As AI adoption accelerates globally, many organizations in Central and Eastern Europe are still in the early stages of integrating intelligent systems into their daily operations. Yet, the front-office AI-powered digital workforce, designed to enhance customer-facing functions across sales, marketing, and support, may be the puzzle piece that bridges the gap.
Ahead of the Meet Your Next Front Office Assistant event in Sofia this early November, we sat down with Orlin Dochev, founder & CEO of Next Consult, leading international business and digital transformation consultancy company.
We discuss how the AI-powered digital workforce is transforming how businesses interact with customers, what real-world value they bring to the enterprise, and how leaders can prepare their teams for this next wave of intelligent automation.
In your view, why has front-office AI become such a critical focus area for enterprises right now?
Over the past few years, we’ve seen AI move from experimentation to execution. Enterprises are realizing that the biggest gains come where technology directly impacts customers, namely in the front office. Front-office AI agents can handle thousands of interactions at scale, provide instant responses, and continuously learn from data, all while freeing up human teams to focus on complex, high-value tasks.
The front office is the “face” of the company: it defines the customer experience. That’s why it’s becoming the natural entry point for organizations that want to see measurable, immediate impact from AI
What do you see as the biggest gap between how companies talk about AI adoption and how they actually implement it?
There’s a lot of talk about AI strategy, but much less about real execution. Many companies still treat AI as a technology project, rather than as a business transformation initiative. They focus on tools rather than outcomes.
The real gap is between aspiration and integration , between pilots and scalable, production-level systems that truly change how teams work. This is where consulting, process re-engineering, and change management are critical. You can’t just plug in an AI tool; you have to rethink workflows, roles, and metrics around it.
What makes the AI-powered digital workforce a good fit for front-office functions, compared to back-office automation?
Back-office automation is about efficiency: doing things faster or cheaper. Front-office AI is about effectiveness — improving how you engage customers, grow revenue, and build loyalty.
AI agents in sales, service, or marketing can analyze customer intent in real time, personalize responses, recommend next best actions, and ensure no lead or request slips through the cracks. These are dynamic, high-touch areas where intelligent automation truly amplifies human performance.
For top management, what’s the real value proposition? How do these assistants translate into ROI or improved performance?
Front-office AI is essentially digital labor , a new category of productivity. It extends your team’s capacity without increasing headcount. The ROI comes from faster response times, higher conversion rates, better customer satisfaction, and reduced operational costs. For example, a sales assistant can automatically prepare proposals, summarize client meetings, or surface key insights from CRM data, work that might otherwise take hours.
At Dreamforce, the biggest global Salesforce Conference, Salesforce emphasized that digital labor is not replacing people, but augmenting them. That’s exactly how we see front-office AI, a force multiplier that helps every employee deliver more value.
There’s often concern about AI replacing jobs. In your experience, how are front-office assistants changing the roles of people, rather than replacing them?
AI assistants don’t eliminate roles, they evolve them. Instead of spending 60% of their time on admin work, employees can focus on what humans do best: building relationships, solving complex problems, and driving creativity.
In many cases, these assistants act like a junior colleague: preparing data, drafting responses, and providing insights, while humans make the final judgment calls. This combination is what truly boosts productivity and satisfaction on both sides.
What can attendees expect from the Meet Your Next Front Office Assistant event in Sofia this November, and who is this event most relevant for?
One of the biggest impediments of making the most out of AI tools is two-fold: understanding what specific value they create and then how to practically integrate them into your existing business flows. So naturally that’s what we’ll address at our event, so that everyone can visualize its impact. This event is for business leaders, digital transformation executives, and anyone curious about how AI can practically improve customer-facing operations. We’ll demonstrate real use cases of Salesforce AI and Next Consult’s implementations across sales, service, and marketing. Attendees will see how to design, deploy, and measure the impact of front-office AI assistants. Most importantly, they’ll walk away understanding how to turn the idea of “digital labor” into tangible business results.
Looking ahead, how do you envision AI’s role in helping CEE companies close the gap in digital transformation?
CEE companies are at an inflection point. The region has strong technical talent, but adoption of enterprise AI is still catching up. Front-office assistants offer a low-barrier, high-impact way to bridge that gap, starting with customer-centric use cases that deliver quick wins.
Over time, these successes build confidence and data maturity, paving the way for more advanced AI integration. In that sense, front-office AI could be the catalyst that accelerates CEE’s overall digital transformation journey.
