AI regulation has become a boardroom priority. As the US and UK hesitate, the EU surges ahead with the world’s first comprehensive AI law, the EU AI Act, set to shape global standards just as GDPR did for data privacy.
Customers in 2025 want their problems solved quickly but also with care. According to MaxContact’s latest Voice of the UK Consumer report, 70% of people want to speak to a human when explaining specific situations, and 42% have switched providers due to poor contact centre experiences. At the same time, 45% are comfortable with AI but nearly 36% remain uncomfortable, especially older demographics.
Research from Stanford, MIT, and NUS shows people disclose more openly to AI than to humans on sensitive issues like money, health, and relationships. The reason is simple: AI doesn’t judge. For CX leaders, judgment-free AI agents can unlock trust, accuracy, and more honest customer interactions.
Six months on from our “Year of Difficult Conversations” whitepaper, a clear paradox has emerged. AI in contact centres delivers rapid wins, but without careful planning, those gains risk eroding into burnout, attrition, and declining customer satisfaction. This ‘AI Paradox’ shows why sustainable transformation depends on balancing efficiency with agent wellbeing.
In health & wellbeing, every interaction matters. As digital healthtech and rising expectations put pressure on contact centres, leading brands are turning cost centres into care hubs. By blending automation with empathy, they scale securely while protecting the trust and human connection that define the wellbeing experience.
AI boosts contact centre efficiency fast but without safeguarding agents, early gains collapse into burnout, turnover, and falling CSAT. The answer is agentic AI: systems that handle tasks while empowering humans, sustaining productivity and long-term ROI.
Pure Voice AI is the most disruptive contact centre use case yet, replacing agents for certain interactions with fully autonomous, human-like conversations. Beyond efficiency, it promises 24/7 service, smoother demand, and seamless multilingual support, making it a transformative shift for customer experience.
AI-powered hands-free conversations remove admin tasks, letting agents focus fully on the customer for faster, smarter, and more human interactions
As contact centre queries grow more complex, Agent Assist AI supports agents in real time, analysing calls, retrieving context, and guiding conversations. It reduces cognitive load, speeds up onboarding, and boosts satisfaction, helping transform contact centres into proactive value generators.
Are we entering the era of “perma-peak”? As demand surges become less predictable, this article explores how contact centres can stay agile with real-time planning, flexible resourcing, and smarter demand management.
As regulations tighten, AI is helping contact centres identify vulnerable customers more accurately and consistently. By analysing language and emotion in real time, businesses can act quickly to protect at-risk individuals, reducing both compliance risk and reputational damage. This is technology supporting ethical service at scale.
Auto Coaching uses AI to analyse agent interactions and deliver personalised, real-time feedback. It saves team leaders hours of prep, improves coaching consistency, and helps agents develop faster. All driving better customer experience and operational efficiency.