The Era of the Super Agent©  

Years ago, we explored several emerging customer experience technologies. New, exciting tools that were revolutionizing the way that agents support, engage, and assist customers, in what we dubbed the “Era of the Super Agent©”. Now, with the rapid evolution of AI and the increasing use of automation and digital assistants, have robots finally taken over customer service? Or, is the very nature of the contact center agent evolving to form a superior, symbiotic relationship with technology, in a way that looks quite different from the “Skynet” scenario people once feared. 

What is the Future of Contact Center Jobs? 

When we last wrote our article, artificial intelligence (AI) was seemingly "invading" contact center operations, bringing with it controversy and speculation. For many, it was still in the exploratory stages with limited uses, but with AI technology rapidly advancing, and now able to mimic human speech patterns and responses, the question remains, what role does the human agent play in contact center operations?  

While it’s true that 41% of CX organizations now employ some form of Generative AI in their customer support, and over two-thirds of customers like using AI tools to book appointments (40%), find products (39%),  or for loan applications (22%), the majority still want to interact with technology that has a human mind guiding and managing it. Only 37% believe that AI, on its own, is truly capable of creating the same emotional connections as humans. 

Recent studies also show that consumers still don’t fully trust the problem-solving capabilities of machines. Despite the availability of self-service options, 76% of consumers still prefer phone calls when they want to reach a customer support representative, especially if they have a complex issue. This means that the human contact center agent isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon, and instead a new type of agent, the Super Agent®, is now a highly valued part of the customer journey. 

How is AI Technology Being Used in CX Today? 

So, if technology is not viewed as an agent replacement, then how is it being used today in customer experience management (CXM)? And how does this differ from a few years ago?  

Many CX leaders are using technology to enhance the overall customer experience, such as helping customers find faster answers (67%), or to reduce wait times (62%). AI is being used as a tool for agent enhancement. It has augmented the agent’s efficiency, enabling them to focus their time and attention on higher-value tasks that drive customer engagement, loyalty and sales.  

How do agents feel about the technology, now that its use is more widespread? Though a third feel uneasy about AI, 61% of customer service professionals believe that AI and automation are helping them to better understand their customers and 70% think it’s actually making contact center roles more enjoyable because it allows them to focus on more rewarding, rather than mundane, tasks.  

In fact, what AI is doing goes fundamentally deeper than task reassignment. It isn’t just making work more enjoyable, it is in fact, changing the very nature of contact center roles. Super Agents© are emerging as the next evolution, where technology is infused into every aspect of the agent life cycle, from recruiting to training to live calls. This is creating roles that are more nuanced, essentially transcending the transactional nature of traditional contact center work, and instead, giving agents a more powerful and influential consultative role.  

The Era of the Super Agent©   

Through AI, our Super Agents© are empowered to become expert problem-solvers and to focus on the quality of interactions. Performance management systems not only capture 100% of customer calls, but thanks to AI, the transcription accuracy is unparalleled, which is critical for reliable data analysis. itel’s itelligence  platform can even recognize and accurately transcribe regional accents, which most off-the-shelf solutions cannot achieve. 

Now, data flows into the very hands of contact center agents. This is where itelligence gives total data transparency across the organization, allowing agents to track, monitor, and adjust their own performance, which studies show can lower average handle times by 27%. Agents can even measure their KPI attainment against other team members through virtual leaderboards, encouraging friendly competition and gamifying the experience, leading to a 48% increase in employee engagement. 

Call data is segmented and fed into dashboards where agents can see keywords detected through speech to text transcription. This allows them to quickly identify geographic locations, product names, or call types, and to get to the root of customer issues much faster. Companies that use this kind of technology have even seen sales revenues increase by a third, as agents use real-time customer data and AI prompts to quickly zero in on customer motivations, making every offer more relevant, and helpful.  

Sentiment analysis is another area where AI has also made great strides. Because AI is now capturing, categorizing and summarizing key data, agents can now see, not only the sentiment identified by the system, but a map of which actions and words have led to more positive customer reactions. The same studies that demonstrate efficiency improvements when using AI also show that this kind of insight leads to dramatic improvements in soft skills like empathy and can result in a 40% boost to customer satisfaction ratings. 

AI is Revolutionizing the Contact Center Industry 

Imagine data now flowing through the hands of supervisors, internal CX teams, and clients, as soon as each customer interaction is complete, allowing Ops teams to acquire lightning-fast data that helps them refine workflows and increase staffing efficiency and giving clients a real-time window into their CX operations. Or envision using timely, accurate data to route calls more effectively, or to understand when to deploy new digital channels or AI chatbots to reduce the pressure on live agents during peak volumes. 

Now, imagine CX Coaches using AI-enhanced data to identify new opportunities for improvement and to address any quality issues, not days later, but immediately after a call, when those teachable moments make the greatest impression and are likely to result in long-lasting behavioral changes. Imagine AI, working alongside quality teams, to identify learning opportunities by auto-deploying training modules when KPI goals are not sufficiently met. 

It's not a dream anymore, or a vision, it is now a reality. Developments in technology have not only ushered in the dawn of the itel Super Agent©, but it is also the very evolution of the contact center that we are now witnessing. Contact centers are transitioning from being seen as cost centers to becoming vital, value-added segments of the business, with strategic insights that can lead to business growth and market differentiation. The best of machine and human have now merged to enhance the customer experience, agent experience, and client outcomes.  

Want to learn more about our itel Super Agents© and how you can leverage AI in your contact center operations? Contact Us!