Tool Overload is Killing Your Contact Center from the Inside Out

Tool Overload is Killing Your Contact Center from the Inside Out

Mitel’s Stuart Aldridge discusses why the gap between what IT thinks it's delivering and what agents actually experience is quietly destroying customer service quality. In this CX Today discussion, Associate Editor Rhys Fisher sits down with Stuart Aldridge, Head of UK, Ireland & South Africa at Mitel, to dig into the findings of Mitel's State of Workforce Communication in the AI Era report.  With contact center agents juggling upwards of 12 tools on a single call while still being pressured to deliver exceptional customer experiences, the cracks in enterprise communication strategy are getting harder to ignore.  If you work in CX leadership, this one hits close to home.  Mitel's latest research surveyed over 2,000 IT decision-makers, desk workers, and frontline workers across the UK, US, Canada, Germany, and France, and the results are uncomfortable reading for anyone responsible for agent experience or customer outcomes.  The perception gap is enormous: 81% of IT leaders believe they're listening to user needs and delivering accordingly. Only 28% of frontline workers agree, and in healthcare that number drops to 17%.  Tool overload is the real villain: Agents are routinely navigating 10-14 applications on a live call, and 61% of workers say switching between tools is actively costing them productivity every single day.  Shadow IT is a symptom, not the problem: 76% of workers admit to using non-approved tools, not to break the rules, but because those tools are simply easier. The compliance and data risk that creates in a contact center environment is significant.  Consultative selling has gone missing: Stuart argues that vendors and resellers are too focused on closing deals and not nearly enough time sitting with the "Carols" of the world, the actual end users, to understand what they genuinely need before adding yet another layer to an already overwhelming stack.

Salesforce Agentforce Heats Up the Consolidation Fight, UJET Says It Could Backfire

Salesforce’s launch of the Agentforce Contact Center has reignited a familiar debate in customer experience: should enterprises consolidate around one major platform, or keep the flexibility to pick best fit tools. In this CX Today interview, Rob Wilkinson sits down with Baker Johnson, Chief Business Officer at UJET, to unpack what he calls the integration trap. They explore why many organizations feel “stuck” in CRM ecosystems, how switching costs and interdependent integrations slow down change, and why agents often become the human integration layer across four to 10 disconnected systems. Baker also challenges common assumptions about “context” in AI driven customer service, arguing that real value comes from real time journey context, not just historical CRM records. The conversation closes with practical advice for CX leaders building AI strategies: focus on the customer experience first, and treat AI as a forcing function to simplify operational complexity, not a cure all.

Kustomer: CX AI Needs Outcomes, Not Tokens

AI is everywhere in customer experience, but CX leaders are under pressure to prove it is moving the needle. In this CX Today interview, Rob Wilkinson speaks with Brad Birnbaum, CEO and Co-Founder of Kustomer, about the shift from measuring AI by deflection rates and activity to measuring it by outcomes that matter to the business. Birnbaum explains why the right metrics depend on the company, from revenue uplift in retail to upsell and expansion in B2B SaaS, and why traditional CX measures like CSAT and handle time still matter but cannot be the full story. The conversation also digs into AI governance, observability, and trust, including how teams can evaluate non-deterministic models and reduce risk as automation expands. Finally, Birnbaum shares practical guidance for rolling out CX AI without chaos, including why consolidating fragmented tools and starting small beats trying to boil the ocean. He also outlines where human-in-the-loop remains essential and why the goal should be turning humans from creators into reviewers.

Zoom: Genius or Mad Scientist? Zeus Kerravala on the Bold Transformation Reshaping CX

The Principal Analyst at ZK Research breaks down whether Zoom's 'system of action' pivot is the real deal or just clever repositioning In this CX Today discussion, Associate Editor Rhys Fisher sits down with Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research. Zeus recently published a deep-dive on Zoom's strategic transformation, and the findings are more surprising than most in the industry expect. If you work in CX, contact center, or IT, and you still think of Zoom as a meetings tool, this conversation will change that. Zoom has quietly built something most of the industry hasn't clocked yet. Zeus Kerravala joins CX Today to unpack what he calls the shift from “collaboration to completion” – and why it could fundamentally change how CX leaders think about their tech stack. Further along than you think: Zeus argues Zoom is closer to its system-of-action vision than most realize, with Zoomtopia later this year likely to be a major milestone – though true end-to-end completion is still a couple of years out. 🔴 CX is where it gets real: From Chelsea FC to Caliber Collision, real customers are already using Zoom to eliminate cold calls, automate case logging, and unify the full customer journey – contact center included. 🔴 Conversation over CRM: Zoom is betting that conversational data is more valuable than what lives in a CRM, and Zeus thinks they might even build their own CRM within the next two to three years. 🔴 The biggest challenge isn't product: Zeus is clear, Zoom's hardest problem right now is getting people to understand what they've actually built. Proof points and customer outcomes will be the unlock. Visit cxtoday.com for more coverage on Zoom and the contact center market Read Zeus Kerravala's full blog at SiliconAngle.com Follow ZK Research for ongoing analysis as Zoomtopia approaches For more Customer Experience tech news visit https://www.cxtoday.com [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHo4QUg3WEg3MFZNcXNpQ3hxeWhjWTRhQW05UXxBQ3Jtc0trZWgzMmdPWExIMHBKdVJSM3JVQ3pjUTNoaW1KSWtOd3p0S0VtOHpBdDh1aHpnZDlhQnJQQ2p2ZEJFajhkZ3dTUW9PV2dsaFdlMGRWTzVlUXlUbm42V3A3UVVkalhaM0JmU0pCZTEybXJmUy1ORnc1UQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cxtoday.com%2F&v=5WfE_251-AQ]

Kore.ai’s Raj Koneru Reveals the Multi-Agent CX Shift Leaders Can’t Ignore

As customer experience (CX) teams push beyond basic chatbot deployments, a new model is emerging: coordinated multi-agent AI systems that can execute end-to-end workflows across teams, tools, and policies. In this interview, Rob Wilkinson speaks with Raj Koneru, Founder and CEO at Kore.ai, about why this shift is happening now and what leaders should demand before they trust AI with real customer-facing execution. Koneru argues that the last 12 months have changed the game because AI models have improved dramatically in both generation and reasoning. That progress moves automation beyond question answering and into task completion, where agents can take action across systems and processes. In regulated and complex environments, he says, a single agent is limited by context and scope. A multi-agent approach better mirrors how organizations actually operate, with specialized functions like billing, fraud checks, fulfillment, and escalation requiring orchestration. Koneru also outlines what tends to fail in single-bot deployments: inconsistent answers, broken handoffs between bots and humans, actions taken without enough context, and heavy cleanup work for frontline teams. Risk and compliance leaders, he adds, often struggle because prompt chains offer limited traceability and control. For CX leaders, he recommends insisting on deterministic policy enforcement, clear permission boundaries, human escalation controls, and runtime observability before going live. He emphasizes that governance should not be bolted on after deployment. It needs to be embedded into the platform and runtime so teams can reproduce, audit, and optimize outcomes. Finally, Koneru shares the production metrics that matter: non-negotiables like failure recovery, auditability, and compliance, plus business outcomes like resolution rates, customer effort reduction, and time to resolution. He also highlights the “soft” impact of better experiences on brand loyalty and long-term value.