The communications platform disclosed its Q3 earnings on Monday, highlighting a strong growth from its customer experience portfolio. 

Zoom has also revealed its plans to grow product revenue further by enhancing its existing products with additional AI capabilities to drive AI-first customer experiences. 

During the earnings call, Zoom announced that the platform would be evolving from its traditional customer experience platform to an AI-focused one, aiming to drive productivity and relationships. 

Eric Yuan, CEO and Founder of Zoom, revealed that after its strong quarterly results, Zoom would be able to move forward with this vision. 

He said: “This performance reflects the durability of our business driven by the growing value we are delivering for customers as we evolve from a communications leader to an AI-first platform for work and customer experience. 

“Our vision is to be the AI-first work platform for human connection.” 

Zoom expects to accomplish this transformation by following its three strategic priorities: enhancing its existing products with AI, driving growth in AI products, and scaling AI-first customer experiences. 

Enhancing Existing Products 

During Zoomtopia 2025, the communications platform unveiled AI Companion 3.0, an updated version of AI Companion that utilizes agentic AI not only to respond, but also to act, advising on tasks such as meeting preparations, freeing up time, and call follow-ups. 

Zoom has embedded various AI capabilities and tools, including AI Companion, across its platform foundation, including: 

• Zoom Meetings: Zoom’s AI Companion, a proactive AI assistant tool, offers meeting summaries, follow-ups for next steps, and drives work forward. 
• Team Chat: Rising by 20% in active monthly users year over year, AI Companion supports the messaging product by providing customers with chat summaries, composition tools, and simplified search options for higher productivity. 
• Zoom Phone: This tool now offers Voice Intelligence for call transcription, summaries, noise cancellation, call routing, and analytics and insights for customer data collection, with over 10 million users now paying for Zoom Phone as of early Q3. 
• Zoom Contact Center: Working as Zoom’s cloud-based contact center solution, this platform has adopted AI tools such as Virtual Agent, an agentic AI chatbot offering complex tasks and responses for customers, and AI Expert Assist, allowing agents to utilize AI support in real-time with summaries and translations and offer possible agent responses during customer interactions. 

In fact, AI Companion usage has grown four times year-on-year, revealing that these AI features are seeing value from user activity, resulting in rapid adoption. 

By adding AI to these already-established products, customers are more likely to accept these capabilities once they’ve been integrated into the software. 

Driving Growth in AI Products 

By moving beyond its core communication tools and investing in greater agentic abilities, Zoom offers its customers further access to its AI tools to personalize them to their needs. 

This allows Zoom the chance to drive AI product revenue with product monetization, generating financial growth rather than just adding tools to products. 

In fact, 90% of Zoom’s top CX deals involve paid AI features to contribute to product revenue, offering both subscription and consumption models to suit the customer. 

This includes the development of AI tools such as Custom AI Companion, a paid version of the standard AI Companion model targeted towards enterprise-tier customers, allowing businesses to customize the tool to meet specific demands and policies. 

This also includes similar products such as Virtual Agent and AI Expert Assist, as well as Zoom’s recent acquisition of BrightHire. 

Scaling AI-First Customer Experiences 

Through utilizing tools such as Virtual Agent and AI Expert Assist, Zoom is using AI to transform interactions between customers and enterprises by expanding these products across the platform for automated workflows. 

These tools will involve automating routine requests and advise agents during workflow automation, voice, chat, and video calls for faster results. 

Zoom has also implemented a feature that allows enterprises to install either Zoom’s or a third-party’s AI tool, encouraging them to become familiar with AI usage while tailoring it to their needs. 

This strategy will also involve Zoom working with its largest customers to move AI agents into deployment; however, this may prove difficult. 

During the earnings call, Zoom noted that despite this upsurge in AI tool adoption, its net dollar expansion rate stayed at 98%, 2% lower than expected, likely suggesting that large customers had not been spending as much as hoped on Zoom’s products, with renewals on larger accounts proving difficult to resume. 

Zoom Key Earnings Results 

Zoom’s earnings results showed some strong areas of performance across enterprise and cashflow revenue results 

• Zoom’s total revenue reached $1.23BN, up 4.4% year-on-year 

• Its enterprise revenue grew 6.1%, totalling 60% of Zoom’s total revenue 

• Average monthly churn increased by 2.7%, similar to Q3 2024 

• Its operating cash flow increased to $629MN, up 30% year-on-year 

The CCaaS stalwart disclosed few additional details about the deal but noted it was one of two eight-figure annual contract value (ACV) agreements secured over the past 12 months.

It also revealed that it signed a high-seven-figure ACV deal with another Fortune 20 financial services firm, worth $45MN+ in total contract value (TCV).

