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Source: https://www.cxtoday.com/feed/

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<title>3 Times Customer Chatbots Went Rogue (and the Lessons We Need to Learn)</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/ai/3-times-customer-chatbots-went-rogue-and-the-lessons-we-need-to-learn/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Charlie Mitchell]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2025 10:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Conversational AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI Agents]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chatbots]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73948</guid>
<description><![CDATA[By 2027, conversational AI is expected to handle 70 percent of customer service interactions, up from about 50 percent today, according to Gartner. The driver? Generative and agentic AI. The catch? We’ve already seen two years’ worth of high-profile AI misfires, and they are a warning shot of what’s to come. Some bot blunders made […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[By 2027, conversational AI is expected to handle 70 percent of customer service interactions, up from about 50 percent today, according to Gartner.
The driver? Generative and agentic AI. The catch? We’ve already seen two years’ worth of high-profile AI misfires, and they are a warning shot of what’s to come.
Some bot blunders made headlines for laughs, like <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/conversational-ai/dont-you-call-me-a-virgin-says-virgin-moneys-chatbot/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virgin Money’s getting flustered over the word “virgin” </a>or <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/conversational-ai/dpds-genai-chatbot-swears-and-writes-a-poem-about-how-awful-it-is/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DPD dubbing itself the “worst delivery company in the world,”</a> but others cut deeper.
For instance, one ChatGPT-powered agent on a car dealer’s site agreed to sell a $75k Chevy Tahoe for just $1, a “deal” that was treated as binding, but the next three examples had far bigger consequences, each one worse than the last.
<h2>1. Air Canada Gets Sued for a Serious Bot Blunder</h2>
In February 2024, Jake Moffatt, grieving the loss of his grandmother, turned to Air Canada’s chatbot for information about bereavement fares.
The bot incorrectly told him that he could purchase tickets at full price and then apply for a refund within 90 days after travel. Trusting this, Moffatt bought the tickets.
When he later tried to claim the refund, Air Canada denied it, explaining that bereavement fares don’t apply to completed travel. Frustrated, Moffatt sued and won, collecting $650.88 plus interest and fees.
As part of the ruling, a Civil Resolution Tribunal member noted:
<blockquote>“In effect, Air Canada suggests the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions. This is a remarkable submission.”</blockquote>
While $650.88 may sound minor, the real damage wasn’t financial; it was reputational. Stories like this spread quickly, raising questions about trust, accountability, and brand reliability.
The case underscores a critical truth: if your AI isn’t trained and monitored properly, it can misinform customers, damage brand credibility, and turn what should be a helpful tool into a liability.
<h2>2. Just Go Ahead and Break the Law, Says NYC’s Official Chatbot</h2>
From a lawsuit to lawbreaker: New York City’s “MyCity” chatbot misled small business owners with dangerously inaccurate advice and, at times, effectively instructed them to break the law.
The bot told shop owners that they could go cashless, contradicting a 2020 law requiring NYC stores to accept cash. It also gave a flat “no” when a landlord asked if they had to accept tenants using rental assistance, despite it being illegal in New York to discriminate based on sources of income.
A local housing policy expert called the tool “dangerously inaccurate,” while critics blasted the approach as “reckless and irresponsible.” Even Mayor Eric Adams faced backlash after defending the bot in a tense press conference.
Here’s the hard truth that they don’t tell you: If an untrained AI doesn’t know the answer, it doesn’t stay quiet, it makes one up. When that happens in high-stakes contexts like housing or compliance, the fallout isn’t just confusion; it creates legal risk, public outrage, and long-term damage to brand reputation.
<h2>3. A 400-Word Prompt Tricks Lenovo’s Virtual Agent Into Leaking Sensitive Data</h2>
In August 2025, Lenovo’s AI chatbot “Lena” was tricked into exposing sensitive company data with nothing more than a 400-character prompt.
Researchers at Cyber News discovered that this tiny input could leak live session cookies, which were enough for an attacker to bypass logins, hijack active chats, and sift through past conversations. The exploit combined an innocent product query with a hidden HTML switch, a fake image link, and a push to display it, effectively turning Lena into an insider threat.
Lenovo patched the flaw quickly, but the damage could have been far worse. A breach of this kind could have opened the door to massive data exposure, compromised customer trust, regulatory investigations, and an enduring black mark on Lenovo’s reputation.
The lesson is clear: AI chatbots aren’t just helpful, they’re vulnerable. Their likelihood to comply can be weaponized, and without rigorous safeguards, what starts as a customer service tool can spiral into a brand’s biggest liability.
<h2>Key Lessons for Implementing Next-Generation Virtual Agents </h2>
As Jeff Blair, Chief Growth Officer at Transcom, summarized:
<blockquote>“AI chatbots have huge potential, but they need the proper boundaries to deliver effective value. What separates a bot that strengthens customer trust from one that undermines it is simple: clear guardrails, cultural context, and functional monitoring and training. Without those, even the smartest AI can quickly go off track.”</blockquote>
The reality is that chatbots aren’t plug-and-play. Without training, guidelines, and smart escalation paths, they can quickly become liabilities. A self-learning system is powerful, but only if it’s taught what not to do, and knows when to pass the conversation to a person.
The challenge? Few in-house teams have the time, tech depth, or risk appetite to design, test, monitor, and retain bots at scale. Every missed escalation, every hallucination, every compliance slip doesn’t just hurt experience; it hits revenue and brand trust.
That’s why more brands are turning to BPO partners. A modern BPO doesn’t just provide people, it brings best-in-class frameworks, monitoring, and safeguards that most enterprises can’t build alone. It means:
<ul>
<li>Sandbox testing and simulations before a bot ever goes live</li>
<li>Continuous monitoring for hallucinations, latency spikes, and missed escalations</li>
<li>Compliance-first design aligned to HIPAA, GDPR, and other standards</li>
<li>AI + human collaboration that absorbs risk while delivering real outcomes</li>
</ul>
In <a href="https://transcom.com/whitepapers/ai-at-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AI at work: the hype, the truth, and what’s next</a>, Transcom explores why 85 percent of AI projects fail, and how the right partnership flips the odds in your favor. Deploying AI in today’s landscape without expert support and oversight isn’t just risky. It’s reckless.
<h2>Choosing the Right AI Model to Power Virtual Agents </h2>
The latest models from Anthropic and Open-AI are jaw-dropping, but they are not built for CX. They’re generic, not tuned to customer outcomes, and prone to misinformation. That’s the obvious risk. The subtler risk is bias.
