The recent Enterprise Connect 2025 event in Orlando, Florida (US), covered trends in enterprise communications and collaboration as well as product and service announcements from a variety of competitors.
However, as in recent years, AI dominated the conference, and in 2025, agentic AI was the hottest topic.
Agentic AI debuted in H2 2024 and is already considered to be the next big phase of AI. Agentic AI is an advanced form of AI that stretches beyond merely generating content, featuring agents that perform tasks independently on behalf of users ranging from the mundane to the complex.
Agentic AI can act autonomously, make decisions, and take actions without human intervention. It can adjust its approach based upon new information or changing circumstances.
Agentic AI – the next big thing
So far, there has been little variation in the agentic AI capabilities offered among competitors. Thus, the greatest insight from the event comes from examining the larger context of competitors’ overall AI initiatives.
Here is a representative sample from some of the major players:
AI is fundamental to Cisco, permeating the product portfolio, resonating in its corporate structure, and influencing the go-to-market strategy.
At Microsoft, by marrying AI-powered team collaboration and productivity functionality, it delivers a more holistic package and achieves a degree of differentiation that is largely unmatched.
RingCentral is introducing agentic AI capabilities on the early portion of the adoption curve, reversing a tendency to play the role of follower.
Verizon’s new Business Assistant represents part one of Verizon’s generative AI (GenAI) evolution.
Zoom has undergone a renaissance marked by the launch of GenAI features and is entering a new chapter with the introduction of agentic AI capabilities.
– But don’t forget the customers
Thinking about competitors’ overall AI initiatives also yields a couple of interesting lessons.
First, competitors have been busy loading their platforms with agentic AI capabilities. But what has been lacking are declarative statements of what differentiates their agentic AI from the pack.
Vendors need to formulate these messages and provide customers a compelling reason to choose their platform over others.
Second, competitors make a lot of noise when it comes to touting the dizzying variety of AI features rapidly being compiled on their platforms. But they are far more silent when it comes to discussing customer support.
How customers are notified when new capabilities are added and how they are trained in those they use remains a mystery.
Competitors need to do a far better job of articulating what programs and resources they have in place to facilitate customer adoption.
