Cloud Tech Gurus

100 days from today, customer-facing emotion AI becomes one of the most regulated technology categories in the world. August 2, 2026. That's the EU AI Act high-risk deadline. Conformity assessments, human oversight requirements, logging mandates, transparency obligations. Stacked on top of GDPR exposure, the combined fine ceiling reaches 7% of global annual turnover. This CX Today piece is worth reading end to end. The author's point that most CX leaders don't know this is coming isn't hyperbole. Your vendor knows. Your compliance team may or may not. Your CX leadership almost certainly doesn't. What makes this deadline different from most regulatory stories: the enforcement infrastructure is already built. France's CNIL has been explicit about appetite to act. Ireland's architecture was built specifically for AI Act casework. Regulators are coordinating. The first major enforcement case won't land August 3. But it's coming before year-end. For US-based operators: the "we're not in Europe" argument doesn't hold. South Korea finalized its AI framework in January 2026 using the EU's risk-based approach. The Brussels Effect is real. Build to the EU standard and you're covered globally. Build below it and you're managing multiple regulatory timelines with no protection on either. This is exactly what CTG's AI Readiness Assessment surfaces. Not just whether your AI is deployed, but whether you know what you're actually holding. If you want to understand your exposure before summer, DM me or start at https://bit.ly/4cNcBkn. Cloud Tech Gurus Darren Prine Fred Stacey #ContactCenter #CustomerExperience #EUAIAct

🎉 Exciting news at Cloud Tech Gurus! We're thrilled to welcome C Pete Connor MS, CCCM as our new Vice President of Technology! Pete brings deep expertise and a passion for innovation that aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver cutting-edge A.I. Services and Solutions. We're confident his leadership will accelerate our vision and help us reach new heights. Please join us in giving Pete a warm Cloud Tech Gurus welcome — we're so glad to have you on the team! 🚀 #NewHire #WelcomePete #CloudTechGurus #VPofTechnology #Ai #Leadership

Most contact center AI projects fail before a single vendor is shortlisted. Not because the technology is wrong. Because the operation wasn't ready for it. A bot can't fix broken intents. Agent assist can't compensate for a weak knowledge base. Summarization won't save an operation whose after-call work is inflated by poor CRM design. In this article, we break down the five AI categories operators actually need to evaluate separately, the readiness checklist to run before any demo, and the phased sequence that protects service levels while building toward real automation. If your team is facing AI pressure from leadership right now, this is the read before the RFP. #ContactCenter #CustomerExperience #CCaaS

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝. 🎙️ Some patients wait until after hours just to talk to the AI. Not because the humans aren't available. Because they feel less judged. That's just one moment from today's conversation with Rebecca Clyde, Co-Founder & CEO of Botco.ai, and host Darren Prine on the Contact Center Gurus Podcast. If you work in healthcare, CX, or you're evaluating AI for a regulated environment, this one is worth your time. 👉 https://lnkd.in/dw89atrg #ContactCenter #HealthcareAI #ContactCenterAI

𝐀𝐧 𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟓𝐩𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥. Not for a human. For the AI. In this clip from the Contact Center Gurus Podcast, Rebecca Clyde, Co-Founder and CEO of Botco.ai shares with host Darren Prine why patients feel safer talking to AI, and what that means for how care gets delivered. In the full episode: • A behavioral health rollout with 25 locations that ended up needing almost zero live handovers • AI handling adverse medication reactions in real time — without the agent needing to spell the drug name • The oncology AI companion being studied for its impact on patient quality of life Full episode drops this Thursday. Subscribe so you don't miss it 🎙️ 👉 https://bit.ly/4w0EzCn #ContactCenter #HealthcareAI #ContactCenterAI

Your next CX decision shouldn't be a guess. Contact centers are under more pressure than ever. Adopt AI. Modernize the stack. Cut costs. And somehow pick the right vendors while dozens compete for your attention. That's where we come in. CTG has a bench of 120+ former contact center directors, VPs, and SVPs. These are practitioners who spent decades running large-scale operations before becoming consultants. They've sat in your chair. From CX strategy and workforce planning to AI readiness assessments and full-service vendor sourcing, we cover the full spectrum of CX transformation. And we've invested over 4,000 hours evaluating 1,000+ solutions providers so you don't have to start from scratch. Watch the video to see what makes CTG different. Drop a comment or DM us to start a conversation. #CustomerExperience #ContactCenter #CXStrategy

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐀𝐈. 𝐈𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲. A chatbot that handles FAQs. A copilot that summarizes meetings. An RPA script that moves data from one system to another. None of them connected. None of them learning. And your team is still the glue holding it all together. That's not automation. That's AI sprawl. After evaluating over 1,000 vendors across 58 categories, here's what we keep telling clients: You don't need more AI tools. You need three types of AI agents working together. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 that listen to live calls and chats and pull the right answers from your systems in real time. 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 that use your actual data - policies, docs, product info, with guardrails so nothing gets made up. 𝐎𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 that don't just answer questions, they complete the process. Across systems, across departments, end to end. Most companies have maybe one of these. The ones pulling ahead have all three on a single platform. We partner with a solution that does exactly this. No code. No six-month rollout. Business teams describe what they need in plain language and it builds. If your AI "strategy" is still a pile of disconnected tools, let's fix that. What's the biggest gap in your current setup? #AI #CXInnovation #ContactCenter

AI isn’t coming. It’s already reshaping the contact center FAST. The real question: Are you leading through it or trying to catch up? At BenchmarkPortal's Call Center Campus 2026, we’re getting real about: • AI readiness beyond the buzzwords • Agentic AI + what it means for your workforce • Leading teams through rapid change But the real value? The room. The people showing up are the ones building what’s next and those conversations aren’t happening online. Seats are filling up and the room block at the amazing The Wigwam Resort is expiring on April 25. To learn more and to register, click on the link in the comments. #CallCenterCampus #AI #CustomerExperience #Leadership #FutureOfWork #CX

𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨'𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐠𝐰𝐚𝐦 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟎. May 17-20. Phoenix area. About 150 senior contact center leaders. Amazon-led working sessions. Real case studies from MAXIMUS, Waste Management, and Banner Health. Optional workshops on the final day. No vendor noise. CTG will be there with a booth. Use code CTG10 for 10% off registration. If you're going, get the room sorted before April 20. Details and registration: https://bit.ly/4cJEWcE #ContactCenter #CXLeadership #AIAdoption

What happens to the patient who qualifies for a clinical trial - but nobody thought to check? In this clip from the Contact Center Gurus Podcast, Rebecca Clyde, Co-Founder and CEO of Botco.ai, shares with host Darren Prine how AI is solving one of healthcare's most overlooked problems - and the results are already changing how life-saving treatments reach patients. Full episode drops next Thursday. Subscribe so you don't miss it 🎙️ 👉 https://bit.ly/4tev6Wb #ContactCenter #HealthcareAI #AI #CCaaS #CX