Join host Kieran Devlin alongside industry analysts Craig Durr, Zeus Kerravala, Jon Arnold, Melody Brue, and Blair Pleasant in the final UC Big News Show of 2025.
This powerhouse panel tackles the biggest shifts reshaping unified communications and collaboration – from controversial AI pricing models to Zoom’s ambitious repositioning campaign. As the year closes, these experts don’t just recap what happened; they reveal what’s coming next with predictions you won’t hear anywhere else.
The AI pricing dilemma is here. Microsoft’s upcoming 33% price increases and Salesforce’s pivot back to seat-based licensing expose a fundamental tension: vendors are struggling to monetize AI without alienating customers or destabilizing their own revenue forecasting.
The panel explores why usage-based pricing creates uncertainty for both buyers and sellers, and whether AI itself might eventually solve this pricing puzzle through utility-style forecasting models. Zoom isn’t just a meeting platform anymore – and they want you to know it.
With a high-profile ad campaign featuring SNL’s Bowen Yang launching during college football playoffs and the Super Bowl pre-show, plus the rollout of AI Companion 3.0, Zoom is making its biggest push yet to be seen as the hub of work. The experts debate whether this consumer-facing, humor-driven approach will resonate with IT buyers or alienate them, and what it signals about Zoom’s ambitions beyond collaboration.
RingCentral’s “three A’s” strategy reveals the platformization playbook. By introducing AIR (AI receptionist), AVA (virtual assistant), and ACE (analytics), RingCentral demonstrates how vendors are consolidating data across UC and contact center to power more intelligent AI – and why owning that data matters more than ever.
2026 predictions get delightfully rogue. Will workers face job loss for refusing AI adoption? Will companies start advertising as “AI-free” zones?
