Eric Krapf
As seen in:
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Enterprise Connect GM & program co-chair, No Jitter publisher. Tweets are my own, retweets don't mean endorsement. He/him
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Articles by Eric Krapf
AI Productivity and Human Oversight
The phrase “human in the loop” always struck me a little odd in the context of AI, but for the longest time I couldn’t quite say why. Now I think I realize what it is: Being “in the loop” is often, if not usually, a pretty passive position. It connotes being told about things that you probably won’t have to take any action on yourself, unless something really alarming crops up. But I don’t think that’s what “human in the loop” is shaping up to be for much of the AI experience in the enterprise.
Watching the Detectives...or Agents
If you thought dealing with human employees and all their mishigas was a challenge, just wait until your enterprise is overrun with AI agents. As reports of AI “going rogue” proliferate, enterprises are right to worry about the “behavior” of their own AI systems. The scare quotes are deliberate, and they address part of the problem: Anthropomorphizing AI remains a problematic way of talking about the technology, and ultimately a meaningless one for businesses.
I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me
My wife works as the communications director for a municipality, and right now the local population is, like the citizenry in many places, alarmed and vocal about Flock cameras deployed around town as part of traffic enforcement. They’ve awakened to the degree to which they’re being surveilled, and the potential abuses this surveillance could enable.
Can We Really Reduce "Work About the Work?
The initial pitch for virtual assistants in communications platforms seemed pretty straightforward: AI features will let you skip meetings or offload note-taking and follow-up assigning. Eventually, your virtual assistant might even morph into a digital twin that could represent you in meetings. I shared my own skepticism about digital twins in this space a couple of weeks ago.
Communications, Collaboration, and Digital Twins
I’ll admit I never was as good at delegating as I should have been. If you’re surrounded by good people, which I’ve been fortunate always to have been, you need to trust them. But future organizations may find themselves confronting a new question: How trusting can you be when some of your “people” aren’t actually people? Irwin Lazar has an interesting post on No Jitter in which he looks at the impending transition from generative AI capabilities to agentic AI.
Aligning Your Technology Strategy and Business Vision
With the Enterprise Connect 2026 Call for Speakers (CFS) deadline set for tomorrow, July 18, I wanted to give everyone an update on our content planning for the re-imagined EC that will take place next March 10 – 12, 2026 in Las Vegas. Specifically, I want to share the evolution of our thinking about how we’ll organize our content.
Is Your AV/Video Estate Ready for the Next Era of Hybrid Work?
The hybrid work pendulum seems to be swinging back toward high-profile return to office (RTO) mandates – or at least the press coverage is going that direction. Amazon, AT&T, JP Morgan Chase, and the U.S. federal government have all issued high-profile RTO directives in recent weeks. So it’s once again time to consider how collaboration, AV, and video technologies will enable the next vision of the office of the future.
How OpenAI Could Shape the Next Wave of Collaborative Platforms
The basic functionality of collaboration platforms hasn't fundamentally changed since the pandemic started. These platforms enable video conferencing with desktop sharing and text chat, which added up to a reasonable facsimile of in-person collaboration - and while that's good enough to keep teams working in concert across physical distances, is that all there is to the collaboration platform experience? Enter Copilot.
How OpenAI Could Shape the Next Wave of Collaborative Platforms
The basic functionality of collaboration platforms hasn’t fundamentally changed since the pandemic started. These platforms enable video conferencing with desktop sharing and text chat, which added up to a reasonable facsimile of in-person collaboration — and while that’s good enough to keep teams working in concert across physical distances, is that all there is to the collaboration platform experience? Enter Copilot.
How OpenAI Could Shape the Next Wave of Collaborative Platforms
We’re already used to video meetings and screensharing – but the collaboration experience could be better and there’s opportunity to refine how we do meetings. The basic functionality of collaboration platforms hasn’t fundamentally changed since the pandemic started.
For Gen AI to Succeed, Data Has to Come First
CX technologists have been trying to leverage enterprise data comprehensively since the dark days before any of us had heard of ChatGPT -- which is to say, pre-2022. Vendors in the customer experience and adjacent spaces have been pushing customer data platforms, with the vision that the more of your customers’ data that surfaces to your contact center agents at just the right time in the interaction, the more effectively you could serve, satisfy, and upsell that customer.
What Are the Infrastructure Implications of AI?
Nvidia’s recent flirtation with the number-two spot in market capitalization reminded me of the moment in 2000 when Cisco spent a short time as the world’s most valuable company. The driver is the same in both cases: Each company manufactures the substrate upon which everyone else plans to build the next big thing. For Cisco, it was the routers and switches that comprise the Internet’s infrastructure, and for Nvidia, it’s the GPUs that are expected to power the AI revolution.
