The pandemic has had a profound impact in almost all aspects of our lives. One of the biggest changes is how we communicate with one another. Prior to COVID-19, collaboration tools were used by primarily knowledge workers when we were in the office and had to communicate with people outside of our walls. But then the world changed, and we all had to rely on collaboration tools to work, learn, socialize, and even be entertained. These applications allowed us to maintain social proximity even though we were socially distant.

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Composable Communications: A Key Theme at Enterprise Connect 2022

This week, Zoom announced results for its fiscal year 2022 fourth-quarter, which ended January 31, 2022. Total revenue for the quarter was $1.071 billion, which was above the Streets expectations of $1.054 billion, equating to 21.4% year-over-year growth. The gross margin was also better than expected coming in at 78.3%, compared to the expected 74.9%, and up from 71.3% from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021. The boost in gross margins came from platform optimization and lower usage during the holiday season. The current quarter numbers painted a rosy-looking picture.

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Zoom at the Crossroads: 5 Areas It Should Prioritize Next

This week, Zoom announced Zoom Contact Center, its own cloud-native, omnichannel contact center solution, putting to rest the question surrounding Zoom of: “to contact center or not contact center?”

Zoom’s Road to Contact Center

In the past, the company has hinted at a contact center play and most recently announced Video Engagement Center, a specialized contact center that can be thought of as a specialized customer-care tool. Then, Zoom attempted to acquire Five9, which seemed like a strange move for a company that typically builds features in-house. After all that, the company announced its only product.

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Zoom’s CCaaS Play: Conversational AI Might be Key to Success

This week, conversational AI vendor Uniphore announced a massive series E funding round of $400 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion, bringing its total funding to $610 million. This is, by far, the largest round of funding for the company. In its press release, the company stated it would use the money to “extend Uniphore’s technology and market leadership with advancements in voice AI, computer vision and tonal emotion, as well as to expand its business operations globally, specifically in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.”

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Uniphore Funding Signals Conversational AI on Verge of Massive Shift

The topic of conversational AI is certainly a hot one, and rightfully so. Customer experience (CX) reigns supreme when it comes to business competition today but ensuring a high-quality CX isn’t as easy as it used to be. The pandemic accelerated digital transformation plans. My research shows that 74% of companies accelerated digital initiatives by at least one year, about a third of those by two years or more.

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Redefining Conversational AI: What Gartner’s MQ Tells Us