Day: January 19, 2024

Generative AI Watch: 8×8’s New ‘XCaaS’ Features Yield Benefits but Arrive Late

by Gregg Willsky, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate
G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

• 8×8 is positioning the new video meeting features well in the age of GenAI.

• The introduction is tarnished somewhat by the late arrival to market.

8×8 has announced the addition of AI-generated transcriptions, summaries, and action items for video meetings to its experience communications-as-a-service (XCaaS) platform. XCaaS melds communication/collaboration (UCaaS) and contact center (CCaaS) capabilities. 8×8 introduced the ‘XCaaS’ platform nearly three years ago in May 2021. The platform is noteworthy having served as a blueprint since then for competitors to offer their own integrated UCaaS/CCaaS offers, and customers have come to expect these as part of vendor portfolios. In this regard, 8×8 has been a trend-setter.

Continue reading “Generative AI Watch: 8×8’s New ‘XCaaS’ Features Yield Benefits but Arrive Late” →

Partner or Do – a Telco Technology Dilemma

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Communicate, Internet of Things, Mobilize, Secure
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Vodafone has partnered Microsoft for generative AI (GenAI) and to scale its soon-to-be standalone IoT business with the goal of targeting over 300 million business and consumer customers.

• Telcos need to make difficult decisions over what they need to keep in-house as market differentiators and where they need to partner for best-of-breed solutions.

On January 16, 2024, Vodafone and Microsoft announced a 10-year strategic partnership “to bring generative AI, digital services, and the cloud to more than 300 million businesses and consumers” across Vodafone’s footprint in Europe and Africa. Vodafone is to invest $1.5 billion over that period in cloud and customer-focused AI services in conjunction with Microsoft, with Microsoft returning the favor by using Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services. Microsoft also intends to invest in Vodafone’s managed IoT connectivity platform as it becomes a standalone business by April 2024 (for more details, please see: Vodafone’s Microsoft AI and IoT Partnership is Bold but Raises Vendor-Neutrality Questions, January 16, 2024).

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