These systems learn from massive datasets scraped from the web, most of which are skewed toward English-speaking, Western European perspectives. The answers that they generate, no matter how fluent, often reflect those cultural defaults.
One study from <a href="https://shav.dev/blog/cultural-bias" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shav </a>tested leading models against cultural values from 107 countries. The result? They all echoed the same assumptions: Western European norms. That’s a huge problem for Global CX, where cultural nuance isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s the difference between building loyalty and burning it.
As Tey Bannerman, former McKinsey Partner, stated on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/teybannerman_theres-something-almost-nobody-is-talking-activity-7358405153139367937-4GVf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAB_MGuQB6bbmsMlLLNjrIhFAQlGGwLO5C-k" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a>:
<ul>
<li>In Germany, a direct, efficient answer satisfies.</li>
<li>In Japan, that same blunt response breaks meiwakum, the cultural need for deep apology. It feels dismissive.</li>
<li>In the UAE, offering a discount as an apology backfires. It reads as charity, not respect.</li>
</ul>
This is what bias looks like in practice. It’s not always misinformation. It’s culturally tone-deaf. And unless an AI model is trained on your customers, in your markets, with escalation paths to humans when it’s unsure, these missteps will multiply.
The fix is training and continuous retraining: teaching bots cultural context, embedded escalation rules, and stress-testing them in sandbox environments before customers see them. Without that, global brands risk launching “smart” AI that alienates the very people it’s meant to serve.
The reality is this: most AI failures don’t come from the tech itself, but from how it’s applied. Bias, blind spots, and brittle training loops can undo even the most advanced model. The real challenge isn’t whether AI can transform CX. It’s whether you can make it work in your environment.
<h2>Don’t Make These Mistakes… </h2>
<a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/almost-half-of-customer-service-tech-deployments-miss-the-mark-finds-gartner/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gartner predicts that half of businesses will end up walking back plans to shrink their service teams with AI. </a>Why? Because too many deployments fail before they scale. The usual culprits: choosing generic models not built for CX, skipping guardrails, and underestimating the complexity of cultural nuance and compliance.
The better path is training AI where it matters, and that is on real-world conversations, regulations, and cultural contexts that define your customers. That’s where BPO-trained AI stands apart. By combining anonymized sector data, regional context, and human-in-the-loop safeguards, these models don’t just “handle” interactions; they elevate them.
Some organizations are already doing this well. For instance, companies like Transcom take a tech-agnostic approach, working with best-in-class AI platforms in close partnership with their clients, keeping their business objectives front of mind. They then ensure the proper frameworks, simulations, and compliance checks needed to make chatbots customer-ready. They also draw on large, anonymized datasets across industries and geographies to reduce cultural bias, helping ensure AI responses land appropriately, whether the customer is in the US, Berlin, Tokyo, Dubai, or some other region of the planet.
The takeaway is clear. Businesses sidestepping embarrassing bot failures are the ones pairing AI with rigorous guardrails and cultural intelligence. For those that don’t, the risks aren’t just technical, they’re reputational, regulatory, and financial.
<hr />
Ready to go deeper? Download the whitepaper:<a href="https://transcom.com/whitepapers/ai-at-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> AI at work: The hype, the truth and what’s next </a>for a practical look at why 85 percent of AI projects fail and how to flip the odds by aligning the right AI to your KPIs, building guardrails that prevent missteps, and scaling solutions that deliver ROI.
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>The FBI Warns Salesforce Customers of Increasing Cyber Attacks</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/the-fbi-warns-salesforce-customers-of-increasing-cyber-attacks/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nicole Willing]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:54:03 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CRM]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Generative AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Security and Compliance]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73999</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has put out a warning that cybercriminal groups have been targeting organizations’ Salesforce platforms. In the alert, the FBI warned of increased data theft and extortion intrusions from two specific groups. One of those groups is behind the recent Salesloft attack that opened a backdoor into Salesforce. Hackers […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has put out a warning that cybercriminal groups have been targeting organizations’ Salesforce platforms.
In <a href="https://www.ic3.gov/CSA/2025/250912.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the alert</a>, the FBI warned of increased data theft and extortion intrusions from two specific groups.
One of those groups is behind <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/conversational-ai/the-salesloft-drift-chatbot-is-set-to-go-offline-after-customers-suffer-big-breaches/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the recent Salesloft attack</a> that opened a backdoor into Salesforce.
Hackers exploited compromised OAuth tokens for the Salesloft Drift application, an AI chatbot that can be integrated with Salesforce via API.
OAuth tokens are digital credentials that authorize secure API access to specific user data or services. The hackers used the compromised tokens and third-party app integration to compromise victims’ Salesforce systems and extract data.
Salesforce quickly worked with Salesloft to close the security loophole. On August 20, 2025, Salesloft revoked all active access from the tokens, stopping the hackers from being able to breach victims’ Salesforce platforms, the FBI said.
Yet, these criminal groups aren’t only exploiting software integrations; they are also conducting phishing attacks on CRM users, like customer support reps.
Indeed, the FBI warns that malicious actors have also engaged in social engineering attacks, especially voice phishing (vishing), to gain access to organizations’ Salesforce accounts.
Here, the attackers have called organizations’ contact centers posing as IT support employees, responding to enterprise-wide connectivity issues. They trick customer support employees into taking actions that give them access to their devices and then use API queries to steal large volumes of customer data.
In some instances, like the recent <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/the-google-salesforce-customer-data-breach-what-really-happened/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google’s recent Salesforce breach</a>, attackers directly requested employees’ login credentials and multifactor authentication (MFA) codes to authenticate and add a modified version of the Salesforce Data Loader application using OAuth tokens.
By asking employees to unknowingly install malicious apps, attackers can bypass traditional security defenses such as MFA, password resets, and login monitoring. And because the tokens are issued by Salesforce, the connected apps can appear to be trusted integrations, and hackers can register them without a legitimate corporate account, making them difficult to detect, the FBI said.
Some victims have received extortion emails days or months later that demand payment in cryptocurrency to avoid the stolen data being published, indicating that customers need to remain on guard for extended periods.
<h2>Why Salesforce Customers Should Be on Guard</h2>
With CRM platforms like Salesforce at the center of organizations’ customer data strategies, a single breach can have a knock-on effect across entire ecosystems of partners and customers.
