AWS used this year’s re:Invent event to unveil a new Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Zendesk, signaling a tighter alignment aimed at accelerating the development and adoption of AI-powered contact center technologies.
Under the agreement, Zendesk will integrate Amazon Connect voice capabilities, along with conversational and sentiment analytics, directly into its contact center platform.
The move supports Zendesk’s ambition to bring voice, digital, and AI automation together within a single environment.
Adrian McDermott, CTO at Zendesk, positioned the collaboration as a response to growing operational strain across service teams, stating:
“Our collaboration with AWS addresses a critical industry challenge: contact centers are drowning in fragmented systems that create friction instead of resolution.”
He added that the companies aim to build “the next generation of agent-centric solutions, where AI is seamlessly integrated — not bolted on — ensuring every interaction across channels, agents, and systems drives resolution.”
The announcement follows rising pressure on enterprises to modernize customer service infrastructure. Many contact centers still operate with disconnected tools, making it difficult to deliver consistent service across channels.
Zendesk and AWS believe that combining Amazon Connect’s voice stack with Zendesk’s AI for customer service will give organizations a more cohesive foundation for handling calls, messaging, and automated support.
Pasquale DeMaio, Vice President of Amazon Connect at AWS, noted that the agreement extends a long-running partnership.
“Zendesk’s recognition as AWS’ Customer Experience Partner of the Year (Technology) – Global showcases their commitment to contact center innovation on AWS,” he said.
The SCA, he continued, “deepens our partnership by connecting Amazon Connect’s AI capabilities—including agents that reason and assist representatives—with Zendesk’s automation platform.
“Together, we’re empowering human-AI collaboration to enhance customer experiences, improve efficiency, and build trust.”
So, let’s take a closer look at how the SCA plans to deliver on DeMaio’s promises.
Unpacking the SCA
Zendesk Contact Center already runs on Amazon Connect, supported by the AI-first Zendesk Resolution Platform.
The platform is positioned to unify channels, data, and agent workflows while helping organizations retire fragmented legacy architectures.
Zendesk highlights its ability to drive faster resolutions across voice, self-service, and digital touchpoints.
Early customer outcomes are feeding momentum behind the joint approach. TELUS Digital recently supported a telecommunications client using Zendesk Contact Center deployed on AWS infrastructure.
“The results included a five percentage point increase in First Contact Resolution and a 50 percent reduction in after-contact work time,” said Jamie Timm, SVP ofGlobal Delivery and Operations at TELUS Digital.
“Zendesk’s AI-powered platform truly empowers agents and elevates service to the next level, and through this deepened collaboration with AWS, focused on Amazon Connect, we’re excited to see how Zendesk Contact Center will continue to innovate.”
Zendesk plans to bring a bundled solution – combining the Zendesk Resolution Platform with Amazon Connect – to the AWS Marketplace in the coming months, simplifying procurement for shared customers.
Why This Matters for the Wider CX Industry
The timing of the SCA is notable. Many CX leaders are entering a new phase of AI adoption where results carry more weight than experimentation.
Over the past year, organizations have become more selective about which AI tools make it into production, with a growing emphasis on measurable improvements in resolution rates, handle times, and agent efficiency.
That shift highlights a practical challenge: most contact centers still rely on a patchwork of systems.
As the industry pushes toward more automated, AI-supported workflows, these fragmented setups often become a barrier.
Moves like the Zendesk–AWS partnership illustrate how vendors are increasingly working together to streamline those layers – pairing core telephony and infrastructure from one provider with automation and workflow orchestration from another.
For enterprises, the appeal is reducing friction between channels and simplifying support operations.
Amazon Connect’s expanding role in the CCaaS landscape also gives this agreement wider significance.
Several CX vendors have already tied their roadmaps more closely to AWS in recent years, with Connect acting as the foundation for voice, storage, and AI services.
Zendesk joining that cohort reinforces a broader trend: cloud providers supplying the underlying building blocks, while customer experience platforms differentiate through design, routing intelligence, and agent experience.
For enterprises evaluating their next major platform investment, the implication appears to be that rather than fully replacing existing systems, many organizations now want a path into AI-first service operations that doesn’t require an all-at-once migration.
If partnerships like this continue to demonstrate visible improvements – such as the uplift in first contact resolution seen by TELUS – they strengthen the case for adopting unified, AI-driven environments over bolting on standalone tools.
Ultimately, the SCA reflects where the industry is heading: toward platforms that integrate voice, digital, and automation more tightly, while giving human agents better support in increasingly complex service environments.
