The conversation around AI in contact centres is evolving, and rather than using technology to replace human agents, many organizations are shifting focus toward empowering them.
The goal is to make their jobs easier, improve consistency, and speed up time to confidence and competence, without sacrificing the quality of customer experience.
To find out more, we asked Richard Simpson, Chief Solutions Officer at Route 101, to explain how AI is transforming the agent experience.
Video: New Ways Tech Is Helping Agents: In-the-Moment Guidance Better Supports New Agents
Watch the video below to hear Richard explain the new ways technology is helping contact centre agents and how in-the-moment guidance is better supporting new agents:
With thanks to Richard Simpson, Chief Solutions Officer at Route 101, for contributing to this video.
This video was originally published in our article ‘10 New Ways Tech is Helping Agents Right Now‘
How AI Is Empowering Contact Centre Agents
As contact centres continue to evolve, the focus has moved away from replacing agents with AI, as Richard explains:
“The general trend that we’re seeing is a shift away from how do we automate all of this stuff and take it away from agents to how do we empower agents to do the job more easily, and you know augment them with the use of technology, and AI being one of those technologies.”
So, let’s take a look at five ways AI is being used to transform the agent experience:
1. Real-Time Guidance Builds Confidence
AI now supports agents in the moment, especially newer ones, and you could think of it like a virtual floorwalker, suggesting responses to customer queries during live interactions, whether by voice or chat.
These suggestions also include relevant knowledge base articles or step-by-step procedures.
“The areas that we’re seeing that development in are around the guidance, the in-the-moment guidance, provided to agents.
So particularly where you’ve got new agents who need something like a virtual floorwalker to give them that guidance in the moment, respond to customer queries with suggested responses – this is by voice, or chat, or whatever – and promotion of certain knowledge-based articles, or procedures.
And I think that the key point is to make sure that the responses are consistent, and appropriate, to the scenario that the agent is handling, and give them that confidence, and that I say is sort of like a virtual floorwalker alongside them.”
This kind of guidance ensures consistency, promotes compliance, and gives agents the confidence they need without slowing the flow of conversation.
2. Faster Time to Expertise
AI shortens the learning curve for new agents, and as procedures change or new products are launched, AI identifies relevant queries and provides the latest steps and messaging.
“Then over time, they won’t necessarily be as reliant on that AI, but it would certainly accelerate their time to expertise, the time to value that they can provide.”
This real-time support reduces dependency on manual coaching and helps agents build expertise faster, ensuring service quality stays high, even during transitions.
3. Smarter Handling of New or Complex Topics
When new regulations or services launch, AI can detect when a query relates to those areas, and it then surfaces the relevant guidance: what to ask, what to say, and which steps to follow.
This improves compliance and ensures even complex calls are handled accurately and consistently.
“But as new procedures and things come in, it’ll be an ongoing thing, right? It’ll be like a new product for a particular organization is launched, or a new government policy is introduced, and new guidance needs to be distributed.
Then AI can actually help by saying, or indicating, this conversation, or this query, is about this thing, here are the steps to follow, here are the things to remember, remember to ask about the following things, but here’s a suggested response.
So that provides that level of consistency and adherence, compliance if you like, but it also helps to scale up those agents over a period of time where they become the experts.”
4. More Efficient After-Call Work
Post-call admin can take minutes, not seconds, which adds up across the day, but AI now helps by summarizing calls automatically, formatting the output for clarity and consistency.
“The other part is in terms of just efficiency of routine tasks, such as the summarization of call information, the after-call work period, that kind of thing.
We see in some organizations that can be pretty lengthy, it’s not measured in seconds, it’s in minutes, and arguably that’s not productive time.
But the ability to summarize a conversation and format that summary, so that again there’s consistency in terms of that output, and greater accuracy, the ability for the agent to evaluate and edit that response but then summarize it quickly and move on to the next thing.”
Agents can still review and edit, but the bulk of the manual work is gone, which helps to speed up workflows and reduce fatigue.
5. Enhancing CX While Supporting Agents
AI works quietly in the background, so customers don’t see the tech. What they notice is smoother, more confident service.
“At the heart of it, the agent is still interacting directly with the customer and the customer should not necessarily be aware of the whizzy AI stuff that’s going on in the background, because yes, we want to make the agents’ lives better, but we still need to keep the customer experience in mind.”
By reducing pressure and repetitive work for agents, and improving consistency, AI boosts the agent experience and the customer journey at the same time.
If you are looking for more great insights from the experts, check out these next:
- Tips to Improve Call Abandonment Rates
- How to Break Bad Habits in Workforce Planning
- The Hidden Cost of Poor Scheduling
Author: Robyn Coppell
Reviewed by: Rachael Trickey
Published On: 10th Oct 2025
Read more about - Video, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Employee Engagement, Route 101, Videos
