Enterprise Connect - Speaking Update

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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

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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

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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.


New Research Report - Consumer Attitudes Toward Contact Center Queues

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You may not know that I’m a market researcher by trade, and have been a practitioner for 30+ years. Most analysts do not have this skill set, and I find it a great way to enhance my thought leadership engagements.

I just completed one of these with Aizan Technologies, a vendor I’ve been working with for some time. The topic was contact center queues, or in more ordinary parlance, the on-hold experience. This happens to all of us when trying to get customer service, and it usually ends badly. There’s actually an opportunity here as part of the overall customer experience, but with no research out there to speak of, we went ahead and did our own study.

Aizan is the sponsor, and I did the rest, along with my field partner, Quest Mindshare. The findings are pretty rich, and Aizan has created a really nice, highly-consumable summary report. You need to register to get the study, and here’s the link for that.

I’ll be writing an article with my follow-on take soon, so keep watch for that. Also - of course - there’s no better way to tell your story than having proprietary research of your own, and if that’s on your 2025 roadmap, we should talk.

New Month - Time for November Newsletter and Podcast

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It’s a new month, and the latest editions of both my newsletter and podcast are out now - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, and my Watch This Space podcast, now in its 7th season.

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 month’s episode is mainly a recap of current industry events Chris and I have attended or were about to - namely Verint, British Telecom, UC Expo, NICE, Cisco WebexOne, Zoomtopia, VON/vCon and WorkTech. It’s a busy time, and lots to talk about - you can check out the November podcast here.

NICE Analyst Summit 2024 - Photos from Zambia, Review on No Jitter

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Last week was definitely a bucket-list trip, courtesy of NICE, to attend their Analyst Summit in Zambia. That’s as exotic as it gets in my world, and am still buzzing from the experience - not just the content, but being surrounded by nature that urbanites hardly ever see. Every day was a new adventure, and whatever I can share now is just a fraction of the whole thing.

I’ll keep this short, and here I’m just sharing two sets of my photos - from the event itself, and from what I would call the Zambia experience - and the rest I’ll leave to your imagination (or if we’re connected on Facebook, I’ll be sharing lots more there).

Complementing that is my review of the event, which I’ve distilled into three themes - windmills, profitability and termites. A bit strange, I know, but it all hangs together, and you can read it here on No Jitter.

As always, comments and sharing are welcome, and I’ll likely have a small coda coming in the November newsletter next week.

First, some photos from the event:

CEO Barak Eilam, and AR leader and Head of Global Corporate Comms, Chris Irwin-Dudek

Fantastic opening with a children’s choir to sing the Zambian national anthem, with that week being their 60th Independence Day - pretty special. Next - one of several very creative visuals to showcase various success metrics, weaving in images from our various Analyst Summit locales - this one showing their revenue stat of $2.78 billion paired with last year’s Machu Picchu visit.

Gotta show a few regular slides - Hyper Platform - this is their next-level vision for how AI is helping enterprises get better outcomes, and for software vendors to evolve to meet those needs. Next - visual for 4 stages of NICE’s evolution that brings them to this vision.

Elizabeth Tobey and Neeraj Verma getting into the details.

Exec Q&A with Barry Cooper, Einat Weiss and Barak Eilam; and a farewell toast moment marking the fast-approaching end to Barak’s tenure as CEO.

Next - a few photos to give you a flavor for the Zambia experience - wow, huh?

Glenn Goldberg's Parallel Universe Podcast - My Guest Spot

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You know it’s going to be a fun podcast when I get to quote one of my favorite lines from Seinfeld - “It’s not a lie… if you believe it.” As Homer would say, it’s funny because it’s true. If that’s your vibe, then I think you’ll really enjoy this podcast - my first guest spot on Glenn Goldberg’s Parallel Universe podcast.

We could go on all day long about tech, sports, music and all kinds of other things. Maybe we’ll go further on those threads next time, but right now, you should just check it out. Here’s the link for viewing it on Telecom Reseller, inclulding the transcript, or you can watch it here on YouTube.

Latest Interview - State of AI with Nutun

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I don’t post a whole lot on LinkedIn - and I dropped off from Twitter/X last year - but I’m busier than things might appear based on my social media activity.

Over the spring/summer, I had two surgeries, which slowed things down quite a bit, but am past that now, and for the writing and speaking I’ve been doing, some is coming to market now.

Here’s one of them, which was recorded during the summer, and just published last week. This was a video interview, where I was the guest Episode 2 of The Global Experience. It’s probably more accurate to call it a podcast, and is available in two formats - video and audio-only. More on that in a moment.

The podcast is produced by Nutun, a BPO provider based in South Africa, and I’ve been getting to know them since first meeting at Enterprise Connect earlier this year. I was interviewed by Bryce Cressey and Natalie Billson from Nutun, and let’s just say we’ve become fast friends.

Being Episode 2, the series is brand new, and I was happy to be an early guest. The broad topic was AI, and we talked about its evolution, how it’s being used with both UCaaS and CCaaS, and where it’s going. We could have gone on much longer, and maybe we’ll get to do it again soon.

As mentioned, the replay is offered in two flavors, and here are the links to check it out. First, for audio-only, it’s hosted here on Buzzsprout. Then for the full video experience, you can watch it here on their YouTube channel. Either way, I hope you like it, and any feedback or sharing would be much appreciated.

August Writing Roundup

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Was a light month for writing, and just about everything else, but will hit the ground running after Labor Day - things are set to ramp up again then, and will be as busy as ever. Just two posts to share, and I hope you give them both a read!

RingCX AI: Blending Intelligent Automation with Personalized Support, Aug. 29, RingCentral blog

How AI Helps Address Core Challenges for Utilities, Aug. 21, No Jitter

Catching up on July Activity

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Regular followers will have noticed I’ve been blogging less frequently, and am not really sure if this is a blip or a real change. As you know, I’m pretty old school, and I don’t know too many people who have been blogging continuously as long as I have - going back to 2005.

The reality is that most of my activity is tracked on LinkedIn, along with my newsletter and podcast. I continue to blog, however, as this is the entry point for many people who learn about my capabilities and offerings once they find my website.

Speaking of the website, there are some refreshes coming, and I’m very much aware that some sections aren’t up to date, and I’d like to make the site more engaging - more to come on that.

All that aside, I have been staying busy throughout July, but that’s not reflected here on my blog. So, I’m going to rectify that right now, with a simple tally of things you might want to check out, ICYMI.

Intelligent Thinking AI Summit - was a speaker at this virtual event, July 18

No Jitter - my latest article, AI in the Enterprise - Are We Missing the Best Use Case of All?, July 17

Let’s Do Video Boardroom - finally, my first guest appearance on David Maldow’s long-running interview series: the Future of UC and Contact Centers, July 15

UC Today - was cited as being a UC All-Star, July 11

Big UC News - was part of the panel for the latest edition of this industry news roundup, July 8

Watch This Space Podcast - our July edition: HPE Discover and NICE Interactions - Reflections on Latest Industry Events, July 3

Aizan Blog - my latest guest post: Communications Tech Events to Attend - an Analyst’s Take, June 28