In doing so, Genesys underscored its momentum in a sector known for its high complexity.

Ultimately, that aligns with its reputation for doing “big” well, as rubberstamped by the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS report, where Genesys once again slotted into the leader square.

Yet, while many regard it as a safe choice for migrating to CCaaS, Tony Bates, Chairman and CEO of Genesys, stressed his desire for the vendor and its customers to push the boundaries of innovation.

“The pace of change in business is undeniable, but what inspires me is how our customers are embracing it,” he said.

They see Genesys as the partner that can unify every experience across the enterprise, turning complexity into clarity which is reinforced by our continued momentum.

But why are financial services especially choosing to work with Genesys? Across its customer case studies in the sector, the word “control” often crops up, with one bank lauding its modular approach to conversation automation. 

Another reason is its trusted support services, with the company exhibiting vast experience in handling complex, multinational deployments. These offer the vendor great reference customers.

Also, its broad AI toolkit is often mentioned, with its Predictive Routing solution tagged repeatedly. 

For instance, in one financial services case study, Jan Thomas Lerstein, Head of Emerging Technologies at DNB, said: “Genesys Predictive Routing enables our agents to get to more high-value, time-critical calls and wrap them up faster. 

That means they have more time to close more deals. And, most importantly, there’s less chance of the customer taking their business elsewhere due to queuing frustrations.

These are the repeated trends in its banking case studies. However, Genesys is also having success across many other industries. That’s evident in the 35 percent year-over-year (YoY) growth of its Genesys Cloud platform, a rate that transends the market, with the company becoming the first tech provider to exceed $2BN in CCaaS annual recurring revenue (ARR) earlier this year.

More Genesys Milestones

Genesys announced its impressive 35 percent CCaaS growth rate during its Xperience 2025 event, where it also made several other massive announcements.

These included an “agentified” Virtual Agent and Copilot, new customer experience orchestration solutions, and a deepened partnership with ServiceNow to converge CCaaS and ITSM (IT Service Management).

Yet, the contact center provider also shared several more financial milestones. While it has the luxury, as a private company, to pick and choose the results it puts out to the public sphere, its numbers are impressive.

For instance, its Genesys Cloud AI exceeded $250MN in ARR last quarter, growing at twice the pace of Genesys Cloud ARR.

Meanwhile, net revenue retention (NRR) pushed beyond 120 percent on average over the last four quarters, highlighting how its customers are expanding on their initial deployments.

Genesys will hope to push these numbers further as it puts the $1.5BN investment it received from Salesforce and ServiceNow in July to work.

The increased rates apply to both the Enterprise and Unlimited SKUs of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and “select Industry Clouds.”

The changes will come into force on 1 August 2025.

However, for now, Salesforce Starter, Pro, and Foundations editions avoid the increase.

What the Industry Has to Say

While some in the sector understand that price rises were inevitable after a period of extensive R&D development, others are still concerned about the knock-on implications.

Take James Kelley, Manager of Client Services at Pedowitz Group, who argued that “an increase in pricing is going to push some to migrate.”

“I doubt 70 percent of their client base is ready to implement AI, whether due to security concerns, data completeness or accuracy, processed documentation to drive AI, or several other aspects that need to enable AI within the business,” he added.

George Rumbold of Synapri also took to LinkedIn to share his thoughts:

“The driver behind the hike? A new wave of AI features under the banner of Agentforce—replacing Einstein with promises of generative AI, pre-built templates, and tighter Slack integration.”

It all sounds great on paper, but Salesforce’s own research just revealed that their AI agents only get 58 percent of simple tasks right, and just 35 percent when things get more complex. So prices are going up… but the AI still has a way to go.

Much of this commentary from the original price hike still rings true, and there is sure to be more industry reaction over the coming weeks.

Two Price Hikes in as Many Years

In July 2023, Salesforce increased prices for the first time in seven years.

The solutions included its Service, Sales, and Marketing Cloud platforms, alongside Tableau and Industries.

On this occasion, the total average price across these products was nine percent.

At the time, many customers pushed back against the change, as Salesforce is already considered the premium CRM option.

It’s also a platform that is easy to scale, which means customers can add features seamlessly.

While that’s mostly positive, paired with a layer cake pricing model, costs can easily rise.

As such, many CFOs will already be cautious over increasing Salesforce costs, and this latest move may push them over the edge.

However, businesses that will endure these hikes upon renewal must remember: pricing is always a negotiation.

As such, vendors may be able to flex depending on who the rep is and how strategic the account is.

The most widely-implemented app in the package is Zoho CRM, which many customer experience professionals will be familiar with.

