Industry voices have their say on our 10 predictions about the future of Contact Centres

For our 10th anniversary, we unpacked our crystal ball and came up with 10 predictions for the future of Contact Centres. Before publishing, we asked notable voices from around the industry for their take on our ‘short’ predictions, as seen on our predictions page. Here’s what they had to say…

Martin Newman
Board Advisor, Ambassador and part-time Chair CXA

As we look towards 2035, it’s tempting to see the future of customer contact as a story of automation, AI and disappearing headcount. Yet I believe the opposite.
The next decade will be defined not by technology itself, but by the value we extract from it — and how we choose to reinvest that value back into people, purpose and customer relationships.

The brands that win will be those that treat Customer Experience not as a cost centre, but as the single biggest growth driver in the business.

1. ROI Will Evolve — From Return on Investment to Return on Inspiration
For too long, customer contact has been measured through the narrow lens of cost, speed and efficiency.

By 2035, we’ll see a wholesale redefinition of ROI — from a financial calculation to a portfolio of new returns that measure value created for both customers and the business.

Metrics like Return on Inspiration, Integrity, Inclusion, and Interaction will define success.

Contact centres will no longer simply solve problems; they’ll be growth engines, turning service moments into loyalty, advocacy, and product innovation.
Every customer conversation will be recognised for its commercial and cultural value — a moment to deepen trust and strengthen the brand.

2. Cross-Functional Ownership of the Customer
Technology will certainly connect data, but culture will connect people.
By 2035, organisations that thrive will have dismantled silos between Marketing, Operations, HR, Finance and Product.

They’ll operate what I call the Customer Value Chain — where every function owns a shared Customer Promise and is measured by its contribution to delivering it
AI and automation will do much of the heavy lifting, but human alignment will remain the differentiator. The future belongs to businesses where everyone feels responsible for the customer.

3. Humans Won’t Disappear — They’ll Be Redeployed
Predictions that two-thirds of contact centre roles will vanish miss the bigger picture.
Yes, automation and synthetic voice will handle the transactional. But the human role will evolve — from reactive problem-solving to proactive growth creation.

By 2035, the most successful agents will be brand ambassadors and commercial advisors, equipped with data-driven insights and emotional intelligence.

They’ll drive measurable Return on Involvement and Return on Improvement — blending empathy with enterprise.

4. From Data to Actionable Insight
Data alone won’t drive transformation. The winners will be those who operationalise insight at speed.

The contact centre of 2035 will function as a real-time insight hub — connecting feedback loops between customers, analytics, product teams and leadership.
“Customer Memory” will evolve into Customer Foresight — predicting unmet needs rather than reacting to complaints.

The question won’t be how much data you have, but how fast you can act on it. Speed to insight will become a direct predictor of ROI.

5. Trust Will Be the Ultimate Currency
As AI ethics, explainability and data regulation mature, Return on Integrity will emerge as the most powerful commercial measure.

By 2035, customers will expect transparency around how data is used, how decisions are made, and how AI interacts with them.

Brands that misuse or over-automate will erode trust; those that combine AI with empathy will build lasting loyalty.

In an era where technology can do almost anything, it’s trust that will determine what customers allow you to do.

6. Ruthless Prioritisation Will Separate the Leaders from the Lost
As opportunities multiply, so will distractions. The future belongs to businesses that apply ruthless prioritisation — focusing investment only on initiatives that deliver meaningful ROI for both the customer and the company.

Not every technology deserves attention. The differentiator won’t be abundance, but discipline.

Leaders will ask, “Does this improve the customer’s life — and can we measure that improvement?”

If not, they’ll have the courage to walk away.

7. The Human Brand Will Be the Strongest Brand
By 2035, we’ll have more automation, more data, and more digital noise than ever.

The brands that cut through will be the ones that feel most human.

They’ll harness technology to amplify empathy, not replace it.

They’ll measure success by Return on Inspiration and Return on Integrity, not just profit margins.

The future of customer contact is not about machines replacing humans — it’s about humans and machines working together to deliver meaning.

In Summary
AI will be the great enabler. But the real disruption will come from culture — from how organisations choose to lead, measure, and prioritise around the customer.

2035 will belong to brands that treat customer experience as their most valuable asset and ROI as their growth strategy.

That’s not science fiction. It’s just good business.

Mike Havard
Customer Management and Technology Specialist

The next 10 years will undoubtedly bring profound changes to the way customers are serviced and managed. Possibly most importantly, in my view, is not where most current narratives of future service design reside.

The current debate and predictions seem to focus on the way that technology will manage future demand, and the changing interplay between AI, automation more generally and personal contact (the role of the human in engaging with customers).

The key development will actually be how companies (and technology) anticipate, answer, resolve and action issues before any customer contact is even initiated with the brand. Our best ‘contact centre’ will be OpenAI and ChatGPT, or Gemini, or Perplexity, or Co-Pilot. Why would we need to speak to anyone, or anything, with such rich data and information sources available to our devices?

