AI isn’t hype—it’s here, and it’s already delivering results most leaders don’t realize are possible. In this episode of The Contact Center Gurus Podcast, Darren Prine talks with Brad Garner and Aaron Symbolik about the real business wins AI is driving today—and why “wait and see” is the fastest way to fall behind.

In this episode of Contact Center Journeys, host Darren Prine sits down with knowledge management expert Martin Hobratschk to discuss the future of knowledge systems in customer experience. They explore the symptoms of broken KM, the risks of “digital landfills,” and how AI is reshaping knowledge management across contact centers.

Gen Z is reshaping customer experience in ways most brands aren’t ready for. In this episode, Darren Prine is joined by CX thought leader Jeofrey Bean, author of Next Generation Customer Experience, to discuss why Gen Z is so different, what most companies are missing, and how leaders can deliver CX that wins their trust and loyalty. From trust and peer recommendations to the right balance of AI and human empathy, this conversation is packed with insights for today’s CX and contact center leaders

Andreas Knoefel: · Top50 Customer Success Influencer for the second year in a row · Inventor of the Customer Success Performance Index™, a benchmark which highlights how the best-in-class businesses achieve 28% higher NRR · Chief Customer Officer and CS strategy consultant from startups, to SMB’s and F100 enterprises · Math Ph.D. (don’t hold that against me) · Mountain biker, backpacker and hobby chef Sponsors: www.balto.com/guru www.supportlogic.com www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com

Employees have lost faith in leaders' ability to move the business forward. Supervisors are trying to band-aid processes and the lack of technology to keep their teams moving. Frustration is leading to a mass exodus. Increased recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, nesting and new agent speedto competency all costs money. Eroding brand reputation as a result of negative customer care interactions is causing customers to jump ship and move to the competition in hopes of a better customer experience. How do we fix this? Featuring Vicki Brackett with Virtual Live Labs Virtual Live Labs - https://www.virtuallivelabs.com/ Vicki Brackett - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickibrackett/ Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Chaitanya is the co-founder/chief product officer of Ozonetel Communications Inc. At Ozonetel, Chaitanya built the core CCaaS/CPaaS application framework responsible for handling 20 million calls and 100,000 agent logins per day. The Ozonetel platform has 3000 businesses as their customers and handles more than a billion calls per year. Chaitanya is a core technologist with a Masters in Computer Science from University of Florida. Chaitanya has expertise in web frameworks and deep learning(NLP/ASR). Some innovations Chaitanya has worked on- First MRCP connector to Asterisk, first use of Websockets in a CCaaS, first CCaaS in India, first CPaaS in India and a new first which will be demoed during the presentation. Chaitanya is also active in the Indian startup ecosystem organizing many events. He is also an open source proponent and an active member of Swecha, an open source organization in Hyderabad. Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Jim Triggs was named President and CEO of MMI in 2019. Since joining the organization over 20 years ago, Jim has held a number of executive positions, providing vision and guidance to many of MMI’s core national programs. His focus across every leadership role has been to increase the accessibility and efficiency of MMI’s counseling programs, leveraging emerging technology and proven best practices to reach more consumers in more places than ever before. Jim has continually embraced innovation in the pursuit of programs and services that properly adapt to a changing consumer landscape, maximizing the potential of MMI’s talented workforce to serve a wide range of consumer pain points. His promotion of speech analytics has given MMI deeper insight into the needs of its clients, providing a strong foundation for both effective employee training and more nuanced marketing efforts. Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Alex is a partner at Adler Advisors. His career in telecommunications started as an independent Time Warner Cable sales consultant for Sandler Partners. After only 18 months he had acquired 395 clients! Him and his team are Technology Leaders, who simplify the technology buying process from start through service. They believe an unbiased technology recommendation builds long lasting partnerships and future proofs our client’s organizations. Every engagement is custom built with a focus on driving their specific business outcomes through a simple yet proven process. Alex's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexmcbratney/ Aarde is CEO of Clariti. Clariti is a peer network designed to help businesses discover, select, launch, and maintain technology. Our company helps ensure technology and business partner alignment to reduce risk of project failure and overspending. By working with our team, your company can optimize and become more efficient with the vendor and product selection process. Allowing alignment to your business goals without spending large amounts of internal resources or time. For the last 2 decades Aarde's professional experience has been in the Contact Center world, helping businesses support their consumers through cloud-based technologies. He enjoys working with large global customer service teams to increase, customer experience, customer loyalty, operations, customer service. Aarde is the author of 'Enable Better Service: A Customer Service Contact Center Story of Breaking Away from the Norm Through Creativity, Technology and Innovation'. Available on Amazon. Aarde's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarde-cosseboom-99755546/ Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Lance Fried is the Chief Marketing Officer at Thrio, a leading CCaaS provider. He is a recognized cloud software evangelist focused on marketing, strategy, product, team building, and driving revenue growth for emerging high-technology companies. Lance has spent the majority of his career in the hosted contact center space and has enjoyed success everywhere he has been. Lance is a well-known blogger, speaker, and panelist at various technology and customer care industry conferences. Lance received an Economics degree from Columbia University and an MBA from The University of Michigan. Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Linda Klug is the Founder & CEO of Airin, an artificial intelligence deep technology company that clones the cognitive reasoning of experts. Airin has attracted enterprise early adopters including Microsoft, Google, Motorola, Teradata and Accenture. Linda formerly led global enterprise technology divisions in Silicon Valley for Fortune 500 technology companies including VERITAS, Symantec, and EMC. An enterprise technology innovator for 20 years, Linda holds 12 enterprise technology patents including two for innovations in artificial intelligence technology. Airin is recognized by Microsoft as a global top 10 AI innovator. www.airin.ai Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Eddie Christian is the Global Head of Customer Success as Resy, American Express Global Dining Network. Eddie is also a former professional baseball player and a talented Customer Success and Customer Experience leader with over 17 years of experience in Customer Success, Sales and Marketing. He brings a wealth of expertise with particular strengths in organization building, increasing client satisfaction with a focus on decreasing user churn, increasing product adoption and developing processes, procedures and workflows to optimize the client experience. With an abundance of experience in building teams, Eddie has a unique skill and understanding of how to mentor team members with a focus on internal collaboration. Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Mark Pereira is a Trainer and On-Site Supervisor at Briljent LLC. He is a Certified Professional Trainer (CPT), Certified Customer Service Professional (CCSP), Corporate Trainer Certified (CTC), and Modern Classroom Certified Trainer (MCCT). Mark is a learning leader who applies what he learns to continuously add value to his team while also implementing proven teaching methods to improve retention while taking calls, effective coaching, engaging agents for increased productivity, and leading with empathy. Mark has a bachelor’s degree in Commerce (BCcom), and currently resides in Indianapolis. Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

