TalkingPointz Insider Report July 2025

Curated Enterprise Communications News and Insights from July 2025

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The National AI Action Plan: President Trump hosted a landmark AI summit, drawing top Silicon Valley tech leaders to unveil his administration’s “AI Action Plan.” The initiative signals a pivot in US artificial intelligence policy, aiming to drastically loosen AI development and deployment restrictions with a firm “America First” philosophy.

At the plan’s core are three executive orders, which President Trump asserts will transform the US into an “AI export powerhouse.” These orders directly roll back some of the guardrails around safe and secure AI development put in place by the previous Biden administration. Trump also rolled back Biden-era AI export restrictions on AI chips, and NVIDIA was recently allowed to resume selling its H20 AI chips to China.

One particularly notable executive order targets what the White House terms “woke” AI. It mandates that any company receiving federal funding must ensure its AI models are free from “ideological dogmas such as DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion). This move explicitly aims to abolish AI models that the administration believes suppress conservative speech or exhibit political bias.

The other two executive orders focus heavily on deregulation, a direct response to requests from American tech leaders. One explicitly promotes the export of “American AI” to other countries, positioning the US as the global leader in AI technology. The second eases environmental rules and expedites federal permitting processes for constructing power-hungry data centers, a crucial component for scaling AI capabilities.

President Trump wants the US to win at AI. However, China is significantly ahead in many measures (patents, computers, code contributions, etc.). The administration believes that US AI, purged of “woke” ideology, will be the key to crushing foreign competition. The AI Action Plan calls to boost data center construction by slashing environmental regulations, withholding federal funding from states that impose “burdensome AI regulations,” and only contracting with AI companies whose models are “free from top-down ideological bias.” The Action Plan threatens to cut off “AI-related” federal funding to states that adopt robust protections, and wants the FCC to enforce this. While effective at regulating specific technologies, the FCC is not a regulatory body. 

The Action Plan also reveals an escalating fight with the FTC. The Trump plan vows to review and potentially repeal FTC actions from the previous administration, aiming to dismantle “onerous” regulations perceived as hindering AI development. This could significantly weaken a major AI watchdog agency, reflecting the administration’s skepticism of regulatory oversight.

Things to know about the AI Action Plan:

• Compared to the Biden administration’s executive orders, this new plan is devoid of provisions to make AI safer.
• A coalition of privacy advocates, labor unions, and other organizations is calling for a People’s AI Action Plan to counter the Trump administration’s alliance with the tech industry. 
• Expediting power permits is not enough. The US is expected to need another 92 gigawatts of power to support the AI revolution. That’s about 92 new nuclear power stations. 
• The White House expresses hope that AI will usher in tremendous scientific breakthroughs, from discovering new materials to developing new drugs. Proposing large language models acting as scientists overestimates current AI capabilities.
• All AI companies make decisions about what can be generated using their systems. Which content is disallowed is determined based on laws and societal norms, as well as company goals. But these decisions are not for the government to make, whether by prohibiting content or requiring it. 
• The document is largely aimed at stripping away regulations, yet it introduces a lot of new provisions and rules regarding AI. 

Some of the AI Action Plan is theater, but there are some very broad directives within the plan that could be interpreted as authority. The AI Action Plan is not law. It is a vision and directive to federal agencies. 

General News

Microsoft implemented its second major layoff round in three months, cutting 9K jobs, or nearly 4% of its workforce. This follows a 6K cut in April, bringing the total to 15K. While these layoffs are occurring, Microsoft executives are simultaneously encouraging their teams to use AI to boost productivity. 

Separately, Microsoft reported quarterly revenue that beat expectations by more than $3B. On a YoY basis, Microsoft’s earnings rose 24% while sales increased 18%. Microsoft Cloud revenue rose 27% YoY in the June quarter to $46B. Azure cloud platform revenue grew 39% YoY in fiscal Q4, beating its target range of 34% to 35%. “Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector,” said Satya Nadella in a news release. 

What Metaverse? Microsoft is officially retiring Microsoft Mesh. Mesh.cloud.microsoft, along with its PC and Quest apps, will be shut down this December. With those go the “immersive space” view in Teams meetings and the ability to join via the Mesh Quest app. Teams Immersive Events remain and can be scheduled through the Teams calendar. The metaverse hype cycle peaked in 2021, but at least Microsoft didn’t rename itself Meta. Why are metaverse meeting avatars only shown from the waist up? Because virtual meetings never had legs. (Danto).

