4 Ways Humans and AI Can Deliver Smarter, More Empathetic CX Together

As generative and agentic AI continues to mature, the contact centre is undergoing a shift away from traditional rule-based automation to a new era of intelligent human–AI collaboration.

Even as technology evolves rapidly, the future of the contact centre lies in people and technology working together – not in replacing humans.

Rather than removing agents from the equation, AI is helping to elevate their role, creating more meaningful, efficient, and satisfying customer interactions.

Indeed, Medallia research found that a significant 85 percent of CX practitioners believe that AI will revolutionize what their organization can achieve from a CX perspective.

With this in mind, here are four practical ways AI and humans are complementing each other in day-to-day contact centre operations to deliver better outcomes for both customers and organizations.

1. Pre-Call Preparation

AI can act as a coach, trainer, and summarizer, gathering and analysing past customer interactions to surface relevant insights before (or even at the start of) a live conversation.

This includes customer history, preferences, past issues, and current needs, all presented in a clear, digestible format for the agent.

Armed with this context, call centre agents can immediately engage in a conversation that is relevant, empathetic, and responsive.

There’s no need to ask customers to repeat themselves or re-explain prior concerns. As a result, interactions become more efficient, focused, and outcome-oriented – leading to faster resolutions and higher customer satisfaction.

2. Triage and Intelligent Routing

At the beginning of a customer’s journey, AI can serve as an intelligent “traffic cop”, assessing the nature of the query and determining whether it can resolve the issue directly.

If it can, the AI handles the task autonomously. If not, it escalates the customer to the right human agent with the right skill set.

This smart triage function reduces unnecessary workload for agents while ensuring that more complex or sensitive issues are dealt with by skilled professionals. It also shortens wait times and boosts first-contact resolution, improving the overall customer experience.

3. In-the-Moment Agent Support

AI’s role doesn’t stop once a call begins. During live interactions, AI can triage issues, suggest responses, recommend next actions, and surface relevant documentation or knowledge base articles in real time. In this way, it acts as a co-pilot, supporting agents without getting in their way.

AI can also monitor the tone and sentiment of the conversation, alerting agents if frustration is rising or if the conversation is veering off-track.

In doing so, it serves as a live quality assurance tool, helping agents stay aligned with best practices and company standards while still delivering an empathetic and personalized service.

4. Post-Interaction Analytics and Trends

Once a call is complete, AI can analyse large volumes of customer interactions to uncover recurring complaints, emerging product issues, or points of friction in the customer journey.

These insights do much more than just benefit the contact centre. They can inform decision-making across the entire business, from marketing and product development to digital, operations and customer experience strategy.

By connecting the dots, AI enables continuous improvement based on real customer feedback.

Collaboration Not Replacement

The most successful contact centres will be those that empower their agents with AI – not sideline them. When AI is used to support rather than supplant, it enhances both the human and customer experience.

In fact, Medallia’s research identified that one in five cite “enhancing the quality of data analysis” as their organization’s top use case for AI.

By using AI to help to identify key themes and working hand in hand with agents, teams can swiftly and confidently transition from insights to action – boosting the overall experience delivered.

The goal is not just efficiency, but more intelligent, empathetic, and responsive interactions, guided by data, powered by AI, and delivered by people.

To find out how the top brands are turning AI into their ultimate advantage while navigating the twists and turns of implementation, read the research: Beyond the Hype: What CX Practitioners Really Think of AI

Written by: Sid Banerjee, Chief Strategy Officer, Medallia

Author: Medallia