Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO Content Guru, compares today’s AI landscape to the early days of the Industrial Revolution. “Let’s say we’re at about 1750, not 1900,” he says. “While we’re seeing sparks of transformation, we’re only in the foothills of that AI mountain range.” 

At this stage, Taylor argues, businesses need a flexible, orchestration-led approach. “One size doesn’t fit all,” he stresses, noting that Content Guru remains vendor-agnostic, focused on blending the best tools for each use case. 

“Horizon scanning of the evolving vendor landscape is a critical part of the value CX providers bring,” he adds. 

Ultimately, it’s not about the AI itself – it’s about helping businesses deliver smarter, more competitive customer experiences. So, what does that look like in practice? Let’s take a quick look at how Content Guru is putting this into action with some of their customers. 

Driving Forward: DVLA and AI Orchestration 

A standout example of AI orchestration in action is Content Guru’s three-year transformation of the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), equivalent of the DMV, and one of the government’s largest customer-facing bodies. Through intelligent automation and AI-powered contact operations across voice, chatbot, and digital channels, DVLA became the most improved part of government for CX, according to an independent survey. 

Midway through the program, Content Guru proactively replaced the DVLA’s natural language processing engine, driving further improvements beyond what the client had originally envisaged. 

“We’d already improved their CSAT score significantly,” Taylor shares, “but we noticed a better engine had emerged, so we made the change.” 

For Taylor, it’s proof of the iterative nature of AI deployment: 

“At the start of printing, the machine makers were also the publishers – but then a new class of publishers emerged,” he notes. “It’s the same now: the presumption is that LLM makers will dominate the industry, but history tells us otherwise.” 

The future, he says, requires trusted CX guides – not just tools. 

Fast-Tracking Employment: The DWP’s Restart Program 

Content Guru partnered with the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions to overhaul its Restart program, which supports unemployed individuals in finding work. Previously, the process of building a CV with a job coach involved lengthy back-and-forth. Now, AI generates a resume instantly from a single interview, allowing candidates to start being matched with positions on the spot. 

“That’s taken weeks out of the process,” says Taylor, “and those weeks matter when someone’s relying on UK unemployment benefit.” 

Beyond the improvement for service users, job coaches also report a major quality-of-life upgrade. With AI handling admin, they can focus on having richer, more natural conversations. 

“It’s entirely transformed their job satisfaction,” he shares. 

Breaking Language Barriers with a Multi-Engine Approach 

While real-time AI-powered translation shows lots of promise, doing it at scale across multiple languages remains a challenge. Content Guru, however, is already tackling it: in their ongoing work with government customers, they build multi-engine environments tailored to diverse linguistic needs. 

“Usually, no single language dominates more than 15% of user interactions,” Taylor says.  

“We’re dealing with eight to nine core languages, sometimes with major dialect differences, and many are still poorly supported by mainstream AI engines.” 

Rather than rely on a single model, Content Guru matches the right engines to the right tasks. While human translation still plays a role, AI is gradually helping to bridge the gap – especially for speakers of underserved languages. 

“Ironically, it’s the people least supported by tech who need these services most,” he adds. 

Staying Ahead in the AI Race 

“Having the omni-data, the various channels of communication gathered together in an already-optimized environment, makes the CX industry the ideal place to deploy AI,” Taylor concludes. 

“I think we should be proud to be in the vanguard of that change, many years ahead of other fields.” 

As AI continues to evolve rapidly, providers like Content Guru help businesses identify and implement the best engines to meet their goals, with the flexibility to adapt as technology, business needs, or regulations shift. 

To learn more about Content Guru’s CX solutions, visit their website. 

Unlike past digital ID initiatives, EUDI mandates interoperability between national wallets, ensuring seamless cross-border use. This shift presents challenges and opportunities for governments, universities, financial institutions, as well as GovTech and Customer Communications Management (CCM) enterprises, requiring secure, scalable, and compliant solutions. 

e-Boks, known for its trusted platform for digital communication services, envisions a future where secure communication and verified credentials converge—creating a seamless, user-friendly digital identity ecosystem. 

The Digital Wallet: Common Use Cases 

Before diving into the benefits of integrating digital wallets with digital postboxes, let’s explore how EU citizens can use digital wallets to simplify and secure everyday tasks. 

