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HBX Group sits in the middle of one of the most complex customer service chains in travel. A single issue can span a traveller, a travel agent, a global booking platform and a hotel on the other side of the world. In this episode, we explore how HBX Group is leveraging artificial intelligence to transform its global customer service operations with Xavier Godoy Moya, Customer Experience & Automation Director, and Adam Tinsley, Global Customer Service Director. We break down how HBX uses AI-driven classification to triage hundreds of thousands of monthly cases across voice, chat, email and ticketing systems. The team explains how generative models replaced traditional intent-matching systems, enabling accurate routing across more than 70 case types while supporting deterministic safeguards required at operational scale. Adam and Xavier share results across several key use cases, including an AI classification system that accurately categorises customer inquiries into 70 different intents, automated handling of common requests such as booking confirmations and cancellations, and an innovative workflow that can automatically communicate with hotels on behalf of agents. Their real-time translation solution has enabled 24/7 service across 13 languages, dramatically expanding their global support capabilities. We also discuss their approach to agent training, which includes an AI simulation system that lets new staff practice handling customer conversations at varying levels of difficulty before taking real calls. The episode closes with measured business outcomes, including faster case resolution, growing automation rates, operational insights unlocked through AI-native reporting and the next wave of experimentation around sentiment-aware routing and more adaptive voice experiences. Show notesFind out more about HBX Group: https://www.hbxgroup.com Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanesimms Download our exclusive report on how AI agents keep CX stable when volume explodes: https://vux.world/how-ai-agents-keep-cx-stable-when-volume-explodes/?utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=SurgeHappens Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment: https://vuxworld.typeform.com/to/a26bf9Rr?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=vuxconsulting25 Subscribe to VUX World: https://vuxworld.typeform.com/to/Qlo5aaeW Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/kanesimms Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From IVRs to multimodal AI experiences, the hardest problems are rarely technical. In this episode, we dive into the evolving landscape of conversational AI and enterprise automation with Anne Cantera, Senior Product Designer at Optimum. With extensive experience in transforming traditional IVR systems into conversational interfaces, Anne shares valuable insights on the practical implementation of AI in customer service environments. We explore the concept of 'hybrid architecture' in AI implementation, discussing how combining rule-based automation with generative AI often provides the optimal solution for enterprise needs. Anne explains how her team strategically deploys generative AI in low-risk scenarios while maintaining deterministic approaches where precision is critical, particularly in their recently launched NLU routing system. The conversation also covers the importance of customer-centric design in AI implementations, with Anne emphasising that the ultimate goal should be making experiences simpler for customers rather than focusing solely on containment metrics. We discuss how different industries approach AI adoption based on their risk profiles and how businesses are navigating the challenges of integrating new technologies with legacy systems. Show notesFollow Anne on LinkedIn Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI has moved from pilot projects to boardroom urgency. Companies feel the pressure to act, hire, and keep up. Many start with tools or chase a single unicorn hire. Chris Morrow, Founder of Digitalent, explains why this approach fails and why the real battle is for people who can drive transformation, culture change and long-term value.  In this episode, Chris draws on two decades of experience in tech recruitment and his work with VC-backed startups, global enterprises, and governments. He breaks down why AI hiring is unlike any previous talent cycle. Roles are ill-defined, expectations are inflated, and the best candidates command eye-watering compensation, especially in the US. He describes the AI talent market as an arms race, with startups, big tech and even nations competing for the same small pool of elite engineers and researchers.  The conversation goes beyond salaries and job titles. Chris shares what AI-ready companies do differently, why small proof-point projects matter more than grand 18-month programmes and how misuse of AI can kill belief internally before value is ever realised.  