Leveraging AI for Extraordinary Customer Experiences

We all know that AI-powered solutions can level up the customer experience in the contact center. The use cases are seemingly endless, from streamlining processes and improving efficiency, to creating an engaged customer and agent base. Austin Culp, Senior Director of Sales at InflowCX, and Nikola Mrksic, CEO of PolyAI—recently discussed the growing impact of AI and virtual agents on contact centers. 

In this article we go over the highlights of that conversation and encourage you to listen to the full episode and other episodes of the Inflow Experience, our contact center and customer experience-focused show that brings valuable insights to our industry. 

Technology has proven time and time again to be a companion and not a replacement for the human agent in contact centers. The IVR was the first innovation to create fear that it would one day replace the agent in the contact center. So naturally, one of the most pressing concerns in adopting AI in contact centers is the fear of agents being replaced. 

Nikola Mrksic of PolyAI offers a different perspective, one where virtual agents are designed to assist human agents rather than replace them. As Mrksic explained, “The reality is that even if you wanted to replace all agents with AI, you can’t—we’re not there yet.” AI, particularly through voice assistants, offers support by handling routine inquiries and tasks, allowing human agents to focus on complex cases.

This distinction is critical in rebuilding trust around AI. Many customers have had frustrating experiences with traditional Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, and as Austin Culp noted, “There’s nothing more frustrating than being stuck in an IVR loop.” 

With today’s virtual agents, the AI can quickly recognize when they can’t handle a request and then seamlessly transition the call to a human agent—along with the full context of the conversation. This helps avoid customer frustration of having to repeat their entire conversation over and enables the customer to receive the help they deserve. 

This partnership between AI and humans creates a customer experience that is not only more efficient but also more empathetic. In Mrksic’s words, “We’re focused on better customer experience, lower waiting times, and higher first-call resolution.” Virtual agents are not about replacing people but about enabling them to focus on what they do best—solving complex, nuanced problems.

AI is not just about answering simple customer queries—it’s about leveraging deep learning to handle more complex interactions. PolyAI has built virtual agents capable of understanding complicated inputs, including names, dates, and specific industry jargon, saying, “We build voice assistants that help companies improve their customer experience by answering the phone 24/7 with a hyper-realistic voice that can hold a conversation in much the same way that a human can.” This approach allows businesses to automate large portions of customer interactions without sacrificing personalization or quality.

Generative AI is enabling more sophisticated, adaptable responses. According to Mrksic, PolyAI has integrated these advanced technologies into its systems, allowing its virtual agents to pull information from various databases and customize responses. This is particularly important for companies handling vast amounts of data and numerous product lines, such as telecom or financial services. The result? Virtual agents offer more intelligent, context-aware responses, which further elevate the overall customer experience.

As Austin Culp said, AI has created a “massive acceleration in innovation.” This is leading to shorter customer wait times, higher first-call resolution rates, and overall improved customer satisfaction.

Large language models (LLMs) allow contact centers to handle more sophisticated interactions at scale. For example, a customer inquiry about a specific product line or issue can now be addressed more comprehensively by a virtual agent that understands the full scope of the business’s offerings. “The big difference is that AI now allows us to access deeply nested information in databases, and we can integrate that into real-time conversations,” Mrksic explained.

This innovation is key to making contact centers more responsive and flexible, especially when dealing with industries that require detailed, accurate information delivered quickly. It’s also why businesses should view AI not just as a trend but as an essential part of their CX strategy moving forward.

Despite the significant advances in AI, there is still a lot of “hype” that can cloud judgment. Culp noted that many companies feel pressure to develop an “AI roadmap” without truly understanding what they need from the technology. “Customers don’t even know where to start in a lot of cases,” Culp said, underlining the need for strategic assessments before diving into AI adoption.

This is where partnerships like those between InflowCX and PolyAI can play a critical role. InflowCX offers an AI impact assessment that helps businesses identify high-impact areas where AI can enhance their contact center operations. By evaluating voice and digital interactions, this assessment identifies low-risk, high-reward AI implementations that are tailored to a company’s specific needs. As Culp remarked, “That’s where we start with customers often, analyzing their interactions to find ways AI can improve their customer experience.”

As budgets tighten, proving a clear return on investment for AI in the contact center is critical. Mrksic shared practical advice on how companies should approach this: “If you’re missing revenue-generating calls, AI is a simple sell—you’ll get that money back. But if your service has become unacceptably poor due to a lack of staff, AI can also fix that problem.”

Companies must also weigh the labor costs AI can offset, particularly in industries like customer service where every minute counts. Mrksic suggested a simple yet effective way to quantify ROI: “Look at your effective price per minute for human labor versus AI. If you’re deploying in a high-cost country like the U.S., AI will give you a massive return.”

For businesses that still feel overwhelmed by the fast pace of AI innovation, it’s essential to focus on solutions that directly address their unique operational needs. Rather than adopting AI for AI’s sake, contact centers should prioritize systems that support both their agents and their customers, delivering tangible improvements in service quality and efficiency.

The future of contact centers lies in a hybrid approach where humans and technology complement each other. Virtual agents will increasingly handle routine tasks, but human agents will always be needed to manage complex interactions and provide the empathy that technology lacks. With AI tools becoming more sophisticated and accessible, businesses now have an unprecedented opportunity to enhance their customer experience while improving operational efficiency.

At InflowCX, our goal is to guide companies through transitions, whether that is moving from premise-based solutions to the cloud, or a digital transformation supplemented with AI. We view ourselves as part of the team to help you move forward and continue that transformation.   Contact us today to see how we can help you transition into the contact center that aligns with your vision.