The Amplitude of Tech

Amplix

5.0 (3)
Technology

Welcome to The Amplitude of Tech podcast, produced by Amplix, a leading technology advisory firm, where we bring the voices of technology thought leaders, subject matter experts, and enterprise IT decision makers to you to talk about today’s transformative technology and how it can create opportunities for increased success.

20h ago

Amplix’s Tammy Clark on Technology Expense Management and Self-Funding IT Initiatives with Savings

Most enterprises with 50 or more locations are carrying 35 to 40% in technology waste they can’t see: circuits with zero usage, legacy lines that never got canceled, and services nobody can explain. In this Inside Amplix episode, Shawn sits down with Tammy Clark, who founded Core Communications before it joined Amplix, to explain why technology expense management is a process before it is a software tool. They cover how to build a site-level inventory, why TEM software catches billing errors but not unnecessary services, how invoice validation gives accounts payable the confidence to pay, and why Lumen Voice and other decommissioning events can leave locations without service. They also get into how IT and finance can work together, how savings can fund AI and transformation initiatives, and the different engagement models you will see when you hire a partner. What You’ll Learn: Why 50+ location enterprises typically carry 35 to 40% in hidden technology wasteWhy TEM software finds billing errors (5 to 10%) but can’t tell you whether a service is still neededHow to run an inventory, stop-the-bleeding, optimize sequence across telecom, mobility, and licensesWhy a canceled-in-theory service, like an old fire alarm line, keeps billing for yearsWhat the Lumen Voice deprecation means for locations you haven’t inventoriedHow invoice validation and cost recovery give AP the confidence to pay, and take the provider fight off your teamHow to get IT and finance aligned when budgets are set off last year’s numberHow savings can self-fund AI and network initiatives without adding headcountHow to compare free, contingency, and managed-service engagement models, and what a proof of concept should look like
Oct 28

Solutions to SPAM Calls: What You Need to Know About Spam Labels and Branded Calling

Your customers are not answering the phone, and the reason is not your sales team. Spam labels, spoofed numbers, and carrier analytics engines are causing legitimate business calls to go unanswered, and the cost shows up in revenue, labor, and brand trust. In this episode, Shawn sits down with Lauren Brockman, Product Director at Bandwidth, a global carrier serving enterprises in more than 65 countries. They cover how the shift from TDM to SIP made spoofing easier, why branded calling and spam label removal are two separate problems, how STIR/SHAKEN attestation works, and why number reputation needs continuous monitoring rather than a reactive fix. Lauren also explains how to measure the business impact through answer rates, labor cost, and fraud events, how inbound caller authentication is changing in the age of AI voice cloning, and what contact center leaders should do now to keep their architecture flexible as AI agents multiply call volume. What You’ll Learn: Why the move from TDM to SIP made caller spoofing easier and left legitimate businesses in the crosshairsWhy getting your brand displayed and getting a spam or scam label removed are two separate problemsHow the carrier branding model works, including the pre-call API that prevents your brand from being spoofedWhat STIR/SHAKEN attestation actually tells a carrier, and why it is not yet uniformHow to quantify the cost of unanswered calls through answer rates, repeat dial attempts, labor, and fraud eventsWhy number reputation changes constantly and requires continuous monitoring with automatic remediationHow inbound caller authentication uses device, network, and SIP metadata, and what AI voice cloning changesWhy voice and messaging follow different registration rules, and what to do now to build a flexible, AI-ready call architecture
Oct 21

Amplix VP of Mobility Solutions Peter DiNatale on Why Company-Owned Phones Can Cost Less Than BYOD

In this Inside Amplix episode, Shawn sits down with Peter DiNatale, VP of Mobility Solutions at Amplix, to explain why the BYOD pendulum is swinging back toward company-owned devices. Security and compliance pressure in industries like healthcare and finance is a major driver, and the economics may surprise you. Peter breaks down how a sub-$30 all-in rate per line can beat a $75 to $100 monthly stipend, why owning the phone number protects customer relationships when employees leave, and how to roll out the transition with a 10-device proof of concept. They also dig into where savings hide in most mobility environments, from the gap between procurement and IT to renegotiating a contract mid-term, and how a free health check shows you what you have in five to ten business days. What You’ll Learn: Why enterprises that adopted BYOD to avoid managing devices are now bringing them back in houseHow security and compliance requirements in healthcare and finance are driving the shift to company-owned phonesWhy a sub-$30 all-in rate can cost far less than a $75 to $100 monthly BYOD stipendWhy owning the phone number is a business asset, especially for sales teams when employees leaveHow to transition without disrupting IT or users, starting with a 10-device proof of conceptWhere mobility savings hide, from the disconnect between procurement and IT to carriers you haven’t shopped in yearsHow to renegotiate a carrier contract you just signed, and how to catch international roaming charges mid-cycleWhat a free mobility health check reveals in five to ten business days, including device age, zero-use lines, and where your money goes
Oct 14

