NICE CXone AI Innovations

NICE CXone is leveraging AI to improve customer experience and results, with solutions like Copilot for agents and Autopilot for customer experience. The company aims to eliminate data silos and connect every touch point in the contact center through their all-in-one solution, CXone Empower. NICE CXone also provides a robust enablement program for advisers, encouraging them to learn about unified data layers and identify specific areas in their business to target first. Additionally, the company is increasing its presence in the SMB market and adding commissionable digital products, while emphasizing the importance of stretching and trying new opportunities for advisers.

Introduction to NICE CXone and AI Investment

Well, when it comes to the customer experience, NICE CXone is recognized as a leader in the space, not just with you, Telarus advisors, but also globally. They’re a favorite among all advisors, and they’ve recently announced a big investment. In fact, that they’re doubling down on AI and striving to enable you to improve your results and create amazing outcomes with this technology that’s in the headlines. It’s on your mind.

It’s on your client’s mind. And here to talk about not just AI, but how Nice CXone is blazing a trail as they have for many years is our good friend, Ray Hicken, VP of, channel sales at at Nice CXone. Ray, welcome. It’s good to see you, my friend.

Tim, it’s great to see you as well, and thank you for, letting us be a part of this. We’re really excited about this. And our partnership with you has been long standing and very productive, and we really, really appreciate it.

Yeah. Look. It goes both ways. It’s been long standing. We’ve had tremendous success together. Some of the biggest deals in all of the channel have happened between our companies and the synergy we have. You’ve done amazing things to empower that success with you and and your world class team.

Right now, you know, as I said in the in the lead to our talk today, AI is on everyone’s mind in the CX space or just in the space. Right? It’s in you can’t turn on the news without hearing about it.

You guys have announced you’re doubling down. You’re talking a lot to our advisers about how their clients can benefit from it. Let’s just start with whatever what’s on everyone’s mind, which is how’s AI playing into your role as a technology provider, and how are our advisers taking advantage of it?

Well, it’s a great question, and it and you’re right. We are doubling down on this. I mean, NICE is leading in the CX space when it comes to AI and innovation.

We have Enlighten, which is an artificial intelligence, portfolio that spans across every area of your business.

So from your consumers to agents to operational leaders, we’re truly trying to, trailblaze a new path in the customer experience space and connecting every touch point and application within the contact center, trying to eliminate data silos. Flows. And with many of our new solutions from our copilot for agents or supervisors, autopilot for customers experience, optimizing actions. Those are just to name a few of the new products that we’re leveraging right now within the space.

Yeah. You talk about, you know, all in one. It’s really what you’re saying there. You you’re covering all those touch points and experience points in the user experience.

Oftentimes, I think there’s some confusion around, should I part this out, part the experience out, or should I lean into something that’s an all in one?

Talk a little bit about the benefit of just having an all in one provider, a single pane of glass, not having these disparate moving parts. To some people, it’s obvious, Ray, but to others, I know it’s a battle you fight every day bringing people into, you know, best in class technology on your platform.

Yeah. It’s a great question. I think organizations, so, you know, have long faced that challenge of delivering that personalized or that fluid experience due due to fragmented systems and data silos, and they create an experience that’s divided between the customer’s brand perception and internal and the internal reality.

And we’re addressing that right now with the product called CXone Empower. It’s the world’s first and only CX aware AI offering. It overcomes these challenges through that complete conversion of the industry leading CX one platform and Enlighten and Smart AI purpose built for CX. So CXone empower connects to every touch point and application in the organization. It achieves that full perception. It it boasts the continuous experience of memory based on, you know, historical and and and derived customer, preferences.

It injects contextual insights into the into the precise moment across that customer journey and utilizes that interconnected data and application to inform optimal outcomes. It also improves and provides an unparalleled CX awareness. And so we’re taking that and creating a single source for that when there’s so many disparate Yeah. Companies out there that try to come in and fit. They will, but that doesn’t give them that full experience that we’re trying to provide them. We think that’s really critical in the whole experience, especially with so many players out there trying to emphasize their platform as it fits into an existing platform and how does it really scale.

Yeah. Look.

NICE CXone’s All-In-One Approach

One of the things, you know, as I listen to you and I have some experience in this space, and, of course, you do. You’re an expert at it. A lot of the things you’re saying make total sense. And to our advisors who’ve used NICE or are playing the CX space, they see you as a trailblazer and a leader.

Empowering New Advisers with NICE CXone

But what if I’m a what if I’m a rookie? What if I’m coming into the space? I’ve sold some UCaaS. I’ve I’ve dipped my toe in the water of the customer experience, and I know about NICE.

But to me, it’s always felt a little complex. Maybe maybe talk to the newer adviser to the space. How does NICE help them, empower them along with some of the Teleris resources? Because I know, you know, we work hand in hand on a lot of these deals.

How do you how do you get someone new to AI or new to contact center to start implementing, talking about the AI customer experience or this fully managed customer experience? What’s what’s your best practice there?

Well, first of all, I’d say we have the most robust, enablement program out there and built around helping the partners understand this. So first of all, I put point them into that experience, which our team can help them get to, and it’s self paced, and they can really learn a lot about this. Yeah. Second, they say, I would I would have them try to to work on, you know, unified data layers, you know, since all AI needs to be connected to other business applications and to truly optimize and make a CX operation more efficient.

