Luiz Domingos, the Chief Know-how Officer and Head of Giant Enterprise R&D at Mitel, has constructed a distinguished profession spanning over 20 years. Identified for his modern strategy and deep technical experience, Luiz has constantly delivered high-quality options in enterprise communication, contact middle programs, community administration, and cloud providers.
In his present position at Mitel, Luiz units the strategic path for know-how, emphasizing innovation and reliability. He leads the introduction of cutting-edge applied sciences and ensures the corporate’s portfolio stays on the forefront of the business. Earlier than becoming a member of Mitel, Luiz served as Chief Product and Know-how Officer at Unify, the place he efficiently managed all the product portfolio and spearheaded the event of disruptive cloud choices.
Mitel is a world chief in enterprise communications, offering a complete vary of options that empower organizations to attach, collaborate, and serve their clients extra successfully. Providing all the pieces from on-premises programs to cloud-based communication platforms, Mitel delivers dependable, scalable, and modern merchandise that handle the varied wants of companies of all sizes. With a deal with seamless integration and a dedication to high-quality consumer experiences, Mitel helps firms keep related and aggressive in right now’s quickly evolving office environments.
Many firms nonetheless depend on legacy communication instruments. Out of your perspective, what are the largest obstacles that outdated programs current to companies right now?
Many firms depend on outdated Non-public Department Alternate (PBX) programs, contact facilities, and fragmented collaboration instruments. Utilizing legacy instruments akin to these can result in an absence of integration and interoperability, as they function with closed architectures and lack correct SW interfaces. This makes integrating with fashionable AI-driven options, CRM platforms, and cloud-based functions a lot more durable.
When organizations use fragmented, legacy instruments, consumer expertise (UX) and productiveness can endure as software implementations will not be tailored to fashionable, versatile work modes – distant, workplace, or cell – and don’t present omnichannel capabilities. Moreover, when too many outdated programs are used, safety dangers turn out to be heightened, resulting in elevated vulnerabilities and compliance gaps resulting from evolving information safety laws like GDPR. Lastly, these legacy instruments additionally trigger larger product upkeep and repair or operational prices, growing the overall price of possession.
How do these communication bottlenecks affect a company’s means to implement AI-driven options successfully?
AI functions depend on real-time information availability, seamless integration throughout a number of media channels, and automation mechanisms. Nevertheless, legacy programs are likely to retailer information in inner proprietary codecs that AI can’t entry or faucet into, which impairs AI’s true potential and, in some circumstances, results in fragmentation. To perform appropriately, AI requires each structured and unstructured information. Since legacy programs’ information constructions will not be conducive to that strategy, these programs restrict AI’s means to investigate conversations, extract enterprise worth, and personalize communication exercise.
Moreover, many AI-driven functions, akin to sentiment evaluation and speech-to-text, depend on real-time analytics. Outdated infrastructure typically lacks the processing energy and real-time connectivity wanted for such functions, resulting in latency and inefficiencies inside a enterprise. True AI-driven automation – digital assistants, workflow automation, and so on. – requires deep integration with communication platforms. Recurrently used legacy programs with outdated or lacking API help create limitations and bottlenecks to integration and additional hinder automation capabilities.
Addressing these communication bottlenecks may also help organizations unlock the total potential of AI-driven options, enhancing effectivity, decision-making, and UX.
How does Mitel strategy communication system modernization for big enterprises transitioning from legacy programs?
Mitel takes a strategic, hybrid strategy to modernizing unified communications (UC) instruments, serving to enterprises transition from their legacy programs. Fairly than imposing a full overhaul, Mitel advocates for and affords hybrid options composed of on-premise functions and personal and public cloud options with full interoperability. This hybrid mannequin integrates telephony infrastructure, SBC/gateway gear on the community’s edge, UC functions, and cloud-based collaboration apps, permitting enterprises to modernize at their very own tempo.
As an answer orchestrator, Mitel focuses on creating the mandatory integrations and providers throughout all customer-deployed functions. Key rules guiding this strategy embrace:
- Hybrid Cloud Deployments – Fairly than a whole rip-and-replace strategy, Mitel maintains and updates current on-premise and personal cloud PBX/UC/Contact Facilities whereas integrating fashionable collaboration instruments within the public cloud, making certain enterprises can evolve with out main disruptions.
- APIs and SDKs – Mitel continuously updates and develops APIs and SDKs to bridge the hole between legacy programs and fashionable functions in collaboration, CRM, and ERP environments. This flexibility permits companies to progressively undertake new providers with out inflicting main disruptions to their each day operations.
- AI Integration with Legacy Techniques – Mitel enhances current communication platforms with AI-driven capabilities akin to visible voice mails, digital assistants/brokers, and real-time transcription. These AI capabilities work with cloud LLMs and in addition leverage small language fashions (SLMs) that may be operated with out main infrastructure funding or upgrades.
- Safety & Compliance-Pushed Upgrades – Mitel prioritizes safety and regulatory compliance, implementing safety requirements akin to end-to-end payload and signaling encryption and information encryption at relaxation. It certifies all merchandise to adjust to the newest laws in sure industries and regional legal guidelines and laws.
AI is reworking enterprise communication. What do you see as the following main developments in AI-driven unified communication programs?
AI is getting used to remodel UC programs by enhancing effectivity, automating duties, and enhancing enterprise communications. It is usually getting used to strengthen safety. Issues akin to consumer authentication with voiceprint, steady vulnerability assessments, and system safety auditing contribute to stronger safety measures for enterprises.