5G Consolidation? T-Mobile closed its acquisition of UScellular’s wireless operations. What I loved about my Google Fi service was that it leveraged the networks of T-Mobile, Sprint, and UScellular as a single service. Well, Single Service accomplished. When the FCC approved the T-Mobile merger with Sprint, it also created EchoStar as the new fourth carrier. That hasn’t gone well. EchoStar missed a key payment a few months ago, and Elon wants the FCC to reassign unused spectrum to SpaceX. FCC Chair Carr agrees. But suddenly, EchoStar avoided defaults and made its required payments, thereby avoiding default. The company said it continues to work cooperatively with the FCC to resolve concerns raised by the FCC, though it’s unclear if EchoStar intends to build a 5G network or attempt to sell its bandwidth to the other three 5G carriers. Vendor consolidation and the end of net neutrality are both attributed to former FCC Chair Ajit Pai.

Meta Bust: Meta has been busted for cleverly bypassing the Android controls that assure privacy. Meta’s approach could track web activity on Android, regardless of whether Incognito mode or a VPN was used. The Facebook/Instagram app had a background service that was activated when a user visited a website that implemented Meta Pixel (which includes 22% of the most visited websites — look for the Facebook Like button). The browser cookie (with or without consent) and the background app sent similar data to Meta, allowing them to match the user ID to the cookie. Essentially, the website breaks Android’s design, which isolates apps. Meta could face a fine as high as €32B. The EU has yet to issue a maximum GDPR fine, but this is a particularly ingenious and egregious case of bypassing security measures and consent. 

Michels on Zoom Perspectives: Zoom Perspectives 2025 is Zoom’s annual analyst event. Friends find it hilarious that I traveled to a Zoom event, but analyst events are indeed best done in person. Zoom highlighted, among many things, its AI-first strategy. While many companies claim to be AI-first, Zoom has a compelling story about using AI to transform workflows. Zoom’s AI-first Workplace suite aims to turn conversations into outcomes, or “conversation to completion,” across EX, CX, and productivity apps, with consistent assistance from an AI Companion. 

Other large words from the Perspectives Word Cloud include Connection, Open, Outcome, Channel, CX, and Retention. It wasn’t just vision; Zoom shared impressive QoQ and YoY growth from new and returning customers, with CC and Workvivo performing exceptionally well. Lots of changes, but ZoomSpeed persists with consistent and frequent product launches.

Zoom and Microsoft have pivoted to AI-first, but this transition benefits Workplace more than Teams. Before, Zoom had to compete with “free” by convincing customers to purchase Zoom even if they already paid for Teams. Today, it is “purchase Zoom and get AI,” or “purchase CoPilot” — both now have a cost. It was a great event: well attended, lots of interaction, great content, and demos. 

WebexOne Hints: Cisco is starting to provide hints about WebexOne 2025. AI-fueled disruption and the future-proof workplace. “Effortless, intuitive, and human.” Solutions targeted to modern customer buying criteria, especially security and privacy. WebexOne takes place at the end of September. 

AI News

AI Is Coming for AND From Google: Most of us have experienced the AI Overview results in Google Search. It’s impressive, and there is no doubt AI will disrupt search. Google may still win, but the advertising-based revenue model supporting the current web (and Google) may not. 

It got worse for Google this month because Perplexity and OpenAI intend to enter the browser business. Years ago, Chrome disrupted the browser space with a fast, free, and open browser. But it’s also plagued by cookies — a problem too complex for Google to solve. Meanwhile, the big AI firms believe that a user’s browser history will help provide better contextual responses. They want to understand the user’s internet journey, which means replacing Search and Chrome as our Internet escorts. 

Those are good reasons to sell your Google stock, but it’s not simple. Google’s AI models are pretty impressive, too, not to mention Waymo appears poised to unleash a driverless revolution. Will Google disrupt itself? 

$4T Valuation: NVIDIA became the first company to reach a valuation of $4T this month. Apple was the first company to reach the valuations of $1T, $2T, and $3T. Maybe a pattern change, but Apple started the year as the world’s most valuable company at about $3.9T, while Liberation Day tariffs allowed NVIDIA to claim $4T first. Also, note that hardware still reigns.

