Published to Whisper Club: June15, 2026 ID: TBW2185
Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
ABSTRACT:
“This Whisper Report investigates What data problem slows fleet electrification most? based on expert insights from ACT Expo 2026 in Las Vegas, revealing hidden gaps in usage data, power economics, energy modeling, and risk that quietly stall progress and distort investment decisions before organizations realize what they are missing. Cited experts: Austin Smith Burns & McDonnell, Alexander Stratmoen Voltra, Dion Van Leeve Triz Engineering, Micah Gold-Utting FractalEV.”
Published to Whisper Club: June 9, 2026 ID: TBW2081
Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
ABSTRACT:
“This Whisper Report investigates how can we leverage customer interaction data to drive business insights and innovation. Based on expert perspectives gathered at Customer Connect Expo held in Las Vegas, teasing how everyday conversations can become enterprise-wide signals—before the best opportunities and risks surface on their own. Cited experts: Siva Kannan Ganesan Macy’s, Dr. Kalifa Oliver at Ford, Sean Gigremoss at Claritiv, Atul Grover at Enthu.ai, Dayna Neumann at Unified Direct Solutions, Pedro Lopez Slevin at Mitrol, Alex Hamberger at Blitz, Zac Brooksher at Verse.ai and Patrick Reynolds Etech.”
Target Audience Titles:
Chief Technology Officer, Chief Digital Officer,
Chief Data Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Content Officer
Head of AI and Machine Learning, Data Scientists
Product Managers, Content Managers
Key Takeaways
Customer interaction data is a “gold mine” only when captured, analyzed, and shared across sales, service, product, and leadership.
Use interaction signals to deliver personalization at scale and continuously surface customer trends for faster decision-making.
Detect dissatisfaction early, pinpoint root causes, and close training gaps by pairing customer interactions with employee feedback.
Apply insights to operations and growth: anticipate inventory demand, feed product improvements, and reduce friction to improve sales outcomes.
We took the most urgent industry questions to experts at Customer Connect Expo held in Las Vegas. Figure 1 summarizes how can we leverage customer interaction data to drive business insights and innovation.
As Macy’s Siva Kannan Ganesan stated, “The customer interaction data is a gold mine.” Unfortunately, as Ford’s Dr. Kalifa Oliver observed, “we don’t spend enough time on the content of the interaction.” Furthermore, there are many types of customer interactions that can maximize the potential. Claritiv’s Sean Gigremoss put it simply. “You can’t be everywhere at once. Your salespeople are talking to customers. Your product people are talking to customers. Your service people are talking to customers and even your leadership are talking to the leadership of those customers and a lot of times those in that that information that conversation is siloed based out of a sales process or a service process. You don’t really understand what’s really going on holistically.”
Those gathering at CCE25 did not disappoint in suggesting ways to leverage customer interactions to drive business insights and innovation. As Enthu’ai’s Atule Grover said, “whether it’s through phone call chats web chats emails etc we find those insights and provide those actionable data.”
As one might expect, the most prolific use case is personalization. The difference today is the ability for organizations to execute personalization at scale. As Macy’s Siva Kannan Ganesan explained, “Every navigation, every click of a customer, we read the data. That will help us to give the feedback loop to the recommendation engine and we do the recommendation engine with the two tower model like how the customer can be getting it more than the personal it’s like personalization is one end and analyzing the trends (on the other).” Unified Direct Solutions’ Dayna Neumann shared a similar thought regarding customer trends. “The number one way that companies can leverage the information they’re receiving from their customer call centers to innovate for the organization is to capture all of that conversation and package it up into a few key points and then and then use AI or use whatever tools you have available to watch for those trends.”
To be a business, one requires customers. If customers are unhappy or have a problem, they may not return or may spread the word on why they regret becoming a customer therefore scaring off future customers. Thus, it is quite valuable to understand when a company is missing the mark with its customers. As Enthu.ai’s Atul Grover stated, “if there’s any kind of dissatisfaction with the clients and the customers so our software will track those insights and provide those information to do so that our customers can take care of all the next best action what they need to do or what they need to basically handle in terms of coaching their agents in terms of coaching their sales representatives or coaching their customer services representatives to ensure that they know they are doing the right things in the right way next time.” Fortunately, as Ford’s Dr. Kalifa Oliver pointed out, “with customer interaction data is that it gives you an idea very quickly where the problems are.” Of course, as Mitrol’s Pedro Lopez Slevin said, “once we know how they work what they do what’s the main problem then we can go and search all the databases APIs or whatever they have to integrate that and get the best solution.”