Reflecting the significance of this threat, the American Hospital Association <a href="https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2025-09-12-fbi-warns-cyber-criminals-targeting-salesforce-platforms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released a statement</a> drawing attention to the FBI’s warning, as many hospitals and healthcare systems use Salesforce Health Cloud.
Many organizations layer multiple AI tools into their customer service stack to help increase productivity, including chatbot integration, sentiment analysis, and automated case routing. But this can increase the attack surface, as the Salesloft example underscored.
In addition to the growing risk of compromised AI-powered app integrations, voice phishing (vishing) attacks will also become more common, as hackers increasingly use AI-generated voice synthesis to convincingly impersonate customers.
Cybersecurity software firm CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report cites a staggering <a href="https://go.crowdstrike.com/2025-global-threat-report.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">442 percent rise in vishing operations</a> between the first and second half of 2024, driven by generative AI.
Phishing no longer involves just sending fake emails that are often clearly suspicious. It now extends to full conversations with a realistic-sounding “customer.” Using readily available AI tools, attackers can clone a customer’s voice from a few seconds of audio, use the deepfake voice to call customer support centers and bypass authentication, and trick agents into changing passwords, disabling 2FA, or transferring sensitive data.
All this makes AI-enabled phishing attacks difficult to detect.
Human contact center agents are a prime target, and they can become a weak link if they lack the proper training to recognize and respond to social engineering tactics. They are often under pressure to take a high volume of calls, resolve issues quickly, and deliver a positive customer experience may inadvertently trust attackers that use AI-generated audio to impersonate real customers with convincing voices or urgent-sounding requests.
<h2>What Can CX Leaders Do to Protect Customers?</h2>
Organizations need to take a multi-pronged approach to securing their systems, rather than relying on software vendors and basic security protocols.
The FBI recommends six steps to defend against attacks like those against Salesforce:
<ol>
<li>Train contact center employees to spot phishing and vishing attempts. Provide regular training on AI-powered threats like voice deepfakes, and establish clear protocols for verifying suspicious interactions to help agents avoid being manipulated.</li>
<li>Apply MFA across the organization. Use MFA not only for customer accounts but also to secure internal systems like CRM software and employee logins.</li>
<li>Implement authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) systems. Follow the Principle of Least Privilege so that users can only access the data and tools they need for their roles, to ensure minimal exposure in case of breach.</li>
<li>Restrict access based on IP and monitor API activity. Use IP whitelisting and audit all AI integrations and API connections regularly to detect unusual or malicious behavior.</li>
<li>Track network logs and browser sessions for anomalies. Deploy anomaly detection tools to flag suspicious agent or customer activity that could indicate unauthorized access to data.</li>
<li>Review and secure all third-party software integrations. Regularly rotate API keys, credentials, and authentication tokens for external software connections to reduce exposure.</li>
</ol>
Organizations should also look for transparency from software vendors like Salesforce about their AI security protocols and disclosure policies for data breaches.
Vendors, too, have a critical role to play. As AI adoption grows, these platforms will need to support real-time monitoring to detect AI-generated attacks, regular security audits and updates, strict vetting of third-party integrations to prevent vulnerabilities, and built-in tools designed to identify impersonation attempts.
Indeed, while Salesforce is under siege, these attack methods are a threat to every CX tech provider.
 
 
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>ServiceNow Teams Up with Five9 to Drop Another Unified CRM-CCaaS Offering</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/servicenow-teams-up-with-five9-to-drop-another-unified-crm-ccaas-offering/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Charlie Mitchell]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:05:54 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CRM]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[CCaaS]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Omni-channel]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=74003</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ServiceNow and Five9 announced that their unified CCaaS-CRM offering is now generally available. As teased in November, the “Five9 Fusion for ServiceNow” solution embeds some of Five9’s CCaaS tooling directly into ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM). In doing so, both vendors hope to deliver a unified agent experience, consolidate support data, and lower management burden. […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[ServiceNow and Five9 announced that their unified CCaaS-CRM offering is now generally available.
As teased in November, the “Five9 Fusion for ServiceNow” solution embeds some of Five9’s CCaaS tooling directly into ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM).
In doing so, both vendors hope to deliver a unified agent experience, consolidate support data, and lower management burden.
Five9 also has a similar offering with Salesforce. Meanwhile, ServiceNow has set up similar integrations with Genesys and Zoom.
These announcement signals that, as customers demand tighter CCaaS and CRM connections, both vendors are ready to lead from the front.
Going deeper on the latest integration, Kim Hill, SVP of Partner Sales at Five9, said:
<blockquote>Five9 Fusion for ServiceNow delivers a foundation for service excellence, eliminating the friction of multiple systems and empowering agents with a single interface to work confidently and efficiently and deliver faster, more personalized interactions at scale.</blockquote>
“With this new integration, every touchpoint becomes more intuitive and impactful for customers and agents alike.”
The integration goes live with two tools embedded into ServiceNow CSM, with a third to come soon.
First is Five9 TranscriptStream, which is its real-time transcription solution. It now integrates with the ServiceNow Workspace.
Of course, reps can refer to the live transcript at any point during phone conversations. However, TranscriptStream may also feed ServiceNow’s Now Assist.
In doing so, contact centers can generate call summaries, next steps, and more post-call notes from within the CRM itself.
Alongside real-time transcription, Five9’s intelligent routing engine now directs digital contacts into ServiceNow while pulling in metadata from CSM for smarter routing.
Additionally, the routing engine can combine that metadata with that from Five9 Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) solutions. That opens the door for routing decisions based on agent performance, forecasting, and schedule data.
Ultimately, that could enable contact centers to introduce routing logic, such as if an agent is about to go on break, they get a contact that’s likely simple to solve. That’s an exciting possibility.
However, onto the third tool: Native Call Controls, which will come to the ServiceNow Agent Workspace in early 2026.
With Native Call Controls in ServiceNow CSM, reps can manage customer calls in a Universal Agent Inbox. As such, agents may handle interactions across all channels on ServiceNow. They can also do so in Five9. It’s the company’s choice!
Excited to bring that new level of flexibility to their 200 shared customers worldwide, Michael Ramsey, GVP of Product Management for CRM and Industry Workflows at ServiceNow, said:
<blockquote>Five9 Fusion for ServiceNow helps businesses break down fragmented systems and deliver a unified, agentic AI-powered service experience.</blockquote>
“By leveraging ServiceNow’s AI-driven CRM platform alongside Five9’s real-time transcription and intelligent routing, organizations gain end-to-end visibility and actionable insights, enabling agents to resolve issues faster and provide customers with exactly what they need, when needed.”
