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January 2025 - Newsletter Article

January 2025

Keeping a Practical Focus on AI

January 23, 2025

Written by Eric Krapf, General Manager and Program Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect Publisher

This is now our third Enterprise Connect cycle in which the dominant technology trend is AI, with a specific emphasis on Generative AI. At Enterprise Connect 2023, the main issue was just understanding what this technology was, how it worked, and whether it merited the staggering amount of hype it was receiving in the wake of OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT 4.0. By last year’s Enterprise Connect 2024, GenAI had been productized and a few applications, such as call summarization for contact centers and AI assistants for collaboration, had become the leading use cases promoted by vendors.

So as we approach Enterprise Connect 2025, where are we in relation to AI?

In our AI & Automation track this year, we’re trying to lean on a practical focus, because it’s far from clear that the practical issues have been solved. For example, in our session on AI governance, veteran consultant Melissa Swartz will share her real-world experiences as she works with enterprises that seek to implement AI within the guardrails they need to observe.

Another concern with AI is technical debt. Given that the technology and marketplace for GenAI remain in flux, how do you make sure any investments you make today won’t be stranded within a short time? To address this issue, consultant Nicolas de Kouchkovsky will lead a session on Navigating the Hurdles to Building a Future-Proof AI Roadmap.

Finally, enterprises are venturing into a brave new world of potential security risks as they move to deploy GenAI. To help our audience understand this new environment, the challenges it poses, and the mitigation steps they can take, Amy Stapleton of Opus Research will deliver a talk on securing AI applications.

Part of preparing for AI, whether Generative or other kinds, is knowing the landscape and understanding what’s real and what’s not about the subjects of the latest hype in this area. We’re helping attendees sort this out with a session explaining the latest buzzword, agentic AI, as well as a session that will give you the latest practical information about the collaboration vendors’ AI assistants – how they compare, and where you can (or may not) find value in them. We’ve also got a real-world case study session from IT leaders at mortgage financing company Fannie Mae, who will describe their company’s experience with Microsoft Copilot.

In addition to these specific topics, we’ve got a half-day Training class on Monday, March 17, in which consultant Treb Gatte of Marquee Insights will provide a solid grounding in AI for Business and Technical Professionals. If you need to understand the basic concepts behind AI and how they’re driving enterprise decision-making, this is the class for you.

I’m expecting the conversation around AI to continue growing more nuanced, practical, and focused on value to the enterprise. It’s been a challenging two-plus years of AI hype and exploration, but from IT’s perspective, the basic questions haven’t changed: Does it work? Is it secure? Will it save my company money? Will it help us make money? We’ll engage those questions at Enterprise Connect 2025. I hope to see you in Orlando the week of March 17!

And here’s good news: We’ve extended our Super Early Bird rates, to get you the lowest price for our amazing Conference. Use Promo Code ECSUPER25 for your best deal on the best education and networking in enterprise communications/collaboration/CX, only valid until January 31.