Insider Report October 2025

Curated Enterprise Communications News and Insights from October 2025

Featured

Microsoft and OpenAI Happy Again: Microsoft and OpenAI have revised their 2019 partnership agreement, aligning with OpenAI’s restructuring into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). This new deal offers significant benefits for both companies and the broader AI market.

For Microsoft, the agreement removes a major “overhang” on its stock by securing a massive $250B commitment for Azure cloud services from OpenAI. Additionally, Microsoft extends its intellectual property rights to OpenAI’s models, including post-AGI systems, through 2032, solidifying its foundational role in the AI ecosystem for the long term. Microsoft retains Azure API exclusivity for OpenAI’s frontier models.

This revised agreement is also highly positive for OpenAI. By eliminating Microsoft’s “right of first refusal” on being the sole cloud provider, OpenAI gains crucial operational flexibility and clarity for fundraising. This change enables OpenAI to pursue partnerships with other cloud providers like AWS or Oracle, fostering a more competitive and multicloud AI infrastructure market, which is beneficial for accelerating growth and innovation in the AI space.

The corporate restructuring of OpenAI into a PBC is a key positive development. It provides a structured hybrid model as a for-profit entity legally obligated to consider both shareholder interests and a public benefit mission (ensuring AGI benefits humanity). This allows OpenAI to raise substantial capital while legally tethering itself to its founding mission through the oversight of the original nonprofit parent (the OpenAI Foundation).

Furthermore, the establishment of an independent expert panel to verify any future declaration of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a necessary and positive move. This mechanism addresses regulatory and governance concerns that have complicated the partnership since 2019, ensuring a more responsible and transparent transition of core AI technology.

NVIDIA Eyes 6G: NVIDIA has announced a strategic equity investment of $1B in Nokia. This investment involves NVIDIA subscribing to approximately 166.4M newly issued Nokia shares at $6.01 per share, giving NVIDIA a 2.9% stake in Nokia. This transaction is directly linked to a strategic partnership focused on co-developing the AI-RAN (Radio Access Network) market. As part of this collaboration, Nokia will adapt its 5G and future 6G network software to run on NVIDIA’s accelerated computing architecture. Nokia plans to use the proceeds from this investment to accelerate its growth in the AI and cloud data center networking sectors.

The partnership suggests that Nokia will re-engineer its 5G and 6G software to operate on NVIDIA’s chips, integrating radio engineering with GPU intelligence. This could mean that the baseband, which is central to every cell tower, might begin to function like a neural network, capable of learning, predicting, and optimizing in real time.

From NVIDIA’s perspective, this collaboration could bridge the gap between data centers and edge infrastructure, effectively connecting AI compute with global connectivity. For Nokia, it represents a shift from standard hardware to AI-native networks that can adapt, self-tune, and support the next generation of machine traffic. If successful, this partnership has the potential to transform telecommunications from a utility into a distributed AI platform, where global networks would not only transmit data but also exhibit a degree of intelligence. 

This investment suggests that NVIDIA is gaining a foothold in the future 6G nervous system, but not in the US. Both Verizon and AT&T have standardized on Ericsson. 

Ericsson and Vodafone Partnership: Ericsson and Vodafone announced a five-year “programmable networks” partnership to modernize Vodafone’s RAN and accelerate 5G Standalone across multiple markets. Ericsson becomes sole RAN vendor in Ireland, Netherlands, and Portugal — and remains a major vendor in Germany, Romania, and Egypt — with deployments including Massive MIMO, RAN Compute, and AI-driven SMO/rApps, starting in Germany in Q4 2025. The deal centralizes technology choices around Ericsson’s 5G Advanced stack and automation to lift performance, energy efficiency, and service differentiation. It also signals deeper vendor consolidation at Vodafone — efficient in the near term, but it raises longer-term questions about negotiating leverage and the practical path to Open RAN.

General News

AWS CloudDown: On Oct. 20, 2025, a multi-hour AWS outage primarily in the US-EAST-1 region affected thousands of global websites and applications, including many enterprise communication services. The disruption was caused by DNS resolution issues with the DynamoDB database service endpoint and a subsequent failure in an internal subsystem. Although resolved within four hours, full recovery took until evening. Affected services ranged from social media and gaming to banking and government websites. This event underscored the internet’s fragility due to its reliance on concentrated cloud providers (remember CrowdStrike) and prompted calls for greater strategic redundancy. 

Not long ago, enterprises saw the cloud as a form of disaster recovery. Today, they must prioritize architectural redundancy and disaster recovery. Recommended best practices include multiregion deployments, a multicloud strategy, decoupling and maintaining warm standbys for single regional control plane services, and operational resilience through graceful degradation and regular Chaos Engineering tests. The outages are getting bigger, and DR planning is getting very complex. 

Not everything needs to be connected to an AI data center. Sleep Eight’s new AI mattress toppers were impacted by the outage, too. The CEO has said they will introduce an outage mode, but does a mattress really require constant AI connectivity?