However, the suite includes 46+ applications.

These cross several categories, including CX, HR, finance, supply chain, etc.

As such, getting to grips with Zoho One may seem a little overwhelming at first.

However, Zoho has a reputation for cutting through complexity. That’s evident in its two distinct pricing packages for Zoho One.

Zoho One Pricing: The Two Distinct Packages

The Zoho One pricing plans are “All Employee Pricing” and “Flexible User Pricing”.

The difference between them isn’t in the functionality that companies get.

Indeed, both plans include:

• The Zoho Directory for document and application management, groups, security policies, Zoho Publish, and the BluePencil extension.
• Sales tools are available from Zoho CRM to Zoho Sites, Bookings, and Bigin for data management.
• Marketing features include SalesIQ, Zoho Campaigns, social media connectors, Surveys, Forms, PageSense, BackStage, Thrive, and a Landing Page creator.
• Support tools like Zoho Desk, Assist, and Lens
• Productivity features like Cliq, Mail, Projects, Sprints, Connect, Learn, TeamInbox, WorkDrive, Sign, Vault, and Notebook.
• Finance tools for bookkeeping, invoicing, expense and inventory management, billing, checkout customization, and more.
• HR tools for people and recruitment management.
• Legal tools like Zoho Contracts, and Business Process automation systems like Creator, Analytics, DataPrep, and Zoho Flow.
• Log360 cloud storage, security, and IT management features.

However, the monthly cost per user changes depending on whether everyone in the business gets a license or not.

All Employee Pricing

Zoho One’s “All Employee” plan costs $37 to $45 per user, per month, depending on whether customers pay monthly or annually.

This plan option is intended for organizations that want to provide comprehensive access to Zoho tools to every staff member.

As such, companies don’t have to worry about determining which team members should be able to use each tool. Everyone can access the full Zoho One suite.

The downside is that because every employee in the organization gets a license, purchasing the suite can be more expensive, particularly for companies with team members who don’t need access to every app.

That’s why Zoho also offers “flexible” user pricing.

Flexible User Pricing

The Flexible user pricing package includes the same enterprise-level features as the “All Employee” plans, but it costs a lot more.

Prices range from $90 (paid annually) to $105 (paid monthly) per user, per month.

The main difference here is that there’s no minimum number of licenses required.

Instead, companies can purchase licenses exclusively for the team members who need to access specific apps.

While organizations will pay more per license up front, they won’t have to buy licenses for every employee in the business, which can reduce overhead costs.

Many companies start with flexible pricing when testing out Zoho One and then upgrade to an All Employee plan when onboarding more team members.

Zoho One Pricing: Extra Fees to Consider

The Zoho One pricing model is refreshingly straightforward. Companies simply decide whether they only need a handful of licenses or want to offer access to every employee.

However, there may be a few “additional” fees to consider.

For instance, when utilizing Zoho One, businesses will receive a standard support package, which offers email, chat, and phone support channels eight hours a day, five days a week.

Organizations that need faster response times or more comprehensive assistance will need to upgrade to a “Premium” support plan.

The Premium package costs 20 percent of the price paid for Zoho One and has a maximum response time of three hours.

There’s also an Enterprise support plan, which costs 25 percent of the subscription fee, with one-hour response times.

Beyond that, there may be additional costs for upgraded storage limits, additional external integrations, implementation, or consultation fees.

A 30-Day Free Trial

Companies unsure of which plan best suits their needs can first trial Zoho’s 3o-day free plan. This may also help them figure out how many licenses they’d like to buy.

Anyone can sign up for this on the Zoho website, and they’ll gain full access to the 45+ apps included in Zoho One.

There are no limitations here. Administrators can set up CRM pipelines, HR modules, marketing workflows, and projects.

Moreover, they can integrate Zoho with other apps and experiment with all features, without restrictions.

Critically, business leaders don’t have to enter credit card details to access the trial.

Also, once they pick a plan, they can maintain all of their data and workflows without starting again from scratch.

There’s even a Concierge team available to offer personalized recommendations on plan options based on each company’s usage and goals.

Does Zoho Drive Value for Money?

Plenty of modern cloud-based platforms promise to consolidate business tools in one place.

However, Zoho One stands out because it delivers many integrated apps in one architecture for a monthly/annual fee.

Companies can save time and cash by consolidating apps with one vendor, maintaining a consistent user experience, and extending into new applications, without extra IT costs.

No company offers the same range of applications to experiment with across sales, marketing, finance, recruitment, and HR at such a low price. Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP are the only other companies that can do so at all.

The big challenge for many is figuring out which plan to choose.

For companies that want to ensure all of their team members can access the Zoho ecosystem, the All Employees plan makes sense.