Sometimes, customer service is the problem! Not intentionally but sometimes there is just a gap of knowledge or capability between what your front line knows and has access to versus what is needed to succeed with the customers. As Ford’s Dr. Kalifa Oliver observed, “there a gap in the training that you’re giving people that’s actually frustrating your customers, so it helps you improve the experience for everyone at the end of the day.” Chances are, that training gap is also impacting your employee satisfaction. As such Dr. Oliver went on to further suggest, “balance the customer interaction data with the employee interaction data. What are the employees actually hearing? Does it match the interactions that people are having with the customer? so one it helps you with your product and your product business and it mitigates risk.” Anytime you can combine one data set with another data set with some overlap, you’re bound to find additional insights.
As we shared earlier, the more data you can combine together that has a common connection point, the more insights you can garner to move your organization forward. One of those interesting use cases was shared by Macy’s Siva Kannon Ganesan. “You’ll be able to do more control over there how the inventory can be managed and this u with all these trends.” That’s right. One of the trends that can be observed through customer interactions are inventory demands.
One of the most exciting manners to leverage customer insights for innovation is straight back into product design. Blitz leverages video for customer interactions providing it a significant data set not customarily available to companies on their products. As Blitz’s Alex Hamberger suggested, “we see some real opportunity to leverage some of the customer data that is collected through our video calling is a real sort of ripe opportunity to visualize exactly how products are being used in the real world by customers. Where the points of failure are while also documenting what the common resolution steps are for different products within either a product line or across a different family of brands.”
Top line growth is monitored by every senior executive. Leveraging customer insights for increased sales is always attractive but how exactly can it be done? The more we understand our best customers, the easier it will be to try to find more like them and grow revenues. Verse.ai’s Zac Brooksher has a recommendation on how the insights can reduce friction on the path to a sale. “we’re able to understand when companies are being communicated with from their prospective customers what time of day? What .. the next best call to action from that insight and that data as well and really driving the best way to minimize paths of resistance so how can we quickly address customer issues get them to the right department um without bogging down our people power internally.”
Unified Direct Solutions’ Dayna Neumann denoted, “package up all of those interactions bubble up the trends … and get even more dialed into what your current customers and of course when you’re doing modeling you know what current customers are asking for now you can improve what you’re saying to those prospective customers in your acquisition campaigns and hopefully all boats rise in the end. “ As Etech’s Patrick Reynolds suggested, “what we’re doing when we’re looking at that data is that we’re trying to find the unique attributes of that contact that are delivering the outcomes that you want the successful outcomes.” Thus they are using the data to find out patterns to succeed with customers on calls thereby increasing results = sales. Patrick went on to explain further. “What we’re doing when we’re looking at that data is that we’re trying to find the unique attributes of that contact that are delivering the outcomes that you want the successful outcomes.” In other words, what do our great customers look like? Once we know who loves our products, we can focus our attention on finding more loyal customers.
Published to Whisper Club: June 1, 2026 ID: TBW2178
Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
ABSTRACT:
“This Whisper Report investigates which media workflow is AI changing fastest? It distills expert perspectives from NAB Show 2026, spotlighting the workflows where AI is compressing cycles and reshaping execution across teams—signaling where attention should shift next. Cited experts : Tony Abrahams AI Media, Carl Rutman Brightcove, Glen Wastyn Freepik..”
Published to Whisper Club: May 26, 2026 ID: TBW2133
Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
Abstract:
“This Whisper Report investigates What’s the killer XR use case no one sees coming? Across CES, three very different XR stories emerged — one surprising, two accelerating. Together they reveal why XR’s real breakthrough may not be where everyone expects. Cited experts: Paul Standford, Haply; David Sniderman, Mapbox; Daisuke Takoze, Gakugeki.”
This Whisper Report investigates What’s the next gaming tech that will change how we play? Drawing on signals from the gaming floor, the analysis hints at emerging technologies quietly reshaping production, interaction, and player intelligence. Cited experts: Justin Cosnett (Continent 8 Technologies), Will Shuckburgh (eCOGRA), Chris Chuang (Relay), Wanor Franca (CCT), Erik Regan (Plotline), Matt DeLaura (Seon), Phil Simpson (fullstory).
This Whisper Report investigates how will robotics in packaging reshape enterprise ops? It explores how flexibility, efficiency, and human–machine collaboration are quietly redefining operations on modern packaging floors, based on firsthand industry perspectives from the field. Cited experts: Mike DeGrace, Universal Robots; Mike Wolf, Signode; Rich Parkhurst, KUKA; Mike Renzetti, Robotunits Inc.; Brett Olson, SICK Sensor Intelligence; Brand Winer, Cognex.
Target Audience Titles:
Chief Operations Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer
Director of Operations, Director of Manufacturing Engineering, Packaging Engineering Manager, Robotics Engineering Manager
We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the operation engineers and technology professionals gathering at Pack Expo Vegas 2025. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding how will robotics in packaging reshape enterprise ops? In two words: Flexibility and Efficiencies.