And with the insight that these queries and resolutions throw up for the brands and public sector organisations, they will be better placed than ever before to address the causal issues of failure and demand generation, and create better businesses and brand experiences as a result. Happier customers, more efficient organisations, much less service demand, better outcomes.

This might be a nirvana of ever-decreasing service issues based on automated feedback and resolution, but for the first time we will be properly empowered to be able to effect this.

Not such good news for contact operations, BPO’s, offshoring, employment prospects or the multitude of service providers and technologies operating in this space, but for those who can see and help realise this future and deliver on this potential it should be an interesting and rewarding journey.

Nerys Corfield
Director, Injection Consulting Ltd

It’s quite daunting considering 10 years ahead. At a personal level I’m hoping for a world dominated by changed value systems and greater visibility into facts that takes power away from divisive narratives.

The outlook CCP has put together for customer service and contact centres in 2035 is considered and grounded in the shoots we are seeing being cultivated in 2025.

Point 9 faces the reality of a much-reduced need for human support in the service side of contact centers and along with that the supporting roles within contact centres.

For a space dominated by buoyant employment and rich in progression opportunities it is daunting to face the reality of a dramatic cut in the resources required. It is hard to see which roles could evolve and appear outside of the data scientist and prompt engineers which are dominating today’s landscape.

The final point anticipates the potential extinction of a super-agent. I have been musing this theory for a while, and it seems highly likely that the notion of a super-agent (which in reality hasn’t come to fruition in wage and status) will die a death.

The speed that functionality is coming to the market which makes the role of an advisor so much easier is dizzying. As an industry we will need to be conscious of the paradox of the role. It will become easier from the hard skills perspective – all the knowledge they need will be readily available; they won’t need to use a keyboard to type any notes, and the relevant information will be presented as and when they need it. But, we can’t leave the advisors uncompensated for the emotional burden they will face on the customers who need empathy and support for the outlier use cases. Soft skills will become the currency of Gen A.

Finally, if I were to add a point, I would say that the success measures that are used will finally have had a complete transformation. Metrics like SLA; AHT; ASA; NPS and FCR will have all been sunset and the dawn of a new all-encompassing metric, that customers would choose if they could, will reign supreme.

As the creator of the SOLVE Score™ I am focused on making sure that success of all customer interactions are measured on what really matters – Solution provided in One Touch, Lean time to resolve, quality Verified and Easy.

Dave Rickard
Partner, Everest Group

I think the 10 predictions you call out are spot on, hard to argue with them or add much – one prediction I would make to add to this is that we will see the collapse of the “front” and “back” offices as we know them.

As enterprises start to think about the true end to end experience a customer receives, all the way from ordering something online, to receiving it, how it is received and how they use it, pay for it or return it, there will be a requirement to deliver the experience across existing silo’s which will force businesses to demolish the existing silos and organise more around journeys.

This will mean traditional fiefdoms will change and the way people measure their success will need to change. This is especially important if as your prediction 7, the entry point is not in your control, then the issue the customer wants solved can be anything.

Steve Morrell
Managing Director, ContactBabel

[In response to prediction 2] ContactBabel research has seen a large and sustained uptick in customer preference for live channels in cases of urgent and complex queries. This isn’t a matter of “people will always want to talk to people”, but rather a rational decision based on experience that live agents are more likely to deliver a positive outcome with the least overall amount of effort (time, stress, outcome, etc). Until that changes and another channel or technology can deliver better than a human, the live voice channel will remain dominant. I believe – like we’ve seen with digital channels and web self-service – that customers will give new things a try. But if they don’t work, or the customer wants the reassurance of talking to someone, then businesses had better have well-trained human agents available rightaway.

[In response to prediction 9] This would mean the loss of 533,000 agent positions, and 843,000 jobs. If this is true, it would make AI in contact centres a massive political and economic issue. To put this into perspective, If it happened overnight – which it won’t – it would mean an increase of 50% on the current unemployment rate. I agree with the last sentence, but I think a more gradual drop in employment is likely, with natural wastage accounting for more than dramatic headline-creating sackings. For many companies, halving the cost of their customer contact operations (which is quite a stretch target) but losing 10-20% of sales in the process through customer disapproval or system failures would more than wipe out any gain in profitability. Is it a risk worth taking?

Sandra Thompson
Author & CX Consultant

10 years is a long way off within this era and a brand new ai driven generation will make up the majority of customer profiles. People who grew up without computers will be retiring and they will have adapted fully to the AI era by then.

I honestly don’t we will recognise contact centres in 10 years time. There will be clusters of people in any time zone giving personal attention to brands who have decided to differentiate themselves with real, emotionally intelligent humans. These people will be passionate about the brands because they get to have all the flexibility they want and help other humans (we can see this is well underway already).

Most customers will have their own bots that talk to your company bots. (We have seen this demo too) There will be no call waiting. There will be no “your call is important to us” because the tech will handle all of the volume humans couldn’t.