Meanwhile, for those who only wish to limit access to particular employees, the Flexible plan is likely the better choice.

Some may wish to deploy Zoho exclusively across the front office. These businesses may refer to the Zoho CRM Plus plan instead.

When we talk about creating memorable customer journeys, we need a compass to guide our efforts. That’s exactly what CX KPIs provide – they’re the heartbeat of your customer experience strategy, revealing the stories behind every interaction and showing where magic happens (or where it falls apart).

Why These Metrics Matter More Than Ever

Let me share something powerful – companies that prioritize exceptional customer experiences can achieve an 80% increase in revenue. That’s not just impressive; it’s transformative. And with 73% of customers saying CX is the main factor they consider before making a purchase, these metrics aren’t just numbers on a dashboard—they’re the difference between thriving and merely surviving.

As someone who’s both experienced frustrating service and worked to improve it, I understand that without measuring the right things, we’re essentially flying blind. Let’s explore the metrics that truly matter:

The Essential CX KPIs Every Business Should Track

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

This metric cuts straight to the heart of customer loyalty. By simply asking customers how likely they are to recommend your business to others (on a scale of 0-10), you get a powerful indicator of their true feelings.

What I love about NPS is its simplicity and honesty. When someone gives you a 9 or 10, they’re essentially saying “I trust you enough to put my reputation on the line for you.” That’s real advocacy in action.

Learn more: What Comes After NPS Surveys?

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

Perhaps the most fundamental CX metric, CSAT measures how happy customers are with your product or service through direct feedback. What makes it particularly valuable is how you can tailor questions to specific touchpoints, giving you granular insights into different parts of your customer journey.

I’ve seen companies transform their approach after discovering that while their product gets stellar reviews, their checkout process leaves customers frustrated. These insights drive meaningful change.

Learn more: What is CSAT? Definition, Formula, and Benefits

Customer Effort Score (CES)

If there’s one metric that speaks to the modern customer’s desire for effortless experiences, it’s CES. It measures how easy it was for customers to get their issues resolved or complete their goals.

Think about your own experiences – aren’t you more likely to return to a business where everything feels effortless? The companies creating frictionless experiences are the ones that understand the power of this metric.

Learn more: What is Customer Effort Score (CES)? Your Guide

Customer Churn and Retention

These companion metrics tell an essential story about your customer relationships. Churn reveals how many customers you’re losing, while retention shows how many stay loyal.

What fascinates me most is what retained customers represent: they’re five times more likely to purchase again, five times more likely to forgive mistakes, and four times more likely to refer others. That’s the compounding value of excellent CX.

Learn more: How to Measure Customer Churn

Average Resolution Time (ART)

In a world where time is perhaps our most precious resource, how quickly you solve customer problems directly impacts their satisfaction. ART measures the average time it takes your team to resolve support requests.

I’ve witnessed the dramatic difference between a company that resolves issues within hours versus days, and the loyalty this efficiency creates is remarkable.

Learn more: What is Average Resolution Time (ART)?

First Response Time

Connected to resolution time, this metric focuses specifically on how quickly your team acknowledges customer requests. In an age of instant gratification, customers’ expectations for swift acknowledgment have never been higher.

When a customer reaches out, the clock starts ticking in their mind. Meeting them promptly with even a simple “We’ve got your message and we’re working on it” can transform their perception of your brand.

Learn more: What is First Response Time and How Can I Measure It?

Customer Health Score

This more nuanced metric helps you understand the likelihood of customers staying, leaving, or becoming advocates. By examining factors like support ticket volume, channel usage, and resolution times, you can create a holistic view of relationship health.

What makes this metric particularly valuable is its predictive nature – it helps you identify at-risk relationships before they deteriorate.

Conversion Rate

While often associated with marketing, conversion rate is fundamentally a CX metric too. It reveals how effectively your experience moves people to take desired actions.

Low conversion rates often signal disconnects in the customer journey – places where experience doesn’t match expectations or where friction gets in the way of progress.

Looking Toward the Future of CX Measurement

As we move into an increasingly digital and AI-enhanced world, the way we measure customer experience will continue to evolve. Real-time sentiment analysis, predictive analytics, and journey mapping will become even more sophisticated.

What won’t change is the fundamental truth that understanding how customers feel, think, and behave remains essential to business success. The metrics that matter most will always be those that reveal the human experience behind the numbers.

Are you focusing on these critical KPIs in your business? Which ones have provided the most valuable insights for your team? The future of CX belongs to those who not only track these metrics but transform them into meaningful action that customers can feel.

