After calling Orlando, Florida, US, home for years, Enterprise Connect 2026 gambled and relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. In keeping with tradition, the event covered trends in enterprise communications and collaboration, as well as product announcements from a range of competitors. To no surprise, AI dominated the airwaves.
Most striking this year was how widespread the reach of AI has become within organisations. AI is becoming equally fundamental to easing interaction between contact centre agents and customers as it is facilitating team collaboration. The technology is becoming as widely adopted by frontline workers as it has been by knowledge workers. Most significantly, AI is moving from use in silos to being leveraged on a far grander scale – across vendor platforms, connecting parts of organisations, and linking organisations with external partners, suppliers, and the like.
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In the contact centre, AI agents are pivoting from only answering basic questions to also executing tasks. AI agents can engage internal subject matter experts who work outside the contact centre. In connecting contact centre and ‘back office’ workers, AI agents are melding what have been two very distinct spheres. RingCentral’s AIR and AVA are examples of tools promoted at the event that represent this new world. RingCentral AIR answers calls, handles tasks, and conducts follow-ups while handing off inquiries to RingCentral AVA when necessary. RingCentral AVA channels those inquiries to non-contact centre employees along with full context, customer insights, and a choice of next-best actions.
In addition to contact centre and ‘back office’ workers, knowledge workers, and frontline workers are earning close attention from vendors. Knowledge workers have been the primary target for AI-driven offerings while frontline workers have recently become a priority as they are believed to vastly outnumber knowledge workers. One newly unveiled offering tailored to frontline workers was the Cisco Wireless Phone 9821. Its key feature is native integration with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) call processing system and Cisco Webex Calling, thus facilitating connection among frontline workers as well as between them and knowledge workers. The device is scheduled to be generally available in Q3 2026.
By far the most consequential trend is the escape of AI from silos. AI is serving as connective tissue, threading sections of vendor platforms such as meetings, chat, and calling; establishing links between those platforms and third-party applications used in various parts of the business such as Salesforce; and integrating platforms from different vendors, making things possible such as joining a Zoom meeting with an external partner from a Cisco Webex device. The unifying theme among these scenarios is the distribution and exchange of data regarding operations, customers, suppliers, partners and similar groups. AI bots or agents often act on that data, performing tasks and orchestrating workflows. These bots are increasingly proliferating within a given environment, often created by non-developers using low-code or no-code tools. A great example of the growing reach of AI highlighted at the event is enhancements to Zoom’s AI Companion 3.0. They include, among others, custom and pre-built AI agents, integrations with third-party applications such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Google Drive and workflow orchestration capabilities across Zoom Workplace, Zoom Phone, and Zoom CX.
The expanding reach of AI comes with a heavy price. Compliance, confidentiality, and security issues, among others, abound when platforms are intra- and inter-connected with data flowing across boundaries and AI agents manipulating and disseminating that data. Vendors have made assurances regarding the integrity of their platforms, but there remains a sense that these issues have not been adequately addressed. Vendors need to take a much deeper look.