Lastly, by managing all customer service conversations directly on the ServiceNow platform, it’s simpler to connect these with its AI agents, which span the enterprise.
As such, contact centers may devise resolution flows beyond the front office, pulling data from and actioning processes within various systems across the enterprise.
<h2>The Hot Take: A Significant Move Given ServiceNow’s CRM Ambitions</h2>
Five9 is answering customer calls for tighter CCaaS-CRM integrations and setting a course for a future where the two technologies converge. Its benefits are clear.
The same benefits apply to ServiceNow. Yet, it takes some unique advantages from the partnership.
Most obviously, it establishes the CRM as the central component of the customer service stack. Yet, by pulling closer to Five9 (alongside Genesys and Zoom), it edges closer to a new type of buyer: customer service leaders.
Already, ServiceNow is building fast momentum in the CRM space. In large part, this is because AI is becoming increasingly utilized in customer service and across the broader front office. As this trend continues, IT is increasingly leading buying decisions. Already, they use ServiceNow’s software for service management and most trust its technology.
However, if ServiceNow is serious about its ambitions to <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/servicenow-snaps-up-moveworks-for-2-8bn-bids-to-be-the-market-leader-in-crm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">usurp Salesforce as the CRM market leader</a>, it must initiate itself with CX function leaders.
Statement announcements with CCaaS leaders like Five9, as rubberstamped by <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-contact-center-as-a-service-ccaas-2025-the-rundown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant</a>, help bridge the gap.
 
 
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Confident CX Starts Here: Navigating the CCaaS Market with CallTower and Inoria</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/confident-cx-starts-here-navigating-the-ccaas-market-with-calltower-and-inoria/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kieran Devlin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:03:02 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Contact Center]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[CCaaS]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73933</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It’s easy to feel lost in today’s CX technology ecosystem. Everyone’s selling “omnichannel,” “AI-powered,” “customer-first” platforms, and on paper, they all look pretty similar. But CX leaders don’t have the luxury of guesswork. Choosing the wrong CCaaS platform doesn’t just dent your budget but puts customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and even brand reputation at risk. […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[It’s easy to feel lost in today’s CX technology ecosystem. Everyone’s selling “omnichannel,” “AI-powered,” “customer-first” platforms, and on paper, they all look pretty similar. But CX leaders don’t have the luxury of guesswork. Choosing the wrong CCaaS platform doesn’t just dent your budget but puts customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and even brand reputation at risk.
The challenge isn’t just finding a vendor but figuring out which one tangibly delivers. What will the onboarding experience really look like? Will it scale beyond the first few months? How much of the support will be left to you? There’s a world of difference between promises on a slide and outcomes in the real world.
That’s why Inoria and <a href="https://www.uctoday.com/vendor/calltower/">CallTower</a> are changing the way businesses approach platform selection and deployment. Instead of picking from a menu, it’s about applying deep, platform-agnostic expertise to build the right fit for your team, your goals, and your long-term strategy.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/tv/from-ucaas-to-cx-powerhouse-how-calltower-is-redefining-ccaas-delivery/">From UCaaS to CX Powerhouse: How CallTower Is Redefining CCaaS Delivery</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/why-services-and-support-are-the-real-differentiators-in-todays-cx-landscape-calltower/">Why Services and Support Are the Real Differentiators in Today’s CX Landscape</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>See Through the Hype: A Smarter Way to Compare CCaaS Platforms</h2>
If every CCaaS platform claims to be the most “complete,” “intuitive,” and “scalable,” how do you separate genuine capability from clever branding? For Joe Bigio, SVP of CCaaS, CX and CAI Solutions at Inoria, the problem lies in the industry’s obsession with breadth over depth.
“There are platforms that claim to do it all,” said Bigio, “but there’s a big difference between those and true best-of-breed solutions.”
That’s why Inoria built the CAI Comparison Matrix; not as another static checklist, but as a practical and dynamic tool underpinned by real-world insight. The matrix reflects ongoing conversations with vendors and end users, cutting through marketing spin to highlight what truly sets platforms apart. It affords buyers a candid, side-by-side look at what they’re really getting and what they might be missing.
Perhaps most helpfully, it’s not a DIY spreadsheet. Inoria’s team is on hand to help interpret results, ask the right questions, and guide the decision-making process. It’s smart, strategic, and built for clarity.
<h2>It’s Not Just the Tech, It’s the Fit</h2>
A platform might have all the bells and whistles, but does it align with how your business actually works? Will it scale with you, integrate cleanly, and support your long-term roadmap? That’s where CallTower steps in to make sure the one you choose is truly the right fit.
“There are six key areas you need to assess,” said CallTower’s Chief Revenue Officer William Rubio. “Implementation and onboarding, scalability, reliability, features, roadmap, and pricing; not just the sticker price, but the total cost, including headaches.”
CallTower’s team bring cross-platform expertise and a refreshingly honest perspective to the party. They’ve seen what works and what doesn’t across countless deployments. That experience means they can advise with confidence and nuance, helping customers weigh trade-offs and avoid common pitfalls.
Because for CallTower, this centers on building a strategy that actually delivers.
<h2>Implementation Is the Moment of Truth</h2>
You’ve chosen your platform, negotiated the contract, rallied internal support, and then, very often, the wheels fall off. Too many CCaaS projects stumble not because the tech is wrong, but because expectations are vague, goals are fuzzy, and stakeholders disengage. It’s avoidable, but only if implementation is understood as a strategic process, not just a handover.
“If success isn’t clearly defined from the start, you’ll get subjective interpretations and disappointment,” added Rubio.
That’s why CallTower and Inoria support customers in mapping outcomes from day one. Whether it’s reducing escalations, improving CSAT (customer satisfaction score), or shaving seconds off average handle time, success is transparently defined up front, tracked rigorously, and revisited often.
It’s also why people, not just platforms, are front and center. From bringing in the right stakeholders early to making the most of training and support resources, the human side of deployment is just as invaluable as the technical one. For Inoria and CallTower, implementation is where partnerships are forged, and when the real work begins.
<h2>Strategic Partners, Not Just Platform Providers</h2>
It’s easy to buy into a platform. What’s harder, and infinitely more useful, is having the right people beside you to make it work. That’s what distinguishes Inoria and CallTower in a crowded marketplace: their expertise, commitment to collaboration, objectivity, and long-term success.