Speaking during the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call, Rory Reid, CEO & President of Sprinklr, outlined what he referred to as “Project Bear Hug.”

In a nutshell, the project will see the vendor targeting its top 500 enterprise customers by protecting and stabilizing this base and looking to expand their business.

Sprinklr sees these accounts – which may currently only use one or two elements of the company’s suite – as opportunities for growth.

Over time, these customers may expand into CCaaS, conversational AI, social media management, and beyond, leveraging key elements of Sprinklr’s suite in unison.

Indeed, Reid explained how renewals and deal expansions will become a key part of the company’s go-forward strategy.

He views bundling Sprinklr’s full array of solutions as the simplest and most effective way for both the company and the client to achieve the greatest level of success. The CEO explained:

Our customers value Sprinklr when we knit these solutions together, and we create a differentiated customer experience.

Despite this focus on enhancing current clients, Reid still referenced the importance of net new logos and “feeding the engine.”

However, when it came to new business from smaller operators, he was notably flippant.

He described $5,000 and $12,000 deals for “mom-and-pop shops” as a distraction, claiming that Sprinklr is an “enterprise software company with gold standard customers.” Reid continued:

Our top 500 accounts are the most important in the world. Adding a couple of mom-and-pop shops … that’s going to be a distraction. We can double back on that in a couple of years.

While it is understandable for the company to want to prioritize bigger businesses that will allow Sprinklr to grow and improve, Reid’s words may make smaller brands on Sprinklr question their future.

Sprinklr’s Ideal Customer

Elsewhere on Sprinklr’s earnings call, Reid shared examples of strong enterprise customer relationships that he wishes to recreate.

This includes “one of the largest technology companies in the world.”

Having recently secured an eight-figure multi-year renewal with the business, Sprinklr’s platform is helping it diversify its contact center channel mix and overlay conversational AI.

Now, the company is accelerating toward its goal of achieving over 50 percent call deflection by 2027.

This shift has already led to millions of dollars in service cost savings, along with faster resolution times and improved customer satisfaction.

The deal represents precisely what Reid is targeting with Project Bear Hug, as the customer continues to deepen its investment in Sprinklr, expanding the use of the full suite across marketing, social, and insights to enhance engagement and drive operational efficiency.

Reid also discussed a deal with one of the “world’s premier specialty coffee retailers,” which is currently deploying Sprinklr Social and Sprinklr Insights to help deliver greater value for its international CX.

The deal includes a scalable, unified solution that supports global business needs, enabling the coffee provider to proactively monitor its presence, protect its reputation, and leverage social publishing and engagement to turn customer insights into more effective marketing.

More Layoff Lowdown

Away from Project Bear Hug, the company’s recent layoffs were also discussed during the call.

Having originally been announced last month, in total, approximately 15 percent of Sprinklr’s workforce (500 employees) will be cut.

The latest round of layoffs follows earlier workforce reductions of three percent in May 2024 and four percent in early 2023, impacting around 200 employees in total.

Despite these cuts, the company stated it will continue hiring in key areas aligned with its strategic priorities, with the layoffs described as being part of a broader restructuring effort.

During the most recent call, Reid confirmed that the majority of the cuts have now been made, with only a few remaining areas to be finalized in the second quarter due to regulatory requirements.

The CEO admitted that the layoffs were “hard to make” but “essential” in helping the company move forward from the difficult financial position it has been in.

This sentiment was echoed by Manish Sarin, Chief Financial Officer at Sprinklr, who claimed that the restructuring was “necessary to better execute our ambidextrous strategy.

This restructuring is intended to help position the company for long term success by realigning employee costs with the current business and freeing up capital for incremental investments.

Sprinklr Surpasses Q4 Earnings and Revenue Estimates

When it comes to the actual finances, Sprinklr reported fourth-quarter revenue of $202.5 million, up four percent year-over-year, with subscription revenue rising three percent to $182.1 million.

While that beat analyst estimates, it’s down from the revenue growth of 22 percent this time last year.

Reid’s job is to help reaffirm those growth rates, and Project Bear Hug is seemingly his answer.

The publication broke the story, reporting that the enterprise communications company could officially file for protection “as soon as next week.” 

The bankruptcy follows reports that Mitel’s debt is rapidly losing value.

Indeed, according to Bloomberg sources, the company’s $235 million first-lien term loan, set to mature in December 2025, is now trading for a fraction of a cent on the dollar. 

But what exactly does this mean for Mitel moving forward? 

With so many different variations of bankruptcy available, it can be difficult to understand what each one really means.  

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is primarily for businesses that have accrued substantial debt.  

Unlike Chapter 7, which involves liquidation, Chapter 11 allows a company to restructure its debt while continuing operations. 

