**AireSpring**, a global leader in managed network, connectivity, security, UCaaS, and IT services, has been honored with a **Silver Stevie Award** in the **Customer Service Excellence** category at the 20th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. This recognition highlights their innovative approach to delivering outstanding support to businesses worldwide.

### The Prestige of the Stevie Awards

The Stevie Awards are among the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals. This year's competition saw over **2,100 nominations** from organizations across 41 nations and territories, with winners determined by scores from 150 professionals on specialized judging committees.

### An Innovative, Personalized Approach to Customer Service

AireSpring is renowned for its **people-first, service-first, customer-first mindset**, which has guided the company through technological shifts. Their philosophy emphasizes that while products evolve, **accountability, responsiveness, and customer advocacy remain constant**. This commitment has set a high standard for supporting mid-size and enterprise businesses across various industries.

At the heart of AireSpring's success is **AIreCONTROL**, an AI for IT Operations (AIOps)-powered ITSM platform that provides customers with comprehensive oversight and control of their networks. Key features include:
- **360-degree visibility** over devices, processes, data points, and circuits
- **AIOps-driven insights** from sources like national power grids, weather alerts, and carrier network outage feeds
- **24/7/365 real-time monitoring** via the integrated AIreMONITOR service
- **Automatic support case generation**, with **94% of cases opened proactively**
- **Fully integrated AireReboot remote reboot service**
- **AIrePOD™ Tier 3 engineering support** within 10 minutes of case creation

This blend of **advanced automation and AI-driven insight** with real human accountability ensures customers always have expert support behind the technology.

### Driving Customer Success Through ITSM Platform Innovation

AireSpring earned this award for its dedication to **customer success and growth** through AIreCONTROL's evolving capabilities. The platform offers streamlined navigation, enhanced dashboards, an integrated document repository, advanced analytics, and smarter location health status, enabling a **proactive approach to issue resolution**. This reduces the burden on customers' IT teams, improves infrastructure visibility, and lowers **mean time to resolution (MTTR)**.

Judges praised AireSpring for measurable improvements in customer outcomes, proactive service delivery, and innovation in support operations. Comments included:
- "Your transition to a **customer success model** paired with an **AI-driven ITSM framework** has paid off big time... exceeding industry standards."
- "The **98% CSAT score** and proactive support model show extraordinary performance... significantly outperforming industry standards while reducing customer IT burden."
- "Very impressive KPIs and customer feedback... your passion for customer service is commendable."

Russ Shipley, AireSpring's Chief Operating Officer, stated, "We're honored to once again receive this award, which reflects our ongoing commitment to **customer success, innovation, and industry leadership**. It recognizes not only the strength of the AIreCONTROL ITSM platform but also the dedication of our teams who deliver proactive, personalized service."

Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller added, "The remarkable scores achieved by this year's winners reflect the extraordinary levels of **excellence, innovation, and customer impact** they deliver."

### About AireSpring

Founded in 2001, AireSpring is a family-owned, award-winning global managed services provider. They offer customized solutions in IT, connectivity, networking, security, mobility, and unified communications, backed by a proprietary global backbone and award-winning support. Their services include Managed Connectivity, Managed SD-WAN, SD-Branch and SASE, Cloud and Voice Communications, Global Connectivity, and Mobility solutions, delivered through a network of channel partners.

AireSpring holds direct contracts with over **265 network providers** worldwide, providing a seamless single-source solution in **190 countries**. They have received numerous industry awards for excellence in customer service and innovation.

### About The Stevie® Awards

The Stevie Awards recognize outstanding performances in the workplace through nine programs, including the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. They receive over **12,000 entries annually** from more than 70 nations and territories, with judging by over 1,000 professionals globally.

For more details, visit [http://sales.stevieawards.com/](http://sales.stevieawards.com/) or [www.airespring.com](www.airespring.com).

AireSpring, a leading global provider of managed network, connectivity, security, UCaaS, and IT services, proudly announced today it has won a Sil ...

How AireSpring's AI-Powered Platform Earned a Prestigious Customer Service Award

The queue is dead. Or at least, it should be.

For decades, customer service was designed around scarcity. Limited agents, finite capacity, customers waiting their turn. Hold music, queue positions, estimated wait times… all infrastructure for managing demand that exceeded supply.

But something fundamental is shifting. **AI is enabling a redesign toward intelligent, conversation-driven journeys**. Dynamic paths that adapt in real time. Proactive outreach that prevents problems.

I’ve been thinking about this since speaking with **Nuri Gocay, Director of Platform Architecture at Zendesk for Contact Centers**. The organizations getting this right aren’t just improving service. They’re reimagining what customer connection actually means.

