The Industry Daily News Archives - Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

By Doug Green “Voice is absolutely central.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at vCon in Atlanta, Peter Saddington, General Partner and CEO of Staas Fund, discusses why voice AI is attracting serious venture investment and why he sees voice as a foundational interface for the next generation of intelligent applications. Staas Fund, short for Strategy as a Service, is an Atlanta-based venture studio and investment fund focused on early-stage companies. Saddington says the firm typically writes checks ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 while also helping portfolio companies with technology, software development, marketing and operations. Over the last year, Saddington says he has invested in two AI startups focused specifically on voice and telecom. That, he argues, is a signal worth watching. Saddington describes himself as a techno-optimist and says he looks for AI companies that can improve productivity, reduce friction and create better outcomes for people. Healthcare is one example. He points to voice AI as a way to handle routine triage, reduce time spent waiting on the phone and make common interactions with healthcare providers faster and more efficient. But Saddington believes the opportunity goes further. “If we can get voice right, then care might come through AI technology,” he says. That may sound counterintuitive in a market where AI is often criticized as impersonal, but Saddington argues that improvements in latency, context, emotional nuance and conversational quality are changing what voice systems can do. Voice, he says, was previously treated as secondary because the technology simply was not good enough. The missing ingredient was emotional and contextual fidelity. Today, that gap is narrowing. Saddington says users are now listening for subtle signs that an AI-generated voice is artificial — a milestone that, in his view, shows just how far the technology has advanced. For entrepreneurs and investors, that creates an opportunity. The companies that can close the remaining gap between synthetic and natural conversation may be able to unlock new use cases across healthcare, customer experience and other industries where trust, clarity and human interaction matter. Saddington’s message is simple: voice is no longer an add-on. It is becoming one of the central interfaces through which AI will interact with people. Search Peter Saddington online to learn more about Staas Fund and his investment work. The post Staas Fund: Voice AI Is Becoming an Investable Platform for Human-Centered Care, Podcast appeared first on Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News.

By Doug Green “Traditional telecom was built for human-to-human calling. We designed the communications layer for AI agents.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at vCon in Atlanta, Vikash and Anubhav of Vobiz AI discuss why voice AI needs telecom infrastructure built specifically for AI agents. Vobiz is targeting AI agent developers, enterprises and service providers moving traditional contact center traffic toward AI. Vikash says legacy telephony was largely designed around 8 kHz human voice traffic. Vobiz delivers higher-fidelity 16 kHz and 24 kHz audio, along with noise cancellation, voice isolation, forward error correction and packet-loss concealment. The goal is to give speech-to-text systems better audio while allowing AI developers to focus on the agent rather than the underlying telephony. Vobiz also emphasizes speed. Customers can complete KYC, obtain a number, connect it to an AI platform and make a first call in less than 10 minutes. For larger deployments, the platform includes campaign management, number-health monitoring, automated number rotation and retry management. Anubhav says Vobiz is also building a pre-call intelligence layer that can help determine which number, route, time and communications channel is most likely to reach a customer. That intelligence can extend across voice, SMS, WhatsApp, RCS and other channels. For MSPs and channel partners, the company offers an API-first model that can simplify entry into telecom and AI voice services. Vikash says Vobiz is available in approximately 130 countries and is already handling hundreds of millions of calls per month. The company’s broader vision is to move from telecom infrastructure to an intelligent communications layer built for AI. Visit Vobiz.ai to learn more. The post Vobiz AI Builds Telecom Infrastructure for Voice AI, Podcast appeared first on Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News.

By Doug Green “You no longer need to rip and replace those devices. Bring them with you to Webex.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, James Lee of Inlayer explains how Phonism by Inlayer helps Cisco partners migrate customers from legacy phone systems to Webex while preserving existing handsets, reducing disruption and lowering the cost of the move. Phonism is Inlayer’s flagship unified device management and compliance automation platform. Lee says the platform is designed to help service providers manage devices from multiple manufacturers through a single interface and API, while also automating configuration, provisioning and compliance. For Cisco partners, the opportunity is especially significant in accounts still running legacy Avaya, Mitel and other on-premises systems. Lee says many customers are not staying on older platforms because they prefer them. They are staying because replacing thousands of phones can be expensive, disruptive and time-consuming. Phonism removes much of that barrier. As a Cisco SolutionsPlus partner, Phonism can be included with Webex quotes and renewals, allowing existing SIP devices to be brought onto Webex rather than immediately replaced. Lee describes the strategy as “land, expand and flip.” Partners can land the customer on Webex while keeping existing handsets, expand the relationship by selling other Cisco services, and later replace those devices with Cisco endpoints as they age, break or reach the end of their depreciation cycle. That can also pull revenue forward. Instead of waiting months for a full hardware migration, partners can move the backend platform first and preserve a familiar experience for users. Inlayer is also expanding into presence-based provisioning. Using a small NFC-enabled sticker, an end user can tap the device with a smartphone, authenticate, share location with consent and automatically activate a preconfigured compliant device. That process can also capture identity and E911 location information, while creating cryptographic proof that a person was physically present during deployment. Lee says the approach can simplify self-installation, hoteling and shared workspace environments. The potential savings can be substantial. Lee points to a recent deployment involving a retailer with 700 locations and 7,000 endpoints. He says the migration was completed across four weekends and saved approximately $2 million compared with a traditional replacement approach. For Cisco partners, Lee’s message is simple: legacy hardware no longer has to block a cloud migration. Visit Phonism.com or Inlayer.com to learn more. The post Inlayer Helps Cisco Partners Move Legacy Phone Customers to Webex Without Rip and Replace, Podcast appeared first on Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News.

