Labor Day Break | Revisiting Our Conversation with Thomas Laird of Expivia & OttoQA

We're taking a short Labor Day break, so we're re-airing one of our favorite conversations from earlier this season: Thomas Laird from back in February. Tom Laird was fired over the phone while driving to scout a high school basketball game — let go by the private equity firm that had just bought his family's call center and promised nothing would change. He had a pregnant wife, no plan B, and a handful of former employees willing to try again. That's how Expivia was born. In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily McNulty and Steve McDonnell sit down with Tom, now CEO of Expivia Interaction Marketing Group and OttoQA, for one of Season 3's most unfiltered conversations about the real cost of AI in a contact center, and what it actually takes to build something back up from nothing. Here's what you'll hear about: Getting fired over the phone by private equity, and rebuilding with four employees Why AI integrations often take decades to pay for themselves The mistake he made pushing AI projects before customers' data was ready His candid take on what's happened to industry conferences Where the CX platform wars (NICE, Five9, private equity) are headed next Why he still believes in bringing people into the office Episode Breakdown: 0:00 Welcome and introducing Tom Laird 1:58 Full introduction and background 3:09 Icebreaker: This or That 8:19 An unfiltered take on industry conferences 13:39 Growing up inside his family's call center business 17:34 Getting sidelined and fired by private equity 19:21 Rebuilding from four employees: the start of Expivia and OttoQA 44:51 Where the CX platform wars are headed next 45:56 The LiveVox integration everyone's watching 47:28 The AI mistake he made pushing too fast 48:59 The real cost of AI, and why the ROI takes decades 50:28 Where to find Tom, Expivia, and OttoQA Connect with Thomas Laird on LinkedIn Listen to more episodes of The Wilmac Wire: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | iHeart | Riverside