## The End of the Funnel

Traditional service journeys were predictable. Customer calls, enters queue, reaches agent, ticket closes. A straight line from problem to resolution. Except it rarely worked that smoothly. Customers repeated themselves across channels. Context got lost in handoffs. Systems didn’t talk to each other.

Nuri was honest about this. We’ve been talking about omnichannel for 20 years, but truly seamless experiences remain rare.

> **“We’ve been talking about omnichannel now for 20 years, but omnichannel is a lived experience. It’s happened to me maybe once or twice recently. So basically that puts the integration layer as the customer. The customer is the one now carrying that context around instead of your systems.”**

**AI changes that**. Not because omnichannel is suddenly new, but because AI can finally access and surface the full context across every system. The customer’s history travels with them. When a conversation moves from chat to voice to email, the AI agent and human agents both see the complete picture. No more asking customers to repeat themselves.

From funnels to flows. From rigid paths to adaptive journeys.

## Proactive Without Being Invasive

There’s a fundamental change in how service works. Not just responding when customers call, but reaching out before problems occur. Order delayed? The system notifies you first. Appointment coming up? Reminder sent.

It requires a significant operational shift. You’re no longer just managing incoming demand. You’re predicting it, preventing it, sometimes creating it intentionally.

The challenge isn’t the technology. It’s building a proactive model that doesn’t feel invasive. The key is relevance, timing, and consent. Not “how do we handle the queue faster?” but **“how do we eliminate the need for the queue in the first place?”**

## The Integration Challenge

Integration is not a technical detail. It’s the difference between a helpful answer and a resolved issue.

A modern platform needs to connect CRM, knowledge bases, AI, quality assurance, governance, and routing. All working together in real time. If they’re not connected, you get what Nuri called “swivel chairing.”

> **“Agents are literally switching screens, trying to find an answer, hunting for context, asking other departments for answers. I can’t imagine some of the internal Slack and Teams messages that basically mean, does anyone else know what’s going on with this?”**

Zendesk’s approach is to build AI into the system of record from day one.

> **“Our approach is that AI is designed to work with the system of record from day one. That’s the data, the workflows, knowledge, agent experience, reporting governance. It’s not bolt on brain with no hands. It’s connected to the levers that actually resolve issues.”**

## Metrics That Actually Matter

For decades, contact centers measured average handle time, queue length, first-call resolution. All metrics designed around managing scarcity.

But in a world where AI answers instantly, where conversations flow across channels, where proactive outreach prevents problems… do those metrics still make sense?

> **“There’s a fundamental shift going on in some of our service rituals, right? We’re almost tearing up the book. Things like average speed of answer as a metric. Why does that matter when an AI is going to answer that immediately and take care of the customer’s problem?”**

What should organizations measure instead? **Resolution rates. Conversation quality. Sentiment improvement**. Whether issues get solved, not just how fast tickets close.

The shift is toward outcomes that matter. Did the customer’s problem get resolved? Did they feel heard? Are they more likely to stay loyal? Those are the metrics that drive business results.

## The Cultural Transformation

This isn’t just a technology project. It’s a cultural one. You’re asking teams to transition from managing queues to orchestrating conversations. That’s a different skill set, a different mindset.

The goal isn’t to replace agents with AI. It’s to give agents better tools, better context, better support.

> **“AI does those kind of unglamorous time savers, things like summarizing threads and drafting responses, routing by intent and priority, servicing the right knowledge instantly. And those minutes matter because queues are often just the accumulation of tiny inefficiencies.”**

Nuri’s advice was straightforward:

> **“Find that sweet spot in orchestration, the right channel, the right context, the right guard rails, the handoff, so that customers feel the progress immediately, agents feel supported, and we stop designing for customer patience and start designing for customer progress.”**

## What Comes Next

What replaces the queue isn’t just faster service. It’s a fundamentally different relationship between businesses and customers. One built on anticipation instead of reaction. On flows instead of funnels.

> **“The real waste isn’t the call itself, it’s everything that happens in the background. Leaders run constant incident response for things that are normal work. They’re not managing service, they’re managing the consequences of preventable service demand.”**

The organizations that understand this aren’t just improving their contact centers. They’re reimagining what customer connection means.

And that, I suppose, is the real opportunity.

CX Today covers news including Agent Assist, Artificial Intelligence, Conversational AI, CRM Integration and more.

The Queue is Dead: How AI is Revolutionizing Customer Service from Reactive to Proactive

**Smart CT**, a technology lifecycle services expert, has appointed Eddie Egan as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). Egan's primary focus in this role is to ensure that the company's **customer service** keeps pace with its rapid expansion.