“We’re not here to sell licenses, we’re here to build solutions,” continued Rubio.
Bigio put it just as plainly: “We’re not just invested in the technology, we’re invested in the people.”
If you’re evaluating CCaaS options, make sure you’re not doing it alone. Because clarity, alignment, and confidence aren’t built into the software but come from working with people who’ve done it before and know how to do it right.
<hr />
Ready to make your CX platform actually work for your business? Learn how CallTower and Inoria are helping enterprise organisations turn complexity into clarity <a href="https://www.inoria.com/?__hstc=257492564.afd2d92373a6d58731db025ba4dc350d.1754384672709.1754384672709.1754488555048.2&__hssc=257492564.1.1754488555048&__hsfp=465778053">here</a>, with services and support that scale.
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<title>Zendesk to Shutter Zendesk Sell, Go All-In on Customer Service</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/zendesk-to-shutter-zendesk-sell-go-all-in-on-customer-service/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nicole Willing]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 13:41:27 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CRM]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Agent Assist]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI Agents]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73956</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Zendesk is exiting the sales CRM business, closing down its Sell product on August 31, 2027. Customers will continue to have full access to the Sell product until the shutdown date. As Zendesk noted in a web post, the move will help channel all its attention toward transforming the customer service stack. “This change allows […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Zendesk is exiting the sales CRM business, closing down its Sell product on August 31, 2027.
Customers will continue to have full access to the Sell product until the shutdown date.
As Zendesk noted in a web post, the move will help channel all its attention toward transforming the customer service stack.
“This change allows us to focus even more deeply on what we do best – helping businesses like yours deliver exceptional customer and employee service,” noted Jennifer Chang, VP of Product Development Program Management and Operations at Zendesk.
<blockquote>By concentrating our efforts on service, we can move faster, innovate more boldly with AI, and build solutions that make a bigger impact for your teams and your customers.</blockquote>
To help customers make the transition, Zendesk has set up a native integration with the Pipedrive sales CRM so they can export their data from Sell.
Similarly to Zendesk Sell, the sales force automation solution helps customers visualize their pipeline, manage leads, and automate the sales process, while generating reports with AI in a single workspace.
<h2>Zendesk Is Primed to Go All In on Customer Service</h2>
Zendesk has a massive global user base that leverages its customer service CRM. But until recent years, it struggled to answer: what’s next?
In 2018, it expanded into providing a broader CRM platform by releasing Zendesk Sell, but never went all-in to channel Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and others across all CX functions.
From there, it moved to acquire SurveyMonkey to expand into voice of the customer (VoC) solutions, but the deal ultimately broke down.
Shortly after, it went private and brought in former Genesys President Tom Eggemeier as CEO.
He then pulled Zendesk back to what it does best: customer service.
With now almost as many people who had been Genesys execs on its board as Genesys, it has since <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/zendesk-for-contact-center-the-un-ccaas-platform-is-now-generally-available/">bought a cloud contact center platform</a>, <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/workforce-engagement-management/zendesk-previews-an-employee-service-suite-to-expand-its-resolution-mantra/">expanded into workforce engagement management</a> (WEM), and <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/zendesk-gives-its-resolution-platform-a-major-makeover-rolls-out-30-new-capabilities/">launched its Resolution platform</a>.
<h2>How Zendesk Is Reimagining Customer Service Experiences</h2>
Eggemeier shared his vision for the future of customer service in a recent interview with CX Today.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/niRV8wov4gI?si=nIsFw1QpQ5CmAv6H" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
During the interview, he stated: “Five years from now, it’s definitely going to be more automated… I think it’s going to be more proactive. It’s going to be more personalized. And you’re going to start blurring these lines because everyone’s going to be focused on how do I create lifetime value, retention, and satisfaction with my customers, employees, and the businesses that I serve.”
Eggemeier acknowledged that “there is a little bit of a hype cycle” when it comes to integrating AI into contact center operations. But, he added that the technology is more than a passing fad. The CEO continued:
<blockquote>It is going to fundamentally change the way you provide customer service or employee service, whether it’s business or consumers. It is going to fundamentally change your work and the nature of work.</blockquote>
This will present challenges as voice is seen as the most natural interface for human communication and is at the forefront of AI advancement, especially with the rise of autonomous agentic workers in contact centers.
However, as AI-powered voice assistants take on more responsibilities, potentially even to the point of interacting with other digital agents on behalf of customers, questions arise around how they are monitored and how systems ensure accountability and human escalation when things go wrong.
“We’re preparing ourselves and our customers for that future and that eventuality today. So, rather than buying a point solution that is boxed out, we’re laying the foundations so that our customers can grow on the journey,” summarized Jonathan Barouch, VP & GM of Zendesk for Contact Center.
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<title>Workday Rising 2025: The Top 5 Announcements</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/event-news/workday-rising-2025-the-top-5-announcements/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Charlie Mitchell]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 13:06:37 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Event News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI Agents]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Big Data]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Enterprise]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73965</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Enterprise tech solutions don’t fit neatly into silos anymore. With system convergence and AI agents, that’s all changed. Indeed, workflows are expanding beyond departments, and solutions are knitting together As such, parts of the business that may never have worked with a platform like Workday, like CX functions, may consider becoming more familiar with such […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Enterprise tech solutions don’t fit neatly into silos anymore. With system convergence and AI agents, that’s all changed.
Indeed, workflows are expanding beyond departments, and solutions are knitting together
As such, parts of the business that may never have worked with a platform like Workday, like CX functions, may consider becoming more familiar with such leading technologies.
Here’s an example. Consider a customer service rep raising a query regarding their job benefits. In the future, they’ll likely interact with an AI agent that runs across into Workday to resolve their query.
As customer experience leaders collaborate with IT on these cross-department workflows, it’s fascinating to consider how leading tech brands, like Workday, are expanding their portfolios.
On that note, here are five of the biggest announcements from Workday Rising 2025, including product updates, a massive acquisition, and milestone partnerships.
<h2>1. Meet Workday’s New Illuminate Agents</h2>
Peter Bayless, Chief Technology Officer at Workday, gave key context to Workday’s product direction:
We’re shifting from the system of record for people and money to a system of action for people and money that understands their businesses, understands what they need, and helps them reimagine what work gets done.
As Workday becomes a “system of action for people and money,” its “Illuminate” AI agents will drive the action.
At Rising 2025, Workday announced three more AI agents to its Illuminate portfolio.