Zoom AI Companion Updates: Zoom made numerous announcements across its portfolio. Selected announcements relating to AI: Zoom added new agentic capabilities to AI Companion that allow it to perform tasks across third-party apps actively. In July, 13 new third-party app integrations were announced for Custom AI Companion that will enable users to connect directly to CRMs, project management tools, and cloud drives. Additionally, Zoom has launched a $12/month Custom AI Companion add-on that extends these agentic features to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex (coming soon). Zoom is positioning itself as a centralized workflow hub. Zoom Virtual Agent now integrates with Zoom Scheduler, enabling autonomous appointment management that syncs and routes as appropriate. Zoom’s AI Expert Assist solution now offers AI-generated answers at the top of the knowledge base search results (RAG). 

Teams AI Updates: Teams users can now search with app and agent suggestions. If you search for “Fac” in the Teams search bar, “Facilitator agent” will pop up along with other results. You can also share agents and apps from the app bar, though it doesn’t sound intuitive: select the “+Apps” icon from the three-dot menu in the top right of any chat, then right-click to share the app or agent.

Exploiting AI’s Hallucinations: A viral clip promoting a Malaysian cable car was great for tourism despite being fake. Tools like Google Veo and Sora can make effective and realistic fake travel videos, though this may have inspired 8x8. Stay tuned. 

Copilot Changes Again: Microsoft is shifting Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat’s image generation and file upload tools from fixed limits to capacity-based access starting in August 2025. Access will now vary throughout the day depending on system availability, with licensed Copilot users receiving priority. This change introduces more flexibility and means some users may experience temporary service denials.

Kimi Another DeepSeek: Kimi K2, launched on July 11 by Beijing-based company Moonshot AI, matches or surpasses Western rivals, as well as some DeepSeek models. It excels at coding and testing. Kimi has impressive benchmarks: It’s number 5 on the overall LMArena benchmark, matching Claude. Kimi K2 can be downloaded and built on by researchers for free. It can be accessed through API for a fraction of the price of leading proprietary models, such as Claude 4 from Anthropic.

This is the second impressive model to emerge from China in six months. Moonshot AI, founded in March 2023, is a startup organization that, until now, has been little known in the West. But its Kimi chatbot, based on a previous LLM, was already the third-most-used in China by November. Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent are reportedly among its investors.

It Was an AI Month: It seems that every month is an AI month, but July 2025 was exceptional. Michels met with the leadership of AWS Connect, Zoom, and 8x8 in the US, and AI came up a few times. After these events, Michels penned a few thoughts on how AI is changing comms in an LI post that resonated. 

How much is AI changing the sector? A lot! It’s changing everything. Here are SIX critical shifts occurring:

1. Voice Is the New UI. Remember “My voice is my passport” as a security phrase? Now, it’s “my voice is my keyboard.” APIs are old school. Enterprise-wide, applications and integrations will be voice-enabled from meetings (with AI scribes) to customer service. The future is frictionless, voice-first interactions and integrations, multilingual, and without code.
2. Mind Your Data: AI without contextual data is like a kiss without a squeeze. Every data repository is a treasure trove, and new moats are protecting the repositories. Examples include Microsoft putting up CAPTCHA to access Teams meetings and Slack locking down customer data (from its customers). The impending browser wars will be unconcerned about eyeballs.
3. Workflows Are the New Apps. Forget simple automation. We’re entering the era of AI-native automation, where AI handles complex workflows that require judgment. An AI that doesn’t just listen to a customer call but understands the intent, updates the backend systems, and routes the follow-up autonomously. Hat tip to Zoom for “from conversation to completion.” 
4. Bottlenecks Be Gone: The modern workplace has largely been throttled by human bottlenecks, and these bottlenecks will disappear. We see this first with code generation; developing new code is becoming the fastest part of a project. Other bottlenecks are various decision barriers, such as data collection and analysis. We are moving from concept to code to scale in days, not months or years. Hat tip to AWS for illustrating several real examples of how AI is eliminating bottlenecks previously caused by humans. 
5. Soon This Will Matter: As disruptive and consuming as AI has become, none of this matters, yet! That’s because AI isn’t that useful, yet. We are in the Scantron era again. Scantron bubbles revolutionized paper scoring. A good step, but digitalization is what mattered. AI is automating existing workflows. The real stuff comes in the reimagination of work. The first glimpse of this is in agentic AI. Focus on outcomes, not processes.
6. The Barriers to Entry Are Changing: The comms sector has enjoyed numerous barriers to entry over the decades, and most of them are disappearing. AI is simultaneously commoditizing and enabling competitive advantage. Giants may or may not fall, but their businesses will radically change. Hat tip to 8x8 for illustrating examples of how dev time no longer separates the big from small. 