By Doug Green “The AI agents are handling the repetitive questions, and our employees can spend more time on the complex issues.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne, George Hantzandreou of New Castle County Government in Delaware discusses how the county is using Webex AI Agents to improve constituent services, reduce wait times and give employees more time for higher-value work. New Castle County serves more than 500,000 residents through approximately 2,000 employees and dozens of locations, including libraries, public safety, community services and other county operations. The county has used Cisco collaboration technology for more than a decade and moved its contact center operations to Webex Contact Center more than two years ago. Its AI journey began with the IT help desk. Facing retirements and a hiring freeze, Hantzandreou says the county deployed Webex AI Agents to handle common troubleshooting questions, voicemail PIN resets and password reset requests while escalating more complex issues to employees. The success of that deployment quickly led to other use cases. In the county’s inclusionary housing program, employees were receiving so many calls that applications from residents in need could take more than three weeks to process. Hantzandreou built an AI-enabled contact center that could answer questions about eligibility, provide information from an approved knowledge base and send application links by SMS. The result has been significant. The AI agent now contains roughly 65% of calls in that program, while application processing time has fallen from more than three weeks to less than one week. Hantzandreou says the county is careful about AI governance, particularly in areas such as housing and benefits. The AI is grounded in approved county websites and documents using retrieval-augmented generation rather than making independent eligibility decisions. Staff also review performance and update the knowledge base when needed. Constituents can always request a human. That is particularly important for seniors, people who may be uncomfortable with AI or anyone dealing with a more complex situation. The technology is also changing the employee experience. Hantzandreou says agents are spending less time answering repetitive FAQ-style questions and more time on complex cases, projects and professional development. In some departments, average handle time has actually increased — something the county views positively because employees are now spending more time on issues that truly require human attention. The county has also extended access beyond normal business hours. AI agents can answer questions 24/7, including evenings, weekends and holidays, while routing unresolved issues to live agents or voicemail when necessary. Looking ahead, Hantzandreou says his focus is increasingly on observability, reporting and post-deployment management as AI handles a growing share of the county’s constituent interactions. Visit Webex.com to learn more about Webex AI Agents and Webex Contact Center. The post New Castle County Uses Webex AI Agents to Expand Access and Reduce Wait Times, Podcast appeared first on Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News.

By Doug Green “We’re seeing a very different Cisco emerge in this new AI era.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, Dave Michels and David Danto of TalkingPointz break down the biggest announcements from the event and what they mean for enterprise customers, partners and the future of workplace technology. Michels and Danto say the broader story is not any one product announcement. It is the way Cisco is connecting networking, collaboration, contact center, AI and workplace intelligence into a more unified ecosystem. One example is Dialog, Cisco’s new agentic CX capability. Michels points to Dialog as a sign of how Cisco is extending AI beyond simple assistants and into longer-running customer interactions where agents can continue working on a problem after the initial contact ends. Danto also highlights Cisco’s growing workplace portfolio, including new AV-over-IP capabilities, intelligent speakers and tighter integration across room technology. The key, he says, is that Cisco is taking technologies that already exist in some form and combining them into a more complete enterprise platform. That matters for large organizations trying to reduce complexity. Instead of stitching together separate vendors for networking, meeting rooms, workplace systems and collaboration, enterprises may increasingly be able to consolidate more of that environment under Cisco. The two analysts also point to Cisco’s growing support for multiple meeting platforms, including Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet. For enterprise customers, Michels says one of the biggest questions ahead is how offices themselves will change. Cisco is investing heavily in tools such as Workplace Designer and Cisco Spaces to help organizations understand how physical environments are being used and how they should be redesigned. That could mean using AI to recommend where rooms should be repurposed, where wireless performance needs improvement and how workplaces can better support the way employees actually meet and collaborate. Trust is another major theme. As AI agents gain access to sensitive information and begin taking actions on behalf of users, both Michels and Danto say enterprises will increasingly favor platforms they already trust. That could become a significant advantage for Cisco. Their takeaway from WebexOne is that Cisco is no longer approaching collaboration, networking and AI as separate categories. It is building toward a connected intelligent workplace where those systems increasingly operate together. Visit TalkingPointz.com to read more analysis from Dave Michels and David Danto. The post TalkingPointz: Cisco Is Pulling Networking, Collaboration and AI into One Intelligent Workplace Story, Podcast appeared first on Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News.