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AVOXI Executive Interview

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In this interview, Barbara Dondiego, CEO of AVOXI, speaks with Sheri Greenhaus, Managing Partner of CrmXchange, about AVOXI’s evolution from a managed services provider to a global leader in cloud-based voice software solutions. Barbara shares insights into the company’s proactive use of AI, its approach to automation, and how AVOXI is helping enterprises modernize their voice infrastructure. The conversation also explores trends in contact center technology, shifting customer expectations, and how organizations can future-proof their communications strategies in an AI-driven world.

Sheri Greenhaus: Can you give me a quick history of AVOXI?

Barbara Dondiego: Sure! AVOXI is more than 20 years old. In the company’s early days—right up until around 2015, AVOXI operated mostly as a systems integrator and managed services provider. We took hardware, software, and services from other vendors, repackaged them, and offered fully managed solutions, focusing primarily on cloud-based voice services for contact centers.

Back in the early 2000s, that was actually pretty cutting-edge. Nobody was doing voice in the cloud yet. Eventually, we realized, why just resell other companies’ software when we could build our own? At the time, it seemed a bit unusual. Cloud technology was still new. AWS had only just started to gain traction, and deploying service infrastructure in the cloud wasn’t yet common.

But we saw an opportunity. With cloud infrastructure becoming more accessible and open-source communications tools emerging, we believed we could build faster, more scalable software solutions. We pivoted in 2015, and by 2016 or 2017, we launched our first commercial software product. In 2018, we brought in outside investment and kept growing from there.

Around 2017, we really started to gain momentum, focusing heavily on demand generation, getting as many customers on the platform as possible to grow the business.

In 2022, the company’s founder transitioned to the board, and I moved from COO to CEO. Around that time, we brought on a new investor and had thousands of customers on our platform. That’s when we shifted gears, from just growing the product to building a strong industry brand and reputation.

We started engaging with analysts, attending trade shows, and sharing more about our innovations. Phase one was about building the platform. Now we’re in phase two: using it to drive real innovation. That’s where we’re focused today.

Sheri Greenhaus: What unmet need did you see back then that others weren’t addressing that AVOXI could solve?

Barbara Dondiego: That’s a great question. The big gap we saw was around international voice services, particularly for contact centers. Companies operating in five or more countries, with large-scale workforces; a thousand employees or more faced huge challenges.

Legacy infrastructure was everywhere, and it didn’t play well with the cloud. It was difficult to manage but remained essential for delivering a quality customer experience. You can have great coaching and cutting-edge AI, but if the caller can’t hear you clearly or struggles to dial in, nothing else matters.

We saw an opportunity to modernize that aging infrastructure—bringing legacy voice services into the cloud and making them work seamlessly via software-driven automation for the next generation of contact centers.

Sheri Greenhaus: Do you think the shift in 2021, when companies suddenly realized they needed to be in the cloud helped make your case even stronger?

Barbara Dondiego: Absolutely. We were already seeing solid growth before 2021. Interestingly, before then, our biggest customer segment was travel and hospitality, such as hotels, airlines and reservation centers. These companies needed global voice connectivity, around-the-clock call routing, and specialized capabilities. We had great success in that space.

Of course, in 2021, those industries were hit hard. But at the same time, we saw a big uptick from other businesses that were suddenly scrambling to move their contact centers to the cloud. We also saw growth through some of our partner platforms and across the broader corporate landscape as cloud adoption accelerated.

Now, it’s really a mix. Travel and hospitality are rebounding, and we’ve also seen strong growth in industries like logistics. The market keeps evolving.

Looking ahead, AI is the next big wave driving demand. Almost all of our customers are exploring AI, whether it’s agent-assist tools or more advanced automation. They’re asking: Which tasks should be handled by humans, and which by machines?

For us, that’s a great trend. At the end of the day, those interactions almost always begin with a phone call, whether answered by a human or an AI. And here’s the interesting part; historically, the high cost of phone calls came from labor. But with AI, that cost is dropping because machines can handle more calls. As a result, we’re actually seeing more calls on our platform, not fewer.