Azure “Hold My Beer”: A few days after the Amazon Web Services DNS outage, Microsoft’s cloud platform, Microsoft Azure, also experienced a major disruption caused by an inadvertent configuration change in its Azure Front Door service, triggering DNS and routing failures that impacted services such as Microsoft 365, Minecraft, the Xbox network, and many enterprise customers. Microsoft rolled back to a known-good configuration and redirected portal traffic to bypass the faulty routing; by late evening, the service was over 98% restored, with full mitigation targeted around 00:40 UTC. This incident underscores how even the second-largest cloud provider remains vulnerable to configuration or routing errors — and firms relying on these hyperscale clouds should reassess their failover strategies rather than assume it just works.

Goodbye Apple Clips: Apple has officially discontinued its Clips video app, removing it from the App Store and ending updates. Launched in 2017 as a lightweight alternative to Snapchat and Instagram Stories, Clips let users splice short videos with filters and emojis. The move underscores how Apple is quietly retreating from social-style tools, and it’s another reminder that Apple’s experiments outside hardware often fail. 

HJ Carrier Banned — Who’s Next? The FCC began proceedings to revoke the authorization of HKT International, a Hong Kong-based telecom carrier tied to China Unicom, citing national security concerns. As we all know, we can’t necessarily trust Chinese companies because of several broad and powerful Chinese laws that effectively compel Chinese companies to cooperate with the Chinese government’s intelligence and security apparatus.

However, this issue is far more widespread than Chinese companies. Europe is pushing for providers to keep data in Europe and is increasingly favoring European companies. American companies are also becoming victims of decreasing international trust. A Microsoft executive publicly acknowledged that it cannot guarantee absolute data sovereignty for its foreign clients against a valid US government request. This admission was made by Anton Carniaux, Director of Public and Legal Affairs at Microsoft France, during a testimony before the French Senate in July 2025.

This lack of guaranteed sovereignty is due to the US CLOUD Act, a law that empowers US authorities, under legal compulsion, to demand customer data from American cloud service providers, regardless of the physical location of that data around the world. While Microsoft asserts it will resist unfounded requests and attempt to redirect authorities to their clients, the executive confirmed that the company is ultimately legally obligated to comply with a valid CLOUD Act demand. The only loophole here is E2E-encrypted data. 

AI News

Microsoft Agent Framework: Microsoft introduced Agent Framework, an open-source development kit designed for building AI agents and multi-agent workflows in .NET and Python. It unifies and extends concepts from Semantic Kernel and AutoGen projects, combining their strengths with new features, and serves as the foundation for future AI agent development. The framework offers two main capabilities: AI agents, which use LLMs to process inputs, call tools, and generate responses, supporting various model providers; and Workflows, which are graph-based systems connecting multiple agents and functions for complex, multi-step tasks. Additionally, it provides foundational components such as model clients, an agent thread for state management, context providers for memory, middleware for intercepting actions, and MCP clients for tool integration, all contributing to building flexible, robust, and secure AI applications.

Developers can now safely experiment with and deploy to Azure AI Foundry, which offers built-in observability, compliance, and durability. APIs can be integrated for agent communication and workflow orchestration across platforms. Beyond coding libraries, Microsoft is adding multi-agent workflows for complex business tasks, OpenTelemetry-powered observability for tracing and debugging, a Voice Live API for real-time voice agents, and Responsible AI features like task adherence, prompt shielding, and PII detection. While Microsoft is simplifying agentic AI development, it’s not a “plug and play” solution, requiring secure data, clear governance, and an integration roadmap.

Mico Who?: We’ve poked fun at the fluidity of Microsoft Copilot for a long time. Many analysts have lost count of how many different copilots there are and how many times Microsoft has changed its GTM. 

This latest announcement, however, threw us for a loop. As part of the fall release, Microsoft introduced what we are calling “Clippy 2” — an animated character named “Mico” (Microsoft Copilot) that listens, reacts, changes colors, and expresses warmth and empathy while you chat with Copilot. The stated goal is to make AI more human-centered, emphasizing optimism over fear, and designing technology that empowers human judgment instead of replacing it. Copilot’s new features include long-term memory, shared collaboration groups, deeper personalization, and health and education tools, all intended to make the AI more useful and socially intelligent.

Mico? After all the years of ridicule that Clippy earned for being more annoying than helpful, someone at Microsoft decided to double down on the idea of a talking cartoon assistant? It’s hard to imagine anyone actually asking for this. Who knows, everything old becomes new again. Maybe Mico will be a hit. Regardless, it feels like Copilot continues to change too often. 

Gemini Enterprise: Google launched Gemini Enterprise, an AI-powered chat interface for employees, designed to automate workflows and bring Google AI to the workplace. It combines advanced Gemini models, a no-code workbench, prebuilt Google agents, secure data connectivity, a central governance framework, and an open ecosystem. 

