Although the customer service and experience industry has a penchant for exaggeration, it isn’t too much of a stretch to suggest that the past 18 months have been some of the most turbulent the CX technology sector has seen in a decade.
A constant stream of acquisitions, rebrands, and AI announcements has left even seasoned CX leaders wondering how to keep pace.
With every major vendor racing to reposition around AI, the familiar decision-making frameworks many organizations once relied upon have become far less dependable.
This isn’t simply a case of ‘more choice equals more opportunity,’ for many, it’s producing the opposite effect: confusion, slower decision cycles, and stalled projects.
As James Hughes, VP Solutions at Sabio Group, puts it:
“This consolidation is actually creating more confusion rather than clarity for CX leaders.”
And it’s easy to see why. A new model lands every week. Vendors attach the ‘AI-driven’ label to long-standing products. Roadmaps shift to follow whichever large language model is in favor that quarter.
For enterprise leaders trying to build a long-term plan, it feels less like a competitive marketplace and more like an arms race.
Consolidation Without Clarity
AI is the accelerant. Big players want scale, breadth of capability, and access to training data. That ambition has powered a wave of acquisitions and technology pivots across the industry.
But according to Hughes, that rush is contributing to a critical industry problem:
“95% of enterprise AI initiatives fail to reach production, and the underlying cause isn’t technological limitations – it’s the critical shortage of expertise needed to execute successfully.”
With many vendors now repackaging existing capabilities under an AI banner, organizations often struggle to identify true innovation.
The result is a kind of decision paralysis, where leaders hesitate to invest because they simply can’t see which direction the market is genuinely heading.
“Leaders are overwhelmed by ‘AI-driven’ solutions that often represent only early stages of what’s possible rather than fully mature, integrated systems,” Hughes adds.
Missing the Bigger Financial Picture
One of the biggest misconceptions still slowing progress relates to how AI is viewed inside the enterprise.
Many executives still treat it as a marginal capability, such as a more advanced chatbot, a better FAQ, or a productivity enhancer.
However, as Hughes stresses, that view risks missing the bigger picture entirely:
“We’re not witnessing a gradual evolution… we’re at an inflection point comparable to the shift from analogue to digital or the move to cloud computing.”
The financial shift is stark. Token and compute costs are falling at a remarkable rate. More importantly, automation is beginning to reshape the core economic model of customer operations.
Hughes highlights this clearly:
“When you can demonstrate that deploying AI support could eliminate £10 million in costs whilst simultaneously improving customer experience, you’re not discussing technology upgrades – you’re discussing strategic repositioning.”
Sabio’s work with Transcom on real-time translation underscores this change.
With support for over 100 languages and 25–65% cost reductions, automation is no longer only about efficiency; it’s about opening markets and reshaping revenue models.
The False Comfort of ‘Fast Deployment’
In a market saturated with bold promises, speed of deployment has become a popular sales hook. But it’s often misleading.
“Anyone can build a demo bot in an afternoon,” Hughes says.
“But scaling AI to handle thousands of voice interactions at high performance levels requires expertise that many organizations simply don’t possess.”
The gap between proof of concept and production is where most initiatives fail. Many organizations launch quickly, only to realize they lack the governance, talent, or roadmap to extract value.
Hughes points to three foundations for avoiding this:
- Culture: Establishing vision and building confidence across teams.
- Operational discipline: Starting small, defining governance, and mapping the long-term operating model.
- Financial rigor: Tracking more than efficiency; understanding emotional, satisfaction, and cost-to-serve impacts.
Critically, he believes organizations must transition from “AI project teams to AI product teams,” reflecting the pace of change and continuous improvement required.
Why Independence Matters More Than Ever
With vendors racing ahead, having a partner able to separate hype from value has become increasingly important.
Sabio positions itself intentionally as vendor-agnostic. As Hughes explains:
“Our vendor-agnostic position is fundamental. We prioritize business outcomes over technology selection.”
That starts with analyzing intent, not chasing features. Sabio’s Intent Capture & Analysis (IC&A) illustrates this. Hughes recalls:
“When we worked with British Airways, seven of their top ten contact reasons were completely unexpected.”
Additionally, at a UK-based fire safety company, Sabio’s tech discovered that 17% of calls were simple fire alarm test requests – insights that led to targeted, high-impact automation rather than wide-scale technology replacement.
Sabio then evaluates potential investments through a CFO lens, assessing realistic automation potential and measurable ROI.
“Solutions like call summarization and email automation represent great ways to get customer service AI initiatives running with achievable returns,” Hughes notes.
But perhaps the biggest differentiator is expertise. “The technology becomes cheaper, but the capability to leverage it becomes more valuable,” Hughes warns – a gap Sabio aims to fill with multidisciplinary skills across design, linguistics, data science, and operations.
Cutting Through the Noise
The message from Sabio appears to be that transformation requires more than technology choice; it demands clarity, financial grounding, and the expertise to navigate a shifting landscape where vendors are evolving faster than ever.
As Sabio CIO Stuart Dorman told a recent CCMA audience:
“The organizations thriving in AI transformation aren’t necessarily those with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones who recognize that expert guidance through the complexity of real-world deployment is non-negotiable.”
You can hear more about Sabio’s approach to CX technology by checking out this exclusive interview with the company’s CRO, Ioan MacRae.
You can also discover Sabio’s full suite of services and solutions by visiting the website today.
