As we stand on the cusp of 2024, the landscape of unified communications and collaboration is poised for transformative shifts. From the integration of cutting-edge technologies, especially AI, to the redefinition of remote work dynamics, these expert forecasts explore how UC&C will shape the way organizations continue to communicate and collaborate.
With our latest Round Table subject, “2024 Predictions”, we spoke with experts and executives from NuWave, Cisco, Crestron, Dialpad and VOSS Solutions about the emerging technologies they foresee impacting UC&C in 2024, what challenges business and the UC&C sector will face next year, what UC&C tools will evolve to better address the hybrid work culture, and what greater role AI will play in our industry.
What emerging technologies do you foresee impacting UC&C in the next year?
Mark Bunnell, COO at NuWave
For Bunnell, mobility and the convergence of multi-platform UC usage in organizations and having a unification of these in a Service management platform is already present in market.
“With iPILOT, Service providers and its customers can now experience the ability to simplify, enable and enjoy this new momentum of ‘I need everything from a single interface and vendor’,” Bunnell explained.
Brian Peterson, Co-founder and CTO at Dialpad
Peterson highlighted that generative AI “entered the scene in a big way this year” and suggested that 2024 will see organizations hone the use of that technology to customize it to their specific use cases with greater accuracy.
“As AI chatbots evolve, it will be a competitive advantage to both sound the most human and deliver accurate answers in real-time,” Peterson said. “As such, it will be incredibly important for companies to build human oversight into their AI functions. And our curation of the data fed to AI models will be critical in ensuring accurate answers.”
Sam Kennedy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Crestron
Kennedy is expecting both the multi-camera trend and AI-driven assistant technologies to have a significant impact in the next year.
“We’ve made great strides with these solutions at Crestron, and I think more and more players will enter the space as it evolves,” Kennedy said. “The thing to remember, however, is that the trend around multi-camera is as important as the technology that makes it possible.”
Kennedy stressed that multi-camera solutions are about generating meeting equity and reaching that equity with consistent, easy-to-use experiences.
“Multi-camera solutions do that in the most valuable way, and I fully expect to see advances across this segment at InfoComm and beyond,” Kennedy added, “and I know we’ll continue to develop and refine our solutions in the multi-camera, intelligent video space.”
Mike Frayne, CEO at VOSS Solutions
Frayne highlighted one of Gartner’s key trends for 2024 — the augmented-connected workforce (ACWF), which “is a strategy to use intelligent applications and workforce analytics to promote employee well-being and help your staff learn new skills”, Frayne said. “At the same time, the ACWF enhances business success, and hence the initiative benefits everyone involved.”
Frayne stressed the importance of speeding up and expanding how people learn and improve in their jobs, particularly for employees working remotely. He underlined that Gartner predicts that by 2027, 25 percent of CIOs will use augmented-connected workforce initiatives to reduce time to competency by 50 percent for key roles.
“In 2024, organizations should be looking to feed their UC analytics data into the ACWF strategy, to further enhance the everyday experiences of employees and support their well-being and skill development,” Frayne continued. “In my opinion, the more closely aligned the UC strategy is to the ACWF strategy, the more successful the company will be.”
Javed Khan, SVP and GM at Cisco Collaboration
Khan suggested that generative AI techniques (like LLMs) really “sparked” the imagination in 2023. “As organizations continue to adopt these capabilities, we’ll see some big leaps in productivity,” Khan continued. “We’ll also see big changes in how people do their work as they learn to use tools like AI Assistants.”
Khan explained that while AI has been around for some time now, non-generative techniques will also continue to make an impact. “Capabilities like noise removal, for example, will continue to reduce disruptions in spaces like conference rooms, work-from-home situations, and even contact centres,” Khan added.
What kind of new challenges do you envision facing businesses and the industry at large next year?
Javed Khan, SVP and GM at Cisco Collaboration
Khan argued that 2024 will be the “show me” year for Generative AI in UC&C. He emphasised that the LLM releases in 2023 showed promise, and in 2024, organizations will need to figure out how to deploy such technologies at scale.