Why Do LLMs Seem Human? Microsoft Copilot UX Researcher Katie Rotella on the Psychology Behind AI

LLMs are designed to sound human, and that design choice shapes how much your employees trust them, how they prompt them, and whether they check the answers. In this episode, Shawn sits down with Katie Rotella, a Principal UX Researcher at Microsoft who works on the enterprise side of Copilot, to explore the psychology behind how people experience AI. They cover why people are poor forecasters of what they will want, why surveys and stated preferences mislead product teams, how LLMs confabulate in ways that mirror human behavior, and where to build friction so users slow down and verify. They also take on the big questions: whether making AI human-like was a mistake, whether “personality” and “memory” are the right words for what LLMs do, and whether AI is conscious. If you’re rolling out AI to employees, this conversation shows you where trust goes wrong and what to do about it. What You’ll Learn: Why UX research has shifted from interfaces to AI outputs, and what that means for how your teams experience tools like CopilotWhy asking users what they want fails, and why behavior predicts success better than stated preferenceHow violation of expectation skews your feedback data, and why a quiet survey does not mean a satisfied customerWhy people cannot accurately explain their own decisions, and how LLM “reasoning” is the same kind of after-the-fact confabulationHow much transparency is enough: showing sources and chain of thought without overwhelming users into skipping verificationWhere to build friction into AI experiences so employees know when to stop, pause, and question the outputWhy you and a colleague can use the same model and get very different results, from grounding in company documents to memory and prompt qualityWhy “personality” and “memory” may be the wrong words for what LLMs do, whether AI is sentient, and why the real worry may be the humans behind it
Oct 7

Amplix Sr. Engineer Jeremy Tam on Zoom Virtual Agent and Setting Realistic AI Expectations

Everyone wants an AI agent, but far fewer organizations know what they actually want it to do. In this Inside Amplix episode, Shawn sits down with Jeremy Tam, Sr. Implementation Engineer at Amplix, who leads Zoom Virtual Agent, Zoom Contact Center, and Zoom Phone deployments from discovery through go-live. Jeremy explains why AI in customer service has to start with the business problem, where today's enterprise AI models fall short of the frontier headlines, and why token costs are forcing leaders to rethink the labor-savings math. They also cover how tools like real-time translation and AI Expert Assist make human agents better, and what a rent-portal bot named "Jane" teaches every enterprise about disclosure and escalation. What You'll Learn: Why the business problem, not the technology, should drive every AI agent projectHow AI virtual agents now handle tier one and tier two support by connecting directly to your CRMThe gap between frontier AI headlines and what commercially available models can actually do todayWhy AI agents hallucinate when your knowledge base has gaps, and how to set expectations accordinglyHow token costs can make AI more expensive than the human agents it was meant to replaceHow AI Expert Assist and real-time translation turn a small, high-quality team into a global support operationWhy AI voice and accent customization matters for customer experienceTwo non-negotiables for any AI agent: disclose that it's AI, and know when to escalate to a human
Oct 1

Have You Secured Layer 8? TierPoint Talks Social Engineering and Human Risk Management

Attackers aren't breaking into your network anymore. They're logging in, using stolen credentials, MFA fatigue, and a well-timed call from "IT" to exploit the one layer no firewall can protect: your people. In this episode, Shawn sits down with Alicia Leone, Security Sales Specialist at TierPoint, and Dustin Larmeir, Vice President of Information Security Engineering at TierPoint, to unpack how social engineering attacks prey on human instincts like default to trust, deference to authority, and urgency. They cover the spike in nation state attacks on edge infrastructure, why paused zero trust security projects need a second look in the age of agentic AI, how LinkedIn oversharing hands attackers a roadmap, and why a no-shame reporting culture is the backbone of effective human risk management. If you're a CIO or CISO wondering whether security awareness training alone is enough, this conversation makes the case that it isn't, and shows you what to build around it. What You'll Learn: Why nation state actors are targeting edge network infrastructure, and what TierPoint's honeypots revealedHow attackers are shifting from breaking in to logging in, and why long dwell times are the real dangerHow agentic AI workflows create a new attack surface that can be hijacked and turned against youWhy "layer 8," the human layer, remains your biggest security risk no matter how good your tools areHow social engineers exploit default to trust, authority, and urgency to bypass rational judgmentWhat MFA fatigue attacks look like in practice, and why paused zero trust projects need revisitingHow employee LinkedIn profiles can give attackers a detailed map of your security stackWhy a no-shame reporting culture matters more than perfect phishing awareness
Sep 29

