Contact Center Pipeline January 2026(clone) | Page 8

As innovation continues, our focus must remain on using AI to power seamless, proactive, and deeply personalized interactions, raising the bar for what modern customer service can deliver.

CUSTOMER ACCEPTANCE

AI, LIKE AGENTIC AI, HAS BEEN HERALDED AS A MASSIVELY TRANSFORMATIVE TOOL. BUT IS AI TURNING OUT THAT WAY?

• Is it becoming like the grocery self-checkouts that customers appear to be avoiding and going back to staff?

• Or more like bank ATMs and speech-enabled IVR, which customers have generally accepted, handling the simpler, high-volume interactions while leaving the complex engagements to people?

KM: The problem is that most AI still behaves like a vending machine: limited menus, rigid options, and zero awareness of what came before. It can only respond to what’ s pressed, not to what’ s meant. Customers aren’ t rejecting automation; they’ re rejecting bad automation that makes them do the system’ s work.

When AI can’ t recognize nuance, traps users in loops, or forces them to start over, they seek a human. But when it understands context, remembers past interactions, and resolves issues without friction, they stay.

That’ s the turning point agentic AI creates; it replaces the vending machine with a system that can reason, adapt, and deliver outcomes proactively. Once customers experience that kind of competence, they don’ t want to go back.

SP: While AI may have initially been met with skepticism in the CX space, with hesitancies that persist among consumers, it continues to be a transformative tool for customer interaction.

In the contact center, agentic AI is taking on the role that ATMs and IVRs once did: handling the high-volume, low-complexity interactions so human agents can focus on the more complex issues that require the judgment and emotion of a person.

We continue to take a human-in-the-loop approach to CX to ensure that AI doesn’ t become the self-checkout experience that people abandon, but rather as an effective tool that consumers can trust for accurate and efficient service.

8 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE

NV: AI in contact centers isn’ t just about handling repetitive interactions. It is becoming a full-fledged extension of the workforce.

Modern AI can move across the entire service ecosystem, automating complete journeys from routine requests to mid-office approvals and back-office fulfilment, while working seamlessly alongside human employees.

It’ s important to remember that AI is not new and AI in the contact center is not new. Rather than focusing on the newest large language model( LLM) or classes of AI, we have been building CX-specific AI solutions for decades.

That means bringing the most appropriate type of AI to deliver the best CX outcomes for consumers. This approach brings together AI memory, knowledge assets, deep industry expertise, the best LLM for each use case, security, scalability, and a comprehensive testing framework.

It allows building solutions that effectively copilot human agents while guiding customers effortlessly through their journeys, meeting the needs of all customers.

Companies that deploy AI solely for cost-cutting often fall short. But when AI is thoughtfully integrated, handling routine tasks while augmenting human capability, it strengthens both customer and employee experiences, delivering real outcomes rather than just responses.

In short, AI is no longer a support tool; it’ s a collaborative partner, amplifying human capability, driving operational efficiency, and enabling smarter, end-to-end CXs.

AI CHALLENGES

THERE HAVE BEEN MANY REPORTS OF AI APPLICATIONS, LIKE AGENTIC AI, NOT MEETING THEIR PROMISES AND RESULTING IN FEWER BENEFITS THAN WERE HOPED FOR. BUT WHAT ARE YOU HEARING IN THE CONTACT CENTER? WHAT CHALLENGES IN DEPLOYING THESE TECHNOLOGIES HAVE THEY ENCOUNTERED?

KM: The main challenges we see are companies relying on single bots, sometimes even agentic bots, that are simply too limited in scope.

" AGENTIC SYSTEMS NEED SEAMLESS ACCESS TO FRESH, UNIFIED KNOWLEDGE ACROSS CRM, WORKFLOWS, SUPPORT SYSTEMS, AND HISTORICAL INTERACTIONS."

-- NEERAJ VERMA