The first is a Case Agent that streamlines HR case management by reviewing cases, applying compliance context, and drafting responses.
Next is a Performance Review Agent. This gives managers a first draft of performance reviews, pulling in data from other systems.
Finally, a Financial Close Agent coordinates tasks, flags issues in real time, and reduces risk in the month-end close process.
The new agents bolster those already available on the Workday platform, as below.
Yet, as businesses deploy these agents and scale AI, managing the associated costs can be tricky. Recognizing this, Workday is introducing a new way for businesses to consume its AI: Flex Credits.
These credits come as part of Workday subscriptions, with the vendor promising no hidden fees or premium licenses.
Additionally, all the Credits are usable across any Workday AI agent or API. Meanwhile, customers can track their ROI “in a single dashboard.”
<img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-73967" src="https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-illuminate-agents-850.jpg" alt="Workday Illuminate Agents" width="850" height="425" srcset="https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-illuminate-agents-850.jpg 850w, https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-illuminate-agents-850-300x150.jpg 300w, https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-illuminate-agents-850-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" />
<h2>2. Workday Unveils a New Developer Platform</h2>
Workday Extend is a low-/no-code app development solution on which over 1,400 customers – including Target, Netflix, and NASDAQ – have built over 3,000 apps.
Now, Workday is introducing Build, the next evolution of Extend.
“This isn’t just another low-code platform,” said Mark Woollen, GVP of Partner Innovation at Workday. “It’s a complete offering, and designed specifically with the intelligent enterprise in mind.”
That complete offering includes several new tools and features. These include:
<ul>
<li>A FlowWise Agent Builder – A low-code tool to design, deploy, and manage AI agents.</li>
<li>AI Developer Tools – These include generative AI copilot and an Agent Gateway to connect AI agents built on Workday with third-party agents.</li>
<li>An Expanded Ecosystem – Here, Workday provides vetted partner solutions that address industry- and region-specific needs.</li>
<li>A Global Community – A space for developers to learn, certify, and collaborate.</li>
</ul>
Interestingly, in a demo, Workday also showed how its AI agents could connect to third-party apps like Microsoft Teams or Slack to automate cross-department tasks and publish directly into the Workday system of record.
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-73968" src="https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-build-850.jpg" alt="Workday Build" width="850" height="425" srcset="https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-build-850.jpg 850w, https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-build-850-300x150.jpg 300w, https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-build-850-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" />
<h2>3. Get Ready for Yet Another Data Cloud…</h2>
Workday Build sits on top of another new platform: Workday Data Cloud.
The platform aims to solve a common problem: enterprise data is often scattered, inconsistent, and siloed.
Workday Data Cloud does so by offering organizations secure, zero-copy access to their Workday data, leveraging the following key components:
<ul>
<li>Apache Iceberg-based data lake (open standards).</li>
<li>A Direct SQL access API for real-time insights.</li>
<li>Workday Prism for governance and trust.</li>
</ul>
Through partnerships with Snowflake, Databricks, and Salesforce, businesses may combine Workday’s people and money data with broader enterprise datasets.
As a result, they can combine EX and CX data, unlock richer analytics, and accelerate AI innovation.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-73969" src="https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-data-cloud-850.jpg" alt="Workday Data Cloud" width="850" height="425" srcset="https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-data-cloud-850.jpg 850w, https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-data-cloud-850-300x150.jpg 300w, https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/workday-data-cloud-850-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" />
<h2>4. Workday to Acquire Sana for $1.1BN</h2>
Workday has agreed to snap up Sana Labs in the hope of turning Workday “into the new front door for work.”
The Sana Agent is critical here and will help to create a new user experience within Workday.
Indeed, it will help find information by scouring company data and knowledge sources, reason with that information, and act on it.
From there, it may create new documents, presentations, dashboards, and even “full learning courses” based on the information it takes.
Additionally, it can automate tasks by tracking changes in the data, which may span the enterprise.
So, a Workday user could soon use the Sana Agent to automate an action with an adjacent platform, like an employee service CRM module, without leaving the platform.
As such, this idea of a new front door for work is exciting. Yet, Sana Learn is another fascinating addition the acquisition brings to the company, as it could transform the Workday Learning platform. Below is a closer look.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5gJiw_0RqsU?si=JS30mcR9XkTSLh0R" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>5. Workday to Deliver a “Unified AI Agent Experience” with Microsoft</h2>
Finally, Workday has entered into a new relationship with Microsoft to help deliver a “unified AI agent experience.”
What does this mean? Essentially, brands can build AI agents on Copilot Studio and register and manage them within the Workday Agent System of Record (ASOR).
As such, if a brand wants to automate a workflow within their Workday instance, they can turn to Copilot Studio and deploy an AI agent within the Workday platform.
Key to this is a new integration between Workday Agent System of Record (ASOR) and Microsoft Entra Agent ID.
Per Workday, this will ensure that each AI agent entering its ecosystem can be verified and has enough business context to operate securely across the organization.
CX Today will keep posting roundups like this across event season. To stay on top of what’s happening, <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/account/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subscribe to our newsletter.</a>
 
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<title>Microsoft Boosts Contact Center Voice AI with a New Take on Speech Recognition</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/microsoft-boosts-contact-center-voice-ai-with-a-new-take-on-speech-recognition/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nicole Willing]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 19:02:34 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Contact Center]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Conversational AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Agent Assist]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI Agents]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Natural Language Understanding]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73924</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft has added a new feature to its Dynamics 365 Contact Center platform, Constrained Speech Recognition. The innovation introduces structured rules to increase the accuracy of voice inputs. As more contact centers apply AI tooling to the voice channel, such as conversational analytics, agent assistance, and automation, speech recognition engines are playing an increasingly crucial […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Microsoft has added a new feature to its Dynamics 365 Contact Center platform, Constrained Speech Recognition.
The innovation introduces structured rules to increase the accuracy of voice inputs.
As more contact centers apply AI tooling to the voice channel, such as conversational analytics, agent assistance, and automation, speech recognition engines are playing an increasingly crucial role in supporting the success of these implementations.
However, traditional voice recognition systems can struggle to accurately understand what customers say, because they are designed to interpret a wide range of possible words without focusing on the specific context and intent of the conversation.
Human agents naturally use contextual cues, including the subject of the call, related common phrases, and tone of voice to anticipate and understand what the customer is likely to say. They can also account for accents, slang, muffled speech or unexpected wording more easily than an automated system.
