No Jitter Roll: Microsoft Teams Phone Silences Background Noise While CallTower and Solgari Announce CCaaS/Microsoft Teams Integration; Mindbreeze Launches Generative AI-focused Security Solution

Welcome to this week's No Jitter Roll, our regular roundup of product news in the communication and collaboration spaces. This week NJR highlights Microsoft Teams Phone's incorporation of AI to suppress background noise and echo, CallTower's integration of Solgari's contact center as a solution (CCaaS) with Microsoft Teams, Mindbreeze’s InSpire solution which emphasizes the security and integrity of LLMs for enterprise use, Emplifi’s amplification of customer experience (CX) via AI, analytics and omnichannel tools, and SignalWire's low- code/no-code AI Agent..

Microsoft Teams Phone Incorporates AI

In a blog post, Microsoft discussed the Teams Phone AI which can filter background noise. The Teams AI can learn the difference between speech and sporadic noises and suppress problematic sounds like a coffee grinder, garbage truck or flushing toilet. According to the post, Teams Phone also uses machine learning to mitigate the echo effect that can occur when multiple people speak at the same time during a call. The AI in Teams Phone can also preemptively block the echo that can happen when a microphone is too close to a speaker or the room is too big.

CallTower Unveils Solgari’s Integrated Microsoft Teams Contact Center

CallTower provides cloud-based unified communications and collaboration solutions. This Solgari integration provides a Microsoft certified Contact Center within the Teams application itself. Some of the available features include call recording, IVR, advanced routing, and omni- channel capabilities including chat, email and SMS, as well as real-time analytics and reporting tools. CallTower’s CRO, William Rubio said that by integrating Solgari with Teams, “the single interface will provide agents with easier management of UCaaS and CCaaS.”

Want to know more?

This July 2022 edition of No Jitter Roll discusses Microsoft’s Digital Contact Center Platform and how Microsoft had been positioning Teams as an option for contact centers.

Mindbreeze Provides Security Solution for Generative AI            

The information insight and knowledge management service provider now offers a secure product for its customers' in-house data training. The Mindbreeze InSpire solution allows Mindbreeze customers to use their preferred large language model (LLM) and existing company data as the basis for machine learning to ensure that the data used to train the model(s) belongs to the respective company and does not flow into a public model.

Daniel Fallmann, founder and CEO of Mindbreeze, said that the use of generative AI technologies in organizations still faces numerous challenges such as “data hallucination, lack of data security, permissions, critical intellectual property issues, expensive training costs, and the technical implementation with confidential company data.”

When the InSpire solution generates a response to a query/prompt, it also references the sources used to generate that response – which means they can be traced and/or validated as necessary. In its press release, Mindbreeze also stated that InSpire models can run either in the cloud or on Mindbreeze’s appliances that can be deployed at an organization’s premises.

Want to know more?

Artificial intelligence has a lot of specific, descriptive terms. Download our handy guide to AI vocabulary. Also check out this article which discusses how organizations must be aware of avoiding unintended consequences from biased algorithms, faulty training, or incomplete parameters.

Emplifi Harnesses AI, Automation and Analytics for Omnichannel Consumer Interactions

The customer engagement platform vendor highlighted multiple new features in its summer 2023 release. Among the product updates and new features are the following. Emplifi Care now includes tailored SLA targets and real-time notifications, improved filtering options which include sentiment analysis and an integration with Salesforce Service Cloud. Emplifi Knowledge now supports generative AI built for agent assist and customer self-service. Emplifi Bot supports self-service templates and out-of-the-box conversation flows for omnichannel bots.

Want to know more?

In Avaya news, omnichannel and the cloud also appear important to customer experience.

SignalWire Launches Low-Code/No-Code Intelligent AI Agent for CPaaS

The provider of cloud-native, low-code APIs announced its AI Agent which provides the capability of embedding conversational agents into existing infrastructure with minimal coding and with plain text as an input. SignalWire is integrating AI Agent into its Call Flow Builder.

One key feature of AI Agent is the SignalWire AI Gateway, which gives the virtual agent the ability to retrieve or post information to custom middleware as well as transfer calls, send SMS, and the other CPaaS APIs available at SignalWire – e.g., to backend databases and/or third-party applications.

Want to know more?

This article discusses how communication APIs and Client Library SDKs have revolutionized the way developers integrate communication functionalities into applications. This article discusses the potential security risks associated with low-code, no-code platforms.

This Week on No Jitter

In case you missed them, here are some of our top stories for the week:

• Security Concerns Penetrating Enterprise Communications: As cloud services mature, the differences between enterprise communications providers are less about features and speeds, and more about the robustness infrastructure. And that’s where security comes in. Here are some recent announcements suggesting a more secure future for enterprise comms.
• Increase the Likelihood of Accurate Telcom Billing by Improving Your Order Process: What goes wrong with the billing often starts with an order process that is not well- organized. Here's what you can do to reduce the chaos.
• Relive the Excitement of Customer Contact Week with AWS and CX Leaders: Customer Contact Week brought together thousands of CX leaders come from across the world to hear about the latest contact center stories and innovations.