“The future is right on our doorstep” | Chris Angus, 8x8 @ The Communication Technology Expo 2023

The Communication Technology Expo has just kicked off in ExCel London, and EM360 was there to interview Market leaders and industry experts about everything unified communications – from the rise of hybrid work to the emergence of AI-wired CRMs and communication tools. 

Yesterday we spoke to Chris Angus, VP of Commercial Sales at 8x8 about contact centre automation, AI and the future of the unified communications space. 

“The future is right on our doorstep”

When asked about some of the trends that have emerged within the communications space, Mr Angus explained that the rise of automation and AI have led the way to a new era for digital communication. 

“We've got a new go-to-market strategy. We're really leading with our communications and trying to lead with our contact centre. We believe that contact centre automation and artificial intelligence [are] definitely the future, but we believe that's right on our doorstep,"  Mr Angus said.

“Some people think [AI] is a way to reduce labour costs and actually replace some of the roles you might put out to people with technology. I like to look at it a different way. It actually allows you to do more with less.”

You can keep the same number of staff, but actually take on more inquiries, and provide better customer service by replying to inquiries quickly by deflecting cases into chatbots or automated answers. It allows you to give much better customer service and actually then escalates the more, more challenging and more in-depth requests into the human. 

“The contact centre will move into the hybrid world”

When asked about the potential future of the unified communications space within the next five years, Mr Angus expected to see a transformation of the contact centre that integrates the new hybrid working environment.

“I think that what we'll probably see is that the contact centre will become more into the hybrid world, so contact centres are more traditionally considered like a group of people working together for like in one team or one structure.

“With the introduction of our technologies, you'll see that you can do that irrespective of your Geo-location. You'll probably see much, much more of the AI empowering that, but I think you'll see more of your traditional contact centres in one big room actually dispersed geographically, opening up markets, opening up job markets for people who might have to shift roles because of recent downturns in their core line of business.”

“A lot of people are interested and excited by what AI might bring to them but are not quite sure how to implement that. One of the things that we’re trying at 8X8 is to try and help people take them on that journey – to be part of that thought leadership, Mr 

“So even if they're not quite sure how to implement these technologies, we’re gonna put that early on so we can actually use our expertise from what we see from our partners, our channel market and our customers to help drive people in making those changes and transforming how they use technologies.”