Curated Enterprise Communications News and Insights from September 2025

Featured

Did Someone Say Bubble? The difference between a bubble and a new trend is the pop., which makes it difficult to predict except in hindsight. However, the response to Oracle’s numbers in September might suggest we are in a bubble. The company announced an expected 359% increase in future contract revenue. Oracle’s market cap surged by nearly $250B to $922B. CEO and Founder Larry Ellison’s net worth jumped $89B. That’s the same 80-year-old Larry Ellison who just gifted Paramount to his son and is in line to become an owner of TikTok. He briefly became the wealthiest man alive. We subsequently learned OpenAI is one of its clients, and it has committed to spending $300B of its future revenue on Oracle’s data center services. 

AI is inflating the fortunes of many companies and has become a large part of the UC/CC narrative — but it is all based on future expectations. 

What if the AI future comes up short? Last month, it was the MIT report that cast a shadow over AI utility. This month, the shadow got longer. A recent Financial Times report highlighted that large corporations are struggling to articulate the value proposition of AI. Microsoft is encountering challenges in persuading Office clients to invest in Copilot. A Bain & Co. report suggests that current business spending on IT is insufficient to support AI’s computing demands. There are concerns that AI is financially and environmentally unsustainable.

The dot-com bubble in the late ’90s had the right narrative: The internet would change everything. The hype was real, and the land grabs, such as Netflix in movies and Amazon in books, were correct. Many of the land grabs never materialized (silly in hindsight). The bust was because valuations simply got ahead of revenue. 

We know AI can and will do amazing things. We have already seen AI significantly improve online meetings with improved sound, framing, and more. Agentic AI has yet to live up to its hype, but it might manage it yet. Still, future dollars are harder to count than eggs. 

Another way to look at Oracle is that it isn’t the same as the AI stories before it. The big booms in the mirror are about chips and models. This one is more about inference, or putting AI into practice. Inference uses a trained machine-learning model to make predictions, classifications, or decisions on new, unseen data. It applies the knowledge the AI gained during its training. Oracle’s boom signals we are moving into the era of inference demand, and inference scales with interactions. Bubble-pop or trend will be decided soon by near-term public results. 

General News

Teams EU Settle: Microsoft and the EU settled the Teams bundling issue, with both sides claiming victory. Microsoft avoided a large antitrust penalty, and the EU likely sidestepped White House criticism. Key terms include unbundling Teams from Office/Microsoft 365, a clear price for Teams, and increased interoperability. Microsoft’s flawless execution of Teams during the pandemic propelled it to antitrust scrutiny in less than eight years. 

The settlement may have a negligible marketplace impact. Teams has momentum and more than 200 ISV partners, and Microsoft intends to improve its API access and interoperability. Several competitors, including Cisco Spark (discontinued), Slack (now acquired and brain-dead), and even Yammer (now Microsoft Viva Engage) are no longer threats to Teams.

Conversely, this settlement creates a new window for innovation in enterprise communications. There is a possibility that peak Teams is behind us. Microsoft is prioritizing AI and Azure. The strategic importance of Teams has likely waned; plus, activity in the CSP space is increasing, such as announcements from Alianza and Crexendo just this month. The company certainly doesn’t want more antitrust complaints. 

Watch this space for developments in MDEP, Copilot and AI improvements, SMS to RCS, Teams Phone Mobile, and CC/UC/CRM convergence.

WebexOne and ZoomTopia: Cisco and Zoom hosted two significantly similar and different customer events this month. Selected announcements are covered in later sections. 

Both vendors are focused on agentic AI. The Zoom AI Companion and the Webex Assistant got agentic features that extend across their platforms and beyond. Both providers have note-taking, task, and scheduling agents. Cisco announced a Slido polling agent to suggest polls in meetings (why?). 

Zoom announced a variety of AI features before, during, and after meetings. For example, AI Companion 3.0 can provide meeting preparation prompts and will soon offer nudges to help track agenda items and keep discussions on track. Both firms support custom AI agents that support A2A and MCP integrations. And both announced CCaaS integrations, including Epic. 

The two firms announced improved meeting interoperability with each other. (It’s not clear which vendor will benefit more from this update.)

Zoom is building a conversation-centric approach to reimaging AI-enhanced workflows by capturing critical information from calls, meetings, messages, and inquiries. Zoom AI Companion offers agents and a chat UI before, during, and after conversations, and can even suggest which meetings can be skipped. Zoom announced Writing Assistant and a unified work surface. Zoom also launched the US Solopreneur 50 Index and a $10M education grant fund, reinforcing its AI-driven growth narrative.

Cisco is emphasizing AI on its devices and CX platform. Webex devices and management suite are emerging as universal meeting room equipment. Cisco is also more closely integrating Webex and networking by giving Control Hub anomaly detection and Splunk integration. The Webex Control Hub was integrated with Cisco AI Canvas, which will soon introduce multi-user, multi-domain, AI-assisted troubleshooting. Cisco places little emphasis on calling and meetings in terms of its talk-track, but the expo hall told a different story. Cisco also played down its premises-based contact center products, which continue to grow. 

