Milestones in Contact Center AI and Technology Development
Contact center AI looks much different today than it did even 10 or 20 years ago. Here’s a look at some of the major milestones of technology and AI development in the contact center:
- 1950s-1960s: ACD systems began cropping up, helping call systems direct calls to appropriate, available agents.
- 1963: The invention of the touch-tone phone, which allowed callers and agents to dial a number without first speaking to an operator.
- 1960s-1970s: Interactive voice response (IVR) technology became more widely available for contact centers, although it was still quite expensive for full integration.
- 1980s: Call centers started using predictive dialers, which place calls without agent intervention. These tools help to reduce idle time between calls and increase customer connections.
- 1980s: Machine learning began blending with natural language processing for deep learning to create data-driven insights, the basis for what contact centers use to learn more about customer behavior and analyze sentiment.
- 1993: Text messages went mainstream, eventually providing a new way for companies and customers to interact.
- Early 2000s: Chatbots began assisting call center agents with handling repetitive customer questions and requests, although the first chatbot, ELIZA, was created in 1966.
- 2022: Generative AI becomes a mainstream technology with the release of ChatGPT. Contact centers use generative AI to get quick answers for agents and customers.
