IAA has transformed its contact centre by putting employees at the heart of an AI-enabled CX strategy, according to Cordell Miles, Workforce Manager at IAA, and Tony Sorensen, CIO at Five9.
Speaking with CX Today at CCW Nashville, the pair outlined how IAA expanded its use of Five9 to improve both customer and agent experiences - while turning contact centre data into a more influential source of business insight.
When Miles joined IAA, Five9 was already in place, but the platform was not being used to its full potential. The priority was not simply a technology rollout. Instead, IAA sought to build an employee-first culture and align its contact centre processes, technology and customer experience goals.
Miles said:
“We wanted to develop a culture that was employee first, as well as looking at the customer experience."
IAA introduced an IVA, AI Insights and agent-assist capabilities, and is now progressing towards more agentic AI use cases. That development has been shaped by an ongoing partnership with Five9, rather than a purely transactional vendor relationship.
“We’ve grown and grown and grown, but it’s basically built on trust and making sure that they understand what we’re trying to do as far as our business needs."
The results have been substantial. After integrating Five9’s chat and text capabilities, IAA saw a 25% increase in use of its digital platform during the transition, while Miles also cited a 300% increase in chat and text engagement. The move gave agents more flexibility to work across voice, chat and text channels based on skills, making interactions easier to manage.
For customers, the experience became more seamless. Rather than treating digital channels as separate systems, IAA integrated them with its telephony environment to create a more consistent service model.
Sorensen said IAA’s approach offers a useful blueprint for other organisations pursuing contact centre transformation. First, it brought agents into the process. Second, it established the workflows and desired outcomes before introducing technology. Third, it involved Five9 in strategic business conversations.
Sorensen said:
“Process always precedes technology. They started with defining what the outcomes were that they needed, what was the process that they needed to go through to deliver that, and then they started building the technology.”
This employee focus has also supported internal change management. Miles explained that involving agents in use-case design, testing and feedback helps teams understand why changes are happening and gives IAA direct insight into where improvements are still required. The organisation has also seen improvement in attrition, as employees recognise that their experience is being considered alongside the customer journey.
The operational gains are equally notable. According to Sorensen, IAA’s NPS score rose from 17 to 47, its case backlog fell from 20,000 to 1,000, and first-call pickup time dropped from around 20 minutes to four.
At CCW Nashville, Miles also stressed the growing strategic value of contact centre data. With AI-driven analytics, teams can assess customer conversations at much greater scale and bring evidence directly to business leaders. That gives the contact centre a stronger role in identifying recurring issues and influencing wider transformation priorities.
For both leaders, AI is not about replacing agents; it is about removing lower-value work so people can focus on complex conversations, judgement and empathy. As organisations adopt AI, the next measure of success will be whether they become more flexible, more responsive and better able to use technology to improve experiences for customers and employees alike.
Watch our interview with Saurabh Sodani, Chief of Staff at Sanas from CCW Nashville