The portfolios are strikingly similar; the big differences were event format, volume, and audience. Zoomtopia was an hours-long virtual event, whereas Webex One hosted a days-long physical conference. The physical format facilitated a crowded expo hall. Zoomtopia was hosted on Zoom Events. Cisco did not appear to use Webex Events. While only Webex One could be attended, both had similar online potential reach. Zoom emphasized simplicity directly to end users. Cisco emphasized security and administration to IT leadership and administrators. 

Neat MDEP: Neat and Microsoft also announced plans to bring MDEP to Neat devices. This is not a simple checkbox exercise — Neat worked closely with Microsoft engineers to make sure Neat could successfully deploy an operating system that would work for Microsoft as a native MDEP experience. Neat will run Microsoft Teams Rooms via MDEP while supporting Zoom, Google Meet (coming in Q4), BYOD, and Neat App Hub (now Neat Open — see news in the Meetings section) via NeatOS. Neat customers have the option to select their preferred platform during the unboxing experience. That is not just good for Neat — it is good for the industry.

Google Keeps Chrome: Google lost its adtech and search case last summer, and the DoJ recommended the giant be forced to spin out its Chrome browser as a remedy. The judge instead opted to ban Google from signing exclusive search distribution deals, but allowed it to keep Chrome. Google can also continue its distribution deals, including paying Apple ~$20B a year to be the default search on iPhone. 

Is Google too big? Absurd. The company is dominant in search and web browsers, owns the largest video streaming service, owns and maintains the most popular OS in the world, has five products with over 2 billion users, is number one in autonomous driving, and is still growing. But evidently, it’s not too big. 

Starlink Calling: Starlink paid $17B in cash and stock for a block of 1900MHz US spectrum from Echostar to boost its direct-to-cell project. This is pretty exciting as it will connect isolated locations, including rural regions, boats, planes, and more. But Starlink won’t be disrupting cellular (yet), it doesn’t work indoors, and it has relatively little capacity. 

New Office Icons: Microsoft introduced redesigned icons for its core Office and Microsoft 365 apps — the first refresh since 2018. The new look adopts Microsoft’s Fluent design language and Copilot branding, featuring softer shapes, richer gradients, and a more fluid aesthetic intended to convey connection and collaboration. The update will roll out across desktop, mobile, and web versions in the coming weeks, signaling Microsoft’s ongoing effort to unify its visual identity around AI-enhanced productivity experiences.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents: New Copilot features: “Agent Mode” in Excel and Word offers AI-powered data analysis, modeling, writing, and formatting. “Office Agent” in Copilot chat generates polished PowerPoint presentations and Word documents from simple prompts. These updates are rolling out now for licensed customers and select subscribers.

Microsoft 365 Copilot announced new collaboration-focused agents for Teams, SharePoint, and Viva Engage. These “virtual teammates” are purpose-built for teamwork, actively participate in meetings, and manage communities and knowledge. Partner-built agents can also integrate. Now in public preview, these agents embed AI directly into workflows.

Sovereign Cisco: Cisco introduced its Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio for European customers, offering enhanced control and autonomy over digital infrastructure and data. This configurable portfolio can be deployed in air-gapped, on-premises environments, spanning Cisco’s core product lines and incorporating Cisco and Splunk security solutions. It aims to help governments, regulated industries, and AI innovators meet sovereignty and compliance needs. Microsoft announced its Sovereign Cloud offering for M365 and Azure “local” earlier this year. The portfolio is available in Europe now. 

AI News

Progress on Hallucinations? Despite AI model improvements, there’s been little progress in reducing hallucinations. OpenAI published a paper that concludes the answer is in the training. It suggests that current LLM training incentivizes guesses by rewarding higher aggregate scores to LLM guesses when certainty is low. The paper proposes that confessing is better than guessing and concludes that models should weigh the confidence of given responses. 

Is it that simple, or is this a distraction from OpenAI’s high valuation? If anyone remembers when Watson won Jeopardy, the AI displayed both its response and confidence level back in 2011. A low confidence score was indeed often wrong. 

Anthropic Sonnet 4.5: Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.5 this month, introducing the world’s first AI model capable of autonomous coding for over 30 hours straight. Unlike previous models that lost focus after a few hours, Sonnet 4.5 maintains coherence across massive codebases while autonomously debugging, testing, and iterating on complex software projects. It’s also the first major model that’s competent at creating and editing Excel files, as well as building PowerPoints. 

Coming to a Theater Near You: OpenAI is co-producing “Critterz,” a feature-length animated film made with generative AI. The film, about forest creatures who go on an adventure after a stranger disrupts their village, is intended to debut at Cannes 2026. The project slashes production costs and time by about two-thirds (to nine months and $30M). It also likely cuts humans necessary to produce by that much, though humans wrote the script. The question is whether AI-produced content will also reduce human audiences. We will have to wait for another film, as curiosity alone will make Critterz a hit. 

