Microsoft launches Contact Center Intelligence in public preview

Microsoft launched Microsoft Contact Center Intelligence in public preview in a move that keeps existing systems in place, but adds an agentic AI layer that can add context to customer conversations.

The move could give enterprises the ability to leverage the context they already have in Microsoft applications and enhance their existing contact center investments. Microsoft Contact Center Intelligence (CCI) uses Microsoft IQ to connect customer conversations to customer history, enterprise knowledge bases and business data.

Microsoft CCI has the following:

• A Customer Conversation Harness that enables customers to create self-service experiences and design interactions. A Customer Assist Agent can deliver customized interactions across voice and digital channels. The Customer Conversation Harness is also available in Microsoft Copilot Studio.
• Tools to evaluate AI agents and human interactions holistically and identify service improvements via a Quality Assurance Agent. Enterprises can create customized guardrails to stay on brand for everything from greetings to brand compliance.
• Grounded agents with data from Microsoft IQ and more than 1,700 connectors to systems from Cisco Webex, Avaya and Five9.
• Authentication using voice biometrics.
• And the ability to deploy, manage and govern agents via A365.

In a blog post, Microsoft cited Siemens Healthineers and Thomas Jefferson University as early customers.

The play for Microsoft is to introduce enterprises to its AI agent and context layer, connect to systems in place and potentially migrate them to Dynamics 365 Contact Center. Microsoft is leaning into its strength--the enterprise context and business data it has across its offerings.

Microsoft briefed Constellation Research analyst Liz Miller on the launch. Here are a few themes to watch going forward:

• CCI is an add-on designed to add purpose-built AI and agents to an existing contact center environment. The core pitch is time to value over a multi-year platform transformation.
• Microsoft could connect contact center interactions with the broader enterprise data estate and create a flywheel of insights. In other words, conversations are an enterprise data asset and arguably your most important one for context.
• Governance via A365 is a selling point to enterprises and CCI will already have the governance and cost controls in place.
• CCI plays to enterprises that want a hybrid environment in the contact center.

In a Notebook entry, Miller said:

"Microsoft has focused the offering on what customers consistently need from AI and intelligence solutions...instead of dropping all of the bells and whistles into the sink hoping something floats. There is also a shiny new harness, the customer conversation harness, available for public preview in Copilot Studio, The harness is purpose-built for conversational agents with a core set of conversational capabilities.

It's a smart move considering data from the smart folks at Metrigy that estimates 66% to 68% of organizations remain on non-cloud or hybrid/hosted legacy models. As the industry shouts that nobody can afford to NOT adopt agentic applications and solutions, there is still a large swath of organizations still struggling to justify and fund a full migration. Instead of being resigned to a state of agentic-FOMO, Microsoft has built a glide-path to intelligence and agentic self-service offerings that scale."