Government Identity and Services: Digital wallets will allow citizens to securely store and receive documents like national IDs, driver’s licenses, and digital passports—eliminating physical paperwork while reducing government costs and enhancing security. 

Banking and Finance: Banks and their customers will be able to use digital wallets for KYC (Know Your Customer) processes and digital banking access. This, in turn, can reduce onboarding friction, improve GDPR and eIDAS compliance, and enhance security in digital banking. 

Education and Student Credentials: Wallets will be able to store key university documents, such as digital student IDs and diplomas, allowing students and graduates to share them as needed. This should eliminate fake credentials, simplify employer verification, and enhance alumni engagement. 

Travel and Cross-border Verification: Digital wallets will streamline identity verification for government and business transactions across borders, enabling the issuance and sharing of visas, travel insurance, and boarding passes. This will provide a seamless experience for travelers and simplify processes like loan applications, accessing public services, and verifying employment for citizens of other member states. 

Digital Postboxes & Digital Wallets: A Powerful Synergy  

A digital postbox and a digital wallet serve distinct yet complementary roles in managing secure digital identities. While digital wallets allow users to store and share verified credentials, they do not store credentials permanently. 

“If a user loses their device, they must manually retrieve and re-import credentials—a process that can be time-consuming and complex,” explains Helena Cimber, Product Director at e-Boks. 

A digital postbox has the potential to offer a seamless solution by acting as a secure backup system and audit trail, aligning with eIDAS 2.0, GDPR, and EUDI to ensure legal certainty, fraud prevention, and user privacy. 

“If a credential was originally received via the postbox, users could simply press a button like ‘add to wallet’ to restore it, eliminating the need to search multiple portals or reapply for lost credentials.” 

Beyond backup and recovery, digital postboxes enable institutions to push verified credentials directly to users’ wallets. Government agencies, universities, and financial institutions can proactively issue documents like digital diplomas, student IDs, or residency certificates. 

“Users will receive notifications in their secure postbox, ensuring they not only get the credential but also any relevant instructions or context—and they can ask questions if needed,” Cimber suggests. 

This integration will create a more streamlined and user-friendly experience, bridging the gap between credential storage, secure communication, and document management. 

e-Boks: Shaping the Future of Digital Identity 

The transition to digital wallets is already underway, with the first implementations appearing this year. By 2026, government portals and major institutions like banks and insurers will be required to support them for authentication. 

As part of this evolving ecosystem, complementary services like credential issuance and validation will enable institutions to issue credentials that seamlessly integrate with wallet standards. 

“Ultimately, the goal is to make identity management seamless, secure, and convenient for everyday life,” Cimber concludes. “And e-Boks is thrilled to help shape this future.” 

Want to see how the e-Boks e-wallet fits into the future of digital identity?

Explore the e-Boks e-wallet and discover how it supports secure, user-centric solutions.

Shadow CX offers both opportunities and risks. It empowers customers with fast, community-driven solutions and reduces strain on official support channels. However, businesses risk losing visibility and control over their customer experience, which may impact brand loyalty and trust. With AI, things become even trickier. 

In a recent talk with Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO of Content Guru, we explored the rise of third-party CX, AI’s role in shaping customer interactions, and how businesses can adapt to this decentralized support landscape. Should companies embrace this shift, or fight to reclaim control? 

The Risks: Misinformation, Lost Engagement, and Missed Insights

While Shadow CX offers convenience, it also comes with significant risks. When customers turn to third-party resources, companies lose control over the accuracy of the information shared. Official support channels are there to provide reliable guidance, but on platforms like Reddit or YouTube, there are no guarantees. 

“If customers follow incorrect advice—say, skipping the manual for a DIY video that backfires—the brand often takes the blame, even if it had nothing to do with the guidance,” Taylor notes. 

Beyond misinformation, Shadow CX disrupts direct engagement. Traditionally, when customers reached out to a company, it was an opportunity to build trust and loyalty. Now, younger consumers—especially Gen Z—seek quick, digestible solutions over long customer service calls. 

“If a business isn’t present in these spaces, it risks losing customers altogether,” Taylor says. However, companies can’t simply drop a 50-page manual into a fast-moving forum. “They need to create short-form, ingestible content that fits the nature of these platforms.” 

