How AI and Super Teams Are Redefining Customer Experience and Work | DisrupTV Ep. 450

10 snips

Aug 28, 2026

Guest

Ron Friedman

Guest

Dave Rhodes

Ron Friedman, psychologist and author of Superteams, condenses research on the habits that make a tiny fraction of teams excel. Dave Rhodes, CEO of Verint, explains scaling AI in contact centers to amplify human talent. They discuss surgical AI wins like wrap-up bots, CX as a strategic sensing layer, meeting habits that spark collaboration, and why top teams use AI smarter and more often.

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INSIGHT

AI Can Be A Retention Strategy Not Just Cost Cutting

Thoughtful AI reduces agent attrition by shifting agents to more meaningful, promotable work rather than replacing them.
Dave Rhodes notes some firms see two-thirds annual turnover and surgical AI increases retention and career growth.

ANECDOTE

Conversation Intelligence Caught A Bad Manufacturing Batch

Verint's conversation intelligence detected a surge of mouth pain complaints tied to a bad manufacturing batch for a retainer product.
Dave Rhodes says the product team replaced the manufacturer within 48 hours before many customers even called.

ADVICE

Start Small And Prove ROI With Surgical Use Cases

Pick a narrow set of high-impact use cases and deploy quickly rather than chasing broad platform rewrites.
Dave Rhodes advises starting with small wins like self-service for change of address to prove ROI and scale.

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In the landmark 450th episode of DisrupTV, hosts Vala Afshar and R "Ray" Wang bring together two guests who illuminate the future of work from opposite ends — one from the front lines of AI-powered customer experience, one from the science of what makes teams truly exceptional — and find a coherent argument running through both: the organizations that win will be those that combine disciplined AI deployment with the human habits that turn good teams into great ones. Dave Rhodes, CEO of Verint, shares what AI transformation actually looks like at the scale of 14,000 customers and tens of millions of contact center agents worldwide. He explains why the $700 billion in human capital powering the contact center industry is not a cost to be eliminated but a capability to be amplified — and why AI deployed surgically can become a retention strategy as much as an efficiency play. He walks through the wrap-up bot as one of AI’s clearest enterprise wins, shares a product intelligence story about detecting a bad manufacturing batch through conversation intelligence before most customers even called, and makes the case that CX data is becoming a strategic sensing layer for the entire organization, not just a contact center metric. Ron Friedman, psychologist and author of Superteams, shares findings from his study of more than 6,000 workers that identified the 8% of teams that qualify as truly high-performing — and the specific habits that separate them from everyone else. He breaks down how super teams manage time, energy, and attention differently; the one question great leaders ask in meetings that transforms them from status updates into collaborative problem-solving; why video calls may be costing you more cognitive energy than they are worth; why members of super teams exercise 84 more minutes per week; and what his latest research reveals about how super teams use AI twice as often as average teams — but smarter. Whether you lead a customer experience organization, build high-performing teams, or are simply trying to figure out how to use AI in a way that actually moves the needle, this milestone episode offers one of DisrupTV’s most practical and grounded conversations yet.