New research conducted by Cavell has underscored the growing importance of automation with a distinct focus on customer experience (CX) strategy. This finding comes from the 2024 Contact Centre Enterprise Insight Report, which analysed feedback from over 600 certified contact centre purchasers from businesses of all sizes based both in the UK and internationally.
The study revealed the increasing popularity of automated case resolution, with more than half (52%) of contact centre buyers across the UK, Western Europe and North America planning to augment this feature within the next three years. This reflects a trend of automation becoming firmly ingrained in CX strategies.
There are regional disparities when it comes to the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) within contact centres. US companies are driving AI integration, with 39% of respondents from the US confirming that AI solutions have already been deployed within their organisation. This is in stark contrast to participants from the UK and continental Europe, who reported a significantly lower integration rate of just 14%, indicating that the USA is almost twice as advanced in deploying AI solutions within the contact centre space.
Virtual agents also feature prominently in the report. It demonstrated that 40% of businesses surveyed are already utilising virtual agents, and there is a firm resolve to increase this ratio to over 50% by 2028.
Patrick Watson, Head of Research at Cavell, derived positive insights from the report. He noted, "The survey findings are incredibly encouraging for the CX industry and its stakeholders. In addition to the increasing focus on automated resolution systems, the majority of contact centre operators have plans to expand their agent numbers over the next 12 months. This promises to provide a sizeable growth opportunity for the industry to leverage."
On examining the findings on the impact on employees, the report surprisingly discloses that only 3% of companies harbour fears about losing employee skills to AI despite the prevalent concern around AI supplanting jobs. AI is predominantly viewed as a beneficial tool in customer services; it is predicted to equip automated systems to deal with a growing number of enquiries while enabling agents to navigate more complex cases.
The survey findings also emphasised a clear focus on agent experience. The importance of creating optimal working conditions for agents managing high-complexity cases emerged as a key concern, with almost all companies (94%) either already employing or planning to deploy technology to enhance and monitor agent experience in the foreseeable future.
This report underscores the potential of automation to transform the changing dynamics of CX in contact centres while highlighting a marked geographical difference in adoption rates.
The report's conductor, Cavell, is a research and consulting firm specialising in the telecommunications industry. Its particular focus is on business communications technologies, including UCaaS, collaboration, contact centre and customer engagement software, business messaging, and Microsoft Teams. Cavell provides insights, analysis, and advisory services to help its clients navigate and succeed in these rapidly evolving sectors.