Ignoring Shadow CX also means losing valuable customer insights. Without direct engagement, brands miss out on feedback that could inform product improvements and future support strategies. 

What’s the alternative? AI is one part of the answer. 

AI: A Double-Edged Solution for Shadow CX

AI can help reshape customer experience, but whether it solves or exacerbates Shadow CX challenges depends on its use. 

When consumers turn to forums or unofficial videos, it’s often to solve a problem, which AI-powered agents can help with. By offering real-time, 24/7 personalized assistance, AI can help customers troubleshoot without resorting to third-party resources. 

While many businesses already use automated agents for customer communications, most still rely on outdated, rigid chatbots that frustrate users. 

“Organizations need to modernize these chatbots so they’re no longer a barrier to resolution but are actually helpful,” Taylor suggests. 

AI also introduces new risks. Users often turn to large language models (LLMs) like Gemini or ChatGPT, but their AI-generated responses aren’t always accurate; and businesses may still bear the blame if misinformation spreads. 

“To protect against hallucinations, brands can use retrieval augmented generation,” Taylor explains. However, this can only work when the business provides the interaction and cannot be imposed on a third party. 

“To maximize the odds that third-party engines provide users with reliable information, it’s essential to make any official information highly visible and clear,” he says. 

Adapting to Change: Tips and Strategies

To thrive in the age of Shadow CX, businesses must adapt to evolving customer preferences, particularly among younger demographics. 

“Brands need to provide quick, digestible content, such as ‘how-to’ videos and simple FAQs that blend seamlessly into the style of platforms like Reddit,” Taylor suggests. 

By doing so, companies can significantly lower customer effort scores, improve engagement, and avoid issues caused by misinformation. 

Implementing AI can further improve this process by automating routine tasks, allowing the organization’s human agents to help customers by focusing on complex or emotional issues. 

“AI will not replace human agents, but it will supplement them, empowering them with the right information in the moment,” Taylor explains. 

“This combination of AI and human expertise builds trust while reducing operational costs and ensuring a smooth, low-effort customer experience.” 

To learn more about Content Guru’s CX solutions, visit their website.

“Digital customers, or ‘machine customers,’ as Gartner refers to them, are essentially connected devices representing real individuals and their unique contexts,” explains Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO of Content Guru.  

“The more Agentic AI evolves, the more such customers businesses will have to attend to.” 

While we’re not expecting to see mature Agentic applications arrive for at least the next 18 months, the time to prepare is now. Let’s look at the most promising CX arenas for early adoption and explore what businesses can do to keep up. 

Where is Agentic AI Applicable? Relevant CX Arenas 

Initial use cases based on Agentic AI are expected to build on existing technologies like Internet of Things, taking them a few steps further in terms of independence, proactivity, and contextualized decision-making. Here are three fields that can be reimagined as part of this evolution. 

The Connected Home: Agentic AI can take smart home technology beyond basic automation. Consider a washing machine that detects a blocked outlet pipe, for example. While current machines can alert the user, an Agentic system could proactively schedule a service visit. But what if it’s also able to factor in external data like a warming weather forecast that could help defrost a frozen pipe? 

“In this case, it might cancel the booking or refrain from making it altogether, recognizing that the issue will resolve itself,” Taylor suggests. 

Virtual Wards (hospital at home): Agentic AI has the potential to revolutionize virtual wards by enhancing remote patient monitoring with deeper contextual awareness. Currently, connected medical devices track vital signs like blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen levels, updating clinical records in real time. However, an Agentic AI system could go further: 

“It could analyze patterns, recognizing if a patient’s unusual readings are actually normal for them, thereby avoiding unnecessary alerts,” Taylor explains. 

If an Agentic system finds the reading irregular after considering the patient’s context, it could then trigger an appropriate action.  

“It can ask them to stand up and take the reading again or suggest hydration to potentially get their blood pressure up,” he says. “If further support is needed, Agentic AI can coordinate a response from healthcare providers and will later be able to make medical predictions along with relevant interventions.”

Connected Vehicles: Modern vehicles can already diagnose issues and even alert emergency services after a collision. But Agentic AI could take this further, making cars more autonomous in managing their own maintenance.  

“Imagine a car detecting frequent tire pressure loss—it wouldn’t just alert the driver but also identify nearby tire suppliers, negotiate the best deal, and schedule a fitting at a convenient time based on their calendar,” Taylor suggests. 

