February Writing Roundup

Am posting this on the late side, mainly due to February being a short month, along with my recent travel schedule. Along those lines, I’m including a writeup that ran in early March, which were in fact, written last month. Here’s the digest of my public, bylined writeups for last month.

The Future of the Workplace Requires a Total Rethink, No Jitter, Mar. 4

RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos, my blog, Feb. 28

ZohoDay25 - The AD Era, Build vs. Buy, and Playing the Long Game, No Jitter, Feb. 13

New Research From Aizan - Reimagining the On-Hold Experience, Aizan blog, Feb. 10

RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos

Am back now from RingCentral’s 2025 Analyst Summit, and it was time well-spent. Hosted at the upscale Bardessono hotel in Yountville - the heart of Napa - the setting was more than comfortable, making the almost two-hour drive from SFO a small inconvenience. More importantly was the intimate setting with a small group of analysts and pretty much all the key people we need to know and hear from at RingCentral.

Momentum is strong on many fronts, and it adds up to continued growth through 2025. There were many updates to keep track of, most notably:

There were other updates of note as well, but I’m not doing a full-on review here. I posted commentary and photos regularly during the sessions on my LinkedIn feed, and with longer analysis coming on two video segments.

One is with UC Today on their Big UC News roundup, and another is a similar roundup with our group at BCStrategies. Both should run publicly next week or soon after, and I’ll share the links in case you don’t catch them.

To complement those takeaways, here are some of my photos, some of which you may have seen in isolation from my LinkedIn posts.

Below - nice overview visuals here. It’s easy to forget that RingCentral has been going for 25 years, and the first photo is a great timeline for their innovations and milestones. Second visual emphasizes a key message from the event - they have a complete, “multi-product portfolio”, and have a come a long way from from being a VoIP provider.

Some of the bright stars on their team, ball-hockey guy/MC/Mr. Canada - Amir Hameed, Kira Makagon, and Kristen Koenig (from their Hopin acquisition - another good growth story)

Zane Long leading the partner panel; RingCentral brain trust for the Exec Q&A, including Vlad Shmunis

More smart people, especially on the AI front - Jim Dvorkin, Dr. Antonio Nucci, John Finch

AI Receptionist demo (hard to see, but the 8 avatars on the screen represent the different personas that AIR can take on); the Two Mikes - Mike Stowe and Michael Brandenburg talking about what makes their platform distinct.

Thought you’d never ask - the hotel was right out of Central Casting for what you’d expect in Napa; world-famous, we-are-not-worthy French Laundry restaurant; and of course, an organic lemon tree in the garden area of the property.

This is how you do Zen at Bardessono; the personalized welcome screen in my room - nice touch, and it’s fair to say this hotel gets it with CX.

Enterprise Connect - Speaking Update

Enterprise Connect 2025 is about three weeks away, and I’ll be there for just about all of it. My calendar is getting pretty full for meetings and briefings, and if you wanted to meet, please get in touch ASAP - jon@jarnoldassociates.com. No promises at this point, but nothing to lose for trying.

If you don’t know, I’ve been presenting a state-of-the-market update on speech tech for the enterprise during the past seven years, but we’re moving on now to other things. During that time, I’ve certainly gained a deep understanding of where speech tech is going for businesses beyond the contact center - especially of course, for how AI is driving this in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. I still work closely with vendors on this topic, and if it’s a space you need some help in, feel free to reach out.

In terms of speaking, I’ll be a panelist on two sessions, both on Thursday.

First, at 10am, is a session on the “future of the workplace” - details here. Having recently run my Future of Work Expo tracks at ITExpo, this is a topic I’m well-versed in, and will share some of these perspectives on this panel.

Next is the Locknote session at 11:15am, which closes out Enterprise Connect. The format is to hear collective perspectives on the event - and the year ahead - from analysts and consultants. This is my first time being on the Locknote, and will be in pretty good company, namely Sheila McGee-Smith, Dave Michels, Brent Kelly, and Steve Leaden - details here.

Finally, as a speaker, I get to offer a discount code on registration, so if you want to save $400, use promotion code ARNOLD400. Hope you can use it, and if so, you can buy me a coffee there!

Future of Work Expo Recap - Photos and Media Coverage

I’ve been Chair of the Future of Work Expo for eight years now, and as technology evolves, the future of work is always interesting. Last week’s 2025 edition went to plan, and we had a solid roster of speakers, a timely mix of topics, and an attentive audience.

During the event, I posted photos and commentary regularly on LinkedIn, so you’ll have to check out my feed to pick up on that. At this point, I’m not going to write anything more, and instead will share some photo highlights, along with media coverage in the form of articles about specific sessions, covered by Future of Work News.

First, here are the writeups from FOW News:

Now for the photos.

