Customer Contact in 2025: Ziptone's Lists

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We've given the Ziptone 2025 annual review a fresh new look. We'll give you plenty of lists to browse through, but also some food for thought.

This annual overview includes: the most-read articles of 2025, the customer contact winners of 2025, all acquisitions and bankruptcies in customer contact, and the top three must-read books for contact center managers.

But we start with what Keyword who played a major or notable role in the past 12 months. Let's go!

The customer contact word of the year – Van Dale, you know, the dictionary, chose "hallucinate" as its word of the year. That would be a perfect fit for the customer service sector, a major user of GenAI. But we in the editorial office didn't really start hallucinating until we heard a different word:Shopping frenzy compensationCoined by the FNV union, it's compensation for agents who work incredibly hard from Black Friday until well into January. This shopping frenzy compensation is in addition to overtime (time or money), working hours allowances, absenteeism reduction bonuses, and the holiday bonus.

Data sovereignty The discussion about data sovereignty is inevitable. The question also arises for the contact center: how extensive is the unilateral dependency, and what risks does it pose? What are possible measures you can take? Ziptone published a comprehensive analysis and made the offer European CCaaS solutions Despite this, the major American players continue to invest unabated in Europe, where there's still much to be gained from cloud migrations. Only Avaya seems to have definitively fallen from its (old) pedestal. The software provider is retreating, partly to the detriment of customers. These could indicate sales plans.

Record within three minutes – Never expected and yet implemented: Spain implements the controversial 'three-minute law' focused on customer service regulations, nevertheless. This law also includes stricter rules for telemarketing, and thus Spain fits into the pattern that is visible throughout Europe: telemarketing is on the agenda everywhere and the rules are being applied almost everywhere stricter.

Code of Responsible Market Conduct – The sector organizes 'decent' outsourcing/borrowing with the Code Responsible Market Conduct from the Customer Service Federation. In 2025, a more stringent draft version (with less discretion and five core principles), and later that year, members approved the code. A milestone for the KSF, which a few years earlier was averse to explaining "how things should be done."

Generative AI in customer contact – Leaders in customer contact have gone from AI pilots to AI implementations at scale. Their savings are becoming more tangible, their policies more strategic: some companies even have something like an AI roadmap. However, its implementation remains limited to generative AI. If they are mentioned at all, AI agents are planned for the coming years. The best example of this is VodafoneZiggo with a clear AI policy for customer contact.

AI 'overhyped' and 'debunked' – According to MIT's leading American journal Technology Review, 2025 will be the year that companies stopped 'playing' and started 'measuring' when it comes to AI.

After a period of constant launches of new versions of GenAI platforms, each seemingly outperforming the other, Technology Review is now calling it "the great correction phase." "The market is realizing that talking to a computer is impressive, but running a business on AI is a different story," according to the analysis. Will Douglas Heaven for MIT Technology Review (December 2025). Technology Review speaks not of a bubble or a crash, but of an "AI Autumn." The leaves are falling from the trees, leaving only a strong core.

Practical implementation issues are causing this 'reset', which is visible in companies, but not yet in the stock market value of GenAI platform providers.

The implementation problems are well-known: companies' messy data management, which, for example, causes bots to crash when switching between three different legacy systems (inventory, shipping, and CRM) that don't communicate smoothly with each other. Reliability also remains an issue. Developers haven't yet managed to eliminate hallucinations.

Most companies have now understood that the successful applications of AI lie in small, specialized models that perform very specific tasks. These applications are indeed profitable.

Part of this is that human-in-the-loop is standard practice almost everywhere. The idea that companies need to experiment ("move fast and break things") to gain speed has also been abandoned. The emphasis now is on security and data governance.

Technology Review's conclusion is therefore that companies should pause for thought. Customer contact is one of the leading domains where a range of AI applications have been successfully deployed. Technology Review's advice is therefore: prioritize accuracy over speed. A system that works correctly 99% of the time on one small process is more valuable than one that can do everything 80% of the time. (A tip that also applies to chatbots.) And invest in people, because the need for employees who can manage and control AI is greater than the need for the AI itself.