More MS Copilot Changes: Prices for Microsoft 365 Copilot continue to drop. Sales, Service, and Finance copilots, once $20 add-ons, are now bundled into the standard $30 Copilot license instead of the $20 add-on plan. Microsoft also unified Copilot chat across Word, Excel, and Outlook, though the transition could erase some chat history. 

Walmart’s Agentic WIBEY: As with most AI initiatives, we will see initial agentic wins with software development. Here’s a big company getting impressive results: Walmart launched WIBEY, a “super agent” that orchestrates over 200 specialized AI agents across its engineering stack, and Walmart claims a 95% auto-fix rate on bugs. 

Agents are on their way. It’s a matter of getting the workflow right, clearly defining intent, and having capable orchestration. Enterprise developers are now working alongside persistent AI agents that handle accessibility compliance (60% bug detection, 95% auto-fix rate) and legacy code modernization. Keep an eye out for other companies adopting similar agent orchestration platforms and whether “Agent Developer” becomes a common enterprise role.

Google in OpenAI’s Crosshairs: OpenAI and Google have been duking it out for AI leadership, but now it looks like OpenAI is eyeing Google’s ad revenue, too. This month, OpenAI rolled out two new products, ChatGPT Pulse and Sora 2, which together form the most advanced advertising platform. Pulse offers personalized daily feeds, while Sora 2 whips up engaging video content. It blends intent data from conversations with viral video distribution. This could shake things up in marketing, especially with rapidly crumbling traditional advertising models. 

AWS AgentCore MCP: AWS launched AgentCore MCP Server, an open-source deal that lets you build AI agents. It’s got all the basics: runtime, gateway integration, identity management, and memory. Plus, it hooks up with Amazon Q Developer and over 40 other MCP clients. This is a big step for standardizing agents, and it’s open source, which reduces vendor lock-in arguments. It works with all the big AI coding assistants. Expect more AgentCore solutions to be announced at re:Invent in December. 

Meetings and AV 

David Danto is the primary author of this section. 

Making MS Teams Safer: Microsoft is adding built-in malicious URL protection to Teams chats and channels, expanding a safeguard that previously required Defender for Office 365 licensing. The feature scans links against Microsoft Defender reputation data and presents pre-click warnings directly in the chat. Rollout will cover all Teams clients across desktop, web, and mobile between September and November 2025, with initial admin activation in preview and default-on at general availability. This broadening of Safe Links protections signals Microsoft’s push to make baseline Teams security stronger and more universal.

More Microsoft: On the devices side, Teams Rooms on Windows gain touch console support, in-room AI “Facilitator” features, and Edge browser kiosk mode. Contact center integration deepens, with five vendors now certified on Azure Communication Services. Operator Connect remains stable at 115 operators across 106 countries. In parallel, Microsoft is introducing Teams Channel Agents — AI assistants dedicated to each channel and meeting. These agents proactively track projects, summarize status, draft content, manage tasks in Planner, and answer natural-language questions. They can also join meetings to provide real-time insights, offering features such as automatic status reports, instant answers, and integrated task management. Together, these updates show Microsoft doubling down on embedding AI into every layer of Teams, while also simplifying licensing and reinforcing security. The net effect is a more AI-centric Teams, though it raises questions about whether users will embrace agents in every workflow or see them as another layer of noise.

WebexOne Announcements: Cisco announced RoomOS 26, a major leap in version numbering that signals a full modernization of its collaboration device platform. The update introduces a new natural, fluid graphic styling and a unified, AI-ready architecture — marking Cisco’s transition from incremental updates to a cohesive next-generation experience across its entire device portfolio. One of its new features was Director, an AI feature that autonomously manages camera framing so users no longer choose between speaker or group views — Cisco’s evolution from “one button to push” to “no buttons at all.”

In a major surprise, Microsoft’s Ken Pan joined Cisco’s Snorre Kjesbu to announce that Cisco devices will adopt Microsoft’s MDEP Android platform, containerized to maintain Cisco’s RoomOS experience and Control Hub oversight. This, combined with the new native Zoom app, cements Cisco’s cross-platform strategy. Together, Director and MDEP support signal Cisco’s push toward brilliant, platform-agnostic collaboration.

Zoomtopia Announcements: Zoomtopia spotlighted Zoom’s evolution from meetings to workflow orchestration. The company introduced Zoomie, a group AI assistant, and Ask AI Companion for instant webinar summaries. 

Cisco’s Jeetu Patel chatted live with Eric Yuan during Zoomtopia, highlighting Zoom’s near-native experience on Cisco devices. The conversation was partially replayed at WebexOne.

Neat Introduces Neat Open: In addition to the news of its MDEP adoption, Neat introduced Neat Open, a mode that extends the value of BYOD rooms. The feature ties Neat’s devices to BYOD via USB-C, adds AI-powered note-taking and wireless sharing, and brings Neat App Hub’s 40-plus apps into spaces that sit idle between calls. IT oversight comes through Neat Pulse for monitoring and consistency. This shows Neat is working to make BYOD a managed, productive environment rather than a second-class option, something other vendors have struggled to deliver.