Meetings and AV 

Teams: A few selections from this month’s haul of Teams updates: Interpreter is now GA. Interpreter, a new way to make multilingual communication effortless, is now generally available. Its ability to reduce language barriers in meetings was demonstrated at EC25 last March by translating a native Norwegian’s German into English. Interpreter is available across Windows and Mac desktops, web (Chrome, Safari, Edge), and mobile (iOS, Android). Interpreter currently supports nine languages, including Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (ah, no Norwegian). Two hours of interpretation are included per user per month with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. New certified hardware from Biamp: Ceiling mic & 4K camera system for medium and large Teams rooms. 

Neat Achieves Security Certification: Neat has earned ISO/IEC 27001 certification, confirming it meets global standards for information security, risk management, and compliance, as audited by DNV. This reinforces Neat’s credibility as a secure solution. 

Cyviz and Neat: Cyviz and Neat have partnered to integrate Neat Pulse with Cyviz’s enterprise AV control platform, enabling centralized management of Neat devices across Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. Aimed at large enterprises, the solution simplifies operations and strengthens Neat’s growing partner ecosystem.

Panasonic Abandons Sale of Projector Business: Panasonic has canceled plans to sell 80% of its projector division to ORIX due to disagreements over financial projections. The $800M deal, announced in April 2024, was intended to accelerate the unit’s growth, but several display technologies, such as dvLED, are simply killing the projection market. We wish Panasonic the best of luck. 

Pexip Update: Pexip’s Infinity v38 adds Teams watermark support and policy controls for presentation streams and layouts. The update maintains Teams API compatibility and reinforces Pexip’s focus on enterprise-grade interoperability over AI gimmicks.

MDEP Expands Into Digital Signage: IAdea announced a new initiative of MDEP for digital signage. Microsoft launched MDEP as a solution for Teams Meeting Rooms, and many assumed MDEP was somehow tied to or limited to Teams. Not our readers! We expect that established sign manufacturers will resist this move, and new entrants will embrace it, as we saw with Teams. For more information on MDEP, read our recent research note. 

Great Promise, Minimal Impact: GPMI, a new AV cable standard from China’s SUCA alliance, aims to replace HDMI and DisplayPort by combining video, audio, data, and power. Great concept, but likely destined for failure as it does not have global support. 

dvLED Patent Lawsuit: Cree LED has sued Nanolumens for infringing six dvLED patents, including tech for waterproof packaging and high-contrast LEDs. Though targeting a narrow segment, the case underscores dvLED’s growing value.

One Show Becomes Two: This year, Digital Signage and LDI will again have separate events. Digital Signage moves to San Diego in October with a reduced focus on the Expo. LDI returns to Las Vegas in December. Danto intends to be in Vegas. 

Truly Wireless Displays: At last month’s InfoComm 2025, Displace unveiled a battery-powered, wireless display that mounts to flat surfaces using an active-loop vacuum suction system, eliminating the need for cables, mounts, or power outlets. The screens come in 27″ and 55″ sizes and can be tiled for video wall applications. While initially positioned as a consumer innovation, the potential for portable digital signage is clear.

Merci Canada: Canada has launched its first national professional AV organization, PAVS.CA (Professional Audio Visual Society of Canada), to serve sectors ranging from integration to live events. The group plans to offer training, mentorship, and advocacy as it builds out membership. Danto believes its creation signals the growing frustration with AVIXA’s tendency to line its pockets rather than advocate to move the industry forward.