This launch is part of a broader trend of AI labs and unicorns using Google Cloud’s AI products. Google also announced new agents and capabilities that integrate with Gemini Enterprise, such as Google Vids, Google Meet’s real-time speech translation, and a Data Science Agent, alongside new AI training programs like Google Skills and GEAR. Google now has a unified enterprise version of Gemini with governance and ecosystem in place.

Surf’n US AI: OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Atlas, a new browser built entirely around ChatGPT. Atlas integrates conversational AI directly into web navigation, allowing users to search, summarize, and complete tasks without leaving the page. It supports optional “browser memories” that let ChatGPT recall sites and context, though users retain full privacy controls and can clear data anytime. This is OpenAI’s boldest step toward a “super-assistant” that fuses browsing, productivity, and AI interaction into a single experience. Danto predicted this months ago. 

OpenAI is really going after Google. It is directly threatening its dominant position in search by shifting to AI-driven answers. OpenAI’s threat is posed by its perceived advantage in LLMs like GPT-4o, which offers direct, conversational answers that reduce the effectiveness of its advertising revenue. 

AI Copyright Infringement Case Proceeds: OpenAI must face allegations of copyright infringement brought by authors in a consolidated class-action lawsuit, US District Judge Sidney H. Stein ruled in an Oct. 27 order. The judge allowed the authors’ claims to proceed, finding they had plausibly alleged that OpenAI’s models were trained on copyrighted works without authorization. The ruling keeps alive one of the most closely watched cases testing how US copyright law applies to generative AI training and could have broad implications for future AI development and data-use practices. Earlier this year, Anthropic — another major AI firm valued at roughly $183B — reached a $1.5B licensing settlement with publishers to resolve similar claims, and a comparable resolution may ultimately emerge here, potentially on a larger scale commensurate with OpenAI’s higher valuation.

WhatsApp’s Chatbot Breakup: WhatsApp has updated its Business API terms to ban general-purpose chatbots, defined as AI assistants primarily powered by large language models or similar technologies. The new policy allows businesses to continue using AI for customer support but prohibits broad consumer-facing AI bots on the platform. Meta’s move signals a tightening focus on keeping WhatsApp aligned with traditional business-to-customer communication and serves as a warning for enterprises relying on third-party conversational bots to review their integrations for future compliance.

MCP Crypto Wallets: Coinbase Developer Platform has launched Payments MCP, an integration that allows LLMs to engage directly with crypto assets. Key features include easy wallet creation and sign-in, a UI for configuration and transaction management, an integrated x402 Bazaar Explorer, and local desktop execution for speed and security. Payments MCP is currently compatible with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and Cherry Studio, with plans to support more LLMs in the future. This allows AI agents to directly participate in the global economy. It opens new possibilities for agentic commerce and autonomous financial workflows, while still providing users with control over spending limits and permissions for security.

Nvidia Hits $5T: Nvidia has become the first company to reach a $5T market value. Its shares surpassed $210, fueled by AI enthusiasm, strategic partnerships with major companies like OpenAI and Oracle, and CEO Jensen Huang’s recent speech at Nvidia GTC. Nvidia’s market capitalization now exceeds the combined value of its major competitors and entire sectors of the S&P 500, including utilities and industrials. It’s crazy, but it is likely to keep going up! 

Meetings and AV 

David Danto is the primary author of this section. 

Biamp to Buy ClearOne Assets: Biamp announced it will acquire key assets of ClearOne, including intellectual property and brands, strengthening its audio technology portfolio with patents in DSP, acoustic echo cancellation, and beamforming microphone arrays. ClearOne’s engineering contributions shaped much of the modern audioconferencing landscape, particularly in beamforming and signal processing. Biamp emphasized that it will not continue ClearOne-branded products but will integrate the acquired designs and patents into its own lineup to advance performance and ease of deployment.

Once a pioneer in professional audio, ClearOne has been struggling for years — financially and strategically. After decades of innovation in DSP and beamforming, the company became best known in recent years for its legal battles, particularly against Shure, to defend its microphone array patents. Those courtroom victories couldn’t offset mounting losses, dwindling revenue, and a sharp decline in relevance. By 2025, ClearOne was executing a 1-for-15 reverse stock split just to stay listed, and its sales had fallen more than a third year-over-year. The Biamp acquisition of its intellectual property and brands effectively closes the chapter on ClearOne as an independent player, preserving its engineering legacy while acknowledging its long fade from the AV industry’s front line.

Microsoft (co)Plot Twists: Microsoft is rolling out another sweeping round of Teams and Copilot updates, deepening its shift toward agent-driven, automated collaboration. Teams is gaining AI-powered workflows integrated with Power Automate, enabling users to trigger business processes directly within chats or channels, while new “Teams Agents for Channels and Meetings” will act as persistent assistants in specific workspaces. Admins also get expanded external access controls, and meetings without transcription will now default to temporary histories — keeping conversations only during the session unless transcription is explicitly enabled. These changes continue Microsoft’s push toward embedded automation and compliance but come at the cost of predictability.

