CX automation and AI solutions for contact centres

• AI agents for voice: voice bots and intelligent IVR that understand callers and resolve requests on the phone.
• AI agents for chat and messaging: chatbots and virtual agents on your website, apps and messaging channels.
• Agent assist and copilots: real-time guidance, suggested answers, summaries and after-call notes for your agents.
• Workflow and process automation: automating the steps behind a contact, such as updating systems, handoffs and back-office tasks.

Underneath most of these sit conversational AI platforms and large language models (generative AI). The newest, agentic AI, can plan and complete multi-step tasks, such as changing a booking across several systems.

• High-volume, simple requests: balances, order status, bookings, password resets and common questions.
• After-call work: automatic summaries and notes save time on every contact.
• Knowledge: helping agents find the right answer quickly, especially new starters.
• Quality and insight: analysing every conversation instead of a small sample.
• Out of hours: answering simple requests when your team is offline.

AI works best alongside your people. Let it handle routine contacts so your team can focus on complex, sensitive and valuable conversations, and make it easy for customers to reach a person.

• No easy way to a person: customers who get stuck with a bot leave frustrated. Design clear escalation from the start.
• Wrong answers: generative AI can sound confident and be wrong. Ground it in your approved knowledge and test it thoroughly.
• Measuring the wrong thing: containment alone hides failure. Track resolution, satisfaction and repeat contacts too.
• Poor data and knowledge: AI is only as good as the content and systems behind it.
• Privacy and compliance: know where customer data goes, how it's used to train models and which rules apply in your market. Tell customers when they're dealing with AI.

Need help deciding where to start? See AI strategy and adoption consultants.

Some suppliers sell software your team configures and runs. Others, including many outsourcers, design, build and operate automation for you and are measured on results.

• Software platform: more control, but you need skills to design conversations, train models and maintain them.
• Automation partner: faster to start and outcome-focused, but check who owns the content, data and models if you change partner.
• Your existing platform: many contact centre platforms now include AI features. Check what you already pay for.

Looking for an outsourcer that also offers AI? Use the Also offers filter on outsourcing pages.