The episode also explores the global picture. The US surge in AI investment and talent density. The UK experiences brain drain and risk-averse capital. Australia’s early-stage market. Chris offers a blunt assessment of government readiness, education systems and why countries that fail to treat AI as a productivity and talent priority will fall behind.  This is the ultimate episode on the AI talent war, covering what companies should fix before hiring, which roles actually matter, how the best teams are built, and why the next decade will reward organisations that treat AI as a people-and-change challenge first and a technology problem second.  Show notesCheck out Digitalent: https://digitalent.agency Connect with Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismorrow/ Discover UKAI: https://ukai.co/ Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanesimms Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment: https://vuxworld.typeform.com/to/a26bf9Rr?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=vuxconsulting25 Subscribe to VUX World: https://vuxworld.typeform.com/to/Qlo5aaeW Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/kanesimms Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cars are becoming one of the most competitive frontiers in AI, and most people don’t realise how complex it really is. In this episode, we’re joined by BalaKrishna Kolluru, Senior Director of AI at Cerence, the company powering conversational AI in over 500 million vehicles worldwide. With over 25 years of experience in machine learning and speech recognition, Bala brings deep insights into how generative AI is transforming the in-vehicle experience. We explore how voice AI in vehicles has evolved from basic command-and-control systems to sophisticated conversational interfaces powered by hybrid cloud-edge architectures. Bala explains how Cerence's technology serves around 80 car manufacturers globally, and how their agentic AI approach enables seamless integration with external systems while maintaining functionality even without cloud connectivity. We address the technical challenges of implementing voice AI in vehicles, from microphone placement to processing capabilities, and explain how Cerence collaborates closely with manufacturers to create systems that minimise cognitive load while keeping drivers connected and safe. We also discuss how generative AI has expanded the capabilities of in-car assistants, enabling more natural, contextual interactions that can anticipate user needs. Show notesDiscover more about Cerence AI Connect with Bala on LinkedIn Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it really take to build AI that can resolve customer support at scale reliably, safely, and with measurable business impact? We explore how Intercom has evolved from a traditional customer support platform into an AI-first company, with its AI assistant, Fin, now resolving 65% of customer queries without human intervention. Intercom's Chief AI Officer, Fergal Reid, discusses the company's journey from natural language understanding (NLU) systems to their current retrieval augmented generation (RAG) approach, explaining how they've optimised every component of their AI pipeline with custom-built models. The conversation covers Intercom's unique approach to AI product development, emphasising standardisation and continuous improvement rather than customisation for individual clients. Fergal explains their outcome-based pricing model, where clients pay for successful resolutions rather than conversations, and how this aligns incentives across the business. We also discuss Intercom's approach to agentic AI, which enables their systems to perform complex, multi-step tasks, such as processing refunds, by integrating with various APIs. Fergal shares insights on testing methodologies, the balance between customisation and standardisation, and the challenges of building AI products in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Finally, Fergal shares what excites and honestly freaks him out a bit about where AI is heading next. Timestamps00:00 - Intro 02:31 - Welcome to Fergal Reid 05:26 - How to train an NLU solution effectively? 08:56 - What gen AI changed for Intercom 10:57 - How would you describe Fin? 14:30 - Fin’s performance increase 17:18 - Intercom’s custom models 22:14 - Large Language Models vs Small Language Models 30:40 - RAG and 'the full stop problem' 40:08 - Agentic AI capabilities at Intercom 50:40 - Intercom’s approach to testing 1:04:46 - About the most exciting things in the AI space Show notesLearn more about Intercom Connect with Fergal Reid on LinkedIn Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn Article - The full stop problem: RAG’s biggest limitation Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Joe Kim, the new CEO of DRUID AI, unpacks what might be the biggest shift in technology since the internet. We discuss the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and its growing impact on businesses. Joe, who