At the same time, Microsoft’s Copilot ecosystem is expanding beyond prompt-based help into what it calls “vibe working.” Free Copilot Chat is being embedded into Office apps, “agent mode” is emerging in Word and Excel, and Anthropic’s Claude models are joining Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio — despite running on AWS, a clear nod to multi-model pragmatism over platform purity. Yet the sheer pace of change has reached a point where many users no longer even notice Microsoft update announcements unless something breaks. Innovation remains Microsoft’s hallmark, but stability no longer does. For some, the constant motion feels less like progress and more like trying to work during a system reboot.

Neat Unveils Neat Board 32: It’s a 32-inch, all-in-one collaboration display aimed at small focus rooms and personal desks. It features intelligent framing, a 140-degree camera, four microphones, and touch-screen whiteboarding, with support for native apps, BYOD, and management via Neat Pulse. The device rounds out Neat’s portfolio by addressing the growing need for compact, high-quality meeting solutions. While the Board 23 strengthens Neat’s edge against lower-cost all-in-ones, its focus has to be more around small rooms than desktops to be successful. Desktop appliances have historically struggled in the market because buyer needs vary widely in size and functionality, preventing any single design from scaling successfully. 

Lenovo and Owl Partner for Credibility: Owl Labs and Lenovo announced global Microsoft Teams Rooms bundles combining Meeting Owl 3 or 4+ with Lenovo ThinkSmart Core or Tiny kits and controllers, priced between roughly $2,100 and $5,600. The joint systems aim to simplify hybrid meeting setups with AI-driven, 360-degree video and certified Teams Room functionality. The move strengthens Owl’s generally weak enterprise reach while giving Lenovo the credible collaboration solution it has lacked to date.

Google Meet Gets a Makeup Grade: Google Meet has added an AI-powered makeup feature offering 12 preset looks within its “Appearance” tab, extending the existing portrait touch-up tools. The tool uses generative AI to render digital makeup that tracks facial movements naturally, aiming to improve users’ on-camera confidence. Google says it built the feature with feedback from beauty professionals to reflect realistic shades and textures. While the update may seem cosmetic (pun intended), it highlights (intended again) how the four major video collaboration platforms now all have appearance-improvement options. Zoom was the first to introduce such features, Teams has an app available from Maybelline, and Webex coincidentally just released its “touch up my look” button from beta to GA. 

Netspeek’s Lena Now GA: The AI-based, plain language monitoring system that was in beta last month has now moved into GA. Here is our interview with Netspeek’s CEO and SVP discussing how it works and why it changes the paradigm for multicomponent system monitoring.

New Crestron EMEA Experience Center: Crestron has opened a new Experience Center at its EMEA headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium, expanding its global network of flagship showrooms. The facility is designed to immerse visitors in both residential and commercial technologies, highlighting the company’s full ecosystem. The location — between Brussels and Antwerp — underscores Crestron’s ongoing investment in the EMEA region and serves as a hub for customers, partners, and designers to explore Crestron’s technology in action. 

New Alliances Team at Shure: Shure has formed a new Strategic Alliances team aimed at deepening partnerships and expanding its technology ecosystem across the Unified Communications and professional audio sectors. The initiative is part of the company’s broader business transformation to accelerate innovation and strengthen market influence. The team, led by Senior Director Boris Seibert (formerly of Logitech), will focus on three priorities: forging stronger partner integrations, driving participation in key industry programs, and creating transformative collaborations to expand Shure’s reach. This was an essential move for Shure, which is one of the leaders in audio for music and AV but was struggling to find relevance in the UC market.

DTEN “Launches” New Display It Already Launched in June: DTEN sent out a press release that it has officially launched a “new” D7X 27, an all-in-one Zoom Rooms appliance built for kiosks, huddle spaces, and other compact collaboration areas. The problem is that it already “launched” the “new” device at InfoComm in June. The 27-inch device combines a camera, microphones, speakers, and touch enabled display in a single package to simplify setup and improve user experience. The system extends DTEN’s D7X line and deepens its Zoom certification strategy for smaller meeting spaces. It is apparently a sign of the times that we need to launch something multiple times to get it off the ground — just ask SpaceX.

Yealink Updates: Yealink announced major firmware updates for its MeetingBar lineup, upgrading systems from Android 10 to Android 13 for improved security and extended support. The update also enhances compatibility with new audio accessories and adds remote management capabilities through its YMCS portal. Higher-end models already on Android 13 gain support for an additional table camera, improving flexibility in meeting room setups. The move catches up to competitors on the current version of Android, with Microsoft support for 10 sunsetting in 2027.