“In some cases, AI capabilities will be practically transparent – running in the background – and the outcome will simply be enhanced worker productivity,” Khan said. “In other cases, deploying AI will require organizations to educate and train employees. For instance, employees will need to understand which LLM chat interfaces are safe to use in the workplace. Employees will also need to understand how to engage with natural language prompts for the best results.”
Khan expanded that, for business leaders, it will be pivotal to adopt a robust AI governance framework to ensure that the technology is used ethically and responsibly. “Because AI can automatically generate insights that influence critical decisions and actions, it’s imperative to implement clear governance over how we develop, deploy, and operate AI-based solutions,” Khan said.
“Our role as technology industry leaders is to train AI to avoid advanced scams, deep fakes, and other potential issues, such as the spread of fabricated information,” Khan continued. “Every company will need to increase its AI Readiness by establishing comprehensive AI governance frameworks for anyone within its organization who develops, deploys, and uses AI capabilities.”
Sam Kennedy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Crestron
Kennedy argued that there are three key challenges. “Number one concerns the big macro trends around economics,” he said. “I’m hearing from a lot of organizations that they’re cutting their budgets. So how do I leverage whatever budget I do have to deliver the best experiences? I still need to provide quality experiences at scale, but how do I do more with less?”
Kennedy stated the second is the “staggering” pace of technology — “always a given, but even more so lately”. How do businesses and their IT leaders keep up with the speed of evolution?
“The third is a direct outgrowth of the second,” Kennedy added. “How do I specify a solution that may be obsolete in months — not years? The pace of that evolution is narrowing the margin for error for a lot of decision-makers.”
Mike Frayne, CEO at VOSS Solutions
For Frayne, in the coming year, it is likely that organizations will remain under pressure to manage costs effectively. “At the same time, businesses face the challenge of navigating an increasingly complex, multi-vendor UC landscape shaped by emerging technologies,” he explained. “It’s crucial at this time to pause, reflect, and take stock of insights gleaned from AI and UC data analytics.”
Frayne believed that leveraging this information would be critical to making smart decisions related to where costs can be saved without impacting effectiveness and productivity. It also factors into assessing which of the emerging technologies are being adopted and adding business value.
“The challenge lies in extracting actionable intelligence from the vast pool of UC data to understand user behaviour and adapt your UC solutions accordingly,” Frayne said. “Businesses must embrace a data-driven mindset, ensuring that the wealth of information at their disposal informs strategic decisions, optimizes communication workflows, and enhances overall efficiency.”
Brian Peterson, Co-founder and CTO at Dialpad
Peterson suggested that, as a result of the increased prevalence of AI, one of the major challenges the industry will face will be navigating how to properly adopt, implement and grow its AI strategy.
“It will be important for organizations to understand the full capabilities of AI, as well as its risks and limitations, in order to provide customers with AI-enhanced products that improve productivity and collaboration,” Peterson said. “We’re at a moment in time in this AI era where many UC&C providers are transforming into AI companies, and it’s paramount that they go about that shift in an intentional, use-case-specific way in order to truly enhance their customer experience.”
Mark Bunnell, COO at NuWave
Bunnell argued that reduction in cost around the GTM practice for UC services industry is essential to be competitive to extend the reduction of TCO for the end customers.
“The landscape for the Carriers and Service providers is becoming increasingly demanding for self-service tools and efficiencies that can enable regional or global growth for increased customer expansion of services through automation and time reducing delivery, management, and support for the customer multi-platform UC environments,” Bunnell expanded. “Security threats and the tools from Microsoft are a major focus area in the market as the urgency to protect and prevent is very real.”
How do you think UC&C tools will evolve to foster a more collaborative and inclusive work culture, especially with the rise of remote and hybrid working?
Mike Frayne, CEO at VOSS Solutions
Frayne highlighted that the broad availability and training in the effective use of UC tools improve collaboration between team members and foster inclusivity. “As UC tools evolve and their capabilities grow, there is greater adoption and more good business rationale for using the tools, which, in turn, further fosters inclusivity and employee collaboration,” Frayne expanded.