Job losses due to AI – Last year, these were just predictions, but this year, it's clear that AI is actually eliminating jobs. The newspaper De Telegraaf officially heralded the AI revolution after reporting on mass layoffs at ABN AMRO. Below is a list of layoffs where AI plays a role:

Sky cuts 2.000 customer contact jobs (April)
Zalando reorganizes customer service, 450 jobs lost (April)
VodafoneZiggo will cut 400 jobs (May)
home delivery cuts 175 customer service jobs, partly due to use of AI (September)
Salesforce cuts 4.000 customer service jobs due to AI (September)
Atlassian cuts a total of 350 customer service jobs in the Netherlands and France (September)
ABN AMRO cuts customer service, among other things (November)

Suriname – In 2024, the offshoring trend led to relatively little disruption, but this year saw considerably more turbulence. This was evident in bankruptcies and job relocations, among other things. At the same time, growth in the number of seats in Suriname has slowed compared to 2024. Meanwhile, new offshore destinations are attracting attention: South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and India are becoming important locations globally. Anyone who fancies a work-from-home opportunity on a tropical island can go to Bali.

AI as a game changer for BPO – The largest CX BPO service providers are betting big on artificial intelligence as a game changer for their business model. But looking at 2024 (according to a analysis (from Nearshore Americas) it appears that despite the willingness of client organizations to 'do something with AI', this does not immediately translate into hard cash for the BPOs. Thomas Mackenbrock, deputy CEO of TP, said in the latest earnings call that the company had launched more than 400 new AI projects in the past nine months, including 150 in the last quarter, and that nearly 200 customers are already using the company's FAB Assist platform. At the same time, TP's AI-based back-office operations are showing double-digit growth – but profitability "is difficult to predict on a month-to-month basis." Concentrix stated during the last earnings call that transformation costs are an unavoidable reality. The company still faces "short-term margin pressure due to overcapacity and initial AI transformation costs." The company is transforming both its own operations and customer service.

Ziptone Top Five Most Read Articles of 2025

In addition to this Top Five, Ziptone also published over 950 other articles worth reading this year

Ziptone Top Three Most Useful Books for Contact Center Managers of 2025

1. Not even more technology - recommended

2. More complaints, more strength

3. AI will replace you

For other, also worth reading, professional literature, check out Ziptone review section

Mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies 2025

January
Concentrix nam BlinkCX about, a Philippine CX agency that provides CX and UX services such as integrations, custom product development, data science and machine learning projects. ServiceNow nam Cuein about, an AI leader in data analytics and insights.

February
Zendesk nam Local Measure A leading provider of CCaaS and advanced voice solutions and a long-standing AWS partner, the company declared bankruptcy this month. Customer Contact BV, Werkenopdeklantenservice.nl, Klantcontact Detachering BV and Skillboosters BV.

March
The Moroccan BPO service provider Outsource nam SoMezzo over, a former subsidiary of Groupe 3 Suisses with 120 seats in Lille and 660 seats in Tunis.

April
The big BPO player Konecta (120.000 employees) made two acquisitions in France and Italy. The company took Speak33 and Sales Performance over, respectively a French and an Italian BPO service provider. This month, the contact center of Co-Med declared bankrupt.

Mei
MaxContact, a UK-based CCaaS provider, has acquired the technology and assets of the conversational AI company Curious Thing Acquired. Also this month a mega deal: Salesforce name data specialist I.T. for 8 billion dollars.

June
The Amsterdam CX specialist Gasoline (45 employees) was taken over by the Swedish Eidra (1200 employees).

July
The French Finare Group nam Handicall about, another French facility contact center that aims to promote the integration of people with disabilities into sustainable employment.

Nice acquired the German AI startup this month Cognigy for 955 million dollars. Spotler Group also made an acquisition and bought Insocial about, a Dutch platform that helps organizations collect and use customer feedback. Zendesk announced to HyperArc to be acquired, an AI-native BI platform. This month, ICT service provider Harbers Group taken over by Alistar, a broad European IT service provider. In a mega deal, the French ICT service provider acquired Capgemini the Indian competitor WNS for 3,3 billion. In Germany, CCaaS player LIFE the also German software company authensis AG about.

