While Vendors Are Racing, Buyers Are Walking | Max Ball

Season 1 Episode 6 | While Vendors Are Racing, Buyers Are Walking | Max Ball Why Vendors Are Years Ahead of the Contact Centers Buying Them Max Ball, principal analyst at Forrester covering conversational AI and CCaaS, joins Sascha Poggemann to unpack why vendors are innovating faster than the conservative enterprises deploying them, and why nearly 650 conversational AI companies are headed for consolidation as budgets and buying committees evolve. He also digs into the real math behind agentic staffing changes, the unglamorous engineering work of integrations, testing and observability that separates a slick demo from a production-grade system, and his concern that free consumer AI agents from Big Tech could end up steering customers by ad revenue rather than fit. 👉 NiCE: https://www.nice.com/speak-to-an-agent 🔗Connect with Max: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-ball-244932/ 🔗Forrester: https://www.forrester.com/bold/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social 🔗Connect with Neeraj: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajsverma/ 🔗Connect with Sascha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saschapoggemann/ ____________________ Timestamps: 00:52 — The Evolution of Agentic AI  03:47 — The AI Vendor Landscape  05:01 — The Future of Contact Centers  06:37 — AI and the Human Workforce  10:07 — Why Enterprises Hesitate on AI  13:30 — The Cost of Skipping AI Testing  19:12 — Why AI Demos Aren't Enough  22:09 — The Rise of Personal AI Agents ____________________ About Speak to an Agent: Speak to an Agent explores what it really takes to bring AI into large organizations, why AI can't fix a problem you haven't already solved, why real understanding matters more than a polished voice, and why the domain expert who knows how to use AI is becoming the most valuable person in the business. The show features the leaders, founders, and technologists building and deploying AI at scale, and they get candid about what's working, what isn't, and what changes now that machines can reason, plan, and act at a human level, and sometimes beyond it. If you're responsible for putting AI to work inside your organization, this is a conversation you won't want to miss (00:52) - The Evolution of Agentic AI (03:47) - The AI Vendor Landscape (05:01) - The Future of Contact Centers (06:37) - AI and the Human Workforce (10:07) - Why Enterprises Hesitate on AI (13:30) - The Cost of Skipping AI Testing (19:12) - Why AI Demos Aren't Enough (22:09) - The Rise of Personal AI Agents