Unlike traditional AI, which follows preset rules, Agentic AI could proactively and dynamically adjust based on real-time responses, as well as repeat actions for periodic activities like general servicing and annual vehicle inspections. 

Navigate the Trend: Finding the Right AI Partner 

Agentic AI will help remove many routine tasks from both the consumer and the agent, leading to improved efficiency and smoother customer experiences. However, as this new technology is still in its infancy, businesses will have to navigate an overwhelming number of fast-emerging solutions to get there. 

“There will be plenty of horizon scanning and monitoring required, which will be quite difficult to do in-house for an end user organization,” Taylor says. 

To tap into this new trend’s full potential, organizations are likely to need a trusted AI partner—one that can filter through the noise, orchestrate new technologies, and help integrate them into real-world CX strategies. Providers like Content Guru, well-versed in implementing foundational technologies like connected devices, Generative AI and natural language processing, are optimally positioned to serve as guides. 

“As an Agentic AI-enabled platform with years of experience in processing IoT data at scale, we’re able to take all the feeds coming from digital customers – potentially billions of them – identify the context, and take the appropriate courses of action,” Taylor explains. 

To learn more about Content Guru’s CX solutions, visit their website. 

This shift in communication preferences poses a significant challenge for businesses, particularly those in regulated industries. Failing to adapt to these expectations can result in critical communications—such as contracts, invoices, and insurance proposals—going unread. Companies that cling to physical mail risk alienating their younger audiences, potentially leading to missed payments or overlooked legal notices. 

In a conversation with Helena Cimber, Product Director at digital postbox provider e-Boks, we explored the key differences between younger and older generations, and how the e-Boks app helps bridge the gap. 

The Unique Traits of Digital-First Users 

Younger generations, Gen Z in particular, are exhibiting distinct traits that set them apart from older generations when it comes to their approach to communication: 

Heightened Security Awareness: “Young users are far more tech-savvy than their parents or older siblings, with an increased awareness of the potential risks in digital spaces,” notes Cimber. With the rise of well-crafted phishing scams, trust in traditional emails has plummeted, making Gen Z and Millennials much less likely to open unfamiliar emails and links. 

Changing Expectations: Gen Z has drastically different expectations when it comes to receiving information, even compared to the highly digitized Millennials. Instant gratification is their default, expecting to access information anytime, anywhere – an expectation that physical mail simply cannot meet.  

Sustainability Appreciation: Sustainability plays a critical role in shaping the behaviors of younger users. “With environmental concerns at the forefront, they’re more inclined to choose digital solutions over paper-based ones – requiring a reliable digital alternative,” Cimber explains. 

How Can e-Boks Help? 

For businesses seeking to engage younger, digital-first audiences, e-Boks provides an ideal solution to ensure that critical messages are not only received but acted upon. With its mobile app, users receive important communications instantly, anytime, and anywhere—perfectly aligned with the requirement for speed and convenience. 

“Unlike traditional email, where important messages often get buried in spam, the e-Boks app delivers push notifications for important documents, ensuring that nothing gets overlooked,” Cimber clarifies. 

One key advantage of e-Boks is that it’s solely dedicated to official, must-read communications. Whether it’s invoices, contracts, or personal documents, senders use e-Boks only for critical messages, resulting in zero distractions from sales promotions or irrelevant content. 

Finally, e-Boks allows users to act directly on the messages they receive—whether it’s paying bills, signing contracts, or booking appointments—all within the app itself.  

“This seamless, efficient process is a major plus for younger generations who demand quick and easy ways to manage their tasks,” Cimber concludes. 

To learn more about the e-Boks digital postbox solution, visit their website. 

Canada-based Inoria offers a range of tailored consultative services, including workforce management, digital transformation; customer experience and contact centre audits. Its acquisition reflects CallTower’s strategic plan to deliver best-of-breed CCaaS solutions, and expand its CX and Conversational Artificial Intelligence (CAI) capabilities to the global market.   

Co-Founder & EVP of Inoria Joe Bigio said of the announcement: 

 “This unique partnership allows us to accelerate innovation, expand our services, reach new markets, and scale rapidly while delivering even greater value to our partners and enterprise customers across North America and speedily into Europe.” 

