In case you missed Part 1 of our AI Maturity blog series, all about prepping the people in your organization for deploying AI, check it out here.
In the journey toward AI maturity, establishing a supportive culture is only the beginning.
The next crucial step is to refine and optimize the processes that structure your organization. This involves simplifying workflows to ensure smooth integration between human efforts and AI-powered tools. When done thoughtfully and intentionally, optimizing workflows allows contact centers to harness the full potential of AI, enabling agents to respond with speed, accuracy, and empathy — transforming every customer interaction into a meaningful engagement and a competitive advantage.
Let’s take a look at how your organization can make impactful and lasting changes to drive efficient, AI-enabled operations.
The Importance of Process Optimization in AI-Driven Contact Centers
Even with robust AI tools in place, inefficiencies in existing workflows can slow progress. Poorly structured processes not only undercut AI’s value but also leave agents feeling frustrated and disconnected from the technology. To maximize the benefits of AI, it’s essential to ensure that workflows are designed to support not only the technology’s capabilities, but the unique nuances of your organization.
For example, real-time agent assist tools can only reach their potential if agents can seamlessly incorporate AI suggestions into their calls. Streamlining workflows means eliminating redundancies, removing blockers, and standardizing processes so that AI insights can be immediately actionable. A rising tide lifts all boats; the more work you put into this step in your AI maturity journey, the more accessible, easier-to-use, and successful the technology will be for your agents. And when agents’ lives are easier, this leads to measurably better outcomes — such as higher customer satisfaction, faster resolutions, and improved agent performance.
In a recent webinar digging into predictions for AI in the contact center in 2025, Cresta’s James Russell and Dr. Natalie Petouhoff discussed the pivotal role that AI has to play in streamlining both the agent and supervisor roles. To learn more, check out the full replay here.
Steps to Streamline Workflows for AI Success
- Map and evaluate current processes
Before making changes, it’s crucial to understand the existing workflows and identify areas where AI can add the most value. Conduct an in-depth review of current processes, analyzing each step for bottlenecks, redundant tasks, or opportunities for AI-driven improvements.For example, if agents often spend considerable time manually searching for information during calls, an AI tool that delivers real-time information drawn from your organization’s knowledge base could significantly speed up response times.Other areas you may consider: automating quality management, streamlining coaching, and surfacing customer and business insights. - Standardize AI-enabled workflows
Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, the next step is to develop standardized workflows that incorporate AI tools effectively. Standardization ensures that all agents receive and act on AI-driven insights in a consistent way, enhancing both productivity and quality in agent behavior and a consistent experience for customers.Standardized workflows allow agents to receive real-time consistent coaching across different interactions, making it easier to uphold quality standards, reduce variability, and adapt to evolving markets and customer expectations. - Automate routine tasks to free up agents for complex interactions
AI excels at managing repetitive tasks, freeing agents to focus on more complex and high-value interactions. For example, instead of agents manually entering notes or looking up frequently asked questions, AI can automate these tasks, allowing agents to dedicate that time to more strategic work, like building rapport with customers. This automation also reduces cognitive load on agents, helping them perform at their best without feeling overwhelmed. - Integrate AI tools with existing systems
For AI tools to deliver seamless assistance, they must be fully integrated with your CRM, ticketing, and communication platforms. When systems are siloed, agents are forced to toggle between platforms, slowing down response times and increasing frustration. Integration, however, enables AI-driven insights to be available within the agents’ primary systems, ensuring that they don’t miss critical information. For instance, Cresta Insights can integrate directly with popular CRM systems, making it easier for managers to access and leverage data-driven insights for coaching and training. - Establish feedback loops to continuously improve processes
Creating a feedback loop between AI insights and workflow optimization is crucial for ongoing improvement. With feedback mechanisms, agents and managers can provide input on AI recommendations, which can then be fine-tuned to better align with real-world needs. This iterative process ensures that the AI tool continually evolves based on actual use cases, becoming more effective and user-friendly over time.
Benefits of Streamlined, AI-Optimized Workflows
When workflows are optimized for AI, contact centers can experience transformative benefits, including:
- Enhanced Agent Experience: AI-driven workflows minimize repetitive tasks, reduce stress, and provide real-time support, reducing stress and enabling agents to focus on meaningful customer interactions.
- Improved Agent Productivity: Agents spend less time on manual, repetitive tasks and more time on strategic ones, like building customer relationships and solving complex issues.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: AI provides agents with real-time support, allowing them to respond faster and more accurately to customer inquiries.
- Consistency in Customer Experiences: Standardized workflows ensure that every agent, regardless of experience, can deliver high-quality, consistent service.
- Scalable Operations: Streamlined workflows enable contact centers to handle higher call volumes without compromising on quality, making it easier to scale operations.
- Empowered Supervisors: Supervisors gain actionable insights and automated coaching tools, making it easier to support their teams and strategically drive performance improvements.
Real-World Example: How Process Optimization Boosted AI Success
Brinks Home offers an excellent example of how process optimization can maximize AI success. By taking the time to meticulously map out their workflows and aligning them with Cresta’s capabilities, Brinks Home transformed the agent experience, allowing them to focus on complex customer needs while Cresta handled routine processes. This alignment led to higher customer satisfaction and a more efficient contact center overall. With the implementation of Cresta’s AI tools, Brinks Home saw a reduction in average handle time and improved first call resolution.
Building a Framework for AI-Optimized Workflows
As contact centers continue to adopt AI, the focus should remain on building workflows that fully support AI initiatives. This requires a commitment to reviewing, refining, and optimizing processes to keep pace with the evolving technology landscape. From mapping current processes to implementing feedback loops, every step in workflow optimization is a step toward true AI maturity.
Implementing these changes often requires significant transformations within your business. Along with providing the AI platform to drive these shifts, Cresta offers expert guidance to help design and implement these transformations. By adopting a “Crawl, Walk, Run” approach to AI integration with your frontline staff, you can achieve faster time to value and sticky adoption, all while laying the foundation for long-term success.
Ready to optimize your workflows for AI success? Reach out to Cresta today and discover how streamlined processes can help your contact center thrive in the AI era.