August
In exchange for writing off part of the claims of financier CVC, Yource in its entirety from Parcom to CVC. The German facility contact center Walter Service Groupo took over technology service provider gkk DialogGroup about. Investor Thomas Bravo nam Verint and will merge the company with the previously acquired Calabrio. Salesforce acquired this month Regrello over, a provider of agentic solutions. The CRM giant also acquired Waii about, a conversational solution for working with datasets, and Bluebird, producer of software for lead management. Software company Capacity took Call Criteria and Verbio Technologies about voice AI, QA and speech analytics providers.

September
Ubiquity acquired Peak Support, a BPO company serving clients in financial services, e-commerce, SaaS, and social media. Concentrix acquired SAI Digital USU GmbH, a company that provides end-to-end technology solutions for e-commerce and customer experience (CX), acquired Mayday RingCentral acquired, a French provider of AI-driven knowledge management, this month CommunityWFM about, specializing in AI-driven forecasting, automated schedule adjustments, and real-time adherence monitoring.

October
African BPO service provider CCI has acquired the travel-specialized BPO player AviaContact acquired. The Dutch ContactCare took over the Dutch branch, inventory and resources of the bankrupt WEngage Nederland BV. HMCC, a medical contact center that supports general practitioners, pharmacies and clinics remotely, acquired HR service provider CareAbout about.

Salesforce took Approve NTT Data, a provider of solutions for process and task mining, digital twins, simulation and root cause analysis, acquired EXAH over, a Salesforce Consulting Partner and specialist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). This month, the bankruptcy was declared over WEngage Weert (approximately 140 employees). Previously Soleo Contact Gent BV, and Soleo Contact Belgium BV, subsidiaries of the Dutch facility contact center Soleo, went bankrupt.

November
The Moroccan intelligence acquires Altice's Portuguese BPO activities.

International BPO players Atento divested their activities in Spain. They were acquired by ABAI, a local player in Spain, which would grow from 10.000 to 20.000 employees. Ujet nam Spiral Salesforce acquired the Israeli startup Doti over, a provider of agentic AI solutions for knowledge management. Salesforce also acquired Spindle AI about, also a developer of agentic solutions.

The French CCaaS provider Eloquant came into the hands of a Canadian software company, the Harris Group. The French CCaaS company Odigo took over Akio about, a specialist in Voice of the Customer applications. The Dutch Bird made several attempts to acquire the also Dutch CM.com to take over, but those attempts failed. Also JC Callsolutions (size: a few employees) collapsed.

December
Telemarketing agency Call Time BV. from Gouda was declared bankrupt. Several dozen employees worked there.

Legislation that came into effect in 2025

EU AI Act (Artificial Intelligence Regulation): with rules on prohibited AI practices (unacceptable risk), mandatory AI literacy training for organizations using AI, and requirements for suppliers and purchasers of generative AI in customer contact (chatbots, agent assist, summarizing, routing). A point of attention for contact centers: the gray area of emotion detection.
DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act): obligations for digital resilience/ICT risk management in the financial sector, with direct implications for outsourced ICT and contact center chains (outsourcing, cloud, incident handling).
European Accessibility Act (EAA): Accessibility requirements apply to a range of products and services since June 28, 2025. Relevant for self-service and websites/apps, among others.
EU Data Act: Since September 12, 2025, new rights/obligations regarding access to and sharing of data from connected products, and new requirements for cloud services. Relevant for service processes (e.g., customer data requests). The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) will enforce this law in the Netherlands. maintain.

Winners!

Concentrix, United Consumers and Centraal Beheer winners National Customer Contact Week 2025 (NKW)
Erwin Hasselt will be the next CCMA Manager of the Year 2025
And Transcom, TUI and Samsung were among those who won prizes ECCCSA
The award for the Smartest Customer Contact Employee 2025 went to Monique Havinga of health insurer De Friesland; Kim Otten of Social Deal was the Smartest Contact Center Manager and the award for the Smartest Customer Contact Organization went to The Friesland.
Team Leader of the Year: Marc Rooskens from bol.com
Alex Terpstra won the Future Award 2025 for ABN AMRO.