Customer experience platforms are under pressure to do more than promise transformation. They have to show measurable gains—faster resolutions, tighter forecasting, and smoother cross-channel journeys.

8x8, Inc. is positioning its latest updates as exactly that: practical AI enhancements embedded directly into the 8x8 Platform for CX. Rather than bolting on generative features, the company says it has woven AI into the operational core of its contact center, workforce management, and collaboration stack.

The result, according to 8x8, is lower handle times, improved forecast accuracy, and more seamless customer engagement across channels.

AI at the Point of Conversation

The headline update centers on speed and context. With Customer 360, 8x8 turns its Agent Workspace into a unified customer hub, pulling together cross-channel history, profile data, and AI-driven insights such as sentiment analysis and top discussion topics.

Instead of toggling between tools, agents see everything in one interface. That consolidated view aims to shorten resolution cycles and make personalization less dependent on memory and more dependent on data.

Hunter Middleton, Chief Product Officer at 8x8, was explicit about the company’s positioning: this isn’t “AI-washing.” The focus, he says, is on reducing operational friction and improving customer outcomes at scale.

In a market where AI features are proliferating across CX vendors, embedding automation directly into workflows—not just dashboards—has become the new battleground.

Workforce Management, No Add-On Required

Another notable move: 8x8 Workforce Management is now included in every 8x8 Contact Center package.

That means forecasting, scheduling, and shift management are no longer optional extras. By bundling WFM capabilities into the base offering, 8x8 is responding to a key enterprise pain point—tool sprawl.

Accurate forecasting isn’t just a back-office metric. It determines staffing levels, wait times, and ultimately customer satisfaction. By tightening forecast accuracy and streamlining shift management, 8x8 aims to reduce the gap between predicted and actual service demand.

In an environment of tightening margins, operational precision matters as much as customer delight.

Collaboration Meets Compliance

The updates also extend beyond the contact center. 8x8 Work, the company’s unified communications layer, now includes enhanced meeting scalability controls and navigation improvements aligned with WCAG accessibility standards.

There’s also stronger real-time visibility into staff coverage, along with self-service controls that help teams adjust quickly to spikes in demand.

This reflects a broader industry trend: the line between contact center and internal collaboration is dissolving. Customers don’t care whether their issue spans support, billing, or sales—they expect continuity. Platforms that unify communications and CX infrastructure have a structural advantage in delivering that consistency.

WhatsApp Gets a Bigger Role

Customer engagement doesn’t stop at voice or web chat. Businesses can now engage customers via interactive flows and one-tap voice calling through WhatsApp.

Interactive messaging on WhatsApp can reduce friction in common workflows—appointment confirmations, service updates, order tracking—while escalating seamlessly to voice when needed.

8x8 also introduced automated MM Lite onboarding and WhatsApp Business App plus Cloud API co-existence. In practical terms, this allows organizations to scale messaging campaigns and automation without disrupting existing setups or compromising data protection.

As messaging platforms continue to dominate global customer interactions, tighter integration with WhatsApp is less a feature and more a necessity.

One Platform Strategy

The strategic thread tying these updates together is consolidation. The 8x8 Platform for CX unifies:

• Contact center

• Unified communications

• Communication APIs

All on a single AI-powered foundation.

That unified architecture is increasingly important as enterprises look to simplify vendor stacks. Multiple disconnected systems may offer best-of-breed capabilities, but they often create fragmented data and inconsistent workflows.

By embedding AI across a single platform, 8x8 is betting that integrated intelligence delivers stronger business momentum than isolated automation.

Competitive Context

The CX market is crowded with vendors layering generative AI onto legacy systems. The differentiator now is execution—how deeply AI is integrated and how directly it impacts measurable KPIs.

Reducing average handle time. Improving forecast accuracy. Increasing first-contact resolution. Those are metrics that CFOs and COOs track, not just CX leaders.

If 8x8 can demonstrate sustained improvements in those areas, it strengthens its case against competitors offering either standalone contact center solutions or communications platforms without deep CX integration.

The Bottom Line

AI in customer experience has moved beyond novelty. Enterprises want operational leverage.

With its latest updates, 8x8 is positioning AI as a built-in force multiplier across conversation context, workforce management, collaboration, and messaging. The message is clear: AI shouldn’t just sound intelligent—it should shorten queues, tighten forecasts, and accelerate outcomes.

In a climate where customer expectations are rising and budgets are under scrutiny, that practical focus may be exactly what the market demands.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.