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The Big UC Show: The AI Hype Cycle in 2026, Zoom's AI Gold Star, and Checking in on Industry Events

January 29, 2026·35 min·3 clips

Only 12% of CEOs are getting the best of both cost reduction and revenue growth from AI, according to a sobering PwC survey.

The inbox avalanche sets the tone. Ciaran Devlin treats January as a checkpoint for unified comms, collaboration, and workplace AI at the start of 2026, with Blair Pleasant, Craig Durr, John Arnold, and Dom Black sorting the signal from the vendor noise. AI gets tested first. The discussion starts with PwC's 2026 global CEO survey and Satya Nadella's warning that the AI boom needs wider adoption if it is going to hold up. The question is direct: are the winners already pulling away while everyone else is stuck in pilot mode, or is 2026 the year those pilots finally turn into outcomes? Zoom brings the benchmark news. Its 48.1 score on Humanity's Last Exam gives the company a clean headline against bigger names. Blair gives it credit, especially in the context of Zoom AI Companion 3.0 and the company's explore, verify, federate strategy. Then comes the caveat, which is where the segment gets more useful. Federated AI is not just a Zoom story. Other companies are also routing work across multiple models to improve accuracy and fit. Cisco comes up as an example, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google used in a similar best-of-breed pattern, even if the branding is different. That changes the buyer question. A benchmark is interesting, but the bigger issue is whether a vendor can combine models, data, and workflows into something customers can actually use. Governance stays close behind. The setup asks whether federated AI gives buyers more choice and control, or just adds new compliance headaches. The show keeps its IT-buyer footing throughout. Even a strong score turns into a conversation about orchestration and what customers can deliver with it. Events bring the episode back to the market calendar, with ISE, IT Expo in Fort Lauderdale, and CCW Berlin all in the closing recap. The finish is practical: 2026 is where AI claims, vendor positioning, and industry events need to show their work.

As heard by us

A grounded UC roundtable that treats AI, benchmarks, and 2026 events as practical questions about outcomes, control, and adoption.

January's UC Big News Show circles around three questions: whether 2026 will turn AI pilots into real results, what Zoom's 48.1 score on Humanity's Last Exam actually signals, and whether the 2026 events calendar points to a turning point for unified comms and collaboration.

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Press play for a January UC Big News Show panel on AI value, Zoom's benchmark moment, and the 2026 event calendar.

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