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Say it loud, say it proud – AI-powered telephony will reduce contact center headcount.
There, it’s no longer the elephant in the room. And, in 2025, it is likely to no longer be the unspoken end game upon which large enterprises are quietly focused.
Instead, it is more likely to be full steam ahead with the deployment of increasingly-sophisticated AI-powered solutions capable of (almost) replacing human-to-human interaction altogether.
Sure, the sensitivities are real and justified. After all, no-one likes to talk openly about technological advancement impacting negatively on people’s jobs and livelihoods. However, human agents can be redeployed as specialist issue-solvers for situations in which AI comes up short and will thrive in new contact center roles such as proactive outbound customer success calling.
So, how exactly will AI change the way in which call centers operate? And what do enterprises and their managed service providers need to consider when it comes to the roadmap for their ever-evolving unified communications tech stack?
A well-advised first step is to partner with a vendor that not only has cutting edge solutions but is also clear-eyed about how they will positively reshape the near future.
“Since the emergence of AI, enterprises have derived huge value from AI-powered conversation intelligence such as call recording, transcribing and summarizing – the next stage is for AI agents to answer calls and manage queues,” says Johan Aberg, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder at pioneering channel-focused AI telephony vendor Lynes.
“We have already developed an AI agent that can engage in intelligent conversation with callers, provide them with specific requested information, and redirect their calls where appropriate. This is completely different to old and existing IVR technology where callers have to describe their issue in order to be connected to a particular department. Those solutions often fail, and frustrated callers often find themselves having to call back and try second guessing the IVR’s questions in order to somehow crack their way through the system.”
One Lynes customer that tested the soon-to-be-released solution provided glowing feedback.
It was able to quickly and easily upload to a knowledge base all of its relevant internal Word and PDF documents and, almost instantaneously, the AI agent was successfully answering test questions, queueing callers effectively, and re-routing them frictionlessly where appropriate.
If a human caller interrupts the AI agent by speaking over it, it even stops, listens, and modifies its response accordingly.
“Inevitably, AI will mean that fewer human agents will be required and enterprises will be able to save huge cost by consolidating their workforces whilst simultaneously delivering a slicker, higher-quality customer communication experience,” says Aberg.
“People have been reluctant to talk about it in those terms but all jobs change or disappear with time. Years ago, there were thousands of coal miners working underground but that industry changed and improved. Similarly, there are fewer physical book shops in the world but we are able to buy whatever books we want online. This is all progress.”
It is a refreshingly honest assessment of the transformational impact that AI is likely to continue to have on enterprise communication. CEOs and IT leaders are of course excited by what the future holds. Indeed, many CFOs can barely wait for the benefits to begin significantly affecting the balance sheet.
It seems that moment may be fast-approaching…
To learn more about Lynes can help your and your customers’ businesses leverage the benefits of AI-powered contact center technology, visit the website.
