FEATURE
Our panelists are:
• Kevin McNulty, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Talkdesk
• Sarika Prasad, Director, Product Marketing, Five9
• Neeraj Verma, Vice President, Advanced Technology, NiCE
DOES AGENTIC AI HAVE A ROLE IN ROUTING CUSTOMER CONTACTS AND IF SO, IN WHICH CHANNELS? IN ENABLING MORE INTERACTIONS TO BE HANDLED BY AUTOMATED AGENTS RATHER THAN BY LIVE AGENTS?
KEVIN MCNULTY( KM)
Agentic AI has a big role to play in routing. But not in the way we’ ve traditionally thought about it.
Instead of routing to a static queue or decision tree, agentic AI enables real-time reasoning based on context, intent, urgency, customer history, and business rules: and it does this dynamically, across channels.
With agentic AI it’ s not just about“ who takes the call” anymore. Instead, it’ s about“ what combination of AI and human agents can resolve this most efficiently and effectively.”
• In some cases, that may mean handing the interaction off entirely to a team of AI agents. One to authenticate the customer, another to process a refund, a third to update backend systems, and a fourth to confirm completion with the customer.
• In other cases, it might mean an AI copilot supporting a live agent while AI agents work in parallel on backend tasks.
This multi-agent model also means AI isn’ t confined to chat or voice. It can orchestrate across both— and beyond— handling asynchronous messaging, email threads, app interactions, and even outbound engagement.
The bottom line is this. Agentic AI doesn’ t just make automation possible; it makes it collaborative, continuous, and capable of handling complexity in a way traditional bots never could.
SARIKA PRASAD( SP)
Agentic AI is no longer a future concept. It ' s here and reshaping the contact center.
Moving beyond back-office automation, AI agents— empowered by varying levels of autonomy— are now taking on diverse customer-facing roles. They ' re streamlining engagement, accelerating resolution times, and intelligently routing customers to the right destination at the right moment.
Traditional virtual agents are well-suited for handling routine inquiries and repetitive tasks, making them an effective first point of contact.
However, with the advancement of generative AI, today’ s AI agents go much further. They can quickly understand the context and intent behind a customer’ s issue and determine the most efficient path to resolution across channels.
These AI agents efficiently gather key information, resolve issues autonomously when possible, or seamlessly route the interaction to the most appropriate resource- whether that’ s a chatbot or human agent- over voice or digital channels.
This dynamic routing ensures faster resolutions and reduces friction, all while supporting the omnichannel flexibility that modern customers expect.
In fact, we find nearly 60 % of consumers ' preferred communication channel depends on the context of the situation, making it critical for companies to offer fluid transitions between touchpoints.
Agentic AI enables just that by learning customer preferences and responding accordingly. It can also be a key tool for human agents in the routing process, ensuring that if a situation escalates further, the agent has all of the necessary information to help the customer, without being repetitive.
In today’ s high-volume, high-expectation environment, then AI agents aren’ t a“ nice to have,” they are a strategic imperative. They empower contact centers to scale efficiently, deliver faster service, and meet customers where they are, all while freeing up live agents to focus on high-value, complex interactions.
NEERAJ VERMA( NV)
Traditional IVR is being enhanced by agentic AI to better understand and respond to customer intent without human intervention.
These advancements are streamlining routing and resolution for routine queries, significantly lightening the load on live agents and enabling organizations to deliver faster, more efficient service.
I’ d argue that " proactive " is where the real transformation is happening when it comes to agentic AI. If you think about the hierarchy of interactions, no business truly wants inbound.
Inbound is almost a symptom; something you aim to reduce, not optimize. When people say,“ I want to improve my inbound experiences,” what they’ re often really saying is,“ I want to create a world where customers don’ t need to reach out in the first place.”
Historically, proactive AI has been limited to basic use cases: simple reminders, alerts, or status updates.
But recently we’ ve seen a major shift. Both agentic and generative AI are now orchestrating outbound interactions in far more intelligent and meaningful ways. They’ re detecting patterns, identifying anomalies, and triggering personalized, conversational outreach that feels more human than ever.
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