New AV2 Codec: The Alliance for Open Media has announced AV2, its successor to the AV1 video codec. AV2 is designed to deliver stronger compression and support advanced use cases such as AR/VR, screen content, and multi-program delivery. Member companies expect adoption to ramp quickly, with most planning integration within two years. If adoption follows through, AV2 could significantly reshape how video is delivered across devices and platforms, raising the bar for efficiency and quality. 

New Logitech Headsets: Logitech has introduced two new headsets — the Zone Wired and the Zone Wireless 2 ES — featuring updated comfort, advanced features, and a stronger focus on sustainability. A key highlight is the Wireless 2 ES’s replaceable battery, addressing one of the most frustrating flaws of modern wireless headphones: forced disposal when the battery fails, despite the hardware still functioning. In parallel, Logitech confirmed that its Spot sensor will be available in November, with integrations spanning Logitech devices as well as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Places, Zoom Workspace Reservations, Appspace, Metrikus, and Samsung SmartThings Pro.

Jabra and Huddly: Jabra and Huddly are partnering to extend their meeting room coverage into larger spaces, focusing on Android-based systems. Jabra brings its established audio and Android platform experience, while Huddly contributes its AI-driven multi-camera system, Huddly Crew. The combined solution is designed to provide plug-and-play integration, with automated speaker tracking, consistent coverage, and support for MDEP security across Android, Windows, and BYOD setups. The plan addresses a gap in large and multipurpose rooms that often need custom integration. For Jabra, it extends beyond small and midsized rooms where its PanaCast lines are already in use; for Huddly, it gives a path into wider enterprise distribution through Jabra’s ecosystem. Rollout will begin in phases, with full integration targeted for early 2026. The move produces an odd Venn diagram where the two companies will partner on Jabra Android with Huddly Crew but remain competitors everywhere else.

Activate Q-SYS: Q-SYS used its most recent Activate event to reinforce that its “Full Stack AV Platform” isn’t just a slogan but a steadily sharpening picture. The company unveiled the NC-90 ePTZ camera for wide collaboration spaces and the Canon-built NC-Pro15x PTZ for production-grade venues, expanded its QIO line with high-density audio I/O models for large installations, and added new Gen 2 NS switches tuned for AV performance. It also introduced Reflect’s Space Utilization feature, blending sensor data and calendars to expose ghost meetings, and launched the Q-SYS Library as a curated, browser-based hub of plugins and templates. The throughline wasn’t just new gear, but continuity: Each release adds depth to a platform that now connects AV with broader enterprise and building management systems. The takeaway is that Q-SYS customers don’t just buy boxes, they buy into a living platform that becomes more valuable over time — a sharp contrast to competitors still tossing out isolated products.

NetSpeek Lena Beta: NetSpeek’s plain-language AI management engine for collaboration, “Lena,” has now been released to test customers in Beta. Netspeek has been adding employees and generally ramping up for a GA release in the next 30-60 days. We’re keeping a close eye on this as we see it as a turning point for AI management of large AV and collaboration ecosystems. If it is as successful as promised, AV management will never be the same.

Audio Brands Coming Together: Harman has completed its acquisition of Sound United, adding brands like Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, and Polk to its portfolio. Rather than folding them in, Harman will run Sound United as a standalone unit, keeping the brands distinct while leveraging global scale and selective engineering synergies. HEOS and Roon come along in the deal, with Roon expected to continue operating independently. The move expands Harman’s reach without homogenizing the brands, but it also signals a shift toward Harman consolidating more of the premium audio ecosystem under its roof.

Happy Birthday, Sennheiser: Sennheiser is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, reflecting on its history of bold decisions, product innovation, and global growth since its founding in 1945. The milestone comes as the company emphasizes its future direction, highlighting continued investment in professional audio while signaling expansion into video with new conferencing bars (which we reviewed here). It’s clear Sennheiser intends to evolve from a pure audio brand into a broader collaboration player.

Crestron Stayed Home: At this year’s CEDIA Expo, Crestron leaned fully into the residential side of its business. Rather than straddle consumer and business markets, the messaging was clear: Crestron is doubling down on depth in the home domain, reinforcing its ecosystem’s elegance and integrator ease.

AV Wizard Cash Cow: The immersive Wizard of Oz at the Las Vegas Sphere has earned over $65 million since June 10, drawing more than 500,000 viewers, using 16K projection, beam-forming audio, and 4D effects. Consider this proof that when AV spectacles are decently done, they can dazzle and print money. We reviewed the experience here and included excerpts here.

Customer Experience

2025 CCaaS Magic Quadrant

Gartner issued its 2025 CCaaS Magic Quadrant. The report lists AWS, Five9, Genesys, NiCE, and Talkdesk as Leaders, Content Guru as the sole Challenger, and Cisco, Vonage, and Zoom in the Niche quadrant. There are no Visionaries this year. The big changes are that NiCE elevated to clear champ, Cisco and Content Guru swapped quadrants, 8x8 was dropped, and Zoom was added. 