Gen AI: From Value to ROI, Securely
If your enterprise isn’t using Generative AI yet, you’re not alone – but soon you may be pretty nearly so. A new survey by consulting firm Altman Solon found that 65% of U.S.-based enterprises are currently using Gen AI tools, up from just 11% last year. What’s more, the survey projects that next year, 91% will use Gen AI, and by 2027, 100% of those surveyed said they expect to be using Gen AI tools.
Do Something About AI-But Know What You’re Doing
When we began planning our new Fall event, Enterprise Connect AI, we started from a few basic premises: AI is changing so fast that convening to talk about it once a year is not enough. We couldn’t say, last March, “OK everyone, we’ll talk to you again in a year about AI.” Even six months seems like an eternity these days. It is in everyone’s best professional interests to care about AI.
Tackling the Hard Part on Enterprise AI
A few weeks back, I wrote about the new kinds of shadow IT challenges we're likely to see in the era of Generative AI, and it looks like those challenges are already upon us. In their latest , released this week, Microsoft and LinkedIn even coin the acronym BYOAI, and report that around 80% of those who use AI at work are bringing their own.
How Much Can AI Improve Productivity?
When it comes to AI driving productivity, the standard concern (at least outside the contact center) seems to be: What if people don’t efficiently redeploy all the time AI saved them to do even more work? What if they just end up goofing off? Aside from the unflattering picture that paints of people whose employers tend to describe them, in other contexts, as their most important corporate resource, I’m not sure it accurately depicts how organizations tend to operate.
If AI Is the Answer, What Are the Right Questions to Ask?
A former boss of mine had a recurring question he’d pose when we were trying to understand the impact of a particular story or trend: “If (fill in the blank) is the answer, what is the question?” It’s become easy these days, and probably useful, to fill in that blank with “AI.” AI has become the standard answer to many if not most of our industry’s questions—but are enterprises (and vendors) really asking the right questions?A former boss of mine had a recurring question he’d pose when we...
Tackling the Hard Part on Enterprise AI
This article originally appeared on No Jitter. A few weeks back, I wrote about the new kinds of shadow IT challenges we're likely to see in the era of Generative AI, and it looks like those challenges are already upon us. In their latest Work Trend Index, released this week, Microsoft and LinkedIn even coin the acronym BYOAI, and report that around 80% of those who use AI at work are bringing their own.
Tackling the Hard Part on Enterprise AI
A few weeks back, I wrote about the new kinds of shadow IT challenges we’re likely to see in the era of Generative AI, and it looks like those challenges are already upon us. In their latest Work Trend Index, released this week, Microsoft and LinkedIn even coin the acronym BYOAI, and report that around 80% of those who use AI at work are bringing their own.
Do We Still Need Human Customer Agents? Yes.
One of the stereotypes about people my, um, age, is that when we need customer service, we only want to speak to a human agent, primarily because we’re old and cranky and need someone to yell at in case there are We probably also just don’t get technology.
Getting Beyond the Hybrid Work Culture Wars
The battle over return-to-office (RTO) appears to be dying down, at least at an overall cultural level. The number of public debate, pronouncements, and CEO threats seems markedly lower in 2024 than we saw last year. This is definitely a your-mileage-may-vary situation: I’m sure there are enterprises where the battle rages on. But for our industry, moving ahead with AV and meeting rooms means planning for a hybrid work future where the office must complement the virtual meeting infrastructure.
Getting Beyond the Hybrid Work Culture Wars
The RTO battles may be in an uneasy truce, but there is reason for optimism that enterprises want to continue to improve the in-person meeting room experience The battle over return-to-office (RTO) appears to be dying down, at least at an overall cultural level. The number of public debate, pronouncements, and CEO threats seems markedly lower in 2024 than we saw last year. This is definitely a your-mileage-may-vary situation: I’m sure there are enterprises where the battle rages on.
Generative AI Offers Unique Shadow IT Challenges
It comes as no surprise to learn that the number-one shadow IT application last year was ChatGPT, and it seems a safe bet that the generative IT chatbot will hang onto that position through 2024. But when shadow IT encompasses Gen AI — particularly the chatbots and applications that aim to make people more productive — an IT organization could end up in a real bind.
Can Gen AI Solve the Problems It Creates?
Some years ago, when this industry was first figuring out how to run voice (and video) over IP networks, the quality left a lot to be desired. It took extensive engineering to build networks and real-time applications that, together, could deliver a simple telephone call with reasonable voice quality. Eventually, most of the technology problems, like jitter, were effectively addressed, though not eliminated.
