The rapid rise of AI in customer care is impossible to ignore. From customer-facing tools like chatbots to newer AI Agents that provide proative capabilities such as making reservations or scheduling appointments without being instructed to do so, businesses are quickly adopting AI technologies to reduce costs while improving self-service and agent productivity. While arly AI bots were often limited and awkward, today’s advanced solutions are transforming the customer experience (CX) by combining conversational AI with generative AI.
According to the newly released Five9 Business Leaders CX Report, more than 80% of surveyed business leaders have lready deployed AI in their contact centers. Among the most widely used solutions are agent assist tools that provide next-best action recommendations and coaching, along with AI-powered workforce optimization (WFO) tools designed to improve both customer experience and agent performance while driving down costs.
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Source: Five9 Business Leaders CX Report
AI Reluctance
Despite its many benefits, a good portion of contact centers have yet to take the AI plunge. According to the survey, cost is the main factor holding back AI deployments. Many AI solutions, particularly for generative AI, utilize usage-based pricing (e.g., per resolution, per interaction, per token, etc.), making it challenging to predict costs. While AI may be cost-effective at low volumes, these costs can quickly escalate with high interaction volumes.
Another gating factor is the lack of internal staffing resources. Many organizations simply don’t have enough employees with the specialized knowledge required to deploy and manage AI technologies. Without this internal expertise, businesses may struggle to identify the best AI solutions for their specific needs, understand the potential impact of AI, and ensure data privacy and security compliance. (I wrote about the importance of training in AI adoption programs earlier this year.)
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AI – Assisting Both Agents and Customers
AI is being used to enhance both self-service for customers and support for agents throughout the customer journey. Survey respondents overwhelmingly agree that AI plays a valuable role in improving contact center performance—especially by enabling self-service, delivering real-time agent assistance, and supporting quality management.
Of the respondents currently using AI in their contact centers, 94% use AI to assist agents as they interact with customers directly, while 96% use it for customer self-service.
Customer-facing AI includes chatbots, intelligent virtual agents (IVAs), and AI Agents that provide faster, more natural self-service interactions—available 24/7 across geographies and languages.
Agent support and augmentation includes:
Agent Assist provides real-time guidance and suggested solutions or next-best actions, guiding agents to deliver the right answers and information to customers.
Automating after-call work, including interaction summarization and wrap-up
AI-enabled coaching and training: AI can spot and identify situations where agents need help during challenging interactions and deliver real-time coaching when needed, or assist with agent training to improve agent performance.
AI-enabled Workforce Optimization (WFO): AI streamlines operations and improves agent performance while empowering agents with increased scheduling flexibility. AI also improves the QM process by listening to and scoring 100% of conversations, highlighting areas for review and improvement.
Real-time translation and interaction transcription helps companies support a global customer base or provide assistance to non-native speaking customers. This can be particularly useful for hospitals and healthcare organizations.
Intelligently routing customers to the best agent to address their issue
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Proving AI’s Value
AI is already proving its worth: more than three-quarters of surveyed business leaders said their AI deployments met or exceeded expectations. As adoption expands—supporting agents, supervisors, analysts, and customers alike—AI will continue to deliver value. Businesses that haven’t yet deployed AI risk falling behind their more innovative competitors.
When implemented for the right use cases—and with guidance from vendors or integration partners—AI can deliver rapid ROI and measurable business benefits. Additionally, the more AI is used throughout the operation and customer journey, the more value it will provide – especially over time.
Note: To discuss key findings from the Business Leader CX survey, I’ll be participating in the Five9 webinar “What Business Leaders Get Wrong About CX—and How to Fix It” on Thursday, July 10, at 1:00 PM PDT. It will highlight the disconnect between what business leaders believe customers want and what customers actually value.
