FEATURE
BY BRENDAN READ, CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE; Q & A WITH EXPERT PANEL
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE IMAGES
IS THE AGENTIC AI JOURNEY WORTH THE DRIVE? CAN AGENTIC AI BRING CONTACT CENTERS TO WHERE THEY WANT TO BE?
6 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
Contact centers are moving faster down the road to increased automation, where machines are becoming the norm and people the exception in customer interactions. Where technology also supports humans: whose roles are now to handle only what they cannot and as backups, oversight, and overrides.
This journey is being accelerated by AI advancements like agentic AI. It is being driven by the C-suite to cut costs and improve revenue retention-and-growing excellent customer experiences( CX): and not necessarily in that order.
But as organizations are learning( yes, once again), AI, like every other complex tool, also has its downsides that must be investigated. And, most critically, it must be carefully implemented, including thorough integrations with the people, processes, and other technologies.
In the July 2025 issue Feature, our expert panel touched on agentic AI and automation in routing and handling customer contacts. But we dug a little deeper and posed these related questions as organizations gain experience with these technologies.