Enterprises are pushing artificial intelligence deeper into customer service operations, including live interactions where voice, context, and human judgment present greater challenges for automation.
A partnership announced in June between shopping assistant and customer support firm Crescendo and digital transformation services company Alorica targets that challenge: moving AI beyond simple self-service into more complex live customer interactions. The companies plan to co-develop offerings for enterprise voice, chat, and other live CX channels.
Contact centers have traditionally measured automation in part by how effectively it reduces interactions requiring human agents. Generative and agentic AI are creating an opportunity to focus instead on resolution and how effectively automated and human support work together.
Crescendo is taking a different approach from vendors that add AI capabilities to existing CX systems. Its platform is designed to bring AI automation, customer data, analytics, and human support into a unified system.
Crescendo CEO Andy Lee argues that getting more value from AI will require enterprises to rethink the underlying architecture of their customer experience operations. Fragmented legacy CX systems, he contends, can make it difficult for AI applications to share customer context and coordinate work across channels.