So that’s that’s another thing I consider.

Third, I would probably identify the specific areas in your business or in their business that they’re working with that they would like to target first. And whether that’s the agent or it’s the consumer or even it’s operational, we have a different AI solution that solves that for business goals and challenges, and it’s important that you ask those additional questions to ensure you’re solving for their business needs.

And we can provide those questions that they can ask, you know, so because most of our partners, if they trusted advisors that they don’t go in and don’t know what to ask, they won’t ask. And so we try to give them the things to ask and the answer that they’re looking for, so they can be able to at least maneuver within that. And I think if they do a couple of things that we we provide for them in our enablement and use those tools that we have for them, they’ll be able to have that conversation and really begin to understand what what are what they need to be able to be looking for in that process of really trying to under undercover uncover the AI story within these companies.

Yeah. A hundred percent. I found that learners are leaders. Right? And you guys have a great enabling platform people to for people to learn, but also if they ask questions.

And your team’s very skillful at helping prepare for, you know, account mapping, preparing to uncover, and uncovering opportunity.

Every single win we’ve ever had with NICE, someone raised their hand on the customer side and said, we have a problem. Right? But having the savvy to uncover that problem is part of your expertise, I think part of what the advisers do really well. But if they’re worried about what’s the right question or what’s the right what’s the right path, I think you guys help unlock those paths better than anybody in the space, and it’s really a tribute to your team.

NICE CXone’s Channel Updates and Future Outlook

Talk a little bit about you know, I I just, you know, paid sort of paid homage, paid gave you guys kudos to your team. What’s going on with a nice channel? What are what are some of the things that are new, emerging? What can our partners look forward to as we as we chase, the end of twenty twenty four and and leap into twenty twenty five?

Yeah. I appreciate you asking that. Well, I guess, first of all, I’d say that we’ve we have really increased our our our opportunities with you as partners and our pipeline.

We’re actually we we as you we’ve talked about, we’re we everybody thinks of us as only enterprise.

We’re starting to increase our our SMB presence and getting opportunities. And some of the things we’ve done to add that. You know, we we we added a enhanced and extended, a current spiff for the SMB specifically to drive that, and that’s been meaningful. But we’ve also added an additional twenty six products that are commissionable to our list, and they’re all advanced digital products that we didn’t have before to commission on. And we think that’s really significant because it’s we’re trying to help our partners be a part of that journey and the change beyond the ACD.

And we’ve added more field based channel managers, because we know that’s in that’s important to be able to have that presence with your partners and your trusted advisers and and to be able to really help them be successful. And as I mentioned earlier, we have this, sales enablement training team that’s self paced, and we’ll also come on-site to to meet with you that I have heard is the best in the industry, not just from our partners and from you, our our partner, but also actually, from our competitors. They say, wow. That is really amazing what you guys have pursued produced and prepared and what you give to your partners to be able to learn this, you know, this this business and this platform and and to make their way, you know, in this industry.

So we have really we’re really trying to invest and double down with you, and, and those are some of the things we’ve done to add and increase our presence. And so we’re really excited about what’s happening in the future.

Adapting to Change and Best Practices

That’s great. Look. You’ve continued to adapt to change and evolve under a lot of different circumstances. There’s twenty seven new commissionable products.

Opening up more opportunity in SMB is certainly exciting. As as we know, there’s only there’s only a thousand Fortune one thousand companies. Right? And so the mid market is massive.

The opportunity at the SMB space is massive. So being able to lean in that with you is great. But But speaking of just best practices, and I think this is a great way to sort of bring things to a close. Ray, you and I, our teams are all over the country.

We’re talking to advisers. And sometimes there’s things that are sitting right in front of an adviser. It’s so obvious. We wish they would all do this one thing, whatever that is that depending on the provider of the solution.

When it comes to the the CX space and your experience, is there, like there’s probably no easy button. Right? Right? But there is probably one or two things that you just wish every adviser would do.

What what are they?

Well, first of all, I’d say get beyond what you know best. Be willing to challenge yourself to learn something new. Yeah. And you don’t have to do it by yourself.

You know, the the be willing to learn new businesses, new practices, new opportunities, new horizons.

Sometimes our our partners stay comfortable where they’re where they’re at because they they don’t wanna go go beyond that. And I I I really as I’ve been able to encourage partners just to try and let us help them, they have one good experience. I almost automatically see two or three opportunities that fall right behind me. And the and the revenue they make because of the margin now on some products obviously out there are not as great as they are with us.

There’s a lot of margin. And when there’s mystery in the platform, which there is, there’s a lot of margin for them. And they they need to try to expand beyond what they know best and challenge themselves and let us help them in that journey. We are built to help them literally and we want them to be successful.

So I just ask them to to stretch a little bit and see what really happens if they just do it just once. The the it’ll trigger more opportunities for them. I I’m I’m positive of that.

I love it, Ray. You and I have been doing this a long time, and we both know that learners are leaders.

Learners are earners.

And sometimes you have to give a provider, in this case, NICE CXone and at bat, to discover the difference they can make in your business, in your career, and with your customers. We’re experiencing that every month, every year with with NICE. Thanks so much for your partnership. We appreciate you. I know the the best is that yet to come with us and with our advisers out all over the world. So thanks again, Ray. Appreciate you.