Although the graphic has some notable changes, on the whole, it looks pretty similar to the past few revisions. The big mystery is why 8x8 was dropped. The “explanation” is that 8x8 didn’t meet a new inclusion rule requiring the average deal to be over 100 agents. The new rule only impacted/removed 8x8. Presumably, Gartner felt this change better aligned the MQ with the needs of its customers. It is possible that Gartner added the rule to block another provider from inclusion. On the other hand, this is Zoom’s first time to be included in the CCaaS MQ. Once again, Gartner has placed the strong UC+CC providers in the Niche quadrant.

Great reports have great responsibility. The MQ is a very influential report used by many more organizations and people than its paying clients. For the first time, the analysts included several providers in a new Honorable Mentions section. Honorable Mentions don’t tell us much; we don’t know why they weren’t included in the report. Wouldn’t it be better to just lower the bar on the inclusion criteria? Do these nine providers represent the CCaaS sector? 

The report itself talks about the impending convergence with adjacencies, including CRM engagement centers and other CX solutions. Neither the convergence nor the adjacencies are new. The issue is the inclusion requirements that slice these MQs into separate reports. We have CCaaS, CAIP, CPaaS, and CEC MQs that all focus on CX from different perspectives. There is also the UCaaS MQ with an inclusion rule that requires CCaaS. This slicing and dicing of CX must confuse readers.

A more detailed analysis from TalkingPointz is in the works. 

Verint Engage 2025: In September, Michels attended the Verint Engage 2025 event in Orlando, the company’s annual user conference that brings together customers, partners, and analysts.

Engage focused on its automation agenda and the use of AI to drive business outcomes. Verint made it clear that its outcome-driven bots offer a better approach than AI initiatives without clear objectives. The new Intraday Spike Bot looks impressive. The demo showed how it can quickly analyze anomalies and spikes, ascertain the cause, and suggest immediate solutions. The bot even proposed a script change to improve containment (but why didn’t it record the script with an AI voice?). The Spike Bot can instantly calculate the hourly cost of the Spike and potentially flip the situation into a revenue opportunity.

Verint also introduced the Exact Forecasting Bot, designed to enhance agent staffing and skills forecasting. These bots demonstrate that organizations need not replace existing systems and processes to benefit from CX automation. Verint also provides dashboards to track bot usage and translate metrics into operational savings.

Despite the popularity of “Agentic AI,” the company continues using “bots.” Nevertheless, Verint did showcase a new agent builder for its Intelligent Virtual Agent.

The event did not offer any clarity on how Verint’s acquisition-in-process by Thoma Bravo may impact its vision. Informally, Verint executives suggested Thoma Bravo is interested in accelerating growth, but PE firms tend to do the opposite. TalkingPointz intends to publish a Deep Dive on this merger later this year. 

Five9 Analyst Summit: Five9 hosted an analyst event highlighting significant changes in the CCaaS sector and within the company itself, including new executives and product enhancements. Despite these changes, CEO Mike Burkland, who is planning to semi-retire, was fully engaged, and the company’s commitment to AI leadership remains strong. 

Five9 was an early adopter of generative AI, which is now disrupting products, go-to-market strategies, and customer expectations. CPO Ajay Awatramani proclaimed Five9 would be an “AI company,” an odd goal considering 1) Five9 is a CX company and 2) Five9 is ahead of the pack in reimagining CX with AI-first approaches. 

New leadership, like CRO Matt Tuckness, shared information about the company’s go-to-market model and sales performance. Partners and customers alike praise Five9’s reliability and its ability to transform CX. Five9 is recognized as a leader in the CCaaS sector, with the technology, momentum, and partnerships to excel in the transition to AI-CX. The company anticipates reaching $5 billion in revenue as AI and CCaaS revenues converge, making it a pivotal time for leadership change to drive explosive growth.

Selected Zoomtopia CX News: Zoom announced tighter integrations with CRMs, including embedding its contact center within some. Its latest move is to make its real-time transcription, unified routing, and AI assistant technology available in Salesforce Service Cloud. It also enhanced its integration with ServiceNow with an agent-to-agent integration, enabling AI Companion to work together with Now Assist Agents.

A new, native conversational intelligence tool called CX Insights allows supervisors and managers to use natural language queries to identify trends, pinpoint issues, and coach their teams. CX Insights provides prescriptive guidance to reduce customer churn, enhance self-service, and improve overall customer satisfaction. It aims to democratize data access and offer a comprehensive view of contact center operations, enabling leaders to understand performance trends and root causes across all Zoom CX channels. The system can provide recommendations such as staffing adjustments for peak hours or flag recurring self-service issues that increase call volumes.

Zoom AI Expert Assist now features an agentic upgrade, enhancing its ability to learn from and reason through conversations. This allows it to adapt recommendations as interactions progress and even execute actions, rather than just suggesting them. The feature should offer faster onboarding and more consistent outcomes. The Zoom Virtual Agent (ZVA) also got an upgrade with smarter reasoning, more accurate responses, and the ability to manage complex interactions. ZVA can now work with Zoom QM, allowing human and virtual agents to be evaluated similarly. 