We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the operation engineers and technology professionals gathering at Pack Expo Vegas 2025. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding how will robotics in packaging reshape enterprise ops? In two words: Flexibility and Efficiencies.
One of the key benefits of modern robotics is flexibility. Universal Robots’ Mike DeGrace had this observation, “We’re seeing a huge drive towards increased flexibility. One of the things that I’m noticing is obviously a greater adoption of technology like this, the Six-Axis collaborative robot.” Signode’s Mike Wolf provides context for the use of such robotics. “One of the things that robots are really transforming is the ability to reconfigure a line and make your facility flexible to what you need to do.” Universal Robots’ Mike DeGrace expands on this thought. “No need for hard guarding or caging in most applications. The other is the space savings. When you think about a contract manufacturer that has lines that change over, products that change over routinely. You need a product that can adjust as quickly as your lines do, right? And that’s what these new robots, these new technologies are bringing to enterprise ops.” Signode’s Mike Wolf commented on the flexibility specifically due to autonomous mobile robots or AMRs. “With autonomous mobile robots, you’re able to do a logistics planning where you don’t need to make conveyors all over your factory. You’re able to transport the goods from the final packaging station out to the truck bay in a flexible way that can reflect what is needed for that truck that day.”
When it comes to how robotics will change enterprise operations, many thought the answer was obvious. Per KUKA’s Rich Parkhurst, the answer is, “In a word its efficiency, right?” Robotunits Inc.’s Mike Renzetti went on to describe the many aspects of efficiency achieved. “If you think about scalability, something as small as this versus as large as full automation of using a robot to do the biggest tasks that may cut down your staff. It may save you money. It may save you time. It may save your production floor. The idea of human error. In reality, I think that robotics and automation as a whole is a never-ending enterprise and an ever growing industry.” SICK Sensor Intelligence’s Brett Olson knows exactly how many are achieving that efficiency. “Having robots like this, adding sensors to it, not only can you go in and access a cell, just to keep the efficiency up, but also safely.” But efficiency with robotics goes beyond the sensors as Cognex’s Brand Winer reported. “People in robots working side by side and really the big roadblock to that before was it need all needed to be safety guarded, right? It could, you know, physically hurt someone and that’s changed. So we’re kind of already seeing that, right? But it’s really a work side by side with the robots to build a more efficient system.” But it more than collaboration with humans, many whispered what Kuka’s Rich Parkhurst tactfully communicated. “We are we’re talking about roles that humans are doing today in the factory environment that are unsafe not good long-term ergonomically. Robotics are really what is going to change that and then also make the space more efficient and more productive over time.” In other words yes, robotics may replace jobs humans do today but the first to go will be the ones that are dangerous and known to sometimes cause life altering harm to the workers.
This Whisper Report investigates What Fintech problems are you solving in 2026? Drawing insight from on-the-ground conversations at Fintech Meetup 2026, it surfaces the pressures shaping next‑gen financial platforms and the bets leaders are quietly making. It previews how scale, trust, and automation collide before outcomes are obvious. Cited experts: Peter Daunton (Sokin), Kunal Datta (Unit21.ai), Jack Chawla (interface.ai), Liam Reaume (Sardine).
This Whisper Report investigates the question, “What’s your biggest access control challenge?” Researched at ISC West in Las Vegas, the report analyzes challenges driven by fragmented systems, persistent legacy technologies, and incomplete integrations. It finds that access control risk increasingly stems from interoperability gaps and response readiness rather than tool availability alone. Insights are drawn from Ed Hendricks of Keri Systems, Joshua Hartman of Hartman, and Peter Evans of Xtract One.
“This Whisper Report investigates what’s the hardest problem in robotics no one solved. It follows the technologists who reveal why extreme environments, continuous learning during operation, and the elusive quest for a universal foundational model still defy today’s best systems. The full story hints at breakthroughs but leaves the biggest twist ahead. Cited experts: Dr. Yuxin Zhang, Widemount Dynamics Tech Limited; Pai-Heng Hsiao, “Memorence “AI; Anson Yuen, Scanbotics.”
“This Whisper Report investigates when clinical artificial intelligence becomes unsafe, signaling where scrutiny, safeguards, and infrastructure begin slipping across clinical environments. Readers will discover the pivotal checkpoints leaders watch to protect patients, preserve trust, and steer responsible adoption without stalling innovation. Cited experts: Hal Wolf, HIMSS; Scott Francis, Ricoh Document Scanners; Joe Graw, ImageTrend; Braheem Santos, Schneider Electric.”
