What becomes possible when you can automate half of your contact center's call volume? How can you turn your contact center from a cost center into a source of strategic business growth?
Imagine sitting in a large auditorium with 945 of your peers, all grappling with the same questions you are. What would you ask them about AI?
That's precisely what we did in Glia's new research report: Reinvest, Reallocate, Right-Size: Unlocking the Contact Center’s Strategic Value with AI. This report is based on a survey of 945 contact center leaders and in-depth interviews with industry executives. The result is the most current and credible view of how modern contact centers define, deliver, and measure value in the AI era.
Our findings reveal a 'maturity crisis': AI adoption is moving fast, but the strategies and metrics to measure its true value are lagging. We found that while 75% of organizations are using AI, most are still measuring success with outdated frameworks. The real opportunity isn't just about cutting costs—it's about elevating your people, accelerating growth, and unlocking the strategic intelligence hiding in every customer conversation.
The Mismatch Between Value and Metrics for Contact Center AI
The report identifies six ways to unlock the full value of AI, from driving customer loyalty to generating insights that shape products or marketing. Yet, while 86% of leaders say strategic value is important, only 27.5% actually track it with key performance indicators (KPIs).
Forward-thinking organizations aren't choosing between these outcomes; they're achieving all six simultaneously. By using AI to handle routine issues, they are freeing up agents, managers, and executives to focus on what matters most: the customer relationship.
Contact Center AI's Most Undervalued Asset? Agent-Facing Tools
While AI is often associated with customer-facing chatbots, the greatest value may be found in its ability to support and elevate your frontline team. According to our research, many agents who were initially skeptical about AI became believers once they experienced how it made their jobs easier and helped them on every single call.
"I had one of the agents that was the most reluctant to trust the virtual assistant who is now one of the higher adopters of using that technology. So we're all growing day by day with how much more we use it." — Regional Credit Union Contact Center Manager
- Upskilling Your Team: AI acts as a real-time assistant, providing agents with instant answers and streamlining onboarding. This allows them to become more skilled and confident. One leader noted that with AI, they are able to "provide that information in a live interaction to our employees".
- The Power of Data: Managers gain instant visibility into agent performance, enabling them to coach more effectively. As one leader put it, "The AI's throwing stuff up right in front of our face that normally I would need a team of people to go research which makes my role substantially easier".
Contact Center AI Gives You Three Choices That Never Existed Before
One of the most exciting discoveries in our research is how leaders are reinvesting the savings generated by AI. As AI-powered digital and phone virtual assistants absorb an increasing percentage of interactions, the capacity of the contact center can quickly multiply.
While there is no single established best practice for how organizations should reinvest the AI-enabled cost savings, what we’re seeing are 3 (very attractive) alternatives. Considering the historic cost pressures contact center leaders have endured for decades, this allows for a decision most have never dreamed to consider before: what would you do with double the capacity in my call center?
Our data shows how organizations are now able to reallocate resources to strategic initiatives that were once out of reach.
Reinvest 🔁
What was once freed from cost pressures can now be put to work for growth. AI-enabled cost savings allow you to invest in new opportunities for your business. You can use the freed-up budget to fund initiatives that were previously impossible. When asked what they would do with these savings, 43.6% of leaders said they would improve customer acquisition strategies and 30.8% would fund transformation initiatives.
Reallocate 💰
You can re-focus your best people on the work that matters most. Instead of answering the same old questions, your agents are now free to take on more complex, high-value tasks. Our survey found that 42.7% of leaders would increase frontline compensation and raise hiring standards. An additional 35.2% would reallocate resources to sales or marketing to drive growth. As one leader noted, AI allows them to "reallocate the talent that we currently have to become more specialized".
Right-Size 📈
You can finally break the headcount curve and scale your business without filling open roles at the same rate. This frees you from the relentless pressure of re-hiring and training. As one leader put it, "We can't continue to grow at the rate we're growing and adding people at the same rate or we'll run ourselves out of business sooner or later. I need AI and automation to help us break that curve". Only 7.5% of our respondents said they would freeze or reduce hiring. This is a profound shift from decades of relentless agent attrition.
It’s Time to Be Excited, Not Afraid
No matter how old you are (and this is especially true for those of us who’ve been around for a good few decades), AI has come on fast. Just a couple of years ago it seemed like an interesting new idea, and now it’s arrived full blast.
So, your job is to figure out how to make it work for YOU. Sticking with a human-only service model is like using a flip phone while your competitors have smartphones. We’re all part of an evolving movement, where AI isn't replacing human empathy—it's enabling your people to create deeper connections with customers.
This is your opportunity to move beyond old ways of thinking and turn your contact center into a source of strategic growth, not just a cost center.
"It's pretty cool to be able to be part of history because that's really what it is, we're living history. We need to embrace it, make the most of it and try to learn how to maximize the features and benefits it presents to us." —Credit Union SVP/Chief Operating Officer
Don't get left behind. Download the full report to see the data and discover how to unlock the true strategic value of AI for your organization.
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