CloudBoost Weekly UC & CX Highlights

CloudBoost

Weekly Insight

The UC and CX landscapes are undergoing significant transformation driven by three key trends: the rise of interoperability between previously competing platforms, the strategic balancing of on-premises and cloud infrastructure during digital transformation, and the rapid maturation of agentic AI applications. Organizations are increasingly prioritizing flexible deployment models that address data sovereignty concerns while enabling gradual cloud migration. Meanwhile, workplace design is evolving to support both collaborative and focused work in hybrid environments. The most significant shift appears in customer experience, where agentic AI is being embedded throughout customer journeys across industries, including highly regulated sectors like healthcare, while vendors emphasize the critical balance between automation and human expertise for complex interactions.

Unified Communications

Cisco and Microsoft deepen partnership for meetings, AI

Cisco and Microsoft have expanded their collaboration by natively integrating Microsoft Teams with Cisco devices, marking a significant advancement in interoperability between these major UC platforms. The announcement from WebexOne highlights joint AI initiatives and represents a strategic shift toward greater ecosystem integration to better serve enterprise customers with multi-vendor environments.

Mitel integrates on-prem and cloud workflows

Mitel’s new Workflow Studio enables organizations to orchestrate business processes across both on-premises and cloud systems, addressing a critical challenge for enterprises with hybrid communications environments. This solution helps businesses leverage existing infrastructure investments while gradually transitioning to cloud-based services, providing flexibility during digital transformation initiatives.

Navigating UCaaS data sovereignty challenges

Organizations deploying UCaaS solutions face increasing complexity due to expanding data sovereignty regulations across different regions. The article emphasizes the importance of careful planning to ensure UCaaS deployments comply with local data protection requirements, highlighting a growing challenge for multinational enterprises implementing cloud communications strategies.

Large Enterprises Give Mitel High Marks for UC and Contact Center

Eastern Management Group’s recent surveys reveal that large enterprises rate Mitel highly for both unified communications and contact center solutions, particularly praising the vendor’s balance of reliability and innovation. This recognition highlights Mitel’s continued relevance in the enterprise communications market despite intense competition from pure cloud providers.

Collaboration

Cisco Q1 2026 Earnings: Firm leans into AI infrastructure boom as orders surge by 13%

Cisco reported strong Q1 fiscal 2026 results with revenue increasing 8% year-on-year to $14.9 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share rising 10% to $1.00. The company’s strategic pivot toward AI infrastructure is paying dividends as product demand rebounds, signaling Cisco’s successful adaptation to emerging technology trends in the collaboration and networking markets.

Focus rooms vs. huddle rooms: Optimizing collaboration spaces

As organizations redesign traditional office spaces, focus rooms for individual work and huddle rooms for team collaboration have emerged as essential components of the modern workplace. This analysis provides guidance on optimizing these distinct space types to support both concentrated solo work and effective team collaboration in hybrid work environments.

Customer Experience & AI

Early adopters of agentic AI for customer service offer advice

Two early adopters of Salesforce’s agentic AI share implementation strategies and best practices for successfully integrating this technology into customer service operations. Their experiences highlight how organizations can tailor agentic AI to specific business needs while achieving measurable improvements in customer service efficiency and effectiveness.

NICE earnings boosted by CXone AI cloud platform demand

NICE reported strong financial growth driven by its CXone AI cloud platform, with cloud sales offsetting transitions in on-premises business. The recent acquisition of Cognigy, an AI conversational intelligence platform, is expected to further strengthen NICE’s market position in AI-powered customer experience solutions.

Cisco embeds agentic AI across customer journey

Cisco is integrating agentic AI throughout the customer journey to enable more proactive and personalized support experiences. The implementation emphasizes the importance of balancing AI automation with human expertise, particularly for complex customer interactions that require nuanced understanding and problem-solving.

The CX universe takes on healthcare with agentic AI

Customer experience technology vendors are increasingly applying agentic AI solutions to healthcare challenges, signaling a significant expansion of CX platforms into this highly regulated industry. This trend represents a convergence of healthcare digital transformation initiatives with advanced AI capabilities designed to improve patient experiences and operational efficiency.

Sales Tip of the Week

When presenting UC solutions, map your discovery questions to specific business metrics your prospect already tracks. For example, if they measure customer satisfaction, ask how their current communications infrastructure impacts first-call resolution rates. For operational efficiency-focused prospects, explore how their existing system affects average handling time or employee onboarding duration. This approach transforms abstract platform benefits into concrete improvements against established KPIs, making ROI discussions more compelling. It also positions you as a business consultant rather than a technology vendor, elevating conversations beyond feature comparisons to strategic outcomes that resonate with financial decision-makers.

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