Building a Smarter Contact Centre with AI and Automation
Sabio’s Kevin McGachy highlights some key considerations ahead of any AI implementation in the contact centre.
Start with Data-Driven Intent Analysis Before Any AI Technology Investment
The foundation of any successful AI transformation lies in understanding your customers’ actual behaviour, not assumptions about it. At Sabio, we’ve seen remarkable results through our Intent Capture & Analysis (IC&A) approach, which analyses thousands of customer interactions to reveal genuine contact patterns. When we worked with British Airways, analysing tens of thousands of calls uncovered that seven of their top ten contact reasons were completely unexpected. Similarly, Churches Fire & Security discovered that 17% of all calls — again, tens of thousands annually — were simply requests to test fire alarms. This data-driven insight enabled targeted automation strategies rather than costly wholesale system replacements. Understanding why customers truly contact you eliminates guesswork and ensures AI investments address real pain points, delivering measurable ROI whilst maintaining service quality and creating opportunities for strategic automation initiatives.
Leverage AI Integration to Break Down Operational Barriers and Scale Globally
Modern AI solutions excel when they integrate seamlessly with existing platforms to eliminate traditional operational constraints. Our recent award-winning collaboration with Transcom demonstrates this perfectly — by integrating real-time translation capabilities with conversational AI tools, we’ve enabled contact centre agents to converse with customers in over 100 languages regardless of their native tongue. This breakthrough allows recruitment based on knowledge and skills rather than language capabilities, with cost reductions of 25% to 65% depending on markets and use cases. Similarly, HomeServe UK‘s conversational AI solution categorises 150 separate customer intents with 85% successful completion rates, whilst British Airways achieved 22% workload reduction through intelligent routing. The key is selecting AI technologies that can work with your existing infrastructure, even when legacy systems present integration challenges. Rather than requiring perfect API connectivity, successful implementations often rely on tactical workarounds and interim solutions that bridge system limitations. Our approach focuses on finding creative integration paths that deliver automation benefits despite technical constraints, transforming operational possibilities even when direct system integration isn’t feasible.
Ready to Transform Your Contact Centre?
Every contact centre’s AI journey is unique, shaped by specific customer behaviours, operational challenges, and business objectives.
Whether you’re seeking to understand your true contact patterns through Intent Capture & Analysis, exploring multilingual AI solutions to expand your talent pool, or looking to implement AI that delivers genuine customer value, the key lies in taking a strategic, data-driven approach.
At Sabio, we’ve guided organisations across diverse sectors through successful AI transformations that deliver measurable results whilst enhancing both customer and agent experiences. If you’re ready to explore how AI and automation can unlock your contact centre’s potential, we’d welcome the opportunity to discuss your specific requirements and share insights from our extensive implementation experience.
Register for our upcoming AI Community Days in Manchester, UK, and Madrid, Spain.
We’re Sabio. And we can help.