Constrained Speech Recognition aims to close the gap. It uses structured rules known as “grammars” to define what the system should recognize, and help narrow down the words and phrases the customer is likely to use to reduce errors.
Grammars typically use the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (“SRGS”) format, which is an industry standard that can include logic for validation, positional constraints, and checksum verification. This is key in sectors like healthcare, finance, and enterprise IT, where a misheard word or number can disrupt the customer experience.
Additionally, grammars can help voice recognition systems recognize when a user is citing an alphanumeric string like an ID number, confirmation code, or package tracking reference. It can also help identify items from a specific list.
Ultimately, this gives systems the context to recognize expected inputs, improve accuracy, and reduce error rates, particularly in noisy environments where the customer’s voice may be hard to detect.
Sam Bobo, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, wrote <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2025/09/08/understand-your-customers-better-with-constrained-speech-recognition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a blog post</a> to celebrate the news, stating:
<blockquote>As voice systems continue to evolve into agentic architectures with non-deterministic conversations, constraint will play a critical role in ensuring specific outputs remain accurate, secure, and user-friendly.</blockquote>
While the move may not seem like a massive leap forward, contact centers have reported problems with their voice AI accurately interpreting alphanumeric strings, with phone numbers and addresses being common examples. That can result in agents regularly making manual corrections, implementing workarounds that add to their workload.
Indeed, in a recent paper on customer service reps’ perception of AI agent-assist software, <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/the-hidden-downsides-of-contact-center-agent-assist-technology-cyara/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">researchers found</a> that the technology can be hamstrung by such transcription errors. The study also found this was especially the case when customers switched between languages, accents, and dialects.
Other studies have shown that poor performance of agent-assist tools can cause employees to resist using them. That’s a common problem in contact centers. In 2023, Gartner found that <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/workforce-engagement-management/contact-center-agents-are-avoiding-new-tech/">45 percent of agents resist adopting new technology altogether</a>.
Now, that’s mostly a change management issue. However, the tech can sometimes be a problem. Thankfully, more advanced capabilities like Constrained Speech Recognition can go some way to alleviating their concerns and reducing customer frustration.
 
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<title>From Record-Keepers to Revenue Drivers: The AI-Powered Contact Center</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/from-record-keepers-to-revenue-drivers-the-ai-powered-contact-center/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rhys Fisher]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:33:41 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Contact Center]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[CCaaS]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73919</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Burnout has long been one of the most stubborn problems in the contact center. From endless password resets to hour-long post-call wrap-ups, agents are often dragged into work that saps energy and chips away at morale. As hybrid and remote work become the norm, the strain is even harder to ignore. AI is now being […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Burnout has long been one of the most stubborn problems in the contact center.
From endless password resets to hour-long post-call wrap-ups, agents are often dragged into work that saps energy and chips away at morale.
As hybrid and remote work become the norm, the strain is even harder to ignore.
AI is now being pitched not as a replacement for agents, but as a pressure valve – removing repetitive burdens so employees can focus on higher-value work.
And the shift is already changing how agents see their role.
This was discussed in a recent CX Today interview with Mackenzie Ellis, a Solutions Specialist at ComputerTalk, who said:
<blockquote>“No one likes doing the same repetitive things all day, every day. If AI can come in and assist with those tasks, it allows agents to focus on the things they love to do.”</blockquote>
Breaking Free from “Note-Taker” Mode
One of the clearest drivers of burnout has been post-call administration.
Instead of moving straight to the next conversation, agents spend valuable minutes filling CRMs and writing notes so businesses can later mine the data.
This results in highly trained contact center professionals being reduced to record-keepers.
Ellis pointed out how ComputerTalk is trying to change that with the release of Contact Insights, a tool that allows users to apply an AI job to the transcript and extract details like why the customer is calling, what questions were asked, and even sentiment scores.
That information is then automatically populated into business tools, which means agents aren’t stuck doing all that manual work.
By automating wrap-up, agents can go back to doing what they’re hired for: helping customers, closing deals, or building relationships.
Coaching Smarter, Not Just Faster
Support is another pain point. Traditional coaching has always been somewhat inefficient, thanks to supervisors having to select random calls to review and hoping to stumble across a useful example.
AI is making that model obsolete.
“Supervisors don’t have time to listen to a thousand calls,” Ellis explained.
<blockquote>“AI can flag specific moments worth coaching on, so instead of picking randomly, they get the perfect call at their fingertips in minutes.”</blockquote>
There’s been a lot of hype around real-time nudges for agents, but Ellis noted the reality is more complicated, detailing how when someone is angry at an agent, the last thing that agent wants is pop-ups distracting them.
“What’s more valuable is when AI flags a tough call for supervisors, so they can review it later and give meaningful feedback,” she adds.
In other words, coaching doesn’t have to be constant to be effective. Sometimes the best support comes after the call, when the pressure is off.
Personalizing the Agent Experience
The next evolution isn’t just about customer experience; it’s about agent experience.
“Really the next step in AI is personalizing the agent experience,” Ellis said.
“Dynamic dashboards, tailored training models, and learning formats that suit each agent – whether that’s simulation, video, or something else.
“It’s about creating the best environment for them to work in.”
That shift could help with retention, one of the sector’s biggest challenges.
<a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/conversational-ai/bombshell-study-finds-that-global-contact-center-agent-roles-will-increase-not-decrease-over-the-next-three-years/">Cavell’s research</a> shows that while automation is growing, the human role in customer service isn’t going away.
Instead, AI is helping redefine it into something more strategic and less draining.
Put differently: the industry’s problem isn’t too many agents; it’s keeping them engaged.
From Complaint Desk to Collaboration Hub
The contact center has traditionally been painted as a complaint desk: people on the receiving end of customer frustration.
AI is helping reframe that, as Ellis explains:
“Contact centers have evolved into so much more.
<blockquote>“It’s not just customer complaints anymore. Sales teams, finance teams, compliance — the whole business is coming into this collaborative ecosystem. AI is only going to help strengthen that shift.”</blockquote>
By surfacing insights automatically, features like Contact Insights don’t just prevent burnout, they give businesses the intelligence to make smarter decisions.
For agents, that means less time buried in admin and more time contributing strategically.
And that may be the real story: AI isn’t shrinking the agent role, it’s stretching it. Less ‘complaint handler,’ more collaborator.
The challenge now isn’t whether AI can cut down repetitive work – it clearly can. The real test is whether businesses will use those freed-up hours to elevate agents or simply pile on more calls.