Frayne affirmed that to ensure that the appropriate levels of employee adoption, collaboration, and diversity are achieved, UC platforms need to incorporate management tools that offer data insights into employee behaviour and trends. “Additionally, as workplaces become more distributed, UC tools should prioritize adaptability, ensuring they cater to the evolving needs of a dynamic and inclusive work culture,” he added.
Mark Bunnell, COO at NuWave
Bunnell highlighted that NuWave’s solution iPILOT is primarily focused on enabling seamless management of Teams, Webex, and Zoom as one phone system in a single interface. This empowers organizations to work from anywhere, whether from system management role or user of the UC platform from one to another without disruption.
“The UC platforms themselves are unique in their value separately, but the reality in how the organizations usage of the separate tools show a trend for more than one tool to accomplish different tasks for collaboration with customers, vendors or internal branches that have a specific need of another UC platform for whatever desirable requirements they have,” Bunnell said.
Bunnell noted an example of a multi-national organization having two or three different UC platforms under one company, in which “each UC platform unique group using the tool to best suit their needs, whether for functionality or other use cases based on roles and experience with the familiar platform”.
“The ability to manage all 3 primary UC platforms in a simple interface like iPILOT makes it possible to easily manage and support any user in any scenario of need,” Bunnell continued.
Sam Kennedy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Crestron
Kennedy caveated that it is “entirely dependent on the feedback we’ll receive from individual clients”.
“The only way to answer that question is to put it in practical terms and ask the end-user questions,” he explained. “Are you using this solution in the way it was intended? Are you adjusting the technology for a specific need? How can we help you adapt to that need? And we’ll need to ask ourselves: As we put intelligent video into more and more spaces, how will we need to refine that technology to create the most frictionless experience?”
Brian Peterson, Co-founder and CTO at Dialpad
Peterson argued that UC&C tools will continue to evolve to introduce more seamless integrations for users to connect and collaborate anywhere – in office, at home, through computer or mobile.
“Whether you’re running a small business or a global corporation, if you have a remote or hybrid team, it’s crucial to make products accessible to customers in one seamless application,” Peterson said. “In order to achieve this, we’ll see more UC&C providers offering cloud-based software to ensure truly unified communications from anywhere.”
“Yet a remote, work-from-anywhere culture does pose security risks, so I expect in the coming year, we are going to see solutions evolve to double down on user privacy so that users can confidently exchange sensitive information while collaborating with teammates or clients,” Peterson added.
Peterson also said that we will see AI come to the forefront of these offerings to boost productivity and enhance customer experience. “Whether it’s a call transcription, AI chatbot or notetaking for customer support, we’ll see much more advanced capabilities emerge to improve overall collaboration,” he continued.
Javed Khan, SVP and GM at Cisco Collaboration
Khan believed that getting hybrid work experiences spot on is going to be more imperative than ever. “A recent Cisco study found that 98 percent of meetings include at least one remote participant,” Khan said. “Understanding how to equip conferencing and collaboration spaces with the appropriate technology to support an inclusive hybrid experience will be key to fostering a more collaborative work culture.”
Khan suggested that the first of these is to ensure that workspaces are equipped with technology beyond just a display and camera, which comprises outfitting conference rooms with more capable video systems that include video and speaker tracking to follow the conversation, as well as spatial audio to align images to the direction of the sound. “In some cases (e.g. for larger rooms), this will require multiple cameras,” Khan expanded.
“In all cases, workspaces will need to be equipped with the right intelligence to bring multiple views together,” he continued. “The resulting experience is one that virtually eliminates the distance between meeting participants. This ensures that everyone in a meeting – no matter where they are joining from – can be seen and heard.”
AI was the major buzzword in UC and collaboration in 2023; what are your AI predictions for next year?
Brian Peterson, Co-founder and CTO at Dialpad
Peterson argued that, in 2024, we will see the initial hype around large foundational AI LLMs fade as companies realize that one size does not fit all. “While the introduction of AI tools like ChatGPT was impressive, the enterprise will not benefit from solutions that pull from the entire internet,” he said. “Instead, businesses are going to move away from leveraging large LLMs, leaning toward more specialized solutions and LLMs that are trained on a more bespoke and curated dataset.”
