{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Speak to an Agent","title":"While Vendors Are Racing, Buyers Are Walking | Max Ball","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/2db0183b\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1747,"description":"Season 1 Episode 6 | While Vendors Are Racing, Buyers Are Walking | Max Ball\nWhy Vendors Are Years Ahead of the Contact Centers Buying Them\nMax Ball, principal analyst at Forrester covering conversational AI and CCaaS, joins Sascha Poggemann to unpack why vendors are innovating faster than the conservative enterprises deploying them, and why nearly 650 conversational AI companies are headed for consolidation as budgets and buying committees evolve. He also digs into the real math behind agentic staffing changes, the unglamorous engineering work of integrations, testing and observability that separates a slick demo from a production-grade system, and his concern that free consumer AI agents from Big Tech could end up steering customers by ad revenue rather than fit.\n👉 NiCE:\nhttps://www.nice.com/speak-to-an-agent\n\n🔗Connect with Max:\nhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/max-ball-244932/\n\n🔗Forrester:\nhttps://www.forrester.com/bold/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social\n\n🔗Connect with Neeraj:\nhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajsverma/\n\n🔗Connect with Sascha:\nhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/saschapoggemann/\n\n____________________\nTimestamps:\n00:52 — The Evolution of Agentic AI \n03:47 — The AI Vendor Landscape \n05:01 — The Future of Contact Centers \n06:37 — AI and the Human Workforce \n10:07 — Why Enterprises Hesitate on AI \n13:30 — The Cost of Skipping AI Testing \n19:12 — Why AI Demos Aren't Enough \n22:09 — The Rise of Personal AI Agents\n____________________\n\nAbout Speak to an Agent:\nSpeak to an Agent explores what it really takes to bring AI into large organizations, why AI can't fix a problem you haven't already solved, why real understanding matters more than a polished voice, and why the domain expert who knows how to use AI is becoming the most valuable person in the business. The show features the leaders, founders, and technologists building and deploying AI at scale, and they get candid about what's working, what isn't, and what changes now that machines can reason, plan, and...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/mGOosXYf75XOc8Pf1c8E8Wmg5x9XgjuY47D_HtHKrXs/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lZGEy/MjhkOTgxNDkwNTRk/ZTMxNzQwZDg0ZWVm/ZTIyOC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}