For many organisations, the gap between AI’s promise and its practical use comes down to integration. Bolt-on tools that sit alongside existing workflows rarely get used. The secret is embedding intelligence in the tools people already use.
Understanding this is key to Intermedia’s proposition. In fact, it shapes everything the company does. Founded in 1993 and today serving over 150,000 businesses through its AI-powered cloud platform that includes voice, video conferencing, chat, SMS, contact centre, business email, file sharing and more, the Sunnyvale-based company has built its strategy around embedding AI where work actually happens – not asking employees to go somewhere new to find it.
“We see AI not as a standalone feature, but as an intelligence layer embedded across communications, collaboration and customer engagement workflows,” says Irina Shamkova, chief product officer for Intermedia Intelligent Communications. “Our strategy is focused on helping businesses operationalise AI in practical ways – through AI-powered agents, interaction insights and workflow automation that are tightly integrated into the communication tools employees already use every day.”
A key enabler of that strategy, says Shamkova, is Intermedia’s combination of unified communications and contact centre capabilities within a single cloud platform. Where many vendors offer these as separate products, Intermedia’s integrated approach allows AI to be applied consistently across meetings, calling, messaging and customer interactions. “This creates a more connected and intelligent experience for both employees and customers,” she says.
The company also takes what Shamkova describes as a dual approach to AI adoption – supporting organisations that want simple, quickly deployable self-service capabilities alongside those that need more tailored solutions aligned to specific business processes. “Our roadmap supports both standardised AI agents and more customised AI-driven workflows, allowing organisations to adopt the technology at the pace and level of sophistication that fits their particular business needs,” she says.
For employees, the most immediate benefits come from the removal of low-value administrative work. “A large portion of the working day is often spent documenting conversations, coordinating follow-ups, retrieving information and updating systems,” says Shamkova. “AI can automate many of those activities in the background. It can generate summaries, identify action items, surface insights and help organise work far more efficiently.”
The goal, Shamkova emphasises, is not to add another layer of tools for employees to navigate, but to surface the right information within the communication experience they are already in. “Rather than forcing employees to search across disconnected systems, AI can surface relevant context, summarise conversations and help prioritise next actions directly within the communication experience,” she says.
The result is faster decision-making, but without a corresponding increase in cognitive load. And nowhere is this shift more visible than in the contact centre, where Shamkova sees AI fundamentally reshaping the role of agents.
“AI is transforming the contact centre agent role from something that is often mostly transactional to something that is increasingly consultative and outcome-focused,” she says. “Routine tasks like post-call summaries, interaction categorisation and knowledge retrieval can increasingly be automated or assisted, freeing agents to focus on complex problem-solving and relationship management. AI agents are also beginning to handle simpler or highly repetitive customer requests, escalating to human colleagues only when judgement and empathy are most needed. The goal is not to remove humans from the process, but to create a more intelligent collaboration between AI and employees that improves both operational efficiency and the customer experience.”
Intermedia takes a “dual approach” to AI adoption (Photo: iStock/Jacob Wackerhausen)
The operational gains Intermedia is seeing across contact centre deployments cluster around three areas: interaction automation, operational insight and agent efficiency. AI-driven interaction insights are giving supervisors far greater visibility into customer sentiment, recurring issues and service quality trends at a scale that was previously impossible. “Traditionally, businesses could only analyse a small subset of customer interactions,” says Shamkova. “AI now allows organisations to analyse conversations at scale, identify recurring themes, detect sentiment trends and surface operational bottlenecks that might otherwise go unnoticed.”
That visibility, says Shamkova, translates directly into faster coaching, earlier intervention when interactions are at risk of escalation, and a stronger feedback loop for improving products and services.
For customers on the receiving end of these interactions, the impact is felt as greater continuity and responsiveness. “Customers increasingly expect organisations to deliver fast, context-aware and highly personalised experiences regardless of the channel,” says Shamkova. “AI-generated context means agents can continue conversations without forcing customers to repeat information – a frustration that has long undermined confidence in multichannel service.”
Proactive engagement is also becoming more achievable. Potential issues can be identified earlier and next-best actions can be surfaced in real time – with both things leading to faster resolution times. “The result is a more seamless and human experience, even as interaction volumes continue to grow,” says Shamkova.
Looking further ahead, Shamkova expects unified communications platforms to evolve significantly over the next two to three years – moving from current systems that facilitate conversations to platforms that actively orchestrate work and support decision-making. “AI will increasingly capture context, generate insights, recommend next best actions and help coordinate execution across teams,” she says. “AI agents will become deeply integrated into business communications workflows, assisting employees and customers in real time across multiple channels, while interaction intelligence will evolve into a baseline expectation instead of a premium feature.”
For organisations still uncertain about where to begin, Shamkova offers some simple advice. She acknowledges the legitimacy of concerns around security, governance and data privacy, but argues that the competitive stakes of delay are rising. “The organisations seeing the greatest success are typically not those attempting massive, disruptive transformations,” she says. “They are the ones who start with targeted, practical use cases that solve real business problems and deliver measurable value quickly.”
The framing she returns to is augmentation rather than replacement. “AI works best when it helps employees become more productive, informed and responsive – not when it attempts to remove humans from critical workflows entirely,” she says. “Above all, organisations should seek out technology partners that prioritise reliability, transparency and ease of adoption. At the end of the day, AI should reduce complexity for businesses, not create more of it.”
Discover more insights in interviews like this in the Summer 2026 issue of Technology Record. Don’t miss out – subscribe for free today and get future issues delivered straight to your inbox.