WFM is expanding beyond forecasting and scheduling as contact centers adapt to AI-enabled operations.
Today, more providers are linking interaction analytics, quality management, coaching, knowledge, and performance data to give leaders a clearer view of what drives service outcomes.
Rather than measuring capacity solely through staffing levels and handle times, organizations are looking to understand where AI is creating or removing work and prove whether productivity gains translate into better CX or lower cost-to-serve.
At the same time, governance has become a central operational issue. Employees are adopting readily available AI tools faster than many enterprise programmes can provide approved alternatives.
Against this backdrop, vendors are now enabling continuous, data-led coaching to help managers develop teams while keeping pace with blended workforces.
Deloitte Finds UK Workers Are Spending Nearly £1BN on GenAI Tools
Nearly one in three British workers are using GenAI at work without employer knowledge, even as employees spend almost £1BN of their own money on tools each year.
Yesterday, Deloitte released the UK's largest workforce survey on GenAI, ‘GenAI in the UK workforce’ with 25k respondents.
Hayley McKelvey, chief AI officer at Deloitte UK, argues the findings show employers must move beyond simply encouraging AI adoption.
“UK workers are showing they don't want to wait for permission to use GenAI. Many are already using free tools or pay for premium versions themselves to help them get work done,” she said.
“The challenge is no longer getting people to use GenAI, it's how businesses meet this growing demand in a way that is secure, responsible and creates lasting value for both the organization and its people.”
The survey found that AI demand is well ahead of the enterprise provision, as 63% have used GenAI for work, and 17% of users pay for a tool themselves.
For CX operations handling customer data within tightly governed processes, that gap presents a clear risk – Shadow AI.
If employees are using public tools for internal tasks without approved data controls, this can create security, compliance, and brand-risk issues during the critical moments when organizations are trying to improve productivity.
Regarding productivity, workers report saving an average of 70 minutes a week, but Deloitte found that only half of GenAI users say it currently saves them time.
Among those who do save time, 84% reportedly reinvest it in more work for the same employer, likely prompting WFM leaders to ask where capacity is actually appearing when a high volume of unmeasured activity is missing.
Without workflow-level measurement, businesses cannot convert individual efficiency into better service levels, reduced cost-to-serve or improved employee experience.
This creates a problem for managers, as half of GenAI users have had no formal training, with 65% not seeing convincing, well-informed leadership on GenAI, and 64% of weekly users worry managers will conclude the technology can do their job.
To ensure employee satisfaction and optimization, leaders should provide preapproved, role-specific tools with clear rules on permitted data and use cases, then train people to validate outputs and escalate errors.
Furthermore, managers should communicate that AI is intended to remove friction and strengthen judgment, and not be used as a tool to replace staff.
Solidroad and Unwrap Aim to Close the CX Insight-to-Training Gap
On Tuesday, the AI-powered training and coaching platform announced its partnership with customer intelligence platform Unwrap to turn insight into action.
As contact centers manage increasingly blended workforces of humans, AI agents and human-AI handoffs, Solidroad argues for the increasing need to understand performance across these different worker types.
By combining Unwrap’s analysis of customer interactions with Solidroad’s AI-powered training for both human and AI support agents, the partners aim to identify what is happening in customer conversations and turn those findings into targeted training and coaching for improved CX.
Mark Hughes, co-founder and CEO of Solidroad, helps teams identify recurring issues and convert those insights into targeted coaching for human and AI agents.