This strategic acquisition offers several benefits: 

1. Enhanced Service Offerings: Inoria’s expertise in Genesys Cloud and conversational artificial intelligence (CAI) solutions, including partnerships with Kore.ai and Parloa, enables CallTower to provide a more comprehensive suite of services. 

1. Expanded Market Reach: The acquisition broadens CallTower’s presence in North America and accelerates its expansion into European markets, allowing the company to serve a more diverse customer base. 

1. Improved Customer Experience: By integrating Inoria’s CX solutions, CallTower can offer more personalized and innovative communication services, enhancing the overall customer experience. 

1. Strengthened Channel Partner Program: The combined resources and expertise from both companies provide channel partners with access to a broader range of solutions, enabling them to better meet the complex demands of the global market. 

New CX Capabilities: Integrating Genesys Solutions 

CallTower’s acquisition of Inoria strengthens its offerings with complete CX solutions, including professional and managed services. 

Customer experience platform Genesys provides businesses with tools for seamless communication and personalized service delivery. Inoria was named the Genesys North America, Canada Partner of the Year for Genesys’ fiscal year 2024.  The tie-up introduces a Genesys CX solution to CallTower’s dynamic portfolio of unified communications offerings. 

AI-Powered Conversations: Expanding CAI Offerings 

Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to technologies that enable machines to engage in human-like conversations, either through text or speech. It’s a cornerstone of the future of CX – empowering chatbots, voice assistants and IVR to deliver meaningful customer experiences.  

The Inoria solutions portfolio brings together other leading technology partnerships in CAI such as Kore.ai and Parloa, thus bringing the expanded portfolio of cutting-edge cloud communication technologies to enrich CallTower’s stable.  

CallTower’s Chief Executive Officer, Bret England, said:

“This acquisition offers our combined customers and the enterprise market with expanded communication solutions with extensive resources for design, licensing, implementation, integration, and support of an extensive list of CCaaS and CAI solutions along with our industry leading UCaaS offerings.” 

The acquisition positions CallTower for sustained growth and leadership in the enterprise communications industry, offering enriched solutions and services to its customers and partners. 

For more information, visit: calltower.com

Digital Postbox solution provider e-Boks has taken on this challenge by making it a core mission to help businesses in regulated industries adopt sustainable practices while ensuring privacy and security for end users. In a recent conversation with Helena Cimber, Product Director at e-Boks, we explored how Digital Post solutions, and e-Boks specifically, are helping businesses move closer to achieving the global goals set for 2030. 

Protecting the Environment  

Two of the SDGs e-Boks targets are #12 and #13, which address the reduction of CO2e emissions as well as responsible consumption and production. Here’s a quick overview of how digital post supports these goals: 

CO2e Emissions: Transitioning from physical to digital letters offers significant potential for reducing CO2e emissions by minimizing the need for transportation services. Fewer delivery vehicles result in lower emissions, improved air quality, and reduced greenhouse gases. While digital communication infrastructure also has a carbon footprint that needs to be addressed, it is significantly smaller: 

“According to calculations in Denmark, the average CO2e emission per digital document was 3.3g, compared to 28.7g CO2e per physical letter in 2021, making digital documents nearly nine times more CO2e efficient,” Cimber notes. 

Energy Usage: Digital letters consume significantly less energy to produce and deliver than physical mail, mainly due to the elimination of printing and transportation. However, like CO2e emissions, digital services also contribute to energy consumption, making the adoption of energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy sources essential. 

“KMD, our data hosting provider in Denmark, is a great example of balancing this: it achieves CO2e neutrality by offsetting carbon emissions with climate credits,” Cimber says. 

Saved Trees: The transition to digital letters reduces the demand for paper, which in turn lowers the need to replace natural forests with commercial timber. 

 “While the precise impact is challenging to measure, this shift helps preserve forests, benefiting biodiversity and supporting climate change mitigation.” 

Protecting Citizen’s Rights 

According to a report by Kroll, the finance and healthcare sectors—both highly regulated ones—experience the highest number data breaches from 2021 to 2023, affecting many millions of people globally. This issue closely aligns with another SDG targeted by e-Boks, #16, meant to ensure the protection of citizens’ rights. 

The e-Boks solution is 100% GDPR and eIDAS compliant, ensuring the secure delivery of digital documents to approximately 23.6 million users to date. 