Jupiter Systems Processors need to be sold or removed from US: Suirui International has been ordered to divest its 2020 acquisition of Jupiter Systems after a CFIUS review led to a July 8, 2025, presidential directive requiring separation within 120 days. Jupiter, a US maker of video wall processors for mission-critical control rooms, states there was no IP transfer or operational integration under Suirui’s ownership. The decision effectively bars a resale to another China-based buyer and favors domestic or politically acceptable ownership. Expect tighter ownership scrutiny across the control-room and pro-AV sector, with vendors emphasizing US governance and supply-chain assurances to keep selling into federal and defense accounts.

Zoom Emmy: Zoom proudly showcased its recent Engineering, Science, and Technology Emmy Award, recognizing its innovation in remote broadcast contribution. The award honored the Zoom for Broadcast platform, which enables production teams to capture high-quality audio and video from remote participants with low latency using standard consumer hardware. This technology has enabled broadcasters to replace costly satellite and studio setups while maintaining professional-quality output. Multiple collaboration platforms provide similar services to broadcast TV productions, which has all but obliterated the as-needed satellite time industry.

Streaming Killed the Video Star: TiVo confirmed it stopped manufacturing and selling DVR hardware as of Sept. 30, 2025, with remaining Edge units now depleted and support continuing for existing boxes. The company is shifting its focus to software — TiVo OS for smart TVs and other platforms — reflecting the dominance of streaming and cloud DVRs. It’s the end of an era when viewers briefly wrested control of what they watched and when — ad-skipping, time-shifting, cord-cutting — before that autonomy was clawed back by bundles, lock-ins, and upsells.

Customer Experience

UJET and Laivly: UJET has partnered with Laivly to integrate its AI agent, Sidd, into UJET’s CCaaS platform, allowing customers to procure Sidd directly through existing UJET contracts. This partnership aims to accelerate ROI, empower agents with real-time guidance and automation, and future-proof customer experience through Laivly’s no-code Sidd Studio. 

There are two UJETs. One lives inside the hypervisor and wears a Goog badge, often appealing to larger prospects. Then there’s the independent UJET that targets smaller and more independent prospects. This collaboration offers prospects a non-Gemini solution for AI. 

Amazon Connect Updates: Amazon Connect Contact Lens has expanded external voice support to five additional AWS regions: Asia Pacific (Sydney and Tokyo), Canada (Central), and Europe (London and Frankfurt). This service provides call recordings, conversational analytics, and generative AI for evaluating customer interactions.

Amazon Connect Customer Profiles addresses customer data fragmentation by providing preconfigured data models and automated ingestion from over 75 sources to create a unified customer view. The service includes generative AI features such as an AI assistant for creating actionable segments and an explorer interface for searching and customizing customer context. This approach is designed to improve self-service and provide agents with comprehensive customer information for more personalized interactions.

Vonage: Vonage Agentforce Identity Insights and Fraud Detection is a new AI-powered solution for contact centers. It provides real-time fraud detection risks for agents, verifies customer identities, and validates communication channels. The offering integrates with Vonage’s Premier for Salesforce Voice (CCaaS). Features like SIM swap checks are included to help prevent fraud.

Agentforce 360: Salesforce is going full bore into agentic CX solutions, which will stress many of its subservient partnerships with CCaaS providers. Salesforce’s Agentforce 360 platform aims to integrate human and AI agents for building, deploying, and managing enterprise AI agents across the Salesforce ecosystem. Its key components include the Agentforce Platform, with tools like Agentforce Builder and Agentforce Voice, and Data 360 for providing business context (including features like Intelligent Context and Tableau Semantics). Agentforce 360 also integrates conversational AI into Customer 360 Apps and utilizes Slack as an “Agentic OS,” while also supporting integration with third-party AI models.

Amazon Connect: Amazon Connect has introduced new generative AI features for email conversations, including conversation overviews, suggested actions, and responses for agents. This aims to improve efficiency for agents and provide faster, more consistent support for customers. For example, when a customer requests a refund, Amazon Connect can automatically provide purchase history, a recommended resolution with a step-by-step guide, and a generated email response. To enable the features, users need to add the Amazon Q in Connect block to their flows. Adding AI guardrails will (supposedly) ensure responses align with company language, tone, and policies. Expect much more in December at reInvent. 

NiCE Analyst Event: The recent NiCE analyst event was, as expected, over the top! Presumably, its objectives were to educate analysts on company progress, vision, and roadmap; to build relationships and bonds; and to validate via feedback. Nailed it. 

Scott Russell, nine months into his CEO tenure, presented his vision: to be an AI-first CX platform, leading the “AI-first CX era.” He believes that to achieve these goals, NiCE requires aggressive innovation, strong and deep partnerships, speed, and being “great to do business with.”

“Intertwine” is not on the CCaaS bingo card, but NiCE is playing 4D bingo. The company plans to reshape customer and employee experiences by going beyond front-office and into the third rail of mid- and back-office integrations. This goal is fraught with danger. Silo-busting by blurring departments, technologies, and the roles of humans and machines. NiCE wants AI to automate (table stakes) and unlock hidden value. To get there, NiCE will help customers design workflows that align with desired outcomes rather than org charts. 