Brands will think differently about where they put the human in the customer journey. They might take in a more value add role especially with high end products. Customers will continue to chose experiences over products.

Brands might help customers to get the most value out of their product (because humans continue to have brains not designed for the sophistication of the tech). Think of it as you tube tutorials in real life in your front room. People want human connection and may pay for this as an extra.

They won’t be dealing with queries.

10 years is a long way off. If AlphaGo smashed it in 2016 – hold onto your hats. 🎩

Mark Gait
Consultant & Interim Commercial Director, Former Director of Customer Service, Virgin Media O2

[In response too prediction 3] Outsourcing becomes the change engine.
I’m not convinced there is the level of bravery and sophistication in the industry to really go for it. That’s from a Client and Outsourcing perspective. It will require significant investment from outsourcers to lead an AI revolution. Contracting will need to be very different moving from transactional to outcome based. What outsourcers will be this brave? Build it and they will come maybe soon to risky without specific client funding. Clients still focusing on low cost will drive a risk adverse appetite to invest. Often there is a reluctance on the client side to hand too much IP to a partner/outsourcer. This would have to change to drive a step change. I’m sceptical from both sides on the desire to take the leap.

[In response to prediction 7] I wasn’t clear on how the tech giants would hijack the customer. I get they may start a journey there. I think I understand the point for NB opportunities that these giants could lead a potential customer to a paid most profitable outcome for them.

[In response to prediction 9] Two thirds of seats will disappear. Entirely possible but bold in numbers. Point 3 would need to be true for this to happen and as above I’m not sure they are ready. I’d say 40-50%.

[In response to prediction 10] There will be a market for global but if the future agent is the home of the complex or a brand outcome best suited to a human then the reduced volume of these interactions might mean on sure in percentage terms grows as the simple transactions are automated and eliminated by predictive service.

Peter Ryan
President and Principal Analyst, Ryan Strategic Advisory

Contact centres will be AI first. I don’t agree necessarily with this fully…the AI element that’s going to be primordial is analytics, back-office management, training and workforce optimization…efficiency and driving the best know-the-customer results is going to be where the AI-first [will] really take hold. It’s still going to be a people business.

Synthetic conversations mainstream by 2030. I don’t necessarily think that this [will] be the case…deflection to cheaper channels is definitely on the way…But the only way they’re going to become mainstream is if the tools are empowered to be accurate and fast, and that they’re going to be able to resolve issues…It’s not going to happen overnight.

On [prediction] three, outsourcing will become the change engine. The reason that an organisation is going to an outsourcer is because they need more affordable customer care. They also want access to tools and talent. But the reality is that if they’re looking for AI products, they’re going to go to a technology provider.

Compliance will target corporate memory, not just security… this is spot on…this is going to be a very big thing. We know that compliance management alongside data and information security is becoming more complex. And this is going to be a major factor moving forward. Nobody should underestimate the extent to which memory, not just security, is going to be a big play over the course of the next decade.

On number five, memory will be the new currency…it’s not just memory, but it’s analytics, and it’s understanding the customer. This is where BPOs have a real opportunity to shine in terms of value-add services that they can provide…Whether they choose to avail themselves of it or not is another thing. Those that do will profit.

Predictive CX number six. I think that this is 100% true. The reality is right now that the tools are there. Companies like Amazon have been using these for quite some time and there’s an expectation now that [brands will] have an understanding of you and they’ll position different products or services. So yes, 100% firms that do not adopt hyper-personalization will be in big trouble.

On tech giants hijacking the customer and setting the rules, there will be a lot more of this happening…it’s more common [now] for somebody to go to ChatGPT if they’re looking for, for an example, a hotel, and ask, what are the three best hotels to visit or to stay at in New York or London. They’re not going to Tripadvisor …[or] forums anymore. They’re going to places where it’s going to be a lot more efficient, and they’re going to have a lot more opportunity to get robust answers…fast.

On number eight, corporate memory [will] testify against you. Yes, 100%. It’s going to be objective. It’s going to be black and white. There’ll be no nuancing. What the corporate memory of an organization is or what the corporate memory has in its databases will absolutely work for an organization, but it can work against them as well.

Two-thirds of seats will disappear. I strongly disagree with this. One of the big messages we’re hearing even from the tech companies now is that CX is a human-based dynamic. As long as I can remember being an analyst in this space, every time some new form of automation comes out…10 to 15% of workstations are going to disappear. And I tend to think that that’s a good number to play with…most [BPOs] are not anticipating [a two-thirds reduction]. In fact, a lot of them are increasing their capacity. So I think that this prediction is very much an ambitious one, but it’s not one that I see coming to fruition.

On number 10, geography won’t matter, cost and revenue will. There is some truth to this, but it’s going to take a long time…Finding the right talents, finding the right skill sets, finding the right language groups in large volumes, at least in the near to medium term, is still going to be very much on the minds of the outsourcing community. In fact, I’m seeing a rebirth and almost a revitalization of the near shore and offshore business model right now based on the interactions I’m having both with clients [and] BPOs.