AI Gets Real at Enterprise Connect 2024
AI was the talk of Enterprise Connect 2024 last week, as we knew it would be, but I’m happy to say that I came away from the event with some practical answers to go alongside the questions prompted by the big announcements and pronouncements from the keynote stage. Here are two examples: Who gets Copilot? Many enterprise IT shops are trying to answer this question as they trial the $30/month/user Microsoft digital assistant.
What Gen AI Insights I’ll Be Looking for at Enterprise Connect 2024
Home Enterprise-connect What Gen AI Insights I’ll Be Looking for at Enterprise Connect 2024 Enterprise Connect 2024 starts in just a few days, with AI taking center stage. From the keynote stage to the show floor to the conference sessions, we’ll hear about the progress that vendors and enterprises are making towards implementing generative AI, the challenges that lie ahead, the opportunities and risks. There’s ample evidence that Gen AI is poised to transform the contact center and CX.
Driving Efficiency with AI
Enterprises want AI to make their employees more productive, and there are myriad ways that this can happen: Personal assistants or “copilots” can summarize meetings so people can skip meetings when necessary or more easily derive action items; they can also help employees compose emails, and find resources and answers quickly (with the caveat that the information these copilots are accessing has to be accurate).
The Agents-vs.-AI Debate Will Heat Up at Enterprise Connect
Home Contact-center-customer-experience The Agents-vs.-AI Debate Will Heat Up at Enterprise Connect As we’ve worked to prepare for Enterprise Connect sessions, the question of how AI will impact the contact center agent population has become one of the more provocative issues we’ve encountered. Most people will hedge their answers by saying at least that AI won’t completely replace agents anytime soon.
Combine UCaaS and CCaaS, Add AI, Stir
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Combine UCaaS and CCaaS, Add AI, Stir
This No Jitter post by industry analyst Rob Hilsen touches on two of the themes that we’ll be hearing a lot about at Enterprise Connect March 25 - 28: The convergence of UCaaS and CCaaS, and (of course) AI. These themes are related, as they both represent drivers of transition in the way enterprises deliver CX. The UCaaS/CCaaS theme is a variation on the eternal best-of-breed vs. single-vendor conundrum.
Gen AI: When It Will Come Down to Cost
Home Ai-automation Gen AI: When It Will Come Down to Cost Generative AI promises transformation for enterprise CX, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right technology solution for everything the contact center wants to accomplish. The devil’s in the details, and you can get an excellent summary of many of those details on No Jitter, where Senior Editor Matt Vartabedian has a two-part interview (Part 1, Part 2) with Christina McAllister, Senior Analyst at Forrester.
Deploying-and Adopting-Gen AI-based Assistants
Before the pandemic, we used to talk a lot about user adoption as it pertained to Unified Communications and UCaaS. Enterprises were rolling out this new, more feature-rich communications system, and they often struggled to get end users to appreciate and take advantage of its capabilities.
AI and CX Lead the Way for Best of Enterprise Connect
The Finalists for the Best of Enterprise Connect awards were announced today, and—no surprise—AI and CX dominate the list, with a thread of security also weaving its way through the nominees. Many of the finalist product announcements are under embargo until closer to the show, so we can’t give you all the details just yet. But it’s clear from the companies nominated and the categories that it’ll be a big year for AI and CX.
Cybersecurity Comes to Enterprise Communications
Home Enterprise-connect Cybersecurity Comes to Enterprise Communications Communications technology has long grappled with a set of security challenges specific to voice as a channel.
See the Promise and Pitfalls of AI
On No Jitter this week, analyst Blair Pleasant of COMMfusion has a roundup of What to Expect From AI in Business Communications in 2024. As you can imagine, the big picture is: Lots of potential, lots of new features coming out, lots of uncertainty about how ready the technology is for your enterprise, and whether it can deliver productivity and ROI.
Getting a Holistic View on CX
On No Jitter this week, Mila D’Antonio, principal analyst with Omdia, looked at how AI and automation in the contact center will drive CX toward more effective ways of personalizing and improving the customer experience.
Gearing Up for a Big Year of Innovation
The Best of Enterprise Connect competition has had a category for “Most Innovative Use of AI” for several years now. As many people love to point out, AI really isn’t new in communications and CX technology. But given the progress—and hype—around generative AI in the last year-plus, there’s certainly every reason to expect a bumper crop of new AI releases to grace the show floor at this year’s EC the week of March 25 in Orlando.