Is the Hate for AI Data Centers Rational? We Separate Fact from Fiction with Zayo's Ed Loveless

AI has quickly become one of the most divisive issues in America, and nowhere is that more visible than in the fight over data centers. In this episode, Shawn sits down with Ed Loveless, Head of Product for Managed Edge & Cybersecurity at Zayo, to separate the rational fears from the irrational ones. Drawing on nearly two decades in telecom infrastructure, Ed walks through why AI data centers look and feel different from the cloud data centers that came before them, what's actually driving up energy costs, whether the water usage panic holds up to scrutiny, and why community backlash may ultimately make the industry build better. They also tackle the harder question looming over the whole AI boom: whether the economics underneath it can hold. What You'll Learn: Why AI data centers look and feel fundamentally different from the cloud data centers we've relied on for yearsWhat's actually driving up your energy bill, and how much of it is really AI's faultWhy "it takes a lake of water to generate one AI image" doesn't hold up as a universal truthHow community leverage has shifted, and why data center operators now have to earn a seat at the tableThe nuclear power lesson from the last 60 years, and what it means for how AI infrastructure gets built (or blocked)Why atomizing compute into smaller, localized data centers could ease the backlash, and where that approach breaks downWhether the economics underneath the AI boom, from chip supply to enterprise ROI, can actually hold upWhat Ed would tell an average citizen who's never thought about any of this before, but just found a data center in their backyard
Sep 23

Amplix Sr. Solution Engineer Michan Griffin on Branded Caller ID and the Trusted Voice Problem

Your business's phone number has a reputation score, and if it slips, your calls start showing up as "spam likely" even when you're a legitimate, high-trust business trying to reach your own customers. In this Inside Amplix episode, Shawn sits down with Michan Griffin, Sr. Solution Engineer at Amplix, to unpack how number reputation management actually works, from the FCC's Robocall Task Force and STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels to the crowdsourced spam-scoring companies that carriers rely on today. They cover why healthcare and other high-volume transactional callers get unfairly flagged, how spoofing and caller ID authentication work under the hood, and how branded caller ID and logo delivery can turn an anonymous incoming call into a recognizable, trusted one. Michan also lays out the first steps any business should take if their answer rates start dropping, before they make the problem worse trying to fix it alone. What You'll Learn Why your phone number has a hidden reputation score, and what tanks it without you knowingHow the FCC's Robocall Task Force and STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels (A, B, and C) actually workWhy healthcare and other high-volume transactional callers get unfairly flagged as spamHow caller ID spoofing works, and what session border controller-based spoof protection actually stopsWhat branded caller ID and logo delivery can do for your answer rates, and how they differ from each otherHow inbound robocall blocking protects vulnerable populations, like residents at assisted living facilitiesThe first two steps to take the moment your business starts seeing dropped answer rates, before you make it worse

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out of 5

3 Ratings

Creator

Amplix
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

45
Rating

Clean
Show Website

The Amplitude of Tech

The Amplitude of Tech

Episodes

Amplix’s Tammy Clark on Technology Expense Management and Self-Funding IT Initiatives with Savings

Solutions to SPAM Calls: What You Need to Know About Spam Labels and Branded Calling

Amplix VP of Mobility Solutions Peter DiNatale on Why Company-Owned Phones Can Cost Less Than BYOD

Why Do LLMs Seem Human? Microsoft Copilot UX Researcher Katie Rotella on the Psychology Behind AI

Amplix Sr. Engineer Jeremy Tam on Zoom Virtual Agent and Setting Realistic AI Expectations

Have You Secured Layer 8? TierPoint Talks Social Engineering and Human Risk Management

Is the Hate for AI Data Centers Rational? We Separate Fact from Fiction with Zayo's Ed Loveless

Amplix Sr. Solution Engineer Michan Griffin on Branded Caller ID and the Trusted Voice Problem

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