How to Nurture an AI-Positive Culture in Your Contact Centre

As exciting as rolling out an AI solution can be, it’s not all about the tech! The best leaders are also investing time in creating a culture where their teams truly embrace AI as a partner – not a replacement.

That’s why we asked our consultants panel for their practical suggestions on how to nurture an AI-positive culture – one where every agent feels supported, empowered, and confident to use this technology in the best possible way.

“Don’t Allow AI to Drag You Back Into a World of Obsessing Over Symptoms”

Half a century before the emergence of large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI, Abraham Maslow described his ‘law of the instrument’, which most of us recognize as “if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat everything like it’s a nail.”

If we’re not careful, more than bruised thumbs will result if we start wielding a Gen AI hammer to fix every contact centre and customer experience problem!

Therefore, it’s critical that you don’t allow AI to drag you back into a world of obsessing over symptoms instead of causes.

New technologies can really help with the automation of unwanted customer contact, but truly improved customer experiences are reliant on tackling the root causes of these contacts (which AI-based analytics should be invaluable in helping identify).

Contributed by: Steve Sullivan, Founder, Channel Doctors

“Never Position AI as a Way to Simply Deflect Customer Contact”

AI should never be positioned as a way to simply contain or deflect customer contact. Instead, it should be framed as a way to reduce customer effort and empower agents to deliver better outcomes.

When implemented correctly, AI should augment the agent experience and improve the customer journey at the same time. For example, by providing guidance, surfacing the right procedures, and reducing the need for agents to search manually for information.

This allows agents to spend less time navigating systems and more time listening to customers, understanding their needs, and offering alternatives or solutions.

After all, when agents are forewarned and prepared, they feel empowered and confident. They know what steps are likely to be required and can act quickly without second-guessing the process.

Contributed by: Siobhain Goodall, Customer Experience Specialist at Ventrica

For advice on how to elevate your self-service channels for everyone’s benefit, read our article: 7 Ways to Elevate Your Self-Service Options

“Design Solutions Around Customer Needs – With or Without Automation in Mind”

At its best, AI strengthens existing operations. It speeds up execution, improves consistency, and removes friction from well-designed processes.

When those processes are weak, AI just makes things worse. A poor workflow does not become effective because it is automated; it is simply inefficiency at scale.

This is why AI should never be the foundation of a contact centre strategy. The fundamentals must work first. The operation should function effectively without AI support.

Only then does automation add value. Used correctly, AI enhances what is already effective rather than compensating for what is missing.

Fundamentally, if AI is essential for a solution to function, the problem was never properly solved in the first place. Experience centres that deploy AI in the right way will be in the smaller percentage that get out of proof-of-concept purgatory and see true solution benefits.

Contributed by: George Harrison, Analyst at Actionary

“Make Escalation Easy and Fast”

AI is brilliant at being consistent. It never gets tired, never rolls its eyes, and never has a “Monday morning” tone. That’s exactly why it’s useful. But it’s also why it can’t be the solution.

Most of the smart voices in the AI space are saying the same thing in different ways: AI will take on work humans don’t have time for, or can’t afford to do, and that’s where the real value is. Not ‘replace the team’, but ‘take the repetitive load so humans can do the human bits’.

So how do you keep the balance in a contact centre??

• Make escalation easy and fast. If customers fight their way through a bot-maze to reach a person, you’ve built friction, not efficiency.
• Measure what matters. Track customer effort, repeat contacts, complaints, and what happens after AI hand-offs.
• Define ‘human-needed moments’. Complaints, vulnerability, confusion, emotional situations, complex judgement calls, trust-building, anything high-stakes.

Treat AI like a power tool. Useful in the right hands. Dangerous when you hand it to someone and say, “Crack on!”

Contributed by: Rob Clarke, Director and Co-Founder of Elev-8 Performance

“Set Clear Operational Criteria for When a Human Must Step In”

While AI has transformative potential for contact centres, it’s critical that organizations, especially in regulated sectors like financial services, treat it as a tool to enhance (not replace) human service.

The real opportunity lies in designing a hybrid model, where automation handles the predictable and procedural, and humans bring the emotional intelligence, contextual judgement, and regulatory awareness needed for complexity.

But achieving that balance requires discipline. It starts with a CX strategy rooted in purpose: what do your customers value most in your service? From there, a service design framework can help identify where AI improves efficiency without eroding empathy.

When I work with firms, I insist on the implementation of ‘AI guardrails’: clear operational criteria for when a human must step in.

This is particularly critical under Consumer Duty, where poor automation can lead to unfair outcomes, particularly for vulnerable or digitally excluded customers.

Contributed by: James Edmonds, Managing Director at Duty CX

If you are interested in blending human agents and AI to deliver great CX, read our article: The Superhuman Touch – How to Blend Agents and AI for Maximum Impact

“Make Sure Your Teams Understand the Principles of Tool Use”

Technology, at its core, is simply another class of tools. Yet few people ever examine the underlying principles of tool use.

Whether the tool is a rock, a hammer, a software platform, or an operating system, one principle remains constant: if it does not fit your hand, its use will generate friction.

In modern environments, this translates directly to the question: does the software you rely upon feel intuitive, or does it consistently provoke frustration? Agility in a technological world often rises or falls on this point.

When a tool does not feel natural, learning how to use it becomes more difficult, stress increases, and performance degrades.

This is not a moral failing. Nor is it something that can be “fixed” by sheer force of will. Tool-fit is inherently individualized.

Some people will take to a particular system with ease; others will experience persistent resistance. This does not imply that one must force comfort, nor that a misaligned tool necessitates abandoning a role.

Instead, it means the journey will require more deliberate effort. Teams must understand the principles of tool use. Teach them and create environments that foster adaptation, resilience, and self-compassion.

Better fit can often be achieved not by changing the tool but by improving the context in which the tool is used.

Contributed by: Dr M. Dave Salisbury, COO at D&C Consulting LLC

What Have You Tried to Nurture a More AI-Positive Culture in Your Contact Centre?

Click here to join our Readers Panel to share your experiences and feature in future Call Centre Helper articles.

If you are looking for more information to improve AI implementation and culture in your contact centre, read these articles next:

• What Great Leaders Know About Team Climate and Results
• Kick-Start AI Education in the Contact Centre
• 9 Ways to Create a Thriving Contact Centre Culture

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman