No Jitter Roll: 8x8 Unveils Enhancements in Customer Engagement, Salesforce Announces Implementation and Data Governance Bundles, and Reclaim.ai Launches Smart Meetings

Welcome to this week’s No Jitter Roll, our regular roundup of product news in the communication and collaboration spaces. Leading off this week, we highlight: 8x8’s enhancements in customer engagement, Salesforce’s new AI Implementation and Data Governance Bundles, and Reclaim.ai’s Launch of Smart Meetings for teams.

Also, Amazon Bedrock launches new capabilities and Neat and Shure combine their video/audio technology capabilities.

8x8 Releases Enhancements in Customer Engagement

8x8 has released new features for their integrated cloud contact center and unified communications platform. These include:

• 8x8 Engage, an AI-powered solution customer engagement feature
• Proactive Customer Engagement, which uses programmable SMS and WhatsApp capabilities for cross-organization customer engagement and mass messaging campaigns; Proactive Customer Engagement includes features in scheduling, routing, reporting, and analytics
• Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams, which provides PSTN calling through Microsoft Teams Phone
• Meeting Whiteboards that allow meeting participants to draw, write, and connect items for collaboration

Salesforce Announces Implementations and Data Governance Bundles

Salesforce has announced the Implementation and Data Governance bundles for developing and deploying AI capabilities.

The Implementation Bundle includes development tools such as Salesforce Sandboxes and Data Mask which can be used to test Einstein Copilot and Prompt Builder and train employees on using Gen AI safely. This bundle also helps customers build and extend AI experiences in their organizations.

The Data Governance Bundle lets organizations configure and manage data used in AI implementations, such as using tools like Shield, Privacy Center, and Security Center to protect data.

Salesforce

Reclaim.ai Launches Smart Meetings

Reclaim.ai has launched Smart Meetings, a solution that automates meeting scheduling with machine learning and AI. Smart Meetings has features that allow auto-scheduling and rescheduling for teams using AI. It also uses machine learning and AI to keep track of skipped meeting and prioritize rescheduling them, as well as flexibility with team calendars, including hybrid teams. Smart Meetings is available for Google Calendar users with support for Outlook users coming soon.

Reclaim.ai

Amazon Bedrock Launches New Capabilities

Amazon Bedrock has announced innovations in developing Gen AI applications such as:

• Amazon Bedrock Custom Model Import, which allows users to access custom models and manage an application programming interface (API) in Amazon Bedrock
• Model Evaluation, which allows organizations to analyze and compare models on Amazon Bedrock
• Guardrails, which allows customers to implement safeguards on data to remove personal/sensitive information, specific words, or harmful content
• Amazon Titan Text Embeddings V2, which can implement tasks such as information retrieval, question and answer chatbots, and providing personalized recommendations
• Amazon Titan Image Generator, which customers can use to produce or enhance and edit images

Neat and Shure Partner to Combine Audio/Video Technology

Neat and Shure have partnered to combine the capabilities of Neat’s video meeting bar and Shure’s Microflex Ecosystem solutions.

The Neat Bar Pro can auto-frame/focus, zoom in, and follow everyone in a meeting room, displaying everyone in said meeting room up close on remote workers’ screens. Using Shure’s Microflex Ecosystem solutions for sound enhancement, this technology can be used in larger, more complex spaces.

Tom Cahill, Vice President of Product and Partner Management, CSW, says, “Our customers are looking for simple, reliable collaboration solutions for their large, challenging spaces. We are thrilled with this partnership between Neat and Shure because together, they provide a streamlined, easy-to-deploy solution that delivers exceptional video and audio.”