We all hear the same thing about the future of the CX landscape every year, that it’s poised for a dramatic transformation. Most years, the steady evolution of CX tech delivers real gains for customers and businesses but falls short of true transformation. But this year seems different. As CX leaders embrace generative AI, the role of contact centers—and the agents who work within them—will undergo a profound shift. The key to navigating this colossal change will be effectively using the full range of genAI’s capabilities to improve both customer and employee experiences.

The growing complexity of AI use cases for CX

Over the next year, two things will happen in tandem – new CX use cases for AI-native solutions will continue to emerge and enterprises will shift focus to improving data curation. A whopping 95% of customer service leaders say that improving analytics, intelligence, and quality capabilities will be a bigger priority in 2025. That focus will lead to better, cleaner data. And with better data, new AI solutions will be able to tackle more complex customer interactions. 

AI is already automating highly repeatable human-assisted transactions. The capabilities that power this automation, such as summarization, will be commoditized and widely deployed. At the same time, more advanced capabilities will be developed. As AI automates more complex and time-consuming tasks, the role of humans in the contact center will evolve to focus on critical interactions that build customer relationships and strengthen the brand.

Productivity improvements are already obvious early wins with AI, and that will continue. But businesses will lean into generative AI’s capacity to personalize experiences at scale. The vast majority of CX leaders (90%) say that determining the best use cases for AI will be a key focus in 2025. The blend of efficiency and personalization that new use cases offer will finally begin to transform the way companies execute across the entire customer journey.

From legacy tech to LLMs – and beyond

Legacy technologies simply aren’t up to the task of delivering the kind of service consumers expect these days. Chatbots, websites, mobile apps, and IVRs are all okay for very specific tasks, but their inability to support the dynamic, complex, and sometimes emotive needs of the customer are where LLM-native AI is a massive leap forward – when it’s deployed thoughtfully. 

Here’s the catch. An open-source LLM alone cannot manage the complexity of your customer interactions. That’s a lesson some businesses have learned the hard way with some very public failures. But a system of models grounded on your business lexicon and integrated with your company’s backend systems is incredibly powerful at achieving first contact resolution. And this is where leading companies are headed, fast. 

If you haven’t already moved in this direction, you would be well served to get started now by finding an AI solution partner who can implement a range of use cases tailored to your business. You can start simple and deploy use cases of increasing complexity over the next couple of years. This iterative process will ensure ongoing learning and deliver transformational customer, employee, and shareholder value.

The evolving role of human agents

In my experience, no one knows the best and worst of your company better than the agents in the contact center. They talk to the customers that use your products and services all day, every day. So, they know what’s working and what’s not. That makes them a valuable resource, one that too often remains untapped.

As the role of AI expands to handle more routine work, the role of human agents will evolve in ways that create opportunities to leverage their unique knowledge and perspective. Nearly 89% of customer service leaders say that the typical agent of the future will handle complex customer service and support interactions. Other likely aspects of the evolving agent role include participating in client retention and winback efforts (68%), contributing to knowledge management (66%), and collecting and sharing customer feedback (66%).

The expertise of your best agents makes them uniquely equipped to train and supervise AI in a way that will completely change how your contact center operates. Not only will AI resolve the systemic issues that make contact center work incredibly difficult and expensive, but it will also empower companies to create historically high efficiency and personalization. That shift will do a lot to address consumer dissatisfaction, which creates massive headwinds to growth and profitability.

To achieve this transformation, CX employees must be part of the solution from day one. It will be crucial for businesses to involve them directly in AI adoption and expansion. While some jobs, over time, will be reduced or even eliminated, new roles will also be created. Educating employees on the importance of their role with AI, upskilling those tasked with making the technology successful, and evolving incentive programs will accelerate benefits to the customer and company. 

The transformational opportunity for CX leaders has never been this great. But it depends heavily on balancing the technology with the people in the right way.

- Chris Arnold, VP of Contact Center Strategy, ASAPP

Human involvement will be crucial for improving the performance of AI solutions and for ensuring safety and data security. Businesses that successfully evolve a subset of agent roles to provide supervision, human reasoning and judgment, and advanced triage will be better positioned to deliver safe and highly efficient first contact resolution at scale using AI. 

Not all tech providers are equally mindful of the need for this balance of humans and AI. You’ll need to choose a partner that acknowledges the importance of people and process, rather than simply providing software. How technology is deployed matters as much as the technology itself, maybe more in this case.

Navigating this new path forward

There is a tremendous amount of noise in the market right now as companies in every industry develop their CX strategy for generative AI. This has created a massive amount of marketing from technology providers that serve contact centers, many of them painting bolt-on solutions as truly AI-native. That can make it difficult to evaluate and compare solutions and vendors. For long-term value, it will be important to identify the vendors who have deep expertise in AI and CX and have built and deployed AI-native solutions successfully. So, you’ll need to ask tough questions of vendors prior to signing a contract.

As you add generative and agentic AI solutions to your mix, don’t be afraid to start small with a plan to learn and iterate quickly. In the contact center, small changes can lead to massive benefits. Take the time to be proactive and thoughtful in choosing the right use cases to target first. Consider where the AI is strong out of the box, what data sources are available, and where pain points can be quickly eliminated. This requires more thought than simply looking at the top five call drivers. You’ll get there more quickly if you leverage the inherent strengths of the AI and invest the time and energy into creating space for the solution to learn and do what it’s built to do – meet the needs of your customers in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

The shift from cost center to value center

As we look toward the future, it's clear that the contact center is undergoing a fundamental shift. The days of seeing contact centers as mere cost centers are numbered. In the new AI-powered world, contact centers will become value centers that contribute directly to customer loyalty, retention, and revenue generation. 

Traditional metrics like Average Handle Time (AHT) and First Contact Resolution (FCR) will be replaced by more holistic measures that align with the new workflows and possibilities created by AI. These new metrics will shift the focus to omnichannel resolution, customer lifetime value, and concurrency. 

As more human agents shift into new roles supervising the work of autonomous AI agents, concurrency improvements will be dramatic, even with voice. The gains that will bring in productivity and efficiency will dwarf the incremental improvements we’ve seen with other recent technologies. We’re on the cusp on a radical change that will require a new approach to measuring performance. The new metrics will help drive contact centers to deliver exceptional customer experiences at scale, improving both the top and bottom lines of the business.

Thriving in this rapidly evolving landscape

The next year will see significant advancements in the contact center industry. AI will continue to reshape the way we deliver service, while human agents will play an even more critical role in driving customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. By embracing AI, empowering agents, and focusing on personalization and efficiency, businesses can position themselves to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape. The future of customer service is here, and it’s one where technology and humans work together to deliver outstanding experiences.

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