across platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Webex, and contact centers, as well as existing PBXs. It addresses challenges like slow migrations, manual number porting, fragmented voice estates, and high PSTN costs by giving IT teams greater control.

Built on Gamma’s resilient network, GammaUCX connects cloud communication tools with older systems, supporting two-way calling in over 20 countries. It integrates with major cloud platforms and hybrid environments, keeping calls on Gamma's infrastructure to improve performance and control costs.

The service enables “on-net” calling and provides real-time number management, allowing IT staff to switch traffic, redirect calls during outages, and maintain consistent number presentation across applications. GammaUCX is used for migration and modernization projects across Europe, including supporting large UK companies and a recent expansion into the Netherlands. 

RingCentral AIR Suite: RingCentral transformed its AI Receptionist (AIR) into a suite, which includes the AI Virtual Assistant (AVA) and the AI Conversation Expert (ACE), formerly known as RingSense. AIR handles initial inquiries, appointment setting, and lead capture. AVA focuses on post-call tasks, summarizing meetings and calls, and helps draft communications. ACE provides deeper insights by analyzing calls to generate analytics, helping leaders understand the “why” behind the data. The company reports over 5,800 paying AIR customers and more than 4,300 ACE customers.

Mitel GA: Mitel released its 6907 IP phone (made in Germany). Also, its new 114 DECT phone went GA. DECT phones are optimized for low power consumption, offering longer talk and standby times compared to Wi-Fi phones. OpenScape Business received an incremental upgrade. 

vCon Conference: Michels attended the December vCon conference (in Washington, DC). vCons (virtualized conversations) are a proposed format for industry standard recordings and metadata. The event underscored a significant, strategic industry shift toward structured conversational intelligence, highlighting the vCon framework as a crucial enabler. A key outcome was the real-world evidence from developers across UC, CPaaS, CCaaS, and AI, who shared practical lessons and validation from integrating vCon into production systems. Their focus was clearly on solving complex, real-world problems, specifically the critical need to blend AI-derived insights with regulatory compliance requirements.

Often described as the PDF of conversations, the vCon standard packages all aspects of human interactions – voice, chat, video, email, text – into a structured, portable, machine-readable, and AI-ready file. The growing interest and scope of the conversation around vCon suggest a strong market appetite for actionable insights derived from structured conversation records. This strategic pivot – from simply transporting data to capturing the conversation as an interoperable, structured artifact – delivers tangible benefits. These include demonstrably better compliance and auditability, superior AI insight generation and summarization, streamlined integration with core business platforms, and scalable improvements to the customer experience. The immediate next steps for the industry involve increased developer experimentation, greater attention from enterprise architects on the governance and auditing of these structured conversations, and greater involvement from key industry thought leaders to accelerate this necessary strategic direction.

M&A

Verint Acquired: Thoma Bravo completed its acquisition of Verint. Verint was one of our last founder-run companies in the space. Michels fears that Thoma Bravo will cease meaningful investment and siphon cash out of Verint operations, per the PE manual (see Searchlight, Silver Lake, Gore Group, and others). Verint has indicated that’s not the case. TalkingPointz intends to publish a deep dive on this, but Verint deferred briefings til closing. 

Quadient and CDP: French automation company Quadient plans to acquire long-time partner CDP Communications to expand its digital platform with technology for compliant, accessible, and inclusive customer communications. CDP’s technology specializes in converting high-volume documents into accessible formats for regulated industries, helping companies comply with new accessibility regulations in Europe and North America. The acquisition aims to accelerate product development and strengthen Quadient’s Customer Communication Management capabilities, with the transaction expected to close soon.

Tata and Commotion: Tata Communications acquired a 51% stake in Commotion Inc., an AI-native enterprise SaaS platform company. This move is intended to accelerate AI integration across Tata Communications’ Digital Fabric, particularly its Customer Interaction Suite, including Kaleyra, to deliver AI-driven experiences. Commotion’s orchestration engine will integrate with Kaleyra’s components to automate and intelligently guide customer journeys. Commotion offers omnichannel CX automation, voice AI solutions, and business-ready autonomous digital agents. 

ServiceNow and Armis: ServiceNow agreed to acquire the cybersecurity startup Armis for $7.75B in cash. This valuation is a significant increase from the company’s $6.1 billion valuation in a pre-IPO funding round just last month. Armis, which had previously aimed for a 2026 or 2027 IPO, provides security software for critical infrastructure to major companies and governments. The acquisition will help ServiceNow expand its cybersecurity offerings. Armis has $340 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), with year-over-year growth exceeding 50%. This deal concludes a busy acquisition year for ServiceNow, which also acquired Moveworks for $2.85B and Veza for $1B.

AudioConferencing Consolidation: Unconfirmed significant consolidation occurring in audio conferencing.

Leadership Changes

Five9 names its new CEO: Amit Mathradas was named CEO, effective Feb. 2. This is a result of a five-month search initiated after Mike Burkland announced his intent to step down. Amit, new to the sector, takes the helm of an MQ CCaaS Leader with growing revenue, a strong brand, and an impressive new AI routing capability. He will have to reinvigorate the company as it lost momentum during the search. Interesting and concerning that they picked a guy with PE experience (he also has some legacy AI experience). Burkland remains on the board. Also at Five9, Daniel Silva was promoted to SVP Product Engineering. 

