Cisco Announces New Webex AI Agent and AI Solutions for the Contact Center to Transform Customer Experiences

Rhea-AI Summary

Cisco has unveiled new AI-powered innovations for its Webex Contact Center, including the Webex AI Agent, AI Agent Studio, and Cisco AI Assistant features. The Webex AI Agent serves as a self-service concierge that handles customer inquiries using conversational intelligence to eliminate wait times. The AI Agent Studio allows quick deployment of voice or digital AI agents, while the Cisco AI Assistant provides automated guidance for agents. These solutions will be generally available in Q1 2025, with features including context summaries, suggested responses, and dropped call summaries. According to Cisco's study, these improvements could result in a 39% improvement in customer satisfaction scores.

Positive

• New AI solutions expected to significantly improve customer satisfaction (39% improvement in CSAT scores)
• AI Agent Studio enables rapid deployment of AI agents, increasing operational efficiency
• Automated features will reduce agent workload and improve response times
• Integration of analytics tools for better customer interaction insights

Negative

• Extended timeline for general availability (Q1 2025) may delay competitive advantages
• On-premise customers face longer wait times with trials starting in Q2 2025

News Summary:

• Cisco's Webex AI Agent automates contact center inquiries with conversational intelligence for quick and effective issue resolution
• New Webex AI Agent, AI Agent Studio and Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center will change how businesses interact with and support their customers

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Oct. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at WebexOne, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) unveiled new AI-powered innovations, including the Webex AI Agent, AI Agent Studio and Cisco AI Assistant features for Webex Contact Center. These AI solutions leverage advanced conversational intelligence and automation to enhance customer interactions, streamline issue resolution and improve overall customer satisfaction. This enables business leaders to deliver faster, more effective and more empathetic interactions that improve customer trust and brand loyalty.

Webex AI Agent: Addressing the Need for Immediate and Effective Self-Service

To address rising customer expectations for helpful and immediate assistance, Cisco announced the new Webex AI Agent. This self-service concierge swiftly takes actions and handles customer inquiries with natural dialogue and conversational intelligence to eliminate wait times and provide faster resolutions. Webex AI Agent incorporates the latest in responsible AI and automation into the Webex Customer Experience portfolio. It will transform the experience for customers, eliminating the complexity and frustration they are accustomed to.

"Customer experience can make or break a brand, and unlike other solutions on the market, the Webex AI Agent solves customer problems instantaneously and will fundamentally transform the experiences we have all reluctantly been using for far too long," said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Cisco. "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."

According to a new global study conducted by Cisco, there is a link between customer satisfaction and effective self-service tools. Current options are failing to meet their needs. For example, rebooking a flight or replacing a lost credit card typically require live agent support, leading to long queues and hold times, multiple transfers, frustrated customers and agent burnout. Webex AI Agent provides self-service options for scenarios like these, which can result in a 39% improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores according to customer experience leaders.

AI Agent Studio: Simplify and Scale the Contact Center

Webex AI Agent includes a new design tool called AI Agent Studio, which makes it easy for business users and IT administrators to train and deploy AI agents, providing them with unmatched scalability and user-friendliness. The AI Agent Studio allows contact centers to quickly deploy a voice or digital AI agent in minutes and choose which AI models are used to support customer inquiries. This AI front door will reduce calls in the contact center so that agents can focus on higher touch and relationship-based customer service.

Webex AI Agent along with the AI Agent Studio will be generally available in Q1 2025 for cloud customers, with customer trials for on-premise customers in Q2 2025. 

Building on Cisco's AI Momentum in Webex Contact Center

Customer-facing teams often struggle with information overload and growing workloads, leading to longer resolution times and decreased CSAT scores. In fact, customer experience leaders report that 1 out of 3 agents lack the customer context needed to deliver ideal customer experiences. With the Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center, becoming generally available in Q1 2025, busy agents and supervisors benefit from automated guidance at their fingertips to provide expert-level customer support, including:

• Context Summaries: When an agent is required, context summaries facilitate seamless handoffs from an AI agent to contact center agent.  All necessary background information is provided to continue the conversation while eliminating the need for customers to repeat themselves.
• Suggested Responses: Recommendations appear directly within the contact center platform, providing agents with the information they need right at their fingertips to reduce call times.
• Dropped Call Summaries: Interactions are captured and documented up to the point of disconnection, ensuring continuity when the call is resumed.

Also becoming generally available in Q1 2025 is Agent Wellness for the contact center. These AI features allow for proactive actions such as automatic breaks for agents, changes in agent schedules and shifting of which channels agents support to increase or decrease capacity based on need.

AI is also powering analytics to help customer experience leaders operate a smarter, more efficient contact center:

• Topic Analytics: Generally available now, these analytics quickly identify the drivers of incoming calls and customer issues to enable proactive issue resolution.
• Automatic CSAT Scoring: Available January 2025, this solution leverages operational data and transcripts to evaluate 100% of an organization's customer interactions, addressing the common issue of low customer survey response rates. With these new insights, business leaders can resolve challenges as they arise and anticipate future needs, delivering a new wave of proactive customer experience. 

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that securely connects everything to make anything possible. Our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all by helping our customers reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals.  Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco. 

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.   

About Webex by Cisco

Webex is a leading provider of cloud-based collaboration solutions which includes video meetings, calling, messaging, events, customer experience solutions like contact center and purpose-built collaboration devices. At Webex, we start with people and their experiences first. This focus on delivering inclusive collaboration experiences fuels our innovation, which leverages AI and Machine Learning, to remove the barriers of geography, language, personality, and familiarity with technology. Our solutions are underpinned with security and privacy by design. We work with the world's leading business and productivity apps – delivered through a single application and interface. Learn more at webex.com. 

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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.

FAQ

When will Cisco (CSCO) launch the new Webex AI Agent?

Cisco's Webex AI Agent will be generally available in Q1 2025 for cloud customers, with on-premise customer trials beginning in Q2 2025.

What improvement in customer satisfaction does Cisco (CSCO) expect from the Webex AI Agent?

According to customer experience leaders, the Webex AI Agent can result in a 39% improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores.

What new AI features is Cisco (CSCO) introducing to the Webex Contact Center?

Cisco is introducing Webex AI Agent, AI Agent Studio, and Cisco AI Assistant features, which include context summaries, suggested responses, dropped call summaries, and agent wellness features.