There are too many speakers from the panels to cite here, but you can find them all on the Agenda page. Unfortunately, Squarespace isn’t letting me insert a hyperlink now, so here’s the URL - www.futureofworkexpo.com/agenda.aspx.

Below - I, Robot - the future of work? Very cute! Next - Day 1 program, and me with Mr. TMC, Rich Tehrani.

My opening keynote, joined by special guest, Jeff Pulver.

Glenn Goldberg moderating the panel on AI Business Transformation, and John Stafford with the panel on the Changing Role of IT with FOW. Thanks guys!

With Hardy Myers of Cognigy; thumbs way up with Justin Robbins of Metric Sherpa; Khurum Shafi of Twilio, with his souped-up BlackBerry (yup!) to record the session on the evolving role of the contact center.

Moderating panels on the evolving role of contact centers with FOW, and how UCaaS is driving the FOW.

Nice roundup representing SCTC attendees - Vern Fernandez of Jabra, myself, Tom Brannen of OnConvergence, Bill Magnuson of NexusBlue, and Dave Clardy of Mitel. Next - from my UCaaS panel, with Leo Boulton of Zoom, and Luiz Domingos of Mitel.

With Jeff Pulver; Harry Chapin and his classic hit, Taxi. Sorry folks, but you had to be at my keynote to get what this has to do with the future of work.

Panel of AI Innovation and FOW Skills Gaps; and Employee Engagement session.

With Brett Shockley of Journey; reprising my keynote talk in the Solutions Theater on the showfloor; speaking during opening session.

Thanks to those who took many of these photos - too many to credit here. Also, still to come - some video clips of me being interviewed by Rich Tehrani, by Tom Brannen, and a clip from my keynote talk.

Finally, if you like what you see, I’d love to tell you more about the event. It’s never too early for me to start planning for 2026, so if you want to speak, moderate, sponsor or exhibit - or just share your thoughts about the future of work - I’m not hard to find!

New Month - Time for New Watch This Space Podcast and Newsletter

The February editions of my podcast and newsletter were published yesterday, and I hope you check them out. If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

The current episode is an excess review of all the excess around AI at the moment. Inspired by DeepSeek’s entry into the fray, we started there, then moved on to various forms of deepfakes that pose all kinds of risk to just about everything we do.

As always, we framed this through our analog lens, a perspective that digital natives lack, and we feel provides some levity to all this. Chris and I didn’t stop there, and to get the whole story, you can listen to the February episode here.


January Writing Roundup

Very disjointed month, as I was in Israel for two weeks, then flattened with a cold the entire week after getting back. Totally good now, though, and thankfully I got all my latest work done ahead of all this, so I do have some writing to share from January.

The Channel Partner Opportunity to Deploy UCaaS, CCaaS Together, Channel Futures, Jan. 28

How Call Testing and Monitoring Enhances Telephony and CX for Brands, No Jitter, Jan. 10

Getting Past the AI Hype, Contact Center Pipeline, January edition

New Month, New Year, New Newsletter and Podcast

I’ve definitely hit the ground running for 2025, and being the first full week of the month, the latest editions of my podcast and newsletter were published yesterday.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This marks the start of Season 8 for my podcast, and as you can see below, it’s got a new look. I hope you like it, and same for the episode itself, which you can listen to right here.

Finally, a quick heads-up - soon, you’ll be seeing an animated version of the WTS banner. It’s kinda fun, and better reflects the vibe we’re after. Watch for it on LinkedIn and on my website.

Getting Past the AI Hype - My Latest Contact Center Pipeline Article

I’ve been a guest contributor to Contact Center Pipeline for some time, as well as being a member of their Advisory Board.

Getting Past the AI Hype is my latest article, running now in the January 2025 edition.

There’s great content in the current issue, which covers a lot of ground for the big themes and challenges facing contact centers in 2025. I hope you read my article, and here’s the link to explore the rest of the issue. If you like what you see, you can easily sign up for free to get the digital edition.

A good starting point would be long-time colleague Brendan Read’s overview - What Will 2025 Bring for Contact Centers? It’s a compilation of insights from various thought leaders - myself included - thanks - and here’s the link to read it. Plenty to digest in this issue, and am sure the CCP folks would love to hear from you.

December Writing Roundup

December was another busy month on the video front - details on that in my next newsletter - but there was writing as well, both with my byline and without. Here’s the bylined writing, and if you missed these, I hope you give them a read.

Getting Past the AI Hype, Contact Center Pipeline, January 2025 issue

How Vendors Could Help Small and Medium Businesses Navigate Change Amidst Rapid Change and Complexity, No Jitter, Dec. 17

Where Does the Human Element Stand in the Age of Automation?, Future of Work News, Dec. 16