Cisco has unveiled several fresh AI-powered innovations aimed at building on the momentum of Webex's CCaaS offering.
Announced today at the WebexOne event in Florida, the new solutions include Webex AI Agent and AI Agent Studio
The former uses conversational intelligence to automate contact center inquiries, enabling fast and efficient issue resolution; while the latter allows contact centers to swiftly launch a voice or digital AI agent in minutes and select the AI models to assist with customer inquiries.
In addition, Webex Contact Center will also benefit from the Cisco AI Assistant, which will provide agents with context and dropped call summaries, as well as suggested responses.
The new tools will all be powered by advanced conversational AI and automation capabilities designed to improve customer interactions, simplify issue resolution, and boost overall customer satisfaction.
This focus on AI was discussed by Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer of Cisco, who detailed how AI was now considered a “core” aspect of all Cisco products:
At Cisco, we’re building AI solutions natively. We start product design with the assumption that AI is going to be in the core fabric of the product and an essential ingredient in how we reimagine customer experiences.
“We believe that in the next few years, a large majority of first-time calls will be handled by an AI Agent that will be just as interactive, dynamic, engaging and personable as a human agent.”
Patel’s comments follow news from earlier this month that Cisco had reported a 75% increase in Webex Contact Center seats in FY24, with significant growth in financial services, healthcare, and retail.
Indeed, the company’s cloud seat count nearly doubled in the financial sector, while the last quarter also saw the vendor secure one of its largest deals in the travel industry.
The success of Webex Contact Center was also a topic of discussion during a recent press conference, where Cisco’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Anurag Dhingra, revealed that “Webex Contact Center business is the fastest growing cloud business within Cisco.”
“And I'm talking businesses of large sizes, you know, several hundreds of billions of dollars.”
With the company’s contact center tech clearly flourishing, what will the new AI-powered solutions add to Webex’s CCaaS offering?
Maintaining Momentum
With all three innovations set to be generally available in Q1 2025, Cisco provided some additional details on what customers can expect:
Webex AI Agent
The solution offers a self-service concierge to efficiently address customer inquiries using natural dialogue and conversational intelligence, eliminating wait times and speeding up resolutions.