has been in his role for 70 days, brings fresh perspectives on how DRUID AI positioned itself as a workflow automation platform years before the market caught up, a bet that's now paying off as companies move beyond AI experimentation into real implementation. The discussion covers the current state of the AI market, including the challenges of customer adoption, why some customers actively prefer interacting with AI over humans, and the importance of maintaining a balance between generative and agentic AI. Joe also shares his vision of AI as the next major distribution platform. Just as Amazon has tried to make Alexa the operating system of our lives, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and similar platforms could become the primary gateway to accessing services in the future. Chapters00:00 - Meet Joe Kim 00:33 - Celebrating 70 days at DRUID AI 01:35 - What attracted Joe to DRUID 03:06 - The real value of AI 06:43 - What Joe learnt about the market 11:19 - The AI God Box for enterprises 14:08 - The state of the AI market 20:29 - Why you should learn about AI as much as you can 23:47 - Generative AI adoption among enterprises 27:36 - The concept of agent washing 36:05 - Is AI bigger than the internet? 39:11 - ChatGPT as the new distribution platform 48:52 - Will chatbots replace websites and apps? 50:31 - The next 6–12 months for DRUID AI 56:59 - The biggest AI ultimatum facing businesses today 1:01:29 - AI replacing people is not growth 1:05:33 - The systems of record at enterprises and LLMs 1:08:46 - The future of AI automation 1:14:13 - LLMs could replace apps Show notesFind out more about DRUID AI Follow Joe Kim on LinkedIn Sign up for our webinar: How to run AI like your business depends on it Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone's slapping 'agentic' on their AI products, but what does that even mean? Anne Jenkins, Vice President of Solution Architecture at Teneo, helps us separate substance from buzzwords. In this episode, Anne shares her expertise on agentic AI and the evolution of conversational AI technologies. We explore what truly makes an AI ‘agentic’ versus the marketing hype all over your LinkedIn feed and beyond. Anne explains why Teneo's hybrid approach, combining traditional NLU capabilities with large language models, creates more reliable, cost-effective, and latency-friendly solutions than pure LLM implementations. We also discuss the challenges organisations face when adopting AI solutions, including the misconception that LLMs alone can solve all problems without proper conversation design or business rule integration. Anne shares valuable insights on how companies can prepare for AI adoption through education, competitive pilots, and architectural considerations. We touch on many best practices when it comes to implementation, with Anne emphasising the importance of proper context engineering, state management, and dynamic prompting. Chapters00:00 - Meet Anne Jenkins 05:01 - AI is now a boardroom conversation 06:48 – OpenAI’s agentic AI platform 08:48 – What is an AI agent? 21:38 – The hybrid AI model or end-to-end LLMs 26:49 – AI in debt collection 34:55 – How Teneo helps implement agentic AI 42:39 – Context engineering 47:19 – State management and LLMs 55:40 – How Teneo designs AI experiences 01:00:32 – Demo – teaching Teneo something new 01:10:26 – How businesses should adopt AI 01:16:44 – What sets Teneo apart Show notesCheck out Teneo Follow Anne Jenkins on LinkedIn Read Kane’s article - What agentic AI actually is: a deeply researched and definitive explanation Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Once switched off during busy periods, Lloyds Banking Group’s chatbot now handles more than 15 million conversations a year. Learn what it really takes to build AI solutions that customers trust with their money.  We sit down with Cainan Wright, Senior Product Owner, and John Young, AI Lead - Chatbots and Generative AI, from Lloyds Banking Group, to explore their remarkable nine-year journey in building one of the UK's most successful banking chatbots. From handling 3 million conversations in 2021 to over 15 million in 2025, they share the hard-earned lessons of transforming a rather "unloved" virtual assistant into a mission-critical service for almost 27 million customers. We cover how the team stabilised their service by focusing on the basics, investing in design expertise, and securing organisational buy-in through demonstrating clear value. Cainan and John also share valuable insights into their pragmatic approach to generative AI, explaining how they combine deterministic processes with generative language capabilities to deliver the best customer experience while maintaining brand consistency and ensuring regulatory compliance. The team's journey offers important lessons about perseverance and the importance of striking a balance between innovation and responsibility when deploying AI in a highly regulated industry. Timestamps00:00 – Intro 01:34 – Meet Lloyds Banking Group 