As with UC solutions, contact centers have been quick to take advantage of new digital technologies, including chatbots, self-service mobile apps, and increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI), in the pursuit of better experiences. Yet the results to date have been mixed. A recent study found that only 14% of customers said they were able to successfully resolve an issue through self-service.³ Despite this, the desire for self-service options in customer service remains strong, particularly among millennial and Gen Z consumers.

The challenges facing CX don’t stem from a lack of innovation. Contact center solution providers have worked tirelessly to bring the latest innovations to bear on their products, from CRM tools that put detailed customer information at agents’ fingertips to a growing wave of AI tools. The real problem facing current contact center solutions is a lack of integration. Customer experiences fall short when contact centers operate as an island within the organization. Underscoring the need for a holistic approach to CX is a recent Gartner survey, which found that 88% of customer interactions that start in self-service eventually move on to other channels including phone, chat, and email.⁴

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that these challenges echo those faced by businesses in their own internal communications. The growing interest in Unified Communications (UC) is a direct response to the need for a holistic communications experience, one that has increasingly found a home in the cloud through UC as a Service (UCaaS). In a recent study of more than 400 organizations, nearly one in three had already adopted UCaaS as their primary business telephony platform.⁴ Those same cloud-based benefits of seamless integration and scale have now given rise to Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions.

AI has become a hot topic in almost every aspect of business, and contact centers are no exception. Leading CCaaS vendors, including Five9, Nice, RingCentral, Talkdesk, and Vonage have all made significant strides in adding AI to their solutions to improve customer experiences. These vendors have integrated AI technology from Observe, AI, Replicant, LevelAI, KoreAI, Regal, and others to support new contact center capabilities such as conversational AI, real-time agent coaching, sentiment analysis, and enhanced automation for customer service processes. These AI enhancements help businesses deliver more personalized interactions, streamline agent workflows, and provide actionable insights—all of which raise the bar for customer experiences in the contact center environment.

It's important to note here that while AI has the potential to dramatically improve CX in the contact center, its real value lies in enhancing rather than replacing the live agent experience. A recent study found that 75% of customers still prefer speaking with a live customer support agent.⁵ Where AI intersects with this need for human contact is its ability to enhance human interactions by providing agents with more information, understanding, and insights.

As contact centers embrace AI technologies, the lines between business communications, collaboration, and contact centers are expected to blur. UCaaS and CCaaS will come together to create a true, omnichannel platform for customer interactions that cover a wide spectrum of preferences, from live agents to self-service portals. The union of CCaaS and UCaaS supports a holistic view of customer interactions that will allow businesses to manage CX effectively across multiple channels to deliver personalized, seamless customer journeys.

Offering omnichannel experiences is important because consumers don’t fit into a single, neat category when it comes to customer service. Some prefer to speak to a live agent, some prefer to access services on a mobile app, and many may encounter better experiences with self-service options once AI is incorporated into them. Even then, a single consumer will often have multiple channel preferences depending on the nature of their interaction. Being able to holistically view and manage these interactions across channels from a shared CCaaS/UCaaS interface will be critical to delivering great experiences in the future.

A well-implemented CCaaS solution can be a game-changer. Businesses that invest in creating better customer experiences see a correlating rise in revenue, and those businesses that deliver exceptional experiences grow 4–8% faster than their market average.⁶ The right CCaaS platform enables businesses to create standout experiences, driving growth and customer loyalty.

If, like most companies, you’re planning to use AI to improve customer experiences in the future, the time to act is now. The more familiarity your contact center agents have with AI technology, the sooner they can leverage that experience for a competitive advantage. Let Connection help you choose the right CCaaS solution for your business and integrate it with your UC platform. We’ll even help you craft a strategy to bring AI innovations into your operations to enhance productivity, improve efficiency, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.