Zoom Realtime Media Streams: Zoom introduced Realtime Media Streams (RTMS), which gives devs secure, real-time access to audio, video, and transcript data directly from Zoom Meetings. This is part of Zoom's commitment to be open and AI-first by providing live meeting content as structured data streams. RTMS will likely resonate with financial and other regulated sectors, healthcare and telemedicine, and sales and customer service teams. Zoom made numerous announcements across its portfolio in July, in addition to RTMS. A new UI for Team Chat is notable in this Insider section. The new interface includes AI Companion’s reply and compose features. 

Customer Experience

Five9 Exec Shuffle: Many questions and concerns have arisen about Five9 due to the leadership changes announced in July — see Leadership Changes below. Lots of speculation about the provider being likely to be acquired. However, no one has offered a reasonable explanation for why such significant changes would occur before an acquisition. There’s also been some renewed discussion about the failed acquisition with Zoom. Remember, the Five9 shareholders, not its leadership, board, or Zoom, killed that acquisition. More to come. Unrelated, Five9 intends to host an analyst event in September.

Zoom Updates: The newly announced Zoom Auto Dialer looks reasonable. It offers one-at-a-time or multiline dialing, drops prerecorded voicemails, has some dialing intelligence, and supports automated bookings. More advanced features are likely coming. The Dialer, powered by Zoom Phone, is integrated with the newly upgraded Zoom Revenue Accelerator (ZRA). ZRA now supports grouping sales teams into territories and provides insights into in-person meetings that span the sales journey. ZVA: Zoom Virtual Agent (ZVA) is a conversational AI and multi-channel chatbot platform. It is intended to deliver fast, personalized, and natural automated experiences. ZVA can be used as a voice (voice channels) or classic chatbot/chat agent. Customers can configure agent tone, behavior, and actions within Zoom’s Unified Studio. ZVA is available as a standalone offering or as an add-on to Zoom Contact Center. The AI Compansion is now available to assist with workforce management capacity planning. 

Talkdesk News: The CX provider introduced more solutions optimized for specific verticals. Talkdesk Travel Experience Cloud and Talkdesk Hospitality Experience Cloud provide pre-built integration gateways to popular industry applications. They are built on Talkdesk’s Customer Experience Automation (CXA) platform, which provides AI agents and orchestration. Additionally, Talkdesk launched a UK Regional Cloud, enabling UK customers to meet data residency requirements within the country. Td can appeal to both US and European customers who desire to work with an in-region provider. In February 2025, the company added the Australia Regional Cloud to its portfolio. 

AWS Connect Forecasting: Amazon Connect forecasting, capacity planning, and scheduling is now available in AWS GovCloud (US-West). It anticipates contact volume and arrival rates, converts forecasts into staffing projections, and assigns daily shifts accordingly. 

Crescendo + AWS Nova Sonic: Crescendo uses Amazon’s Nova Sonic foundation model to power fully automated, natural voice conversations across customer support channels. This integration brings 24/7 intelligent voice engagement with real-time handoffs to human agents. 

It’s an interesting development, including a nice use case of generative AI transforming CX. It also positions AWS as a competitor to other frontier models from a voice-centric approach. AWS may be attempting to leapfrog OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic by skipping text. The next AI fragmentation could be text-focused LLMs vs. the few voice-focused LLMs. Bet on voice. 

Avoxi: Avoxi has introduced three AI-powered features to enhance cloud voice services for contact centers. Proactive Service monitors call performance and can trigger support cases. Intelligent Caller ID selects the best outbound number based on recipient location, and Avoxi Digest provides customizable weekly reports with detailed voice operations insights. 

UC and Messaging

AudioCodes Supports WhatsApp: AudioCodes has introduced support for WhatsApp voice calling on its Live Hub platform, enabling enterprises to handle both inbound and outbound calls through WhatsApp’s Business Calling API. Now, businesses can route WhatsApp voice calls directly into AI-powered bots, contact centers, or Microsoft Teams workflows via Live Hub’s self‑service orchestration layer. This enhances reach — you’re engaging with nearly 3B WhatsApp users globally — without forcing customers onto new apps or channels. It signals a shift toward unified voice‑AI infrastructure, where messaging platforms are becoming first‑class voice touchpoints.

Yabba Dabba Wilma: Wildix has launched Wilma, an agentic AI assistant embedded across its UCaaS suite, capable of automating workflows like scheduling, call routing, and chat interactions in 15 languages. Wilma has a face. “She” listens, understands context, and lends a hand where needed, such as summarizing calls, routing requests, and more. Deployable in minutes without code, Wilma is #GDPR-compliant and integrated across voice, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and web. GA now. 