In this episode Emre Tekoglu, VP of Support with Zywave, and shares how the Customer Support World is Transforming Emre recently joined Zywave as their VP, Customer support from Salesforce, where he served as a senior support leader. Prior, he served in both support leadership, consulting and business analyst roles over his 18 year career history. He is an avid reader and learner and has been a guest lecturer at Universities nationally and internationally on various topics including leadership and support. He also published an e-book on support called “The Lost Art of Customer Support.” He is also an avid sports fan of soccer, NBA basketball and tennis, which he played at the collegiate level. Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

In This Episode, We discuss why an AI Adoption Study is important to Contact Center Leaders with our Guest: Owen McGrath, Head of Sales for IV.ai. With Conversational AI continuing to grab headlines in the Contact Center world, many of us are left asking, “what’s real and what’s hype?” and “What works and what doesn’t?” We will discuss how you can be a part of this global scale study. Please reach out to: Owen@IV.ai Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Jennifer Waite has been in the customer experience and contact center industry for the past 30 years, focused on defining and implementing market strategies to support cloud contact center solutions market position, market segmentation, launch plans, and messaging. As a recognized leader in the industry, Jen has led customer advisory boards and serves as the co-president of the NY Metro chapter for the Professional Association for Customer Engagement (PACE). Her entrance into the contact center industry was a part-time job during high school which started a career that allowed her to work in consulting where she led creative design for implementing quality programs for Fortune 500 companies. As an evangelist for this industry, she enjoys sharing her experiences in hopes of creating the most effective and efficient customer interactions. Contact Information: Jennifer Waite - jwaite@playvox.com Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Jason Cutter, CEO of Cutter Consulting Group, is an author, podcaster and sees himself as a sales success architect for companies and individuals. Even though he didn’t have a sales upbringing or background (his bachelor’s degree is in Marine Biology), he knows what it takes to be successful in sales. His first book – Selling With Authentic Persuasion: Transform from Order Taker to Quota Breaker - is focused on helping anyone in a sales professional. Contact: jason@cutterconsultinggroup.com https://www.jasoncutter.com/ Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Blair Stevenson. Founder of BravaTrak. Sales Leadership Specialist Over 20 years’ experience assisting companies to increase revenue and achieve their sales growth targets. Degree in Psychology. Applies behavioral science principles to enhance sales leadership in contact centers and inside sales teams. Author of ‘Game On 2nd Ed: How to create a world-class coaching culture so you boost engagement and drive results.’ It is available on Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/4ufwps4a You can reach Blair at: blairs@bravatrak.com www.bravatrak.com Take Advantage of a Free Sales Coaching Audit from Bravatrak, mention the CTG Podcast! Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Jim is the Chief Customer Officer – Etech Global Services Jim is a 33-year veteran of the call center/BPO industry with an impeccable track record of innovation and advanced business intelligence. Due to his level of expertise, Jim has been featured in numerous publications, including CIO Review, Contact Center Pipeline, Connections Magazine, and was also listed as one of the ‘Top 20 Influential People to Follow’ on Twitter by “Iwantitnow.” Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

John Kelly, CRO with SupportLogic discusses why Protecting Existing Customer Revenue is Vital to Growth and Success. Customer Support doesn't have to Suck if you can focus in on the right customer lens. My journey has come full circle – from my early days as a technical support engineer, working directly with F100 customers, to ultimately leading large global complex support and service organizations. It feels like I’ve seen it all. 20 years ago, SupportLogic would have made my life significantly easier… fewer escalations, happier customers, and a lot less stress. https://www.supportlogic.io/why-i-joined-supportlogic-by-john-kelly/ Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM

Andrew Bird is passionate about developing and implementing innovative products and strategies that drive market expansion and brings transformative technology to life. He possesses nearly 22 years of experience encompassing Product Management, Software Development, Product Marketing, SaaS, CCaaS, Business Development and Analytics. He is currently is VP of Product at Concentrix. Andrew understands the value and importance of quality software as well having a strong business acumen. Episode Sponsors www.supportlogic.io www.balto.ai/guru www.ozonetel.com www.cloudtechgurus.com #balto #supportlogic #ozonetel #cloudtechgurus #cx #customerexperience #contactcenter #AI #NLP #CCaaS #QA #QM