Positioning Your Enterprise for 2024-and Beyond
Home News-views Positioning Your Enterprise for 2024—and Beyond If you were enjoying a little well-deserved down time last week, you might have missed some of No Jitter’s year-end coverage, which mostly focused on looking ahead to 2024. Naturally AI dominated the discussion, as I expect it will continue to do as we head toward Enterprise Connect 2024, which is now less than 3 months away (March 25 – 28 in Orlando).
A Nuanced View of Generative AI
As an antidote to the hype around Generative AI (GenAI), I highly recommend a couple of articles that posted last week on No Jitter. These are not contrarian takes, but rather, both supply some much-needed context that will help you understand what GenAI is capable of—less in the technical sense than in the sense of what enterprise organizations may be able to use it to accomplish.
Enterprise Connect Announces Winners for IT Excellence
From outstanding contact center leaders to video decision-makers who moved their enterprises forward, this year’s crop of winners for the 2024 Enterprise Connect Spotlight and IT Hero awards once again showcases the best of the industry. The awards are presented annually at Enterprise Connect to those who demonstrate outstanding qualities of leadership, dedication, expertise, and teamwork.
What’s Your Strategy for AI in the Contact Center?
If you’re going to be an AI expert, you need to know all the acronyms, so I’ll share this one, courtesy of Dan Miller of Opus Research: DIH That stands for “Deer in Headlights,” and it’s a condition that Miller has found afflicting many enterprise IT folks as they confront the oncoming reality of AI, particularly generative AI (GenAI), in the year since ChatGPT was released.
For CX Expertise, Turn to Your Enterprise Peers at EC24
Home Customer-experience For CX Expertise, Turn to Your Enterprise Peers at EC24 If your enterprise is using technology to transform CX—and you probably are—who better to learn from (and with) than your peers within IT organizations? That’s why I’m so excited about the CX/Contact Center track at Enterprise Connect 2024, which features enterprise end user-led sessions across the major technology trends within CX.
Agents and Bots: Each Helping Improve the Other?
So much of the conversation around Generative AI in the contact center pits agents against bots and other AI-driven features. But what if a bot turned out to be an agent's best friend, and vice versa? That was one of the provocative points that came out of a discussion I had this week with Dimitris Vassos, CEO and founder of Omilia, a conversational AI provider with 20-plus years in the speech technology/natural language business.
New Technology and New Metrics for Offices
Pressure may be mounting for employees to return to the office, but the jury is still out about whether the RTO drive will succeed. In the meantime, many technology leaders have acknowledged the need to work more closely with their enterprises’ real estate and facilities organizations, to better understand how people are using the office, and what that usage might dictate when it comes to technology enablement within these spaces.
Generative AI: Who Gets It?
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Generative AI: Who Gets It?
Generative AI: Who Gets It? The hot topic of the week is generative AI. With the release of Microsoft Copilot, we should finally start to get some real-world information and data on questions the industry has been asking for almost a year: How useful is gen AI, really? How transformative will it be, and how quickly? Is it worth the cost?
Keep the Conversation Going
Keep the Conversation Going You can always tell when a conference session was really good: They have to kick people out of the room. It’s something I’ve run into countless times, and you probably have as well. Panel attendees surge to the podium right as the session ends to try and engage with the speaker, or they stand a little ways back, patiently waiting for some other attendees to wrap up their conversation.
AI for Collaboration Gets Real
We’re less than two weeks away from the November 1 general availability release of the much-anticipated Microsoft Copilot AI personal assistant, so this week’s Enterprise Connect virtual summit on Microsoft Teams was perfectly timed to help enterprise decision-makers understand where these capabilities stand, and what it could mean for their end users. In his keynote talk for the summit, Kevin Kieller of EnableUC offered a deliberately provocative formulation: “AI doesn’t matter,” he said.
Go Even Deeper on Strategic Topics at EC2024
As we roll out the details on Enterprise Connect 2024, I’m excited to share that we’ll be adding a new type of content to our program lineup: Training. In the just-completed 2023 No Jitter annual Career & Salary Survey that I wrote about two weeks ago, we saw a strong interest in technical training. A full two-thirds of respondents expressed an interest in this type of training—and more than one-third cited AI specifically as an area where they’d be keen to get some additional learning.
How Contact Centers are Using AI
It’s always seemed logical that AI’s first strong use case in the contact center would be in an agent assist capacity. Generative AI in particular might not be ready to show its face to the customer just yet, but surely it can help agents perform tasks like call summarization, and provide real-time information and recommendations to the agent while the human is interacting live with a customer.
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