Sheri Greenhaus: That’s interesting. In our webinars, which are open to anyone, we’re hearing a lot of anxiety from agents. In some industries like financial services or insurance, where more specialized agents are needed, it’s not quite as intense. But in many sectors, agents are terrified that AI will take their jobs completely. I’ve talked to analysts and vendors who say, “No, that’s not going to happen.” What’s your take?

Barbara Dondiego: That’s a really important conversation. We actually run our own call center, so we’re living this ourselves.

First, it’s worth noting that as new communication channels emerged, we didn’t see a drop in call center activity, we saw an increase. Sure, people don’t need to call about an Amazon package anymore. But when something’s broken or a delivery goes wrong, they absolutely still want to talk to someone. In fact, customer expectations for help have only intensified.

As for AI, here’s how we approach it: we focus on using AI to eliminate repetitive, manual tasks, things that don’t add value to the customer relationship. Then, we empower our team by giving them better software tools, analytics and training to handle more complex, higher-value interactions.

We’re shifting agents from simple tasks like checking order status, which people no longer call about, toward more nuanced issues. So far, we haven’t seen agents replaced. Instead, we’re seeing them evolve to handle more meaningful conversations, equipped with better information.

And honestly, as everything moves more online, call centers have actually become more critical. They’re often the key human connection between a brand and its customers. The role is changing. It’s not going away.

Sheri Greenhaus: Some processes, like returning something to Amazon, don’t really need AI. They’re just straightforward tasks. But does AI actually make even simple processes faster and more efficient just by connecting all the systems together?

Barbara Dondiego: That’s a great point. I think it’s a bit of both. It’s not always that AI is needed for these tasks—it’s more about whether AI can do them faster and at a lower cost.

First, we had machine learning models, tools that learn over time as they process more data in the cloud. Then we moved into conversational AI, where you can simply ask a question, and it taps into various data sources, sometimes even beyond your own.

Now, we’re seeing the rise of agentic AI, AI that’s trained for specific tasks to actually replace certain actions we’d normally do ourselves.

Imagine just speaking into your phone and saying, “Hey, agentic AI, I need to return this Amazon item. Send the digital return label to the FedEx I always use, schedule a pickup, and add a reminder to my calendar for when I need to drop it off.” It could all be done for you automatically. We’re not at the point where it can physically put the package in your car, but maybe in a few years!

Sheri Greenhaus: Where do you think AI is heading?

Barbara Dondiego: Honestly, it’s hard to predict exactly. But I believe we’ll continue to automate more and more though in smarter, more thoughtful ways.

At AVOXI, we follow two core philosophies. First, we’re committed to transforming the way global voice communications work.

Historically, this space has been slow, outdated, and lacking in good service or modern tech. We reject that model entirely. We’re building everything in software, automating where possible, and delivering exceptional service.

Because of that, we’ve been able to attract large enterprise clients. Over the past five years, we’ve applied machine learning, automation, and smart process design to offer better service.

Now we’re taking it further, becoming proactive. We want to detect and resolve service issues before our customers even know they exist, even while they’re sleeping. AI is helping us get there.

I’ve always told my operations team, “Let’s automate everything boring, repetitive, and manual. I want you focused on solving complex, interesting problems that actually help customers.”

That’s where I see AI heading in the near future, automating routine work so humans can focus on meaningful tasks.

But here’s what we’re wrestling with now; AI tools, whether we build them or buy them, are showing they can increase productivity by 30% to 50%. That’s a huge shift. It raises big questions: Do we cut costs? Do we reinvest that capacity to gain a competitive edge? Or some mix of both?

The key is being intentional about it, because that choice impacts everything.

Sheri Greenhaus: So bringing that back to AVOXI, are you now able to proactively detect issues at, say, four or five in the morning, fix them before customers even notice, and then alert them afterward?

Barbara Dondiego: Exactly! In fact, we just launched this capability and issued a press release at the end of June.

One of the major features we rolled out is called Proactive Service. Here’s how it works:

I asked our engineering team to analyze a year’s worth of service tickets. We wanted to know: how many of these issues could we have detected before the customer called? And if we had detected them, how much earlier would we have known?

Our industry is notoriously reactive. Think about it: your mobile provider doesn’t call you to say, “Hey, we noticed some call quality issues.” They wait for you to call them. We wanted to flip that model.