In a nine-month gestation period, CEO Russell has delivered new strategic partnerships, a billion-dollar acquisition, and a new executive hired to neutralize his Dynamic baby at Microsoft. The most impressive feat? He’s managed all this without killing the culture that made NiCE nice. The partnership with Snowflake is unique. NiCE sees this new lakefront property as a prime location for SIs to build on its automation platform. 

While NiCE stands alone as a CCaaS provider, its WEM and Cognigy solutions are also standalones. The company sees both as high-growth opportunities. WEM will be getting a lot of near-term attention as NiCE expands its focus beyond humans. They’ll re-optimize their WEM suite to help AI and humans collaborate like a well-oiled and caffeinated machine. 

I expected more changes on the Cognigy front. The company was doing well with its little GTM, so I figured big NiCE would have bolstered GTM by now — it has been over a month since the acquisition closed. They did preview how NiCE could mine interaction and case data to power high-yield Cognigy automations. 

Regarding feedback, they did get some. Michels solved all of their challenges, but several analysts provided feedback, so no guarantees. Should make for an interesting new concerto.

Dialpad Launches Agentic AI Platform: Dialpad introduced a new Agentic AI Platform designed to automate customer support and streamline workflows. The platform deploys autonomous agents capable of resolving issues without human escalation, promising lower support costs and faster resolution times. This marks a shift from passive AI assistance to active problem-solving. 

Separately, Dialpad announced it will offer two Verint solutions: Dialpad WFM for mid-market customers and Verint’s Open Platform for larger customers. This would normally be a cause for celebration, but prospects will likely delay new implementation until the dust settles on Verint’s change in ownership.

Paypal Agents: AI-powered agents will change how consumers discover and buy products. PayPal introduced agentic commerce services, designed to make products discoverable on leading AI platforms without technical work. One PayPal connection enables a store to appear across multiple AI shopping channels — no new integrations or code required. Customer retains ownership of customer data.

Talkdesk AI News: Talkdesk has partnered with Databricks to enhance AI-driven customer experience automation. This collaboration aims to address the challenge of scattered customer service data across various systems (CCaaS, CRM, ERP) by providing a unified platform. The “Built on Databricks” solution integrates Talkdesk’s Customer Experience Automation platform with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, offering real-time access to customer history for Talkdesk CXA AI Agents through zero-copy integration. This partnership intends to enable smarter automation with personalized, accurate, and compliant responses. 

Also, Talkdesk upgraded Talkdesk Copilot and introduced new agentic AI capabilities that allow customer service agents to request real-time assistance in highly complex situations. The newly enhanced Copilot can understand multilayered questions, synthesize information across systems, and deliver context-aware recommendations and actions — helping agents resolve issues that previously required escalation to a subject matter expert or manual research.

Odigo 2025.b: Included in its major 2025.b release in October, Odigo announced Agentic AI, Analytics, Digital conversation summary, and RCS Business Messaging. Also, major improvements to outbound calling, Salesforce and Dynamics connectors, and QM. Very little information is available in English. 

UC and Messaging

Zoom Phone Reaches 10M: Zoom announced that Zoom Phone has surpassed 10 million seats, solidifying its place as a major force in enterprise telephony. The milestone reflects strong adoption of its AI-powered analytics and call management tools, positioning the service as a key pillar in Zoom’s unified communications suite. While less flashy than its meeting platform, Zoom Phone’s growth underscores a broader enterprise shift to cloud-based voice systems — and Zoom’s success in turning telephony into a data-driven business asset.

Microsoft Teams for All: Microsoft is removing one of the last barriers to using Teams with people outside your organization. Beginning in November 2025, users will be able to chat with anyone who has an email address — no Microsoft account, tenant setup, or guest access required. The feature sends an email invitation that opens a secure, browser-based Teams chat session, effectively erasing the “we don’t use Teams” excuse for cross-company collaboration. While it sounds revolutionary, the change is mostly incremental — users could already achieve the same result by creating a free Hotmail account and joining through an incognito browser window. The real limitation remains: This new capability still doesn’t permit file transfers between enterprises, leaving cross-org collaboration confined to basic messaging. Microsoft may have simplified the handshake, but the heavy lifting of real teamwork still hits a wall. 