Joe Havlik, previously the GM of Cognigy NA, is now the VP of Global Revenue at Synthflow. Steven Zachok, previously the VP of Sales Engineering at Cognigy, returned to RingCentral as VP and GM of AI. Alexandra Anders also departed Cognigy to join Fotograf.de as its Chief People Officer. It does not appear that NiCE provided adequate retention incentives for its recently acquired executives. The changes leave the CCaaS and CAIP leader with few senior executives who have more than a year of experience in their current roles.

Verint’s founder, Chairman, and CEO, Dan Bodner, has transitioned to an advisory role post acquisition (Bodner indicated to analysts that he intended to stay on post-closing). Mike Lipps, an Operating Partner with Thoma Bravo, has become Chairman of the (Verint?) Board of the combined companies and interim CEO. Calabrio CEO Dave Rhodes remains in his role. 

Jim Fowler, a Lumen Board member since 2023, was named EVP, CTO, and CPO at Lumen, succeeding Dave Ward. 

Martin Classen is no longer CPO MD at Enreach, moving to the role of CPO at TOPdesk. 

Meet Us

Dave Michels is the founder and chief protagonist of TalkingPointz and the editor-in-chief of the Insider Report. [email protected]. David Danto is AV Aficionado at TalkingPointz. [email protected]. 

Goodreads

1. Amazon’s anti-benchmark AI bet – Leaderboards are for Leaders.
2. ​​Agents, robots, and us: Skill partnerships in the age of AI – McKinsey likes AI.
3. Sam Altman interviewed by Jack Altman – podcast. 
4. Customer experience trends 2026: Eight analysts share their predictions – Eight predictions compiled by Zoom. 
5. AI is creating a security problem most companies aren’t staffed to handle – “AI security” is its own discipline, and traditional security teams often lack the skills to test and harden LLM-style systems.
6. Microsoft’s RTO mandate suspiciously aligns with Teams’ controversial Wi-Fi location tracking – Coincidence or micromanaging?
7. Intel says it will keep its networking and communications unit – Intel decided not to divest its networking and communications unit after reviewing strategic options, signaling it still sees the segment as core.
8. VCs predict strong enterprise AI adoption next year – again – TechCrunch surveyed 24 enterprise-focused VCs, and they overwhelmingly think 2026 will be the year when enterprises start to meaningfully adopt AI.
9. UC/CX Vendor on the Key Trends and Predictions for 2026 – Blair collects annual thoughts from the providers. 
10. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Block join new Linux Foundation effort to standardize the AI agent era – The Linux Foundation is launching a new group dedicated to keeping AI agents from splintering into a mess of incompatible, locked-down products.
11. How, in the face of it all, centers can attract and keep their employees – AI is taking on the repetitive tasks, but that’s freeing agents to do what actually matters: solve complex problems, show empathy in difficult moments, and build real relationships with customers.
12. Enterprise Will Be a Top OpenAI Priority in 2026 – OpenAI’s CEO says the company wants to sell to businesses, also fields an Oppenheimer question.
13. Trump signs executive order blocking states from enforcing their own regulations around AI – This would be logical if the US could actually pass national regulations, which seems unlikely.
14. The state of enterprise AI – OpenAI released a big enterprise user survey on use and productivity gains.

Other Recent Stuff

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

• 5 Unexpected Realities of Deploying AI CX Agents
• Webex innovation is quietly winning 
• Reading the CES 2026 Tea Leaves
• The State of Videoconferencing at the End of 2025: 30 Years In, Still Not Done
• Our Chat with Cisco’s Snorre Kjesbu – Video 
• Center-of-Table Cameras: Back to the Future of Meeting Equity
• Why Orchestration Is the Word of the Year – Thoughts from the fall conference season
• UC Weekly News Analyst Year-End Wrap Discussion – Video chat
• MDEP at Ignite 2025 – The Line in the Sand Is Now Crystal Clear
• RingCentral’s Kristen Koenig on RC Video – TalkingPointz Chatz
• Tech Perspectives: Does Zoom Have a New Trophy Wife?
• Wildix Zagged Where Others Zigged
• Jason Uslan, CCO Wildix
• The Eternal AV Debate – What to name your conference room – Be sure to read not just the post but the excellent industry discussion beneath.
• Are Industry Analysts Doomed?
• Cisco WebexOne Demos
• UCaaS Mobility 3: Dave Michels on the Next Wave of Mobile-First Enterprise Communications 
• It’s Time to Admit CRM Is Failing 
• Bad News for Tech Workers – RTO has more to do with if you work than where you work. 
• Videoconferencing Finally Establishes Its Shot – Video manufacturers begin to use composited images.

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2. Insider January 2025
3. Insider February 2025
4. Insider March 2025
5. Insider April 2025
6. Insider May 2025
7. Insider June 2025
8. Insider July 2025
9. Insider August 2025 
10. Insider September 2025
11. Insider October 2025
12. Insider November 2025

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Insider Reports offer timely, curated, and opinionated news. The Insider Report is published in 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. Insider Lite is a free Substack newsletter.