For Mitel, this provides time to adjust to its revenue and manage its debt repayment. 

CX Today has reached out to Mitel for a comment, and a spokesperson from the company shared the following statement:

Mitel has been proactively working closely with our lenders to optimize our capital structure and position the company for sustained, long-term success. All the paths we are evaluating will allow Mitel to continue operating in the ordinary course and will set us up to be an even stronger vendor and partner. Please note that any definitive updates will come directly from Mitel.

How Did Mitel Get Here?  

CX Today reached out to Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research, to share some insights on how the company could have ended up in this position.  

For Kerravala, Mitel’s troubles can be condensed into two key areas. 

Firstly, the transition from a public company to a private company was heavily funded by debt, leaving the vendor in a potentially precarious financial situation.  

Secondly, the company’s acquisition strategy appears to have hindered rather than helped. 

“They tried to be all things to all people, which backfired,” Kerravala explains. 

For example, a big issue was the acquisition of ShoreTel. Mitel thought they were getting a solid UCaaS solution, but the product had significant stability issues.  

“It was a first-generation solution that didn’t perform well, which forced Mitel to re-evaluate and focus on their strengths – like the hybrid model.”

However, despite the previous shortcomings, Kerravala is optimistic about what this will mean for the future of Mitel.  

He compares the situation to Avaya’s initial bankruptcy proceedings back in 2017, explaining how a lack of strategy resulted in the company landing itself back in trouble in 2023.  

Mitel, on the other hand, appears to have prepared for the current situation by restructuring its strategy, rebuilding its product line, and forming new partnerships – most recently with Genesys. 

The analyst believes that if this strategy proves to be successful, “the bankruptcy could actually position the company better than before.” 

“Mitel has a unique position in the on-prem market, especially with some of the Avaya base seemingly up for grabs” 

“It’s taken on a lot of debt from its acquisitions. If it can manage that debt, Mitel could redirect funds to R&D and channel programs.  

If I were a customer, I’d be happy to hear this.

An All Too Familiar Story

As touched upon by Kerravala, Mitel’s situation is far from unique within the customer service and experience sector.  

Just over two years ago, Avaya also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the second time in the space of six years.  

The vendor has since successfully restructured and emerged from bankruptcy, but the struggles of both Avaya and Mitel should act as a warning for other CX vendors. 

While Kerravala provided some insights into the specific shortcomings of Mitel, more generally, there is a growing issue with an overly saturated UCaaS and CCaaS market.  

As a company that straddles both areas, Mitel has to compete in an incredibly competitive and crowded space.  

This point was made by Dom Black, Head of Research at Cavell, in a discussion with UC Today almost two years ago.  

Speaking in the aftermath of Avaya’s bankruptcy, Black warned that many vendors may face the same struggles. 

In an unfortunately accurate prediction, the Cavell man stated: 

I think the comms space is – to some extent – oversaturated with vendors and there’s a number that won’t be surviving this over the next few years.

Last month, Jim Marous, Owner and CEO of the Digital Banking Report, posted this on his social media.

In doing so, he highlights how new financial services (FinServ) customers want it all: the easy, automated digital experiences and the comforting human advice.

However, these two demands are divergent, and it’s tricky for FinServ providers to do both in their contact centers.

Thankfully, the following three trends shed some light on how customer service leaders can get the balance right in 2025.

1. AI Use Goes Cradle-to-Grave

Consider the contact center’s core demand drivers. Some will follow a predictable path, and these are ripe for automation. Nevertheless, some issues require consultation.

Recognizing this, Torrin Webb, Customer Experience Strategist at Nationwide, recommends splitting contact reasons into two buckets: “transactional” and “consultative”.

In conversation with CX Today, he noted how his team then optimizes its contact center journeys by either adding automation or better-enabling consultation, depending on the bucket.

By doing so, Webb is ensuring that critical balance between the customer’s desire for both effortless service and human reassurance – as Marous underscored.

Virtual agents are becoming increasingly adept at handling those transactional contacts. Yet, for the latter, brands can optimize the customer journey to add opportunities for consultation.

Crucially, that requires a more supportive, informed contact center agent.

Thankfully, AI can help here, too. It can assist the consultative agent from before they accept the call to after they hang up.

Let’s start before the call. Consider a virtual agent that gathers the customer’s intent and pertinent information upfront. This can then pass through to the agent before they pick up, so they’re better equipped to lead the conversation.

Next, think about how AI can aid the live agent in-call, fetching information so they can stay focused on the customer. As Jason Griffin, Principal Solution Consultant at Five9, said:

“Instead of agents flipping through a manual or looking up product criteria, AI can provide guidance in real-time, whether it’s for claims, insurance policies, or other offerings.”