Selected Webex One CX News: The big news from Cisco is AI QM. Webex is one of the few CCaaS providers that hasn’t acquired a WEM company. Perhaps that ship has sailed, as it is now developing its own QM — reimagined as an AI-first solution that will monitor 100% of the human and AI interactions in real-time (coming Q1). Webex Contact Center now supports over 50 languages and increased integrations with A2A and MCP support. There is also a new Webex CC for Salesforce. 

AWS Horizons: AWS hosted an Amazon Connect analyst event. As the Connect platform matures, its mission/purpose evolves. Amazon Connect intends to be an “AI everywhere” platform that offers AI-native interactions with model choice and observability. It’s intended to offer scale and resiliency with government compliance, on a pay-as-you-go model. Connect promises innovation velocity with continuous modernization. 

Most of the sessions were double-secret NDA. Not necessarily because they want to control the announcements, but because they were also testing/revising messaging. The pace of innovation is impressive. AWS is rapidly building standalone services; all are available to Connect, and some are integrated or included. Pay-as-you-go pricing is increasingly appropriate as automation reduces human agents. AWS has significantly simplified its pricing by expanding the core services included. AWS has been cautious with agentic promises and intends to offer agentic capabilities when the tech is ready. It’s also making notable improvements with WEM that may eventually serve as an onramp for new customers. 

While AWS (and many analysts) see Connect as a strong, competitive CCaaS, there is a Connect safety zone. AWS has little to say about competitive solutions that host on AWS. 

A highlight of the event was the unfiltered round-table conversations with customers and partners. These conversations reinforced emerging competitive barriers. Partners also expressed that Genesys upsetting its partners has also created a window for Connect. 

Sprinklr AI: Sprinklr hosted an analyst event this month. This is the first time Michels missed the Sprinklr event due to its conflict with Webex One. TalkingPointz monitored social media for updates, but very little was shared due to most content being confidential.

During the week, Sprinklr introduced several AI-powered tools, including a low-code agent builder, AI Agents, Sprinklr Copilot, and an agent-assist tool for customer service. Under “coming soon,” Sprinklr intends to release Telephony for its CCaaS. Workforce management orchestration in January, and agent templates for 18 industry customizations (banking, retail, teleco, and more), are planned. 

Sprinklr, founded in 2009 as a social media management platform, expanded into CX. It launched CCaaS in 2022, soon followed by a 40,000-agent deal with Deutsche Telekom. DT was recently featured in an online analyst session. Unfortunately, the promised recording was withheld, and it appears the customer has pulled-back its public testimonial. 

This was the first Sprinklr analyst event since CEO Rory Read replaced founder Ragy Thomas. Rory was heading Vonage when Ericsson acquired the firm. It appears Ragy was more generous with event meal planning. 

RingCentral AI Receptionist UK Launch: No need to be gobsmacked anymore: RingCentral has introduced its AI Receptionist to the UK market. The service automates inbound call handling for blokes and birds with natural language processing and routing. This makes old auto attendants rubbish. 

Content Guru: Content Guru announced its sixth major European office location in Athens, Greece. The new location will support Content Guru’s growing Global Operations Team. The opening follows its 2023 opening of its development hub in Porto, Portugal.

Talkdesk Expands HubSpot Integration: Talkdesk expanded its integration with the HubSpot platform through HubSpot’s App Partner Program. This integration aims to provide sales and service teams with a unified workspace within HubSpot, connecting all customer interactions, insights, and workflows.

The Talkdesk app, powered by Talkdesk Customer Experience Automation (CXA) with AI and omnichannel capabilities, allows teams to automatically log activity (calls, SMS, WhatsApp, IVR) with AI-powered summaries, connect conversations to relevant HubSpot objects, automate follow-ups and workflows, and access Talkdesk dashboards directly within HubSpot. This eliminates the need for teams to toggle between disconnected systems, reducing data entry duplication and improving customer response times and productivity. HubSpot praised Talkdesk’s AI-first innovation, while Talkdesk highlighted the deeper, more flexible integrations for HubSpot-first workflows.

UC and Messaging

UCaaS Magic Quadrant

Gartner published its annual UCaaS Magic Quadrant (MQ). The firm rated Cisco, Microsoft, RingCentral, and Zoom as Leaders. The Visionaries are 8x8, Dialpad, and GoTo. The Niche quadrant contains Google, Sangoma, Vonage, and Wildix. There were no Challengers this year. The authors highlight three essential trends: a decline in usage (and licensing) of traditional telephony, limited demand for AI in telephony, and the fade of RTO. The analysts make multiple references to the importance of mobility but do not mention SIM-based clients. 

Key AI advancements in UCaaS include generative AI for messaging, real-time transcription, translation, and meeting summarization. APIs, CPaaS, and app marketplaces are driving integrations with business applications. Gartner notes trends of improved administrative and security capabilities. 

The primary concern with this MQ is the notion/definition of UCaaS itself. UCaaS, the unified bundle of telephony, meetings, and messaging, is convenient but not particularly popular. Most enterprises make separate selections for the various modalities. Note that Microsoft has some 350M Teams users but only about 20M telephony users. All of Slack’s (team chat) and most of Google’s (chat and meetings) customers obtain telephony from different providers. Gartner discontinued separate MQs for meetings and messaging years ago. 

