Where voice as a contact center channel is headed in an AI world

Historically, contact center strategies have treated voice communication primarily as a utility. Because of its high costs, organizations often focused on containing the voice channel. Digital self-service, chat, messaging, and automation were frequently deployed as lower-cost alternatives to phone support. Under this approach, phone support was commonly reserved as a last resort for issues that customers could not resolve through any other channel.

The Future of Voice and AI Integration

As artificial intelligence continues to develop, the future of the contact center is not expected to be run entirely by AI agents, nor is it expected to be managed entirely by human agents. Instead, the industry is moving toward hybrid approaches. Specifically, there are three distinct operational models envisioned for how human agents and AI will coexist and interact in these environments.

What This Means for AV Integrators

For AV integrators designing unified communications and contact center solutions, this shift means that system architecture should not be built on the assumption of complete automation or purely human operation. Integrators must plan for hybrid environments that seamlessly support both AI-driven digital channels and traditional voice infrastructure, ensuring that hardware and software deployments can facilitate transition between automated systems and live human agents.