On the similar time, Agentic AI and digital assistants are increasing. Organizations are enhancing these AI-powered assistants with multi-modal skills that help varied communication capabilities, together with dealing with complicated queries, automating responses, aiding with scheduling, and knowledge retrieval.
AI can also be driving improvements in voice-to-text capabilities, real-time multilingual translations, and sentiment evaluation. These enhancements profit Contact Facilities by enhancing worker productiveness and total consumer satisfaction.
Moreover, using GenAI for content material administration is rising as LLMs are being built-in to generate analytics studies, summaries, authorized and compliant data, and so on. We’ll proceed to see extra AI adoption to drive the UC area as enterprises use AI-driven language fashions to prepare, retrieve, and share enterprise data to enhance collaboration and data-sharing optimization throughout organizations.
How is Mitel getting ready for the rise of AI-powered digital assistants, automation, and predictive analytics in office communication?
Mitel started its AI journey a number of years earlier than the appearance of LLMs, and we proceed to combine AI into our product and know-how partnerships. When relevant, we incorporate AI capabilities into our portfolio to boost buyer options, with a powerful deal with agentic AI, together with Digital Assistants and Digital Contact Middle Brokers. Moreover, Mitel affords AI capabilities akin to pure language processing (NLP), name and assembly analytics, system analytics and predictive reporting, and low code/no-code workflow automation, which all streamline UC and Contact Middle functions.
How is Mitel leveraging AI and huge language fashions (LLMs) to boost communication and collaboration for enterprises?
Mitel leverages AI and LLMs to enhance the general communications and collaboration expertise inside an enterprise. As talked about earlier, Mitel integrates AI and LLM capabilities into its merchandise, leveraging superior speech and textual content evaluation (particularly NLP and speech-to-text), clever digital assistants with context reminiscence, and activity automation. Mitel can also be providing an answer for self-help and buyer help with AI, incorporating the shopper data base through an AI mannequin coaching course of. These applied sciences improve real-time communication, optimize buyer interactions, guarantee system safety, and supply cost-effective, 24/7 monitoring and help.
What are the largest challenges in integrating LLMs into enterprise communication programs, and the way is Mitel addressing them?
There are a couple of challenges with regards to integrating LLMs into enterprise communication programs, together with information privateness, safety, latency, and the necessity for versatile AI integration. As a world group, information privateness considerations and regulatory compliance (GDPR and the European AI Act) are our high priorities. So, we’re making certain our AI options shield buyer information in any respect prices. For enhanced safety, Mitel is investigating the utilization of SLMs deployed on the buyer’s community edge to restrict and shield information that might be uncovered to public cloud LLMs. In hybrid cloud environments, it’s crucial that each one merchandise have the correct interfaces/APIs to include AI safely and securely. Mitel has modernized its merchandise to allow AI integrations throughout on-premise, hosted, and personal and public clouds. We’re additionally creating versatile workflow creation capabilities that can permit a “deliver your personal LLM” (BYO-LLM) strategy to keep away from vendor lock-in.
Trendy communication requires LLM responses to be instantaneous for real-time collaboration instruments like voice and video, which creates infrastructure challenges. Mitel’s imaginative and prescient is to depend on Edge AI to course of real-time communication and cut back latency for a pure expertise and interplay with AI assistants. Lastly, Mitel is engaged on AI fashions that may be fine-tuned for particular industries like healthcare, finance, and hospitality, making certain extra vertically related and context-aware AI-driven communication.
When it comes to AI-powered pure language processing, what functions are you most enthusiastic about inside Mitel’s product ecosystem?
Given the measurable and rapid return on funding, Mitel Contact Middle is probably the most thrilling space for AI-driven LLM and NLP options. The AI-powered digital brokers with chat and speech interplay can deal with buyer inquiries and collect info earlier than escalating to a dwell agent, lowering workload and enhancing response occasions. Options akin to name recordings with transcription, summarization for compliance, sentiment analytics for buyer satisfaction, and agent coaching all enhance operations. Mitel’s UC options embrace visible voicemail, sensible search, data administration, and noise cancellation for clearer calls.
As AI reshapes communication, how ought to companies strategy the moral issues of AI-driven office interactions?
AI is considerably reworking office communication and collaboration, introducing new consumer and buyer experiences. Nevertheless, these modifications don’t come with out moral challenges. Moral issues must be continuously addressed at each stage of AI implementation, together with coaching AI fashions on various datasets to keep away from bias and guarantee honest decision-making. One of many largest considerations with AI is transparency and explainability, which requires clear phrases and situations and disclosure of AI use. Using AI ought to develop human augmentation and empowerment, however it isn’t a alternative.
Moreover, safety and AI misuse prevention must be thought of to guard towards deepfakes and manipulation of consumer information and credentials.
What steps can organizations take to make sure a clean transition for workers as AI turns into extra embedded in each day workflows?
Enterprises should take steps to foster adoption, belief, and productiveness to make sure a clean transition to AI-based options. Step one for organizations is to create AI insurance policies and enterprise governance to outline AI’s position inside the firm after which persist with them. Management also needs to align on messaging and advocacy for AI adoption and provide coaching to all workers on how AI works, its limitations, and find out how to use it successfully.
Concurrently, organizations ought to introduce AI collaboration instruments and integration frameworks that empower workers with AI help to boost the decision-making course of whereas sustaining human oversight. Management also needs to handle moral and job safety considerations and supply channels to collect worker suggestions and measure the incremental worth launched by AI.
By doing all this stuff early within the AI adoption course of, workers will really feel extra assured utilizing the instruments, and organizations will see a sooner ROI on their investments.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to Mitel.