03:18 – The unloved virtual assistant era 05:30 – AI before ChatGPT 06:50 – Stabilising the service and earning trust 14:23 – From underloved to mission critical 16:55 – Buy-in from stakeholders to scale AI capabilities 18:41 – Defining new AI roles in banking 20:51 – Scaling from 3 to 15 million conversations 25:15 – How to handle a 5x increase in three years 27:43 – Experiments with generative AI in banking 30:24 – Using an LLM classifier 31:07 – Improving tools within teams 32:45 – Using generative AI for value and impact 34:56 – Valuable design research sessions 38:56 – Meeting customer expectations with generative AI 46:04 – Maintaining consistency in probabilistic landscape 49:30 – The right tool for the right job in conversational AI 55:26 – How do you measure the impact of generative AI? 56:13 – Responsible AI and proving business value 1:01:10 – The next 12 months 1:07:02 – Magic wand moments 1:11:34 – If the team could start over again 1:14:03 – Closing remarks from Kane Show notes Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn Discover VUX Consulting Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we dive into the art and science of context engineering with Martin Cross, President of Connect, a company that empowers enterprises to transform through the use of AI and automation. Martin shares how most businesses still approach AI with a technology-first mindset, deploying solutions before clearly defining the customer problem they’re solving. He explains why successful AI experiences begin with understanding the user journey, designing the right interaction, and then selecting the appropriate tools, not the other way around. We explore different layers of context - from session-level to journey-wide to CRM-integrated, and how they work together to transform generic interactions into deeply personalised, proactive experiences. We also unpack Connect’s acquisition of Elerian AI and why contact centre voice recordings represent an untapped goldmine of training data. Martin explains how fine-tuning models with real-world conversations, including dialects, accents, and customer intents, can dramatically improve AI accuracy and empathy. Additionally, we reflect on why the industry continues to repeat old mistakes and how businesses can design AI that truly understands and anticipates customer needs. Show notesFollow Martin Cross on LinkedIn Find out more about Connect Follow Kane Simms on LinkedIn Discover VUX Consulting Take our updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Voice AI is having a breakthrough moment. With large language models delivering unprecedented understanding and next-gen text-to-speech achieving near-human fidelity, the possibilities for immersive, scalable, and personalised customer experiences are greater than ever. We’re joined by Andrei Papancea (CEO & Co-Founder, NLX) and Kylan Gibbs (CEO & Co-Founder, Inworld), who break down how their companies are working together, making studio-quality voice experiences accessible to developers and enterprises at scale. The conversation traces how voice technology has progressed from basic assistants to today’s lifelike AI voices. We also discuss the shift from brand voices to brand personalities, and how voice experiences can be tailored to different demographic segments and eventually to individual users. This episode is brought to you by NLX. NLX is a conversational AI platform enabling brands to build and manage chat, voice and multimodal applications. NLX’s patented Voice+ technology synchronizes voice with digital channels, making it possible to automate complex use cases typically handled by a human agent. When a customer calls, the voice AI guides them to resolve their inquiry through self-service using the brand’s digital asset, resulting in automation and CSAT scores well above industry average. Just ask United Airlines. Show notes Learn more about Inworld Kane Simms on LinkedIn Discover VUX Consulting Take the updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when one of the world’s leading analysts on customer service and conversational technologies sits down to unpack the future of AI? We explore the profound implications of AI adoption with Ian Jacobs, VP, Lead Analyst at Opus Research. We discuss how AI is transforming contact centres and customer service operations, from agent augmentation to process automation.  