### About Smart CT
Smart CT is a fast-growing company based in Reading, with over 65 engineers spread across the UK and Europe. The company specializes in deploying, maintaining, replacing, and repairing **business-critical IT infrastructure** for IT manufacturers. These manufacturers support a wide range of organizations, from household brands to industrial businesses, providing connected devices such as networking equipment, servers, and other workplace technologies.

### Eddie Egan's Vision for Growth
With a 26-year career at BT, where he advanced from a field engineer to managing digital transformation, Egan brings extensive experience to his new position. He plans to streamline processes and create a blueprint for support services that can scale effectively as the company grows.

Egan stated, "I'm here to ensure that we are delivering **exceptional experiences and services** for our customers, making sure that we're delivering it in a manner that enables us to grow sustainably." He emphasized the importance of simplifying and standardizing workflows to handle the company's expansion into new areas like workplace technologies.

### Why Egan Joined Smart CT
Egan was drawn to Smart CT by CEO Andy Morgan's vision and the opportunity to have a more direct impact on decision-making. He highlighted the company's culture and commitment to delivering great service as key factors in his decision. "I want to be part of an organization that cares about its employees and customers and wants to deliver and make a difference," he said.

He also appreciated the agility of a smaller company compared to larger corporations, noting, "I've always wanted to be in a business where you can be really fleet of foot, deliver things quickly, look to generate growth, but also take people I work with on a journey."

### Initial Steps and Future Plans
In his early days at Smart CT, Egan has been engaging with staff to understand the existing support services, which are designed to rapidly deploy engineers and parts across Europe. He believes in understanding current processes before implementing changes, saying, "Change can be challenging, but change in a growing business is a fun and exciting place to be."

### CEO's Perspective on the Appointment
CEO Andy Morgan explained that Egan's appointment is crucial for maintaining Smart CT's reputation for excellent customer service, which has helped secure five major contracts in the last three months. Morgan praised Egan's experience from BT, stating, "He'll be driving technological enhancements to streamline our systems and bringing all the expertise that led him to such key roles at BT."

This strategic move aims to support Smart CT's continued growth without compromising on service quality.

Technology lifecycle services expert Smart CT’s new COO Eddie Egan says his priority in the role will be to ensure the company’s customer service keeps pace with its rapid growth. The fast-growing Reading company, which has more than 65 engineers across the UK and Europe, provides services to deploy, maintain, replace and repair business-critical IT […]

How Smart CT's New COO Plans to Scale Customer Service for Explosive Growth

Few CEOs have spoken as openly about internal AI use as Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the CEO of Sweden-based buy-now, pay-later provider Klarna. His appearance at Charter’s Leading with AI Summit Feb. 10—where he discussed lessons he’s learned from the fintech company’s ambitious AI rollout—was no exception.

“I had to pay a lot for saying that,” Siemiatkowski told Charter editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney at the summit, referring to a past statement where he said AI could do “all our jobs,” including his own. “People were very angry with me for saying that.” Since 2022, Klarna has been on the bleeding edge of AI adoption, rolling out an AI agent for customer support it says handles the equivalent work of 850 human agents. The company has seen a roughly 50% workforce reduction through attrition since 2022, Siemiatkowski said.

But along the way, Siemiatkowski has also realized that while the AI assistant works for simple service requests, being able to talk to a human still matters, and remains a premium service that customers value. “We actually are rethinking this. We’re going to use AI to support humans and also support the simplest [tasks], but we think it’s going to be like the future to offer human support—it’s going to be like the VIP treatment,” he says.

Below, a few takeaways from our conversation with Siemiatkowski:

## For top-tier service, consider hiring your biggest fans.
For a higher-tier VIP service, Siemiatkowski said, “the most exciting project we have currently is we’re hiring our own customers. We’re actually onboarding our own customers, the most passionate customers.” The Uber-like approach, in which customers contract to offer Klarna service for a few hours at a time, lets people work remotely. “They love Klarna, right? They know how it works. Their customer service is just so different.”

## Higher compensation can be an incentive as attrition rises.
Siemiatkowski said that while headcount fell through attrition, revenue has also “grown and exploded since then,” rising from $300,000 to $1.3 million per employee since 2022. Alongside that, Klarna has raised average employee compensation too. “My employees know that they’re driving efficiencies, but they are also participating in getting the benefit of that,” he said. “It’s not just like more work, it’s also more compensation.”

## People whose jobs focus on relationship-building are more secure.
Siemiatkowski said a “big part of our employees are today teams that work with our partners,” such as retailers like Macy’s, Sephora, or Nike. The people in local offices who manage those relationships? “AI is not going to touch their jobs.”

