Thinking
Field notes from the shift in service.
Essays on service design, AI in customer operations, and what breaks when both sides of the conversation have machines. Written for operators, not conference audiences.
August 2026 · 5 min read
The transparency deadline has passed. What Article 50 actually changes for a contact centre.
Article 50 of the EU AI Act came into force on 2 August 2026. The Commission's final guidelines dropped on 20 July. Here's what changes on the queue, and what a contact centre leader needs on the record now.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 6 min read
The Dual CX Shift: When Both Sides Have AI
Customer-side AI is already in market. An AI voice agent called a real contact centre, passed security, and resolved a complaint. Most companies aren't ready.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 6 min read
The Four Roles Your Organisation Actually Plays
Most leaders can recite their values and vision. Almost none can articulate the role their organisation actually plays in employees' lives. A working theory in four parts.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 4 min read
Stop Hiring Chatbot Implementation as a Personality Trait
Rolling out a chatbot isn't leadership. It's procurement. The real value of AI in customer service isn't the interface, it's what you do with the data underneath.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 6 min read
The Middle of the Sentence
There's a particular kind of paralysis that settles over an industry in the middle of a technological shift. People stop making decisions, not because they don't know what to do, but because every option feels wrong.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 6 min read
Agency, Autonomy, and the AI That Speaks for You
Most CX leaders are focused on the company's AI. But the real disruption is the customer's AI. When your customer sends their agent to deal with yours, the relationship changes fundamentally.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 5 min read
The Outsourcing Model Nobody Wants to Talk About
Most outsourcers aren't incentivised to fix customer problems. Their business model depends on volume. More contact, more revenue. AI is accelerating the same broken logic.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 6 min read
Measuring Movement Without Meaning
When things wobble, sales dip, call volumes spike, NPS flattens, the instinct is to act visibly. But without a social contract, the numbers are untethered.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 6 min read
CX and Customer Service Are the Same Promise
In the Japanese tea ceremony, the person who designs the experience is the person who serves. There is no 'CX designs, Service delivers' split. Customers don't experience that split either.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 5 min read
Standing Outside the Circle
On going to a CX conference, being called aloof, and realising the difference between disengagement and clarity. What happens when you've been in an industry long enough to see through its cycles.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 5 min read
Your AI Is Only as Good as What You Feed It
Most companies rush to deploy AI on top of bad data. The conversations your team has with customers are training data. Quality in, quality out.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 7 min read
What If Mumsnet Sold Products?
A thought experiment about trust, social economics, and why most organisations don't fail because of their data, they fail because they never define the deal with their customers.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave
1 March 2026 · 3 min read
One Engine, Six Deployments
The Neos OS thesis: the same platform engine serves both company services and human services. The difference between deployments is configuration, not architecture. Build the engine once.
Maria McCann · Neos Wave