Gartner notes that the UCaaS providers are generally expanding into CPaaS and CCaaS. No surprise, as CCaaS and CPaaS are also expanding into UCaaS. The Big Blender is erasing the distinctions between sectors (and MQs), and this will create more specialized demand and providers. 

Enreach C5: Enreach’s SwyxON communications solution has completed the BSI C5 audit (Type 1), demonstrating its adherence to the security criteria established by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security. This certification aligns with frameworks like ISO/IEC 27001 for cloud security and compliance. 

Alianza Navigate25: Navigate25 was Alianza’s first event since acquiring Metaswitch. There, it introduced the Intelligent Communications Fabric, an architecture designed to unite Metaswitch’s past with Alianza’s future. This Fabric aims to modernize CSP infrastructure with three layers: Experience (for new services like AI and CCaaS), Orchestration (bridging legacy with modern capabilities), and Infrastructure (traditional functions with new deployment options like Alianza One cloud-native platform and the new Alianza Fusion hybrid model). Alianza advocates ending the “perpetual licensing” model. That makes some service providers nervous, but Alianza points to many of the successful OTT providers as supporting evidence. While the event was positive, it lacked a simplified path for migration to Alianza One, improved mobility, and new Experience Layer features. Overall, Navigate25 confirmed Alianza’s focus on elevating the CSP’s role in the future, a significant improvement over Microsoft’s promises to the Metaswitch base.

Webex AIR: Cisco announced at its annual Webex One event that its virtual receptionist, currently available for Webex contact center customers, will be extended to Webex Calling business phone system. This AI-powered receptionist (AIR) will automate routine queries, answer customer questions, and handle tasks like call transfers and appointment scheduling. AIRs are big improvements over traditional auto-attendants and one of the better new AI-enabled telephony features. Pricing details are pending, and there will be an upcharge.

Bandwidth Reverb25 Highlights: Bandwidth introduced its new Activation Agent, an AI-powered chat tool that simplifies global service activation for resellers by guiding users through local requirements. The company also showcased its RCS for Business solution with partner Out There Media and announced plans to expand the Bandwidth Registration Center, a unified portal for brand and use-case registration for RCS and SMS/MMS campaigns. This move underscores Bandwidth’s strategy to automate and simplify communications onboarding while strengthening its presence in the growing business messaging market.

BT/Infobip: BT and Infobip are expanding their partnership to provide AI-powered communication services globally. The collaboration combines BT’s voice capabilities with Infobip’s cloud platform, offering multiple channels for CX. Infobip will resell BT’s ICG services, and BT will offer Infobip’s messaging services.

Wildix Crown: Wildix and RoboReception’s AI receptionist has handled over 50,000 patient calls since May 2025, generating £9M in new revenue and saving 2K hours of clinical care. This partnership addresses the issue of missed calls in healthcare, combining Wildix’s UCaaS platform with RoboReception’s dentist-designed workflows to improve patient access and practice efficiency.

The Business Section

RingCentral/CommunityWFM: RingCentral announced the acquisition of CommunityWFM, a cloud-based workforce management solution. The acquisition strengthens RingCentral’s RingCX contact center platform. In the premises-based days, these solutions were separate components of a well-designed customer service operation. The CCaaS sector has expanded into WFO and WEM solutions. RingCentral is expected to combine RingCX and CommunityWFM into a single-vendor solution. RingCentral AI Workforce Management is now available to RingCX customers starting at $20 per agent per month.

SoundHoundAI/Interactions: SoundHound acquired Interactions LLC for $60M. This follows last year’s $80M acquisition of Amelia and signals a strategic move to consolidate and create a comprehensive AI tech stack. Interactions contributes a robust enterprise IVA install base for customer support, key patents in NLP/Voice/Conversational AI, a large data repository, and contact center expertise. Amelia adds orchestration, agentic AI, and digital workforce scalability. SoundHound brings its voice-native technology across automotive, quick service restaurants, and commerce. 

Clearspan/AveriStar: Clearspan announced its acquisition of AveriStar. Both CEOs believe the combination complements their portfolios. Both companies share similar customer challenges. 

More AV Integrator Consolidation: FORTÉ, formerly AVI Systems, announced this month that it has acquired Informationsteknik Scandinavia AB, a Stockholm-based integrator with operations in Sweden and Denmark. The deal adds seven locations and more than 120 employees, giving FORTÉ a stronger foothold in Northern Europe as it pursues global expansion. Sweden’s position as a stable economy with a skilled workforce makes it an attractive entry point into the Nordic and Baltic markets. This move underscores FORTÉ’s strategy to build scale for multinational customers seeking consistent audiovisual and collaboration solutions across regions. 

Also, AVI-SPL has acquired CCS Southwest, a regional franchisee of CCS Presentation Systems based in Mesa, Arizona, with 345 employees across 27 locations and about $200M in revenue. The deal expands AVI-SPL’s reach in the fast-growing Southwest for unified communications, AV, collaboration, and experiential solutions. As a reminder, FORTÉ (formerly AVI Systems) acquired CCS Southeast in November 2024.

