Agentic AI has emerged as quickly as it has powerfully, reshaping the landscape of contact centers. Unlike traditional automation, agentic AI is designed to act with a level of autonomy and contextual awareness that enables it to make decisions, carry out tasks, and even improve itself based on feedback.
This new paradigm is rapidly automating key functions in customer service environments, creating both opportunities and challenges for leaders in the industry.
In this article, we explore how agentic AI is influencing contact centers across recruitment, training, management, and customer engagement. And at how human involvement remains not only relevant but crucial.
Automating Contact Center Positions
Contact centers are historically labor-intensive environments. The pressure to handle high volumes of customer interactions, maintain quality service, and manage operational costs has always driven the search for automation.
...agentic AI can help tailor onboarding programs...
Agentic AI represents a leap forward in this pursuit. It can autonomously handle a wide range of tasks from responding to FAQs to managing complex, multi-turn conversations.
These systems analyze language, sentiment, and customer intent in real time, allowing them to provide contextual and emotionally intelligent responses.
Unlike rule-based bots, agentic AI can adapt to a customer’s behavior and modify its approach as the conversation progresses.
This type of innovation reduces the burden on human agents. Consequently, it allows contact centers to reallocate talent to more complex or sensitive customer issues. Thus freeing up human agents to focus on empathy-driven service, where human intuition and problem-solving are most needed.
The results have sometimes been dramatic. For example, Klarna uses AI agents for customer chat, which enabled it to cut average resolution time to two minutes from 11 minutes. That being said, in Klarna’s instance, AI eliminated the jobs of nearly 700 call center agents.
Smarter Screening and Onboarding
The recruiting and onboarding of new agents have traditionally been time-consuming and resource-intensive processes. Agentic AI is transforming this domain by enabling smarter, faster, and more objective hiring practices.
AI-driven platforms can autonomously screen resumes, schedule interviews, and work around the clock for real-time candidate communications. Once a candidate is hired, agentic AI can help tailor onboarding programs by analyzing learning styles and past performance data to deliver personalized training modules. This accelerates the ramp-up time and prepares agents to meet performance standards more quickly.
For example, Concentrix uses TalkPush to screen applicants, route candidates who pass into interviews, and trigger automated offer letters. Concentrix says this workflow has automated approximately 100,000 hires per year.
The flip sides of using agentic AI in HR are less widely talked about. For example, the candidate’s personally identifiable information (PII) typically has to be spread across more systems when AI agents are involved, making that information more vulnerable.
Additionally, the simple fact that so many resumes are made with AI now may also make call centers reconsider whether screening them with AI agents is worth the cost. Or if alternatives like AI agent skills assessments will lead to more effective hiring automation.
Sometimes, applying AI can go too far, too fast, especially when using it to lower headcount. There are instances of companies having to re-hire employees; Klarna has now conceded as much.
How Agentic AI Helps Coach, Supervise Employees
In any contact center, coaching and supervision are crucial for maintaining quality and improving agent performance. Traditionally, supervisors had to manually review calls, provide feedback, and manage agent development plans. Agentic AI automates and enhances this entire process.
AI systems can continuously monitor and evaluate agent interactions across channels. They flag quality issues, measure sentiment, track compliance, and provide real-time performance insights.
More than just diagnostics, these AI agents offer tailored coaching suggestions and microlearning interventions directly to employees.
This means agents receive immediate feedback and can make adjustments during their shift. According to Convin, implementing AI coaching can improve agent performance by up to 15%.
For supervisors, agentic AI provides dashboards with predictive analytics and performance summaries, enabling them to identify at-risk agents and intervene proactively. This shifts the role of supervisors from reactive problem solvers to strategic enablers focused on team development.
By automating the administrative burden of supervision, agentic AI allows human coaches to focus on high-value mentoring activities. It ensures consistency in feedback and enables scalable coaching, even in large and distributed teams.
Why Humans Are Needed More Than Ever
Despite its impressive capabilities, agentic AI does not render human agents obsolete. In fact, the increased presence of AI in contact centers underscores the value of human qualities such as empathy, creativity, and complex problem-solving.
Customers still crave human interaction, particularly when dealing with emotionally charged issues or situations that fall outside predictable parameters. Agentic AI can manage many tasks, but it lacks the emotional depth and ethical reasoning required in delicate interactions.
Human agents also serve as the moral compass of customer service. They can make judgment calls, navigate gray areas, and build trust in ways that machines cannot. In industries like healthcare, finance, and legal services, this human touch is indispensable.
Moreover, as AI takes over routine tasks, the role of human agents is evolving into that of a knowledge worker. They are becoming experts who handle escalations, interpret AI-generated insights, and collaborate with technology to improve service outcomes.
The success of agentic AI hinges on human oversight. From tuning AI models to ensuring ethical deployment, human professionals must remain in the loop. Rather than replacing humans, agentic AI augments their capabilities and expands what they can achieve.
Best Practices for Adopting Agentic AI
A hybrid model should be considered when approaching agentic AI in the contact center: and that means using AI to support the agent, while keeping trained humans in the mix for more emotional and/or complex customer interactions that require a certain amount of care.
Consider AI assistants for agent tasks that are real-time and only leave low-risk queries to those handled by bots. Use these best practices to effectively integrate agentic AI while preserving the human element:
- Start with Human-Centered Design. Build AI systems around the needs of both customers and agents. Ensure AI augments rather than replaces human capabilities.
- Define Clear Use Cases. Focus on tasks where AI delivers the most value, like repetitive, time-sensitive, and high-volume interactions. Avoid forcing AI into roles better suited to human judgment.
- Maintain Transparency. Clearly communicate when customers are interacting with AI and when a human is available. Transparency builds trust and sets realistic expectations.
- Invest in Agent Upskilling. Prepare agents to work alongside AI. Train them on interpreting AI insights, using new tools, and shifting to more analytical or emotionally nuanced roles.
- Monitor and Audit AI Performance. Establish feedback loops and accountability mechanisms to ensure AI systems remain accurate, fair, and aligned with organizational values.
- Champion Collaboration. Encourage a culture where AI is seen as a partner rather than a threat. Highlight success stories where human-AI collaboration has improved outcomes.
- Personalize Customer Journeys. Use AI to analyze behavior and preferences but leave space for human agents to adapt the experiences in real-time based on context.
By balancing automation with empathy, efficiency with personalization, and autonomy with oversight, contact centers can harness the full potential of agentic AI. This balanced approach not only enhances operational performance but also strengthens employee engagement and customer satisfaction.
Reshaping the Future
Agentic AI is reshaping the contact center landscape with remarkable speed and impact. From streamlining hiring to transforming customer engagement, it is a game-changer in operational efficiency and service delivery.
Yet, the true power of this technology lies not in replacing humans but in empowering them. As contact centers evolve, the winning formula will be one where AI and humans collaborate seamlessly, each complementing the other’s strengths.
Leaders who embrace this paradigm with intention will not only future-proof their operations but also create more meaningful and resilient experiences for both customers and employees.
The future of contact centers is not just smart, it’s human-aware, AI-empowered, and thriving on the synergy between technology and humanity.