“These applications can also help agents identify upsell opportunities, such as loans or account upgrades, and present them effectively.”

Finally, consider after call work (ACW) automation. By auto-summarizing conversations and auto-tagging intent, agents spend less time typing notes and more time engaging with customers.

“The key is integrating AI throughout the customer journey rather than using it as a siloed tool,” concluded Griffin. In doing so, contact centers can deliver that cradle-to-grave assisted AI service that better supports the consultative FinServ agent of tomorrow.

2. Omnichannel Journey Orchestration Gets Real

Craving that effortless digital experience, 73 percent of consumers expect a seamless transition between channels. But, only 13 percent think their financial institutions meet that expectation.

Authentication represents a huge hurdle here, as customers must often re-authenticate themselves as they switch between channels.

As such, for high-risk communications, FinServ contact centers may consider: what’s the best channel to handle this customer journey?

From there, they can – again using a virtual agent – immediately pass the customer to that channel and orchestrate an experience with a one-step verification process.

That intent-level orchestration routing will continue to gain momentum as more FinServ contact centers move to the cloud and compose experiences that blend modalities, AI, and the human touch.

Many contact center vendors recognize this as the future and are getting ahead of the curve. For instance, Five9 acquired Acqueon earlier this year to create an “orchestration engine for every interaction across the entire customer journey.”

Yet, as contact centers blend those channels, they must be able to track context as the customer shifts between them. Alongside multiple authentications, that’s a significant pain point.

Thankfully, AI is again helping here. “We can summarize live and automated voice interactions, chat transcripts, and other communications, feeding that data into a CRM,” said Griffin. “The CRM becomes the single source of truth.

“The key is making all data accessible and actionable in real-time, regardless of the scenario.”

So, even if a customer moves from a virtual to a live agent, for example, all relevant data transfers smoothly, and the agent can pick up the conversation from where it left off.

Indeed, if the customer returns the next day, their information should already be in the CRM, so they don’t have to repeat their issue. In all sectors, that’s a huge source of frustration.

3. The Contact Center Becomes Part of a More Connected CX Ecosystem

Siloed data – whether in CRM systems, ERPs, or elsewhere – creates considerable integration challenges. In financial services, this is further complicated by GDPR and strict data regulations.

Another issue is the lack of advanced analytics tools. Without them, it’s tricky to use data effectively, which leads to missed opportunities for personalization, inaccurate decision-making, and – ultimately – higher costs.

However, bringing all these data silos together, combined with advanced analytics, enables a new level of personalization and insight that fosters cross-function CX collaboration.

There are a couple of new technologies FinServ contact centers can apply here. For those looking to reimagine the contact center environment, a unified CCaaS-CRM offering is one to consider.

Five9 is developing such solutions with Salesforce and ServiceNow, centralizing data and tools from the two central customer service platforms.

Another approach is to leverage Aceyus by Five9, which takes data from various CX platforms before building it into custom reports and visuals.

Yet, most pertinently, Aceyus delivers that data downstream to a customer’s data lake, enabling CX teams to mine insights and create curated new data sets on top of cross-functional data.

That can bring many benefits, especially in regard to aiding the contact center’s data strategy. As Griffin noted:

“We’re focused on making data accessible and shareable within the necessary security frameworks. That way, it can be used to connect systems, improve customer journeys, and enhance experiences for both customers and employees.”

That’s critical as data is the driver of everything AI. Whether it’s insight generation, AI Agents, or intelligent process automation, it all starts with accessible, usable data.

More Insight Into the Finserv Contact Center

While debating trends offers plenty of food for thought, the best way to envision the FinServ contact center of tomorrow is by learning from the people who are building it.

Recognizing this, Five9 contacted several  FinServ contact center customers who shared their transformation strategies and results so far.

These customers included Central Bank, SumUp, and a leading FinServ provider based in Latin America. Each summarized their story as part of the Five9 2024 Customer Success Book.

The Success Book also includes various other case studies for integrating the CX ecosystem, reimagining employee experiences, and – of course – harnessing AI.

Alternatively, FinServ contact centers can follow this link to learn more about Five9’s industry-specific CCaaS innovations.

Having signed its “largest deal ever” earlier this year with a prominent US bank, serving 70MN customers, FinServ is a sector Five9 knows a lot about!

This trend hasn’t skipped the financial industry. From banks to insurance companies, these businesses not only deal with rising customer expectations regarding communication, but also with new security-related issues. 

How can financial organisations manage these challenges to stay on top of their messaging game? I spoke with Borja Garcia, Product Manager at BT, to learn more and see how Smart Messaging from BT can help. 