Leadership Changes

The industry lost Jay Patel this month. He was shaping Cisco’s CX strategy. He left a strong imprint on the product portfolio and the teams he worked with. Cisco EVP Jeetu Patel opened Webex One by honoring Jay, noting that his “leadership and inspiration helped shape Cisco Collaboration over the past five years.” 

Cisco’s Rich Bayes was promoted to Senior Director of Product, Cisco Collaboration Devices, encompassing video hardware and software — including Control Hub workspace management responsibility. 

NetSpeek announced two leadership hires ahead of its Lena product launch: As we mentioned last month, Dan Root, formerly with Wainhouse and Barco, joins as Global VP of Sales and Partnerships. Spencer Wise became Director of Solutions Consulting.

Prakash Arunkundrum has joined HP as Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, a newly created role that unites long-term strategy, M&A, and enterprise-wide transformation initiatives. Prakash was with Logi for more than a decade and most recently served as President of Logitech for Business. Logitech also announced Joseph Nicotina as Global Head of Sales Excellence and Enablement, and Neil Fluester as Head of Portfolio and Alliances for the EU.

Mitel named Mike Robinson as its new CEO, replacing Tarun Loomba. 

NiCE announced the appointment of Jeff Comstock as President, CX Product & Technology. Comstock will report directly to NiCE CEO Scott Russell. He replaces Barry Cooper, who announced his retirement soon after Comstock’s appointment. 

President Trump has demanded that Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco, its head of global affairs, due to her alleged ties to the Democratic Party, calling her a “menace to US National Security.” Trump has been pressuring companies to remove individuals he views as opponents. He called for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign before striking a deal with him. Monaco previously served as Deputy Attorney General under President Biden. Microsoft has declined to comment.

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. To be or not to be: a de facto consent-based framework in the US? — Discussion of US privacy regulation, comparing the US opt-out framework with other jurisdictions.
2. Trump’s FCC Chair Carr uses old powers in new ways to rein in media companies — FCC Chair is using regulatory powers to pressure media companies, possibly reshaping media oversight.
3. EU to block Big Tech from new financial data sharing system — EU, supported by Germany, plans to exclude large Big Tech firms (Meta, Apple, Google, Amazon) from its upcoming financial data access regulation (FiDA).
4. Microsoft swerves EU antitrust fine with price deal for unbundled Teams — Microsoft’s deal with EU regulators, offering unbundled Office products, excluding Teams, at lower prices.
5. Google will not be forced to sell Chrome, federal judge rules — Google does not have to sell its Chrome browser despite antitrust findings, though the ruling puts restrictions on some exclusive deals and requires data sharing. 
6. Bubble Trouble: It’s Like 2007 All Over Again — The divergence between the stock market and the real economy seems to be growing, and this could be setting the stage for a significant correction.
7. Zoomtopia 2025: Zoom Bets on Agentic AI to Redefine Workplace and CX — What that means for workplaces and customer experience.
8. Marc Benioff Said AI Was Easy. A ‘Crazy’ Team at Salesforce Proved Him Wrong — Salesforce’s CEO said this would be the ‘absolute year of Agentforce,’ the name of his company’s AI product. It hasn’t turned out that way, as the enterprise software pioneer faces skeptical customers and greater competition from its peers as well as AI startups.
9. Qualcomm provides an update on its 6G research — Early pre-commercial 6G handsets may appear around 2028.
10. A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs — According to TechCrunch, the steady stream of workforce reductions in the technology sector shows no sign of slowing.
11. We Finally Have Free Anti-Robocall Tools That Work — iPhone finally offers this great Android feature. 
12. K Street shudders as Trump demands a Microsoft exec’s firing — The president’s demand that Microsoft fire former Biden DOJ official Lisa Monaco has put C-suites and lobbying shops on high alert about who they hire.
13. AI’s First Extinction Event Is Nigh — Why most AI startups are doomed.

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.

• 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 
• How Neat Keeps Expanding Its Video Horizons — Summary of Neat’s Analyst Summit and MDEP announcement
• Insider Lite: Alianza and Five9
• David discusses his upcoming Enterprise Connect 2026 session, and then chats with rAVe about the importance of the experience — Videos
• Insider Lite: The Comms Reset
• Dave and David discuss the recent IDC report and Neat — Video, UC Weekly News
• The Changing Nature of the Television — the invisible wow — No longer the must-see device
• UCaaS Mobility 3 from Crexendo
• VerintEngage25: Stronger, Faster, Measurable Outcomes (Verint Engage)
• Focus on AV or AI? The Experts Debate. NoJitter debate from BCStrategies
• How NiCE Won a 40,000-Agent Contact Center Deal with DWP — Genesys fumbled with MultiCloud.
• On the Road Again — Video: Dave and David discuss September event plans.
• Something New, Something Blew — The long, problematic tail of upgrades.
• The CEO Is Now an AI Agent — How far do we take trust in AI?
• 8x8, The Power of Dave, and Lions — On 8x8’s new AI branding.

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

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 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.