NiCE TV | NiCE World 2026 Interview with NiCE CEO, Scott Russell

Great to be here, Caitlyn. Thank you for having me.

You know what? It's got a buzz, doesn't it? There's a real vibe to the environment right now. We've got a great show floor, a great keynote set up, live theaters, customer stories, technology stories. So much fun.

Well, that's what it is. I know we've been in the industry of CX for so long, for decades, and we've delivered amazing software, but we are an AI company. Every piece of code we built is AI built. Every technology we roll out is led by AI. And yes, it's infused with all the human side and other pieces, but we're an AI company doing incredible things.

It's so interesting, Caitlyn, because the world has been surrounded and focused on artificial intelligence, and understandably so, because AI matters. You can do things with AI that you could never have imagined before, like handling scale, complexity, and automation. It's incredible. But it's not the whole story. If you have a great customer experience, it's not only because of AI, it's human intelligence, customer intelligence, operational intelligence. You need the whole fabric to come together on a single platform to truly deliver the incredible experience that companies want. So AI is great, but it's not enough. AI infused with all forms of intelligence on a unified platform. What does that really mean? As a consumer, when you first connect, you chat to an AI agent. Great conversation. But then things get tricky. Maybe there's a task like a refund, credit, or return, and that requires interaction with operational intelligence in the back systems. Maybe a human needs to come in to advise AI or speak directly to you. Human intelligence comes in. So it's the whole package. Those focused only on AI deliver point solutions and fragmentation. Orchestrated intelligence can only be delivered by a unified single platform. That's what NICE does.

It really is. There are so many use cases for AI, but the two that I know for sure work, that the market has proven, are software engineering and CX. In software engineering, we've seen what Claude and other frontier models can do: generate code, debug, all things engineers did. The automation is incredible, the ROI stacks up. The other one with the best ROI is CX. Why? High volumes of data, billions of interactions, repeatable workflows. You need to operationalize that complexity into a single unified environment. It's the perfect AI use case. We have the proof: increased resolution rates, improved containment, lower cost to serve, increased revenue, improved customer satisfaction. We can prove it quantifiably with so many customers. Here at NICE World, we have hundreds of customers saying exactly this. They've proven the ROI. So it's easy for us to say, we know this works. Now, let's go the full envelope to orchestrated intelligence, not in a silo, but as part of a seamless end-to-end journey.

We talk about the digital front door because it is such a critical moment. That first interaction could be on a company's website, app, SMS, email, IVR, any form. Customers do not want a depersonalized or scripted engagement. They want to feel engaged and personal. The first step is one of our AI agents with NICE cognitive. It's a conversation. We know the context: who you are, what you want, why you want it, and it sets up everything else. Whether you speak to a human or the AI automates your needs, that first engagement must be incredible. The digital front door must allow for AI, voice, or digital interaction. AI tools bolted on for CX don't work because they don't solve the true customer experience. We are a CX AI company. Everything on one platform: data, flows, processes, tools, all embedded with our AI capabilities front of house. It creates a differentiated experience.

It's a NICE world.

I think what's happened in the AI space is many companies, I won't call it a mistake, but maybe a learning is that they went for the easy things. They automated a call script or an authentication task, something AI can do, but it's not solving the things that matter. I was speaking on stage to Fabletics, a great company. They talked about focusing on the things that matter most. Solve the challenging problem with AI combined with core CX technology that NICE brings. Solve the complex because then you get real ROI. So I would say to customers, the proof is out there. Stories like Lufthansa, Toyota, City, and Fabletics have proven the journey you're about to go on. Choose the things that really matter to you. Our commitment is to partner with you, bring our technology and our people. We have the knowledge, experience, and specialization. We've been in this game for a long time. Let's work out your journey so it delivers incredible results sustainably.

Thank you, Caitlyn.