## Business acumen is becoming more valuable than coding.
During the first two years of Klarna’s AI strategy, Siemiatkowski said Klarna focused on hiring engineers. But that has “switched, actually. It’s almost the opposite:” The business knowledge of non-coders—who can use AI to code but also know what kind of dashboards or features are needed—is increasingly valuable, he said. “The engineers, they’re like, ‘okay, I coded this feature. What do I do next?’”

## Leading by example, with senior executives using AI tools, is essential.
Siemiatkowski notes he joked with OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman that if you trained AI to be like a CEO, and got rid of CEOs, “everyone would cheer that.” Becoming more serious, he said it’s “even more important is [to] lead by example right now. Show people what’s possible. Show them how to use these tools, empower them.”

He gave the example of a recent presentation his employees were giving about pricing strategy. Siemiatkowski dropped their Google Sheet into the AI tool Cursor during the meeting, added a prompt, and made a visualization and dashboard. “Forty minutes later, when they were still talking and doing the presentation, I was like, ‘guys, stop and let me show you this,’” he said. “The one thing I would encourage everyone to do is to download Cursor,” he said. “Just download it, pay the license, … create a project and then just push in an idea there. Build me something. If you haven’t done that, you will not fully appreciate the change that we’re going to go through.”

Why AI pioneer Klarna is hiring its users to serve customers and other insights from CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski

Klarna's AI Revolution: How Hiring Customers and Boosting Pay Transformed Customer Service

It’s been another busy week across the industry, with a number of appointments being announced. The desire to bring in fresh expertise has been felt by those operating at all levels of the channel in the past few days.

**Maintel:** The managed services player has welcomed **Rachel Cox** as its chief people officer. She joins the channel player from Low Carbon Contracts Company, and has time at Liberis on her CV. “Rachel is an experienced HR leader who has worked in a number of global organisations,” said Dan Davies, Maintel CEO. “Her people and culture expertise will prove invaluable to the company as we continue to progress with our strategy and ongoing business transformation programme. We are delighted to have her onboard.”

**Smart CT:** The technology lifecycle expert has appointed **Eddie Egan** as chief operating officer, with a brief to maintain the firm’s strong **customer service ethos**. Egan has a 26-year career at BT under his belt, which saw him gain experience rising from a field engineer to managing digital transformation.

“Eddie comes with a lot of experience from a large, mature organisation where he’s seen investments in support systems at scale – and we want to grow our business further without sacrificing **customer service**, so he’s a brilliant fit,” said Andy Morgan, CEO of Smart CT.

**OneTrust:** The artificial intelligence (AI)-ready governance platform specialist has appointed **John Heyman** as CEO, succeeding founder Kabir Barday, who will remain involved in a strategic advisory role through his position on the board of directors.

“Growing adoption of AI across organisations has led to massive demand for OneTrust solutions that help enable the responsible use of data and AI,” said Barday. “This is a pivotal time to bring in a new CEO who can harness this momentum and drive OneTrust’s next chapter of growth.

“John’s proven track record of innovation, **customer obsession**, and his deep experience growing B2B technology companies makes him the right person to take on this role. I look forward to continuing to support the company strategically from my board role.”

## Global Experience

**StorMagic:** The virtualisation specialist has welcomed **Scott Mann** as global senior vice-president of sales. “Scott brings extensive global experience leading international sales and channel teams, with a strong track record of scaling partner ecosystems and driving growth; making him a tremendous addition to the StorMagic team,” said Susan Odle, StorMagic’s CEO.

“StorMagic is excited to work closely with Scott to expand our reach in helping partners help their customers navigate VMware migration and hardware cost challenges with our simple, reliable and trusted virtualisation software.”

**Silverfort:** The identity security player has given **Joseph Schramm** the chance to make a difference as vice-president of global channel. His CV stretches over more than two and a half decades, with channel leadership experience at BeyondTrust, SailPoint and Saviynt.

“Historically, identity has been viewed primarily as a governance and business enablement tool, not a security control,” said Howard Greenfield, president and chief revenue officer at Silverfort. “That’s now changing. Joe and I have seen this shift take shape across the identity market for years.

“As identity moves beyond governance into true security enforcement, Silverfort is prioritising partners that operate at the intersection of identity, security, risk and response, which demands a new kind of channel leadership. Joe’s experience building and scaling identity ecosystems makes him the right leader to turn this strategy into reality.”

Appointments of note have been made at Maintel, Smart CT, OneTrust, StorMagic and Silverfort.

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