Crexendo User Group: Crexendo announced at the NetSapiens User Group in Miami that its platform now has over 7M global users — giving heft to its claim that it’s the fastest-growing cloud communications software platform provider in North America. Crexendo credits its session-based pricing and deployment versatility (Oracle Cloud, data center, or hybrid). Separately, Gamma Communications partnered with Crexendo to integrate Gamma’s European PSTN reach with Crexendo’s NetSapiens UCaaS platform on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This partnership provides compliant voice coverage, European numbering, and a reliable cloud foundation, aiming to reduce time-to-market and lower operational costs. #UCM2025

Crexendo recently launched Crexendo Extend, a mobile-focused UC solution powered by Tango Networks. This technology allows any mobile phone to function as a fully integrated extension of a UCaaS platform, offering features like mobile calls and texts natively under enterprise control without needing an additional app. Dave Michels calls this UCaaS Mobility 3.0 and presented its advantages at UCM2025. Tango Networks, now part of Crexendo’s Partner Program, reported strong interest from Crexendo’s user community for Crexendo Extend, which is available to all licensees.

Shomi the Money: Enreach has enhanced its Enreach Contact cloud communications solution with a new Enreach Contact for Web App, additional capabilities, and an upgraded Shomi personal assistant. These updates support Enreach’s Smart Contact vision, aiming to streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and enhance customer service. 

The web app integrates with Microsoft 365 and Teams for managing calls, contacts, and queues. Shomi, the AI personal assistant, offers enhanced summarization, editing, and CRM integration for call summaries. A new Reporting App provides scheduled and on-demand browser-based access to historical queue and agent performance statistics. These updates leverage AI across multiple communication channels to boost productivity and efficiency.

Mitel Endpoints: To accommodate America-first initiatives, many vendors are moving their manufacturing from China to other countries. Mitel is moving its IP phone production to Germany, partnering with Gigaset for manufacturing. This agreement aims to create a more resilient and efficient supply chain for Mitel’s desk and cordless phones, which number around a million devices annually. The move to Gigaset’s Bocholt facility in Germany will improve supply chain stability, leverage German engineering, shorten lead times for European customers, and enhance global resilience. Mitel will continue to design the hardware and own the software, while Gigaset will handle automated manufacturing.

GoTo Education: GoTo launched Connect for Education, designed to facilitate connectivity within school and university campuses. This offering integrates calls, virtual classrooms, messaging, and safety alerts into a unified application. The stated aim is to assist educational institutions in streamlining operations and enhancing learning experiences. This follows its March introduction of its Automotive SKU, which this month got AI-powered scheduling capabilities.

Office@Hand AIR: AT&T Office@Hand now offers AI Receptionist (AIR). AI receptionist helps customers get answers fast, regardless of office hours and staffing levels. Offers multiple AI personalities. Easy to train with your website, FAQs, and uploaded documents. Office@Hand is powered by RingCentral.

The Business Section

Lumen and Palantir: Lumen Technologies and Palantir Technologies have entered into a multiyear partnership in which Lumen will invest over $200 million to integrate Palantir’s software and AI platform with its connectivity-fabric network services. The alliance aims to merge high-performance networking with enterprise AI, offering customers a unified path from data management to analytics and decision-making. This marks another step in traditional telecom providers shifting toward AI-driven services rather than just bandwidth delivery, signaling that enterprise communications and network vendors must increasingly align with data-centric and AI-enhanced workflows.

Immersive Software Company Acquired: Ross Video has acquired ioversal, the developer of the Vertex platform for immersive AV and experiential workflows. Vertex unifies video, lighting, audio, and control systems into a single environment used in large-scale installations and live productions. The acquisition expands Ross’s reach beyond broadcast into the broader experiential media market, where integrated control and synchronized content delivery are key. This signals Ross’s intent to compete directly in immersive and event-driven AV, where traditional broadcast players are increasingly merging with live experience technologies.

Omdia Predicting 2.7% Plus Annual Growth: Omdia projects that while traditional telecom revenue will see only about 2.7% annual growth through 2030, technology segments linked to hyperscalers, AI, and advanced connectivity will expand at roughly 9.4% per year and make up more than half of total communications provider revenue by the end of the decade. The findings point to a shift (as with other sectors) from basic connectivity toward value-added, AI-enabled services. For enterprise communications vendors, this underscores the need to evolve device ecosystems beyond one-time hardware sales to include service integration and continuous connectivity capabilities.

Leadership Changes

Smita Hashim is no longer Zoom CPO. For now, Velchamy Sankarlingam, President, Product and Engineering, has the responsibility. Philipp Heltewig is now the Chief AI Officer and General Manager of NiCE Cognigy.

Sprinklr named Anthony Coletta as CFO, reporting to President and CEO Rory Read. Twilio appointed Jake Kanter as Vice President of Sales for EMEA, where he will lead efforts in enterprise communications and AI-enabled customer engagement. Beau Wilder was named Head of Strategic Partner Development for Google Beam, continuing the mission he began at HP. Ragy Thomas, founder of Sprinklr, has become Chairman and Co-CEO of UnifyApps, a firm building enterprise operating systems for AI. Justin Cooper was promoted to COO of Alianza, where he has served for more than a decade. Sean Wargo has departed AVIXA, where he led Market Insights. In a sudden leadership shift, AV integrator Diversified named board chairman Paul Lidsky as CEO, offering no mention of the outgoing chief executive who had recently undertaken sweeping efforts to reinvent the integrator’s focus.