Additionally, Wildix rolled out a modular agentic AI solution designed to adapt to how each organization operates. The system interprets language, references past exchanges, and applies contextual logic to guide each decision. Configuration happens through a visual no-code studio. Customers can define metrics before deployment, such as first-contact resolution to overflow cost reduction, and configure automation to deliver visible, immediate value. Forty dental practices in the UK have implemented an AI receptionist for scheduling, reminders and insurance inquiries.

Selected Teams Updates: Suggested prompts for Copilot on Teams Phone devices: With Copilot now on Teams Phone devices, during active calls, users can choose from suggested Copilot prompts to quickly generate meeting notes and summarize action items. Admins can now configure line keys for personal and common area phones. You can now set the order in which calls are routed to agents within a call queue. This functionality is useful for ensuring that high-priority calls are answered first, while lower-priority calls are held in a queue longer. New certified hardware: AudioCodes C436HD Native Microsoft Teams Common Area IP Phone with Integrated Sidecar.

CPaaS

Gartner CPaaS MQ: TL;DR — seriously. The report was just published. Initial thoughts are that CPaaS is very difficult to define. Gartner claims the CPaaS market grew in 2024 to $14.05B but also shifted away from SMS. Emerging services include conversational and omnichannel capabilities, including new messaging platforms, AI automation, and campaign management. In other words, CPaaS and CCaaS are increasingly overlapping (thus often the same provider), but few of these combined providers were included. Also, CCaaS services are becoming usage-based. Should these MQs be combined into a single CX MQ? More to come. 

Twilio Enhancements: Twilio announced GA of Event-Triggered Journeys in Engage, Data Residency for Email (EU), and WhatsApp Business Calling. Event-Triggered Journeys inside of Twilio Engage unlock context-rich, real-time customer journeys for businesses. Data Residency for Email (EU) enables businesses to maintain control over customer data and streamline their compliance, and can boost delivery performance with localized email infrastructure. WhatsApp Business Calling on Programmable Voice enables fluid customer engagement transitions between messaging and voice channels. 

Infobip WhatsApp: Infobip launched WhatsApp Business Calling, allowing businesses to make and receive voice calls directly within WhatsApp’s native interface. The feature integrates with Infobip Conversations, enabling smooth transitions between chat and voice while preserving conversation history. 

The Business Section

NiCE [Finally] Acquires Cognigy: It’s a big story, but there’s little surprising here (other than it took so long). Price: $955M cash — yes, NiCE had a BiLLiON on hand. The acquisition fits at multiple levels. The two products complement each other and can be sold to the same buyer. Both are product leaders and growing. The agentic product visions are reasonably aligned. NiCE is more NA, and Cognigy is more European, but this facilitates world domination. NiCE will move into the new Cognigy office in Düsseldorf. It’s a nice exit for Cognigy that expertly navigated a complex and crowded space. 

There have been a lot of questions regarding NiCE’s commitment to keeping Cognigy independent. That’s the smart play. Cognigy is a best-of-breed platform that is complementary to most CC solutions. The company has already built a strong platform business. Gartner’s latest market forecast predicts AI-enabled self-serve solutions will displace agents as CCaaS approaches saturation. NiCE currently offers its WEM and recording solutions independently of CXone. I suspect Avaya and Genesys are considering ending their Cognigy partnerships due to its new owners, but they (and their customers) chose Cognigy for a reason. It’s on NiCE to prove those reasons remain valid. 8x8 competes and partners with NiCE and resells an integrated Cognigy, an interesting position that I expect will end well for all parties. 

HPE and Juniper Closes: An unexpected ProCurve ball. HPE has completed its $14B acquisition of Juniper Networks after resolving antitrust concerns with the DOJ. As part of the settlement, HPE will divest its Instant On WLAN business and license Juniper’s Mist AI Ops source code to a competitor. The deal doubles HPE’s networking business and positions it to compete more aggressively with Cisco by combining enterprise networking, cloud, and AI-driven infrastructure (if only HPE had UC+CC+devices).