Peterson highlighted that not only will these produce more tailored results, but they are also more secure and cost-efficient. Businesses will embrace AI that is tailored to them and their customers to improve accuracy, avoid hallucination and, ultimately, increase productivity and revenue.
“Additionally, as businesses continue to embrace AI, we’re going to see not only an increase in productivity but also an increase in the need for data talent,” he continued. “From data scientists to data analysts, this knowledge will be necessary in order to sort through all the data needed to train these AI models.”
“While recent AI advancements are helping people comb through data faster, there will always be a need for human oversight – employees who can review and organize data in a way that’s helpful for each model will be a competitive advantage. Companies will continue looking to hire more data-specific specialists to help them develop and maintain their AI offerings. And those who can’t hire and retain top talent – or don’t have the relevant data to train to begin with – won’t be able to compete.”
“Just like we all had to learn how to incorporate computers into our jobs years ago, non-technical employees will now have to learn how to use and master AI tools in their jobs. And, just like with the computer, I don’t believe AI will eliminate jobs, more so that it will shift job functions around the use of the technology. It will make everyone faster at their jobs and will pose a disadvantage to those who don’t learn how to use it.”
Javed Khan, SVP and GM at Cisco Collaboration
Khan suggested there will be less hype around AI in 2024 and more awareness of the value that it will bring to every industry. “There will be a transition from focusing on the promise of AI to experiencing the reality of how it can really benefit businesses,” he said. “In addition, companies and employees will become more AI-savvy and learn how to utilize the technology to become more productive.”
Khan believes that AI will help the UC&C industry and the world of work, in general, get back to the work that matters. “We’ll move more from scheduled meetings to ad hoc interactions that foster creativity, connection, and collaboration. I expect that with AI, we’ll have fewer, more productive meetings freeing up time to spend on critical thinking.”
“Also, I believe that AI will play a significant role in fostering collaboration and enhancing hybrid work environments in the public sector. AI will transform the public sector through the automation of routine administrative tasks such as data entry, form processing, and basic inquiries, which will allow employees to focus on higher-value tasks that require human decision-making.”
Khan also argued we will likely see more governments using AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants to provide personalized and immediate support for citizen inquiries regarding their social services, reducing waiting times for information and services.
Mark Bunnell, COO at NuWave
Bunnell said that AI will be gradually adopted due to the security impacts that it brings and the DLP from an end user risk.
“However certain aspects of the LLM assistance will be used for querying data to ideate and track the risk itself through Microsoft Security copilot, which in my view is the right use of the tool to start with,” Bunnell added. “Lock down the environment first, then use the AI tools in a responsible manner for greater benefit and development.”
Mike Frayne, CEO at VOSS Solutions
For Frayne, AI stands out as a transformative force that will impact virtually every industry and business. By effectively leveraging AI, Frayne underlined, businesses will be able to improve communication efficiency, streamline internal processes and enable cost savings, as well as elevate customer interactions and optimise the user experience.
“AI’s continued integration into UC will drive value by facilitating data-driven decision-making and predictive maintenance, which will minimize downtime,” he said. “AI-powered analytics will provide valuable insights into user behaviour and communication patterns, enabling businesses to tailor their UC strategies for maximum impact. Automation, coupled with robust data analysis, will empower organizations to identify UC trends, optimize workflows, and adapt to evolving communication needs swiftly.”
Frayne concluded by suggesting that, as businesses increasingly harness AI, the synergy of data and automation promises to make a massive improvement on UC, offering “unprecedented insights and operational efficiency”.
Sam Kennedy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Crestron
Kennedy stressed that AI is about to make the leap from “buzzword” to “everyday application”.
“Microsoft talked about their Copilot solution quite a bit in 2023, but now you’ll see actual user adoption in 2024,” he expanded. “As customers start actually using this AI assistant and others like it, they’re going to learn very quickly what’s valuable and what isn’t. AI is learning at the same time — and shortly, programs and users are going to see a significant evolution in how the AI assistant actually helps productivity.”
“I think the average user still hasn’t figured out how to leverage an AI assistant right now,” Kennedy added. “It isn’t embedded in everyday users’ workflows. When that change occurs in 2024, when adoption really takes hold, the advances are going to be sudden and dramatic.”
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