Ian shares insights on how businesses are navigating the balance between AI efficiency and human empathy, including the fascinating concept of when non-empathetic AI might actually be the more empathetic choice for customers in certain scenarios. Along the way, the conversation zooms out into deeper territory, touching on human happiness, the future of work, and whether regulation can ever keep pace with innovation. Show notes Learn more about Opus Research Kane Simms on LinkedIn Discover VUX Consulting Take the updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Conversational AI platforms is back in 2025! This is a must-watch for CX leaders seeking to make informed decisions about their AI tech stack. Here, we provide deep technology market analysis for artificial intelligence in customer experience. Whether you're looking to build AI chatbots, AI agents, Retrieval Augmented Generation applications, these conversational AI platforms are the best of breed. Show notes Kane Simms on LinkedIn Discover VUX Consulting Take the updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, Toyota is giving its machines a voice using AI as a trusted partner to transform how cars are built and serviced. In this episode, we speak with Kordel France, Principal AI Engineer & AI Architect at Toyota, to uncover how artificial intelligence is reshaping production and maintenance globally. We explore how Toyota has moved from technicians spending hours sifting through thousands of pages of manuals to intelligent systems that can diagnose faults in seconds and even predict breakdowns before they happen. Kordel explains the technical architecture behind these solutions, blending classical machine learning with generative AI, and the challenges of creating specialised systems from general-purpose models. You’ll also hear why high-quality data ingestion is more important than the model itself, how even a relatively small number of users can drive asymmetric improvements in efficiency, and what Toyota’s collaboration with NLX means for service technicians working across increasingly complex powertrains. Show notes Kane Simms on LinkedIn Discover VUX Consulting Take the updated AI Maturity Assessment Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The AI arms race in customer experience just got serious. We’re joined by industry legends Nerys Corfield (Injection Consulting), Jon Arnold (J Arnold & Associates), and Henry Iversen (boost.ai) to unpack one of the biggest AI moves in recent memory: NiCE’s $955M acquisition of Cognigy. We break down what this deal means for the future of AI-first contact centres, the fate of best-in-class point solutions, and the broader shift toward an AI-led customer experience strategy. From questions of market consolidation and vendor lock-in to the culture clash between product-led innovation and marketing muscle, we share some real, unscripted insights into the implications of the acquisition for enterprises, vendors, and buyers alike. This episode is brought to you by NLX Build and deploy sophisticated chat, voice, and multimodal applications for any purpose with NLX. NLX works seamlessly with any LLM and existing tech stack, freeing you to create, not configure. Trusted by individual builders and leading teams at Comcast, Saks Fifth Avenue, Toyota, and United Airlines, NLX helps you turn AI concepts into working conversational experiences. Show notesFollow the episode guests on LinkedIn: Nerys Corfield - Director, Injection Consulting Henry Iversen - CCO & Co-Founder, boost.ai Jon Arnold - Principal, J Arnold & Associates Kane Simms on LinkedIn Subscribe to VUX World Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the hype cycle around AI to the real-world constraints enterprises face when adopting new tech, we explore the opportunities shaping the future of business communications in this episode.   We’re joined by Jon Arnold, an independent tech analyst, for a conversation about the shifting landscape of enterprise communications. We talk about analysts' unique role in shaping vendor strategy and market perception.  We discuss the current state of business communications technology, examining what Jon describes as the "three-legged stool" of cloud communications: CCaaS, CPaaS, and UCaaS. We discuss how these previously distinct domains are converging, with vendors increasingly offering capabilities across all three areas. We also explore how AI is disrupting the traditional communications technology landscape. Jon offers valuable insights into why AI-native companies may have advantages over traditional contact centre vendors who are adding AI capabilities, and why the pace of AI adoption varies significantly across different industries and organisations. This episode is brought to you by NLX. NLX is a conversational AI platform enabling brands to build and manage chat, voice and multimodal applications. NLX’s patented Voice+ technology synchronizes voice with digital channels, making it possible to automate complex use cases typically handled by a human agent. When a customer calls, the voice AI guides them to resolve their inquiry through self-service using the brand’s digital asset, resulting in automation and CSAT scores well above industry average. Just ask United Airlines. Shownotes: Find out more about Jon Arnold: https://www.jarnoldassociates.com/about/jon-arnold Subscribe to VUX World: https://vuxworld.typeform.com/to/Qlo5aaeW Subscribe to The AI Ultimatum Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/kanesimms Get in touch with Kane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanesimms Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.