“With security violations and data breaches on the rise, we take immense pride in our strict security and compliance standards,” Cimber shares. 

“e-Boks is a fully secure digital postbox where all data belongs solely to the end user, meaning they also have the right to delete it at their own discretion.” 

e-Boks: Helping Regulated Businesses Fulfil the SDGs 

By enabling measurable reductions in environmental impact, e-Boks helps organizations meet their sustainability goals while safeguarding the rights of end users. 559 million digital documents were sent through the e-Boks platform in 2023 alone, and the provider aims to source 100% carbon neutral data by 2030. 

“As participants in the UN Global Compact, we are fully committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and this ongoing commitment is reflected in the way we develop and deliver our solution,” Cimber concludes. 

For more information on the e-Boks Digital Postbox, visit their website. 

As customers get more comfortable with AI, regularly interacting with the likes of ChatGPT, they gradually expect the same human-like, conversational experience when interacting with brands’ AI. Ensuring the same experience translates into customer service has become a major priority for brands, but achieving this in the contact center is harder than expected.

Recent research on 2025 AI Priorities from IDC and Sprinklr, including 500 contact center leaders, uncovers the most AI-related trends for the upcoming year. Here’s what you must know.

AI Contact Center Trends for 2025: Key Takeaways

Recent innovations in AI, such as autonomous decision-making models and intelligent automation, are already transforming how businesses operate and interact with customers.

Looking ahead to 2025, AI trends are expected to focus on advancing conversational AI capabilities, including the development of more sophisticated models that better understand human emotions and intentions. Predictive analytics is also set to improve significantly. In the recent survey, 67% of contact center executives identified contextualized customer engagement during service interactions as the most impactful business outcome of generative AI, while 73% predicted that autonomous, 24/7 customer service would be the most transformative application of AI-powered analytics.

However, Sprinklr’s survey reveals significant challenges as well:

Despite the widespread adoption of AI across industries, a notable training gap persists in the customer service sector when it comes to AI implementation.

“When asked what would most hinder their organization’s ability to leverage AI in CCaaS and CX, 4 of survey participants pointed to a lack of skilled employees as the greatest barrier to adoption,” explains Amitabh Misra, CTO at Sprinklr.

“Until issues related to employee skills, data management and governance, and the cost of implementing AI solutions are addressed, it will be challenging for contact center leaders to reap AI benefits for CX,” he adds.

Sprinklr: AI-First, Unified CXM

How can Sprinklr’s services help contact centers navigate this evolving, AI-driven scene to streamline processes, optimize resources, and achieve the best results?

AI can be used to unify listening and insights across channels, case management, conversational automation, agents, and more.  Sprinkler Service is an AI-powered CCaaS platform unifying contact center solutions across 30+ channels, including live chat, social, messaging, email, SMS, voice, and video.

“AI has been a foundational component of Sprinklr’s Unified CXM platform since its inception, powering the extensive CX management and social listening features we offer,” Misra explains.

“The rise of generative AI enables us to innovate at an entirely new level, delivering experiences that were previously difficult and prohibitively expensive.”

As contact centers adapt to this AI-driven landscape, Sprinklr’s unified platform integrates AI, automation, and real-time insights, ensuring seamless customer journeys across channels and teams.

“Our solution empowers contact centers to not only keep up with AI advancements but fully harness them to deliver personalized, seamless, and efficient customer support,” Misra concludes.

To learn more about these trends and Sprinklr’s AI-powered customer service solutions, visit their website here.

An interesting twist is that compliance requirements can also lead to new and promising business opportunities. What are these opportunities, what challenges tend to get in the way, and how can companies tap into them despite these challenges? 

I spoke with Helena Cimber, Product Director at e-Boks, to find out. 

The Opportunities 

Wondering how compliance can be turned lucrative? Here are two ways to look at it with fresh eyes. 

A Driver of Innovation: While generally perceived as a burden, compliance also forces us to be more innovative and creative, driving transparent, user-centric services. 

“Compliance frameworks (such as GDPR) force us to design our solution around them,” Cimber notes. 

“This means not only meeting the regulatory demands but also creating an experience around them that works for our users.” 

An International Portal: Another opportunity regulatory frameworks bring is enabling businesses to deliver cross-border communications with minimal friction.  

