GuideContact center · 6 min
How do we use AI in our contact center, and where do we start?
AI can handle routine contacts, help your agents, score every call and hear your customers. Pilot one job on your platform, and judge it by numbers you track.
The Clectiv team ·
Pick one job, one queue and one number to beat. AI in a contact center is four different jobs, and each one gets its own pilot. Judge it by numbers you already track, read in pairs.
What can AI do in a contact center today?#
Four jobs, and each one moves a different number. Know which job you're buying before anyone shows you a demo.
- Handle routine contacts. AI agents answer common calls and chats on their own and hand the rest to a person.
- Help your agents. Assist suggests answers during a contact and writes the notes afterward.
- Score every contact. Automated quality scoring (auto QA) reviews every call and chat, not a small sample.
- Hear your customers. Analytics reads what customers say across every contact and shows what keeps coming up.
AI doesn't replace your people on the hard contacts. It takes the routine ones and gives your agents time and information for the rest.
If you're keeping your platform, AI arrives one of two ways. It's built into the platform, or it comes from a provider that works alongside it.
Five9, Genesys, Talkdesk and NICE sell platforms with AI built in. PolyAI, Kore.ai and SoundHound AI sell AI agents of their own.
These are contact center providers we bring to the table, and Clectiv AI runs the process with them for you: start a project.
Before you call anyone#
Put the contacts you want AI on, and the numbers you track today, into Clectiv AI before any pilot gets scoped. Clectiv AI then runs the process, putting it out to bid with the providers that fit so they compete, and you choose. Call one first and the pilot is scoped around its product and its numbers, not yours.
What should we pilot first?#
Pilot one job on one queue, with one number to beat. A small start tells you what works before anything touches the whole floor. Three questions pick the job:
- Which contact comes up most, and has one right answer?
- Is your knowledge base clean for that contact? AI answers from it.
- Who takes the handoff? A person must be one step away when the AI can't finish.
Write the pilot down with Clectiv AI: the contact, the queue, the number and the handoff. Then every proposal pilots the same thing, and the plan sets the rest, from how long it runs to what a pass looks like.
Don't pilot two jobs at once. If two things change, you can't tell which one moved the number.
Other buyers already paved this. Clectiv AI runs the process we've run for teams like yours, so you start where they ended up. And the plan goes to these providers directly, for the best pricing, terms and contract we can get.
How do we know it's working?#
Measure in the numbers you already track, and read them in pairs. One number alone can look great while the customer has a bad day. Take a baseline from the same queue before you switch anything on, so "after" has something to beat. Compare like weeks with like weeks, because a busy week and a quiet one don't line up.
| Number | What it shows | Read it with |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution rate | The share of contacts finished without a person | Repeat contacts |
| Average handle time | Minutes a contact takes an agent | Satisfaction |
| Repeat contacts | Customers who come back about the same thing | Resolution rate |
| Handoff rate | How often the AI passes to a person | Satisfaction |
The pairs catch the false wins. Resolution rate up with repeat contacts up can mean the AI is closing contacts too early. Handle time down with satisfaction down can mean agents are rushing.
Use your own reports, with your own definitions. A provider's dashboard is a start, but your numbers are the ones that count.
Every proposal should say which of these numbers it will report, and how it counts each one. If a provider can't, you can't compare it with the next.
Common questions#
What can AI do in a contact center?#
Do we need a new platform to add AI?#
What should we measure in an AI pilot?#
Which contacts should AI take first?#
How do we know the AI isn't hurting customers?#
How does Clectiv AI get this done?#
Open Clectiv AI first. Tell it which platform you run and which contacts you want AI on. It scopes the project with you and writes your plan: agents, channels, what the AI should take, what your people keep, and what has to plug in.
Then the Clectiv team takes your plan to the contact center and AI-agent providers that fit, all at once, through our partner network of 620+ providers. Real bids come back, the providers compete for your business, the team pushes on terms, and you choose.
Companies like yours made this climb before. Clectiv AI runs the process we've run for them, so you start where they finished. The providers that fit get the plan directly, and you get the best pricing, terms and contract we can.
It's free to you, and it moves in days, not months. Everything we cover in contact center is on the contact center page.
Wondering what "agentic" means? Read agentic AI in the contact center.
Sources and method. No prices appear in this guide. The measures named are ones contact centers commonly track, not benchmarks. Provider names are examples of who sells contact center platforms with AI and AI agents, from Clectiv's provider directory and its provider notes, not a ranking.