businessinfomag.uk magazine 28 OPINION The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) is growing across all areas of the comms industry, but it’s not going to change the world overnight. For me, it’s interesting to see the role of some of the bigger organisations such as Microsoft and Salesforce and how they are introducing AI as more of a collaborative support function to create more efficiency and crosscheck information etc.. When it comes to comms, AI’s biggest impact on day-to-day behaviour mainly relates to video technology and headsets, especially around analytics. The Webex platform, for example, can automatically identify which participants are in a meeting by utilising data from the internet. It’s not changing the world but enhancing the overall experience in terms of body language, posture and who the key decision-makers are. Webex can also capture key data from a meeting and take a summary of who attended, what was debated and the main actions. Webinar recordings can be transcribed automatically and cut and pasted into other documents. This, too, makes life so much easier. AI is about support and enhancement rather than replacement. It won’t revolutionise the world overnight. We are a long way off that. Headsets are another interesting area. Technology can now identify voice tones and emotions, for example whether someone is in distress. The risk with AI is that it generates too much data and information that could potentially trigger false alarms – erroneously identifying someone as having a heart attack when they are perfectly fine. What AI means to us AI means different things to different people, but at Evolve IP it’s Exciting destinations ahead already playing a greater role in our technology. Take our new AI-inspired call recording platform for example. Being hailed as the dawning of a new era for business-critical conversation capture, our Anywhere Call Recording solution (with Voice AI) enables businesses to record 100% of calls, chats and videos, replay recordings and reveal crucial insights from every conversation, on any device. We believe it’s a game-changer in harnessing the power of AI-driven conversation insights. It empowers businesses to tap into business intelligence, driving growth, enhancing customer experiences and optimising operations for efficiency and productivity. It turns all business conversations on multiple platforms, including Microsoft Teams, into critical data for compliance, business continuity and productivity. Future impact We recently attended the Cloud Communications Alliance summit in Copenhagen and it’s clear that market expectations are changing – with AI’s impact growing quickly in several key areas: n 90% of enterprise apps will embed AI by 2025; n 50% of organisations have already adopted AI in at least one business area; n $300bn will be spent on AIcentric systems by 2026; n 14% of workers saw a productivity boost in the first months of generative AI. There’s little doubt that the penetration of software-based technology has revolutionised the comms industry over recent years. But in many ways we are only at the start of this journey, with the biggest opportunities still ahead of us. According to research from the Cavell Group: n Cloud comms penetration in the UK has grown by 38.9%, with 7.6m installed users today; n Total market revenue will grow by 80% from £1.26bn in 2022 to £2.26bn by 2026; n A five-year forecast will see over 6.8m additional users moving to a cloud comms solution by the end of 2026, reaching a total installed base of 14.5m users at 80% penetration. Our message to businesses is don’t get left behind. Now is the time to get on board. AI represents the next chapter in an ever-evolving landscape. AI dangers Of course, there are dangers, so clearly a balance needs to be struck. We’ve all heard of voiceactivated devices in our homes being able to ‘spy’ on us and listen in, and many people are moving away from social media due to their concerns about the data that’s collected on them and where that information is sent and used. In this context, it’s important to remember that there are different forms of AI – public internet and closed AI which goes direct to a closed data centre and is more business-focused. AI will continue to spread across all aspects of our lives and we will need to be careful to prevent it from becoming too intrusive and starting to take over. We are now only at the start of the AI journey. Exciting destinations lie ahead. About Evolve IP Evolve IP boasts an international carrier-grade Unified Communications platform delivering integrated, remote workforce technologies that enable employees to work anywhere – securely from any location. The company has an EMEA HQ in Cardiff and a 15-year trading pedigree with over 350 staff globally. www.evolveip.net/en-gb Jamie Hughes, UK Sales Director at collaboration provider Evolve IP, explains why the rise of Artificial Intelligence isn’t going to revolutionise the comms industry overnight Jamie Hughes
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