We found that about 30% to 40% of customer-reported issues could have been detected in advance, sometimes two hours earlier, sometimes even two days before the customer reached out.

We built software models around this. Every phone number on our platform now has a machine learning model that monitors its normal behavior, call patterns, technical markers, etc., without touching any private call recordings.

If a phone number’s behavior changes, the model flags it. Then we check recent activity. If recent calls look fine, we dismiss it as a blip. If there’s no data, we run a quick, non-invasive test call. If that test reveals a problem, we fix it, often before the customer even knows something is wrong.

This is how we’re redefining cloud-based voice services, by using AI and intelligent software to be proactive, not just reactive.

Sheri Greenhaus: Do your partners typically bring you into customer deals? Do they resell your services, or how do those relationships work?

Barbara Dondiego: About 80% of our revenue comes from direct sales. That’s because most enterprises today want greater control over their communications stacks, especially now, with AI making the voice channel even more critical. So, most of our customers work with us directly.

That said, about 20% of our business comes through partners. Those partners usually offer a bundled solution, and we provide the voice services as part of it. In some cases, we work alongside partners where the customer uses another platform, but we handle the voice channel directly. We’re very flexible in how we partner.

Sheri Greenhaus: Who do you usually market to within organizations? Who identifies the need and reaches out to you?

Barbara Dondiego: Typically, it’s someone within the office of the Chief Information Officer. This can be either the CIO, CTO, or someone leading communications technology, contact center infrastructure, or reservations technology. These days, the lines are blurring. Many companies now have a combined platform strategy where communications fall under IT or corporate technology.

If there’s a dedicated executive-level contact center team, we’ll work with them and their technology leads as well.

Sheri Greenhaus: How do those customers usually find you? Do they search for a solution, or do you reach out to them?

Barbara Dondiego: For many years, most of our customers came through inbound search. We invested heavily in content marketing, writing answers to highly specific questions like, “How do I move to the cloud in China?” or “What are the voice service options in Brazil?” Now, as we’re targeting larger enterprises, we’ve added an outbound strategy with account-based marketing. We’re also active at trade shows and receive referrals through partner relationships.

We still get strong web traffic. But what’s changed is that enterprise customers often do more research before they reach out. These days, deals often involve RFPs, procurement processes, and longer research cycles. While we still attract significant interest online, it’s less about instant leads and more about building relationships with prospects over time.

Sheri Greenhaus: Where do you see AVOXI five years from now?

Barbara Dondiego: In five years, I see us moving beyond voice. Right now, we do a great job managing the entire voice channel for our clients—everything from phone numbers to the cloud infrastructure behind them.

But now, clients are asking us, “What else can you manage for us?” For example, if they kept their phone numbers elsewhere, could we still provide visibility and proactive monitoring through APIs? The answer is yes.

They’re also asking us for help with call security, fraud prevention, and optimizing infrastructure to support AI-powered applications in their contact centers.

The vision is to expand beyond selling phone numbers. We’re now a broader infrastructure partner that provides adjacent software services for managing, securing, and optimizing voice and communications channels.

Sheri Greenhaus: In the last minute or so, anything we didn’t cover that you think our audience should know?

Barbara Dondiego: As companies move to the cloud, whether for their contact center or for collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, many forget about the voice infrastructure. It’s often left behind, resulting in fragmented, hard-to-manage systems that don’t work well together.

We help solve that. Whether you migrate your voice infrastructure before or after your cloud move, we can simplify the process and ensure everything works seamlessly.

Right now, we’re also working with clients on AI infrastructure benchmarks, essentially helping them understand the best software configurations for their AI applications to run effectively. Our network is fast, modern, and highly reliable, which gives them a strong foundation for AI.

Here’s the key point: If a customer calls and there’s poor audio quality, a live agent can adapt, maybe call them back or work through the issue. But a machine can’t do that. AI-powered systems need a clean, high-performing software-orchestrated infrastructure to function properly.

We help clients optimize that. We show them how to minimize delays before, during, and after a call, and how to design a system that ensures the best possible experience—both for their agents and their AI tools - and ultimately for the best experience for their clients.