UC AI, OY!

Let me tell you a story about my meeting yesterday. You know how it goes – after two months of juggling schedules and dodging endless email chains, we finally managed to get everyone on the same call – a tech briefing on a feature I’m doing research on for a future article. This wasn’t a casual catch-up; I needed detailed answers, hard numbers, comparisons, and the works. So, I asked if we could record the meeting, because who wants to juggle note-taking while trying to fully engage in a conversation? Everyone agreed – sounds simple, right?

Well, that’s where the AI chaos kicked in. After an hour of thoughtful questions, detailed responses, and moments where I even said, "I’m just saying this for the transcript," I was feeling good. But then the meeting ended, and instead of receiving a full recording or transcript, I got an email from the organizer ... an AI-generated summary. Yes, a summary. It told me what I already knew: that we had just talked about widgets and everyone thought they were great. Thanks, AI, very helpful.

I emailed back saying, "That’s nice, but where’s the full recording or transcript?" Their response? "Oh, we assumed the AI would handle that." Spoiler alert: It didn’t. And here we are, now having to reschedule the entire meeting just to actually get the data. All because people are under the impression that some magical AI is doing all the heavy lifting.

This isn’t a one-off situation. It’s part of a much bigger problem plaguing the Unified Communications industry – an over-reliance on GenAI. The idea that AI can handle everything is becoming a crutch, and guess what? It’s not working. We’re spending more time wrangling with these so-called “intelligent systems” than we would if we just did the task ourselves. It’s like that episode of The Office where Michael drives into a lake because the GPS told him to. Sure, tech is helpful, but blind faith in it? Not so much.

The thing is, a year or two ago, none of this would’ve been a problem. Someone would’ve just hit the record button, and that would’ve been that. But now, instead of one simple action, we’ve got layers of AI processes that are supposed to make things easier but often just end up muddying the waters. We’re in a bizarre race where every UC vendor is trying to out-AI the other, constantly promising that their AI can do more, faster, and better. Spoiler alert (again): it can’t.

Take the typical UC workflow nowadays. Where you used to record a meeting, take notes or author a document, now you’re expected to rely on an AI agent. But here’s the catch – it often requires way too much effort to even get a decent output from these systems. First, there’s prompt engineering. You have to word your requests just right to get something useful out of the AI. And even then, what you get is often the bare minimum: a watered-down summary that leaves out the critical details, or goes off on an incorrect tangent that needs editing – which often takes longer than writing it in the first place. And that assumes there are no hallucinations which cause an all bets are off situation.

It’s like we’ve become so obsessed with the idea that AI can do everything, we’ve forgotten the basics. Hitting a record button? Too simple. Now we’re trying to add layers of “intelligence” that often lead to more work for the user. Remember when your smartphone first started predicting your text messages and it was hilariously wrong? Yeah, that’s where we’re at with Generative AI in Unified Communications.

Let’s face it, the UC industry is stuck in this AI echo chamber, and it’s leading us nowhere fast. We’ve got vendors pitching GenAI features like they’re the next iPhone, but in reality, it feels more like we’re all stuck in the tech version of Groundhog Day. Every day, it’s the same thing: AI promises, AI fails or barely useful output, and we’re back to square one – doing the task ourselves because that’s just quicker and more reliable.

I’m not saying AI doesn’t have potential. Sure, it’s great in theory. But we need to stop treating it like some sort of magic UC bullet that will solve all of our problems. Collaboration platforms should focus on what they do best – connecting people, making communication seamless, and ensuring interoperability. Instead, we’re distracted by AI features that are, more often than not, a house of cards just waiting to collapse.

As I said in my recent blog, this AI obsession is a lot like the plot of Wag the Dog. The industry is manufacturing a crisis – or in this case, a "revolution" – that doesn’t actually exist. Everyone is so busy trying to one-up each other with AI capabilities that nobody’s stopping to ask, “Does this actually help users?” Instead, we’re seeing endless AI demos that leave out the most important part: real, tangible benefits.

And here’s the kicker: we’re losing sight of the real issues. Instead of focusing on making collaboration platforms more user-friendly, more interoperable, and more reliable, we’re all caught up in the AI race. We’ve moved so far away from the core mission of Unified Communications that it’s almost laughable. What happened to creating tools that genuinely help people collaborate better?

At the end of the day, we should be asking ourselves one question: is GenAI actually making our work easier, or are we just complicating things for the sake of shiny new tech? If yesterday’s meeting was any indication, it’s the latter. Maybe it’s time we stop driving into the AI lake and just hit the record button again.

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This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions. David has over four decades of experience providing problem-solving leadership and innovation in media and unified communications technologies for various firms in the corporate, broadcasting and academic worlds including AT&T, Bloomberg LP, FNN, Morgan Stanley, NYU, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Chase. He is a Principal Analyst at TalkingPointz and also the IMCCA’s Director of Emerging Technology. David can be reached at ddanto@TalkingPointz.com or DDanto@imcca.org and his full bio and other blogs and articles can be seen at Danto.info. Please reach-out to David if you would like to discuss how he can help your organization solve problems, develop a future-proof collaboration strategy, or if you would like his help developing solid, user-focused go-to-market strategies for your product or service.