You can also discover the vendor’s full suite of services and solutions by <a href="https://www.computer-talk.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">visiting the website</a>.
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<title>AI at the Core: Zendesk’s Bold Vision for the Future of Contact Centers</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/ai-at-the-core-zendesk-bold-vision-for-the-future-of-contact-centers/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rob Scott]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:10:37 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Contact Center]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[CX]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[CX TV]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[CCaaS]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73914</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Watch on YouTube Introduction: Contact centers have seen disruption before—but nothing like this. In this forward-looking conversation, Rob Scott speaks with Tom Eggemeier, CEO at Zendesk, and Jonathan Barouch, VP & GM of Zendesk for Contact Center, to explore how AI is transforming CX from the ground up. If you think the move from on-prem […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niRV8wov4gI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch on YouTube</a>
Introduction: Contact centers have seen disruption before—but nothing like this. In this forward-looking conversation, Rob Scott speaks with Tom Eggemeier, CEO at Zendesk, and Jonathan Barouch, VP & GM of Zendesk for Contact Center, to explore how AI is transforming CX from the ground up. If you think the move from on-prem to cloud was big, Tom argues, “AI is 100 times bigger.”
This episode dives deep into why that is—and what it means for the future of customer engagement, enterprise operations, and the role of the human agent. Key discussion points include:
<ul>
<li>From Prem to Proactive: Why the AI shift makes the cloud migration look small—and what “AI-first” truly means for customer service.</li>
<li>The End of Fragmentation: How Zendesk’s unified resolution platform simplifies tech stacks, integrates AI at the core, and enables smarter agent assistance.</li>
<li>Rethinking Metrics & Models: The shift from handle time to resolution, and how AI is changing everything from pricing to KPIs.</li>
<li>The Human Role in an AI World: Why agents aren’t going away—but will need to evolve with the complexity of customer interactions.</li>
</ul>
Whether you’re a CX leader, a digital transformation strategist, or simply navigating the future of contact centers, this conversation is packed with insight, honesty, and a clear call to action.
Next Steps: Interested in reimagining your contact center around outcomes, not just channels? Explore Zendesk’s AI-first platform and start testing today. Learn more at <a href="http://Zendesk.com">http://Zendesk.com</a> or reach out for a consultation.
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<title>Salesforce CEO Calls Out Palantir as “the Most Expensive Enterprise Software I’ve Ever Seen”</title>
<link>https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/salesforce-ceo-calls-out-palantir-as-the-most-expensive-enterprise-software-ive-ever-seen/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nicole Willing]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:29:57 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CRM]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Customer Data Platform]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=73899</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Data analytics firm Palantir Technologies is the latest company in the crosshairs of Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s increasingly outspoken CEO. Benioff thinks Palantir’s software is overpriced, he told CNBC at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco last week. The prices that they charge to their customers; it’s got to be the most […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Data analytics firm Palantir Technologies is the latest company in the crosshairs of Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s increasingly outspoken CEO.
Benioff thinks Palantir’s software is overpriced, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bewu2Jq_m1o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he told CNBC</a> at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco last week.
<blockquote>The prices that they charge to their customers; it’s got to be the most expensive enterprise software I’ve ever seen.</blockquote>
Moreover, Benioff indicated that, in his view, Palantir’s software lacks the functionality to justify its price point.
The CEO said: “I’ve been looking at their demos this week, saying: How do they get these prices because I thought I had analytics, I thought I had data management?”
Salesforce’s customers may be pricking up their ears at his next statement: “Maybe I’m not charging enough.” And that’s after <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/salesforce-prices-set-to-sore-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Salesforce hiked its prices earlier this year</a>…
<h2>Salesforce vs. Palantir: A Burgeoning Rivalry</h2>
While Palantir isn’t a brand often discussed in customer experience circles, it is a high-profile data analytics and AI company.
Indeed, it offers software to help enterprises integrate, analyze, and act on complex, organization-wide datasets.
As Salesforce continued to trumpet Agentforce and Data Cloud, the overlap has increased. Now, the two vendors will compete for contracts in the public sector, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and beyond. As Benioff said:
<blockquote>We compete with them. In fact, we just won a huge deal with the US Army against them.</blockquote>
Yet, Palantir is not just another competitor; it’s growing fast. The company reported a 48 percent year-over-year (YoY) revenue jump during the second quarter, compared with ten percent growth at Salesforce.
That said, Salesforce’s revenue base is much bigger and more complex, so spiky growth is much harder to achieve.
<h2>Salesforce and Jabbing the Competition</h2>
Over the past 12 months, Benioff hasn’t held back in his criticism of key market competitors.
For starters, he has made several jabs at Microsoft. Most recently, <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/salesforce-ceo-slams-microsoft-for-the-horrible-things-it-did-to-slack-warns-of-an-openai-repeat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he criticized its old practice for bundling Teams</a> and how that impacted Slack, before Salesforce acquired the messaging and collaboration platform. Benioff has also critiqued Copilot on many occasions, calling it “Clippy 2.0”, saying it had disappointed many customers, and accusing it of “spilling data everywhere.”
He has also had plenty to say about ServiceNow, comparing their rivalry to McDonald’s vs. Wienerschnitzel last year. With ServiceNow since launching a Unified CRM Platform and Salesforce set to enter the ITSM space, that’s a battle to watch.
Meanwhile, Benioff has even been critical about Salesforce partner <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-cautions-openai-on-its-ripped-off-training-data-commoditized-models/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OpenAI’s use of “stolen” training data</a>.
Interestingly, that gloves-off approach may have had an unfortunate consequence: it has opened the door for <a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/is-salesforce-the-crm-villain-of-2025/">competitors to go all in after Salesforce</a>.
Kustomer has called out Salesforce’s ticket-based system “rigid” and “outdated”, while Zendesk took aim at the “surprise costs” that swarm many Salesforce implementations.
Shopify has taken a page out of Benioff’s playbook, calling out Salesforce’s “costly” business practices and boasting about poaching customers.
At the same time, CRM challenger Creatio has set itself up as a Salesforce killer, referring to a replacement campaign as a ‘Salesforce Recovery Effort’.
Yet, it’s tough at the top. Salesforce still leads<a href="https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-crm-customer-engagement-center-cec-2024-the-rundown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center</a>, the Forrester Wave for CRM Software, and IDC’s ranking of the world’s biggest CRM providers. As such, perhaps Benioff is perhaps just giving back what Salesforce has received over the years.
 
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