Genesys Equity to SFDC and SNOW: Hellman & Friedman and Permira unloaded $750M of Genesys equity twice to Salesforce and ServiceNow. This signals that a Genesys IPO remains distant as the owners seek other exit alternatives. According to Bloomberg, the deal put a $15B valuation on Genesys. It was $21B four years ago when they (plus Zoom and others) invested. Additional thoughts in this video post. 

Leadership Changes

At Five9, Matthew Tuckness has been promoted to CRO, and Bryan Lee lost “interim” in front of his CFO title. CMO Niki Hall, EVP of Corp Strategy Jim Doran, and HR Head Tricia Yankovich have departed. CEO Mike Burkland announced plans to retire but will remain until a replacement is found. More on Burkland in this video post. 

Mitel named a new Board of Directors following its financial restructuring, with Tony Abate appointed Chair. Other new members include Marc Lefar, Marika Lulay, Michael Robinson, and Carl Wiese. They join existing directors Tarun Loomba and Peter Wollman. Chris Botting has joined Alvaria as CPO. At Calabrio, Doug Dopita is the new SVP of Sales for NA and Johannes Weiss is VP Sales EMEA. 

Charles Studt was named CMO at Sendbird. Helen Sheirbon expanded her role at HP to oversee the full Solutions portfolio after previously leading HP’s Worldwide Hybrid Systems business. Karl Hantho has departed EPOS. 

AR Changes: Rob Arnold has left Frost & Sullivan and is now at Verizon. Megan Donaldson has left Zoom marketing.

Meet Us

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

Goodreads

1. Microsoft plans to replace many of the salespeople it laid off with more technical roles to compete with OpenAI, Google — Goodbye, “specialists.” Hello, “solutions engineers.”
2. How the Owner of Hidden Valley Ranch Learned to Love AI — Company leaders can’t dictate how teams should use the tools. Instead, they have to see what people are doing in their own departments, then help the best practices spread through the ranks.
3. Why the Business World Can’t Let Go of Landline Phones — Smartphones have come to dominate our consumer life, but in many businesses across the country, there’s still a strong case for that hard plastic handset. 
4. Meet GPMI, the one-cable standard taking on HDMI, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt — A new cabling/connector standard is emerging from China.
5. Reflections on OpenAI — What it is like to work at OpenAI. 
6. Honey, AI Capex is Eating the Economy — AI capex is so big that it can be compared to the railroad boom.
7. Mitel warns critical security flaw could let hackers completely bypass logins — Patch hygiene is a good thing.
8. This 55-Inch Digital Screen Helps Promote Sustainability on a Reverse Vending Machine — Introducing the “Reverse Vending Machine” that will save the planet.
9. Siri-ously? AI Got Clever, Not Conscious — AI still does not really get us.
10. America’s Three Telco Moment — How AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon differ. 
11. Trump’s AI plan: Pull back restraints on tech — The Trump administration’s latest push to expand AI infrastructure and investments, beat China, and undo Biden. 
12. Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End — Recent interference in the sciences shares features with the science-damaging policies of Stalin and Hitler. This is an unparalleled destruction from within.
13. AI’s pogo-stick grift — Other than operating in an unpredictable, adversarial, unstructured world, agentic AI is easy.

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.

• The Triple Peak Workday Needs to Go Can AI shorten the workday? 
• Michels’ Thoughts on Genesys and Five9 News
• Michels on TR regarding Cognigy Acquisition 
• Reach Out And Text Someone — Why nobody answers the phone anymore
• First or Stickiest: Remember The Diamond Rio? Is Zoom losing its edge in video?
• Who Is Watching Whom? Thoughts on ownership of your biometric/digital data 
• An AV Rose by Any Other Name — Product naming in AV
• Prem is Back, Baby
• Zoom Delivered What Microsoft Inspired and a discussion about it
• A Closer Look at the Sennheiser TC Bar S (Product Review and Video)
• The TalkingPointz Whitepaper on Video Interoperability is now publicly available
• Non-AI Priorities for the Contact Center — Three experts chime in on non-AI priorities for CC. 
• Why FedRAMP Is the Ultimate Badge of Trust in Cloud Services 
• Slides: Michels presented to CCA The Inevitable Convergence of UCaaS and Mobility
• TalkingPointz Deep Dive: Forrester CCaaS Wave 2025 
• AV Extravaganza in MCO Michels, Infocomm trip report. 

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

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

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