If you’re investing in contact center AI, you’re probably balancing two pressures at once: move fast, but do not get trapped. In this CX Today interview, Nicole Willing speaks with Rhys Harris, Product Director AI at Content Guru, about what AI lock in actually looks like in practice and how CX leaders can build a stack that stays flexible as models, regulations, and pricing change.

Harris breaks down early warning signs that teams are drifting into a closed ecosystem, the biggest mistakes organizations make when they rush into transformation, and what the cloud era taught the industry about hidden costs and long contracts. 

Harris also shares three non-negotiables for buying real flexibility: governance and compliance assurance, swappable models that work across languages and regions, and vendor-agnostic orchestration based on transparent benchmarking.