  Finance and Messaging: The Bumps in the Road 

“Speaking to customers in the finance industry, we notice recurring challenges that keep them from achieving a messaging strategy that’s both secure and engaging,” Garcia shares. 

 Here are the key challenges BT identify: 

Smishing Fraud: ‘Smishing,’ as the name implies, is phishing fraud conducted via SMS, and it’s become a real risk for financial businesses.

“These are messages designed to maliciously obtain customers’ sensitive information by pretending to come from well-known, trustworthy brands or institutions,” Garcia explains. 

Maintaining Trust: Customer trust is key for any business, but when it comes to the finance industry, it becomes crucial due to the amount of money and private information involved along with regulatory requirements. 

“Trust has to be established and maintained through all communication channels, especially the newer ones,” Garcia says. “But with fraud rising, businesses are finding it harder and harder to achieve.” 

Compliance: Operating in a highly regulated environment, financial institutions must keep up with strict rules and regulations on a regular basis. 

  “In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires them to share certain information with customers in a timely manner – otherwise, they might get fined.” 

Personalisation: With customers’ growing use of messaging channels to communicate with financial businesses, personalisation expectations soar – but meeting them is a struggle for many. 

  “According to recent statistics, 78% of customers would continue using their bank if they received personalised support,” Garcia notes. “However, only 44% are delivering it.” 

BT Smart Messaging: Engaging, Rich, Secure 

Smart Messaging by BT offers a comprehensive set of features to help financial institutions manage their engagement securely while meeting current customer expectations.  

These features can be particularly transformative for the finance industry:  

Verification: Channels such as RCS enable sender verification using a tick symbol. The brand verification process, subject to a stringent UK-wide policy overseen by carriers, helps enhance fraud prevention – making it ideal for financial institutions. 

  “When a bank adopts RCS and receives a tick symbol, all mobile network operators across the UK will have carried out verification checks to ensure messages truly come from it. This significantly reduces the risk of fraud and spam,” Garcia explains. 

With over 1 billion monthly users around the world and impressive click-through rates, RCS also improves customer engagement and satisfaction levels. 

Timely and Personalised Notifications: Smart Messaging allows the customising of messages for specific customers, as well as sending them at the right time for optimal CX. But there’s more: by sharing certain information with customers in a timely manner, financial organisations can more easily comply with FCA requirements. 

 “If a customer is going into their overdraft, for instance – a bank must share it with them on time so they can avoid unnecessary charges,” Garcia notes. 

Reliability and Compliance: BT’s service is powered through connections to all major UK mobile networks and trusted international gateways. 

  “This means organisations using Smart Messaging can rest assured that messages always reach their destination safely, with inbuilt compliance to data protection regulations.”    

To learn more about Smart Messaging and how you can use it to streamline and future-proof customer communications, visit the BT website or email their Smart Messaging team at smart.messaging@bt.com.  

The investment comes just months after Anson Funds Management also bought a stake in the company and began pressuring it to sell up.

Five9 has so far declined to comment, and the size of Legion’s stake in the company is unclear.

However, in applying such pressure for changes, it is likely a meaningful percentage.

According to Reuters, Legion and Anson first got involved in 2021 when Zoom’s $14.7BN offer to buy Five9 was rejected.

Since then, Five9 has expanded significantly, regularly achieving double-digit year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth.

However, its stock has dropped 60 percent since the start of the year, seemingly inciting among its investors.

In July, Five9 moved to appease them by announcing its first-ever round of layoffs to drive “shareholder value”. These impacted seven percent of its workforce.

Mike Burkland, Chairman and CEO of Five9, emailed employees at the time: “Sadly, we have made the very difficult decision to say painful goodbyes to some of our team members.

As you know, we recently announced in our earnings call that we reduced our revenue guidance for 2024 and will focus on improving profitability through managing expenses.

“Looking forward, Five9 is focused on driving shareholder value by increasing revenue, improving profitability, investing in our key strategic initiatives, and delivering for our customers.

“I have enormous confidence in Five9 and each of you as we continue to align and execute as one team.”

Such moves have proven an unfortunate theme across the CCaaS space over the past year.

Indeed, just one week before Five9 announced its layoffs,  Cisco Webex announced a seven percent reduction in its workforce.

Avaya also announced layoffs in July, with a similar number of employees leaving the contact center provider as Five9.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how Five9 will choose to navigate the powerful influences of these two recent investors.

In other Five9-related news this month, the company has introduced Genius AI to support customers in managing AI and simplifying contact center AI adoption.

Five9 Genius AI is a four-step process for implementing AI, centering on the Five9 data lake.