Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving beyond the hype cycle, emerging as a foundational component in customer experience (CX) systems. This shift is quietly transforming how organizations manage conversations, decision-making, and service journeys across customer touchpoints. Industry veterans Michael Tessler, Tomas Gorny, and Ray Nolan have been preparing for this transformative moment, having spent years shaping the communications and CX landscape.
In a recent episode of the Binary to Billions podcast hosted by Rob Scott, the three leaders discussed how AI is becoming integral to modern customer interactions. Michael Tessler, co-founder of BroadSoft, has witnessed various transformational shifts in enterprise communications and views AI’s rise not as a standalone phenomenon, but as a natural progression of a communications infrastructure developed over decades. “Voice, messaging, and meetings have reached maturity,” Tessler stated. “The innovation now sits in the intelligence layer on top.”
This perspective emphasizes the shift from merely delivering communication to orchestrating experiences, driven by AI models that analyze context, sentiment, behavior, and intent. With BroadSoft supporting carriers that service tens of millions of seats globally, Tessler highlights the importance of a robust underlying network capable of handling real-time intelligence for AI to flourish.
While Tessler addresses infrastructure, Nextiva CEO Tomas Gorny focuses on the intelligence platform powering these experiences. Gorny recognized early on that AI would play a key role in how businesses manage customer relationships. Between 2014 and 2017, his team pursued patents in areas such as customer journey orchestration and natural language processing. In his conversation with Scott, Gorny asserted, “AI should be the helping hand that connects communication, data, and context to drive better outcomes at the moment of interaction.”
For Gorny, CX is not merely a department but a cohesive system where calls, messages, CRM data, workflow logic, and historical behavior converge through a single intelligence layer. He believes that the true potential of AI is unlocked when customer experience platforms integrate unified communications, customer data, journey awareness, and predictive automation. This integration allows businesses to transition from reactive customer service to proactive, contextual engagement, effectively creating a “CX OS” that captures signals and delivers insights in real time.
Ray Nolan, founder of eDesk, exemplifies the practical applications of AI in customer experience. His organization operates at the forefront of CX automation, where many discussions about AI transformation are happening at a theoretical level, his clients are already experiencing its benefits firsthand. “AI is automating 70–80% of support tickets,” Nolan remarked during the podcast. “Not just chat – every channel, from Amazon to TikTok to email.”
Nolan’s perspective stands out for its practicality; in his realm, AI categorizes tickets, identifies intent, generates responses, translates languages, and resolves issues almost instantaneously. For e-commerce sellers, this capability represents a crucial differentiator between scaling operations and stagnating. AI functions as an agent that operates continuously, eliminating queues and maintaining context, while routing only complex issues to human agents.
The overarching message from these leaders is clear: AI is no longer just a feature but has become the new operating system for customer experience. Enterprises that embrace this shift are poised to redefine not only how they engage with customers but also how they compete in an increasingly digital landscape. As AI continues to evolve, its integration into customer experience systems will likely revolutionize industry standards and expectations.
To gain further insights from these tech leaders, listeners can tune into the Binary to Billions podcast.
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