A study into the global CCaaS market has concluded that product innovation within the space is “slowing”.
The Juniper Research report makes this claim while pointing its finger toward the increasing merger and acquisition (M&A) activity within the space.
These acquisitions have come as service providers "look to develop an all-in-one SaaS platform" – according to the research firm.
Examples of high-profile mergers and acquisitions include NICE rolling up LiveVox, Sharpen merging with Plum Voice, and Enghouse Systems taking control of what’s left of Lifesize following the latter’s bankruptcy.
As some of these vendors pull these newly acquired solutions into their ecosystem, product innovation may have stalled.
Yet, some may argue that the generative AI (GenAI) wave has accelerated innovation in CCaaS – and there are emerging, exciting capabilities entering the CCaaS market.
Auto-generating knowledge articles, conversation flow models, and contact summaries for contact transfers are excellent examples.
However, most GenAI solutions – from automated post-contact processing to agent-assist solutions – replicate other offerings that leading CCaaS brands already have within their portfolios.
After all, CCaaS stalwarts previously spent years building and training natural language processing (NLP) models to bring such innovations to life. GenAI cuts through much of that work.
As such, GenAI has perhaps helped new market entrants close the AI gap with market leaders more than it has inspired new, cutting-edge thinking.
CCaaS Innovation Beyond GenAI
While most CCaaS vendors prioritize GenAI innovation, many CCaaS competitors have recently released unique, non-GenAI-centric innovations.
For instance, last year, Genesys unveiled its Experience Index for more prescriptive CX measurement, and Zoom launched a Kiosk that links in-store and contact center communications.
More recently, AWS introduced a feature that allows contact centers to route contacts based on agent proficiency, and Verint released an entirely new concept for a CCaaS platform.
In addition, some conventional market leaders are innovating in areas outside of what is conventionally considered CCaaS.
Consider Genesys and NICE; both are innovating around journey orchestration. Meanwhile, vendors like 8x8, Cisco, and Vonage are pulling CPaaS tools into their CCaaS platforms.