“In the EU, GDPR makes way for seamless cross-border message delivery based on that regulatory framework,” she says.  

“We can view it not only as burdensome rules to comply with but also as something that opens new doors when you comply.“ 

The Challenges 

As promising as these opportunities may be, not many businesses get to tap into their full potential. Cimber mentions two common compliance hurdles businesses face when managing their digital communications: 

Staying Up to Date: Modern businesses are constantly forced to adapt to new laws and regulations, often changing quickly.  

  “The challenge here is being agile enough to stay ahead of new security and compliance standards while maintaining user-friendly, scalable systems,” Cimber says. 

Security versus UX: It’s a never-ending struggle to balance robust security with a seamless user experience, requiring businesses to walk a fine line between the two.  

  “Compliance dictates strict data protection, but we also need to ensure that users find the platform intuitive, easy to use, and trustworthy. Otherwise, we risk losing them,” she notes.  

Finding Balance with e-Boks: Ahead-of-the-Curve Digital Postbox  

While businesses can try to build their own compliant digital postbox solutions from scratch, doing this is very expensive.  

  “Alongside the challenges we mentioned, requiring constant adaptations, the building process itself requires plenty of resources,” Cimber explains.  

This is where the e-Boks digital postbox comes in, serving as a reliable, cost-efficient, and future-proof partner solution. 

  “We make sure to keep our customers ahead of the curve both in terms of compliance and in allowing them to leverage it with innovation opportunities,” Cimber says.  

If you’re wondering how individual innovation is possible when using a preplanned partner interface, this is where it gets interesting: Other than the option to use e-Boks as a white–labeled solution, companies can take innovation one step further by consuming e-Boks as a headless system. 

 “They can use our endpoints to build their own UI on top, with the option to include it in their app or website and continue to enjoy a fully compliant solution,” she explains. 

To learn more about e-Boks’ digital postbox solution, visit the e-Boks website.

To meet these expectations and drive greater value with fewer resources, retail businesses need to maximise the capabilities of their communication solutions to deliver truly meaningful engagement. 

Smart Messaging, BT’s cloud-based communications platform, can help retailers do just that. 

Smart Messaging: Flexible, Rich, Personalised 

With 43% of all retail across the UK conducted through smartphones and tablets (according to Retail Insight Network), retailers have no choice but to offer consumers the omnichannel flexibility they demand. Smart Messaging facilitates this by offering a centralised experience across multiple channels: 

“We give businesses the flexibility to meet customers on their preferred channels, be it SMS, RCS (Rich Communication Services), WhatsApp for Business, Facebook Messenger, and others,” notes Matthew Allister, Messaging Product Manager at BT. 

Beyond flexibility, Smart Messaging allows retailers to leverage some of these richer channels, like RCS, to supercharge customer interactions, delivering a two-way messaging experience with media sharing, brand logos, read receipts, and more. 

But what about personalisation? 76% of today’s customers expect more of it, wishing retailers would know their individual preferences and act upon them. Smart Messaging also offers a Customer Data Platform (CDP), designed to cater to these expectations:  

“The CDP allows businesses to track and import customer data from their existing systems and ongoing customer digital interactions to bring it all together and create insightful customer profiles,” Allister says. 

The profiles give a 360° customer view, from behaviours to conversion rates, opening the door to more personalised and informed engagements that strengthen the customer experience and drive results. 

Leveraging Communications to Stand Out 

With Black Friday fast approaching and competition peaking, it’s high time that retailers optimise customer interactions, whether directly with marketing campaigns or indirectly with ongoing personalised support.  

How can businesses cut through the noise this time of year and truly do more with less? Here are couple of ways to that with Smart Messaging: 

Personalised Engagement: The ability to manage customer profiles can be leveraged to send personalised promotions and discounts over a customer’s favourite messaging channel.  

“If a customer frequently buys sportswear, for example, their CDP profile can be used to trigger the distribution of targeted offers on new sportswear collections,” Allister suggests. 

Real-Time Assistance: With an AI-enhanced chatbot, retail businesses can offer customers access to immediate assistance, 24/7, covering everything from personal shopping advice to order updates.  

“Managing these using an automated chatbot helps deliver great customer experiences while reducing the load on customer service teams.” 

Visit the BT website to learn more about how Smart Messaging can be harnessed to meet the evolving demands of the retail market.