AWS has embedded a host of generative AI (GenAI) capabilities across its CCaaS platform: Amazon Connect.
The capabilities cover self-service, proactive outreach, conversational analytics, and beyond.
In making the announcement, AWS lays the groundwork for its annual re:Invent conference, starting Monday, December 2.
Summarizing the release in a LinkedIn post, Colleen Aubry, SVP of AWS Solutions, wrote:
We’re putting generative AI to work, improving end-to-end customer experiences with these new features, including proactive and tailored customer communications, advanced self-service experiences with Amazon Q, customizable AI guardrails for safe deployment, and AI-driven agent coaching and contact analysis.
"These innovations will empower organizations to deliver relevant, efficient customer experiences while reducing costs."
Amazon Q, as noted by Aubry, is the tech giant’s virtual assistant. In Connect, it supports contact center agents in suggesting personalized customer responses.
Now, AWS is making these capabilities customer-facing, cutting out the middle-man and having the virtual assistant converse autonomously with the customer.
As such, AWS may now offer the same "AI Agent" functionality that market rivals – such as Five9 and Cisco Webex – have announced and lauded over recent weeks.
Additionally, Connect customers may still utilize Lex – AWS’s conversational AI solution – from within the CCaaS platform. They can also create customer-facing step-by-step guides.
By blending these offerings, contact centers can converge rule- and generative-based conversational experiences to more tactfully automate customer conversations.
For those GenAI-powered conversations, customers can attach their chosen large language model (LLM), as for all other GenAI features embedded across Connect.
There are also appropriate guardrails supporting the autonomous capabilities. These allow contact centers to block "undesirable" topics, safeguard sensitive information, and pinpoint inaccuracies to support testing and ensure continuous optimization.
New GenAI Capabilities, Beyond AI Agents
Earlier this year, AWS announced a new Analytics Data Lake for Connect.
Effectively, this solution offers a single source of truth for contact center data, comprising customer records, conversational analytics, agent insights, etc.
Now, AWS has augmented the Data Lake with GenAI to take all that data, segment customers, and better personalize communications.
Such a feature may support various applications across Amazon Connect. However, AWS stresses the significance for proactive customer campaigns.
For instance, consider an energy company that has detected an outage across a particular area. It can – via natural language – segment customers by their address, proactively tell them about the issue, and offer them live updates. That will cut unnecessary contact volumes considerably.
Another example, this time leveraging real-time data, is of an airline. It could auto-generate segments of frequent flyers affected by live flight delays and protect customer loyalty by automatically sending out compensation, rebooking options, and lounge access.
Alongside its Data Lake, AWS has embedded GenAI across Contact Lens, Connect’s native conversational analytics engine.