At Cisco, several changes already implemented were formalized. Snorre Kjesbu was named SVP and GM of Collaboration, responsible for the Webex Suite & AI, led by Amit Barave; Cisco Devices, led by Espen Løberg; and Webex Customer Experience, led by Vinod Muthukrishnan. Each of these leaders now holds the title of Vice President & General Manager. Kjesbu continues to report to SVP Anurag Dhingra. 

Verizon appointed Dan Schulman (former CEO of PayPal Holdings) as its new CEO. Mark Bertolini has been elected Chairman of the Verizon Board of Directors. Outgoing CEO Hans Vestberg will remain as Special Advisor through October 2026, focusing on transition efforts. Vestberg will also retain his seat on the Board until the 2026 Annual Meeting.

Midwich Group restructured its North American leadership, naming Ghyslain Berger as CEO for the US and Canada, overseeing both its US branch and SFM in Canada. Chantal Baraniuk Morin was appointed COO and CFO for North America, and Monique Rezaei was named Chief Revenue Officer.

Here’s the new SCTC Board: President Bill Magnuson, Executive Vice President Steve Leaden, Sr. Vice President Carmelo Cappuzzello, Vice President Brendon O'Brien, and Vice President Greg Pittman.

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. Internal Oracle Data Show Financial Challenge of Renting Out Nvidia Chips — Internal documents show the fast-growing cloud business has had razor-thin gross profit margins in the past year or so, lower than what many equity analysts estimated.
2. Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable VoLTE anywhere — The October 2025 Pixel update broke the app that enabled VoLTE and VoWiFi in unsupported regions.
3. Takeaways on the State of Collaboration from CEDIA/CIX — Commercial Integrator’s story on the CEDIA Smart Stage in September.
4. Deloitte to pay money back to Albanese government after using AI in $440,000 report — Partial refund appropriate after several AI hallucinations were found in a report.
5. Microsoft mandates return to office — claims Teams and all remote work solutions are inferior — The company says collaboration thrives in person. Critics see stealth layoffs and a shot at its own tools.
6. AI upending the need for advanced degrees — A bachelor’s degree, a professional certificate, or an annual corporate training session are no longer guarantees of relevance in a world where knowledge ages almost as quickly as technology itself.
7. AI headshots are changing the way job seekers are seen and get hired in tough labor market — Job seekers are increasingly turning to online artificial intelligence tools to generate headshots for their resumes, but the practice comes with concerns about authenticity. 
8. OpenAI launches AI browser Atlas in latest challenge to Google — Atlas browser to challenge Google’s Chrome dominance.
9. Major AWS outage took down Fortnite, Alexa, Snapchat, and more — Amazon says the cause of the AWS outage was related to DNS.
10. Amazon Admits RTO Is Costing Them Talent — An examination concludes remote work is not just a perk; it’s a necessity.
11. Female spies are waging ‘sex warfare’ to steal Silicon Valley secrets — China and Russia are sending attractive women to seduce tech workers — even marrying and having children with their targets.
12. Meet the AI chatbots replacing India’s call-center workers — “Once you hire a LimeChat agent, you never have to hire again.”
13. What Sam Altman is Talking About — Three appearances in five days. 
14. Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified — Robotics has catapulted Beijing into a dominant position in many industries.
15. Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots — Internal documents show the company that changed how people shop has a far-reaching plan to automate 75% of its operations.
16. Here’s How the AI Crash Happens — AI-related spending now contributes more to the nation’s GDP growth than all consumer spending combined, and AI expenditures accounted for 92% of GDP growth during the first half of 2025.
17. Enterprises Fast-Track Gen AI — Wharton study finds enterprises rapidly transition into positive ROI. 

Other Recent Stuff

Effective in 2025, we moved Insider Lite to Substack. You can view the most recent edition 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.

• 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.
• With hackers, we call it Ransomware; when companies do it, we call it cloud — When your hardware purchases get intentionally bricked.
• Danto’s TechPerspective: Stop Hiding Behind AI — Fix Collaboration
• Introducing the NeatBoard 32
• David with BCStrategies analysts discussing Webex One
• Q-SYS: The Full Stack Image Gets Sharper
• Dave and David discuss the Cisco/Microsoft MDEP news and interview Cisco and Microsoft leadership on the subject — Video
• How AudioCodes Live SuperCharges Webex 
• Cisco’s WebexOne 2025: First Impressions 

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

1. Insider July 2024
2. Insider August 2024
3. Insider September 2024
4. Insider October 2024
5. Insider November 2024
6. Insider December 2024
7. Insider January 2025
8. Insider February 2025
9. Insider March 2025
10. Insider April 2025
11. Insider May 2025
12. Insider June 2025
13. Insider July 2025
14. Insider August 2025 — special “free to all” version
15. Insider September 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.