Consider the CCaaS platforms of the past, each built on a core telephony infrastructure.
These solutions somewhat mimicked on-premise offerings, snowballing into massive monolithic software stacks that lacked agility.
Thankfully, these have mostly given way to the cloud contact centers of today.
This latest generation of CCaaS platforms accelerates innovation. How? With a cloud-native foundation, which allows vendors to drop new applications on-the-fly.
However, despite this change, many vendors still put voice and routing first; everything else plays second fiddle.
Of course, these remain essential elements of almost any service operation. Yet, the space has witnessed a shift in how buyers prioritize their contact center stack.
That shift signals the next evolution of CCaaS and paves the way for the cloud contact center platforms of tomorrow.
The Cloud Contact Center of Tomorrow
As contact centers de-emphasize their core routing system, they become more open to new opportunities and advanced cloud communications offerings.
Keith Dawson, VP & Research Director at Ventana Research, made this point in a recent blog post.
“An organization is freer to weigh the merits of different business application platforms as the first priority,” he states.
“That means that CX vendors with a strong platform based on AI, machine learning, and workflow automation can help buyers think about building better processes.”
The next generation of vendors is leading that conversation, using AI to reimagine contact center journeys, from the first words of an IVR to post-contact feedback collection.
AI everywhere; that is the future.
Unfortunately, current CCaaS platforms fall short of those ambitions.
The latest Gartner Magic Quadrant report reflects this. It states:
“The market has seen a notable increase in demand for systems that can support greater levels of sophistication in support of digital channels, self-service, interaction and journey analytics – and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to provide enhanced levels of automation.
“However, CCaaS vendors’ support for these capabilities often lacks the functional maturity to meet customers’ demands.”
Thankfully, the new-wave CCaaS vendors are starting to change the narrative.
With native AI the beating heart of their platforms, these vendors are moving the needle for what’s possible and inching the market closer to the cloud contact center of tomorrow.
The next step? Enabling the data flows to make these AI models hum.
Moving the CCaaS Needle with Data & AI
Think beyond contact center tech for a moment. Consider other software stacks, like Martech. That industry is building platforms that pave the way for a centralized data lake, which advanced analytics engines may feed from.
Creating such a data hub is critical to ensure the effectiveness of AI. After all, even with the most imaginative AI models, the garbage in = garbage out rule applies.
Yet, communications vendors have often struggled to leverage the ideal data inputs.
Building on this point in a recent UC Today interview, Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Research, said:
“Of course, many vendors will offer integrations with many CRM platforms. But how many companies do you know that love their Salesforce data?
“Where AI could have a significant impact initially is as an input mechanism. So, a customer calls, and the AI listens to that, summarizes it, and puts it into the CRM.
“Brands can do that with service, sales, customer success, and so on, and use AI to create a better data set. So, good AI now leads to better AI down the road.
“Right now, many businesses just don’t have the data discipline to do that.
Sprinklr is one vendor changing that narrative and supporting its contact center customers in uplevelling their data and AI strategies.
Sprinklr Is Changing the Game
First, consider Sprinklr’s Unified CXM platform. That includes CCaaS (Sprinklr Service), alongside its insights, social media management, and marketing products.
Across the entire Sprinklr platform are 1,250+ proprietary AI models. Many of these are harvesting new insights and channeling them into a central CRM – as the following diagram shows.
Next, think about the cloud contact center alone. Instead of stitching various end-points, Sprinklr aims to create the most complete CCaaS platform.
As such, the vendor makes funneling data into the CRM much easier. After all, there is no need to develop numerous integrations. Everything bands together within one ecosystem.
Moreover, Sprinklr Service is powered by a proprietary AI engine. It analyzes billions of conversations across social, messaging, in-app, live chat, email, and voice channels, identifies intent and sentiment, and routes customers to the right support — all in real time.
Building on this, Ken Madrigal, Senior Director of Unified CXM Best Practices Group at Sprinklr, recently told CX Today:
“Sprinklr Service is based on an AI platform. It’s not something that we had to bolt on. It’s in its DNA to manage unstructured data, channels, and conversations inside of an operational platform.”
That is Sprinklr’s AI philosophy, and now the vendor is exploiting generative AI to push this further.
Indeed, Sprinklr recently released a slew of capabilities that combine the native, proprietary AI models it has squeezed into every corner of its CCaaS solution with large language models (LLM).
In doing so, its new Sprinklr AI+ solution promises to extract more value from the existing AI and push contact center innovation even further.
Learn More About Sprinklr’s CCaaS Ambitions
When Sprinklr entered the CCaaS market 18 months ago, the vendor’s execs vowed to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and disrupt the CCaaS space.
At the time, Pavitar Singh, Chief Technology Officer at Sprinklr, stated:
“We have the opportunity to shake up the traditional customer care market and partner with leading brands to develop the right support and care strategies for modern business.”
Now, with its rapid-fire innovation – as evident in its latest release wave – and AI-everywhere objective, Sprinklr seems on track to do precisely that.
Moreover, as the vendor continues to challenge conventional contact center models, it brings us one step closer to the contact center of tomorrow.
Discover more about Sprinklr’s CCaaS platform, mission, and aspirations by visiting: www.sprinklr.com
