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67% of Businesses Say AI is Important When Selecting UC Platforms

The latest Techtelligence Report delves into AI adoption in the enterprise

Published: January 20, 2025

David Dungay

The progressive opportunities AI is promising to deliver to customers, including increased productivity, meeting inclusivity and effectiveness is a dream come true for those businesses that can successfully adopt the technology.  

However, AI dreams can quickly become nightmares, with adoption challenges slowing its widespread implementation. But what are these challenges, and how can organizations overcome them? 

Our latest report, AI in Unified Communications: Insights, Challenges, and Future Directions, developed in partnership with TechTelligence and the Collab-Collective, provides a detailed analysis of AI’s impact on UC. With insights from 239 IT decision-makers, this research uncovers current trends, adoption barriers, and strategies for overcoming them.  

This report sets the stage for a future where AI is central to communications – and to help organisations with their AI purchasing decisions and adoption. 

Driving AI Adoption in UC

AI is increasingly seen as a must-have in UC. According to the report, 67.8% of respondents rate AI as “very important” or “absolutely essential” in selecting communication platforms.  

For UC vendors that struggle to differentiate themselves. AI will likely be the new battleground on which they chose to create value for customers.  

For those looking at specific AI features, transcription (55.2%), smart meeting summarization (43.9%), and automated scheduling (43.1%) are gaining traction as the must-have tools in any Unified Communications AI toolkit.  

These features are becoming more popular because they are easy to measure ROI by creating tangible productivity benefits.  

These specific tools reduce, or eliminate, manual transcription, streamline the distribution of meeting notes and action points, and give great highlights for participants to digest via smart summaries.  

Despite a clear recognition that AI is important when selecting UC platforms and tools the overall usage of AI remains comparatively low. This highlights an adoption gap where the benefits are recognized but the widespread rollout is not yet happening. 

This also points to the gap between the C-suite and the IT teams and their perception of AI. The C-suite want the productivity benefits but there are integration challenges, unclear ROI, and negative employee sentiments which can slow things down.  

Top Factors Driving AI Around the Meeting Room

The Techtelligence report identifies several core themes driving AI’s adoption around meetings.  

For those doubling down on productivity, respondents rated AI’s impact at an average of 3.7 out of 5, with 64% scoring it at 4 or higher. 

Productivity gains associated with meetings include: 

  • Automated scheduling  
  • Transcription and summarisation 
  • Meeting insight distribution 
  • Better meeting equity via camera framing, audio enhancements, and AI assistants  
  • Improved participation engagement – 74.4% agreed that AI fosters inclusivity in meetings by ensuring all voices are heard 
  • Better strategic collaboration – simply by offloading manual tasks to the AI participants can focus on collaborating more effectively 

Overcoming Adoption Challenges

Despite its promise, AI adoption faces significant barriers. The report highlights system integration (48.1%) as the most cited challenge, followed by high costs (45.6%). 

Employee resistance (48.5%) further complicates implementation, with many workers wary of job displacement or uncertain about AI’s practical benefits.  

Security concerns also rank high on the list of challenges. AI decision-making transparency and robust data privacy measures are fundamental to promoting adoption and building all-important trust.  

Organizations must tackle these issues proactively. Strategies include:  

  • Partnering with experienced vendors or channel partners to ensure seamless integration and ongoing support.  
  • Offering comprehensive training programs to educate employees on AI’s benefits.  
  • POCs or try before you buy tools 
  • Create a consistent feedback loop between your employees and management relating to the effectiveness of the tools 

Navigating the Future of AI in UC

The future of AI in UC is bright. 82.8% of respondents believe AI will play a central or supporting role in UC over the next two years which means this is a trend that can’t be overlooked.  

Embracing AI will become increasingly crucial for staying competitive, but it will hit all markets slightly differently. By tackling AI challenges and barriers directly and harnessing AI’s incredible potential, organizations can increase efficiency, drive productivity, and foster inclusivity. 

Download our latest UC Today report, AI in Unified Communications: Insights, Challenges, and Future Directions, to explore our findings and gain actionable insights for your organization.