Not long ago, I spoke with a contact center leader who had just finished an “AI transformation.” On paper, it looked like a success. The vendor promised automation, executives signed off on the budget, and IT handled the deployment.
But within weeks of go-live, the cracks appeared. Customers quickly got stuck in endless loops with bots that couldn’t escalate properly. Agents were juggling more systems than before. Supervisors became overwhelmed with rework. What was pitched as innovation quickly became a daily fire drill.
That story isn’t unique. Metric Sherpa’s 2025 research with Glia, based on 945 contact center leaders, shows the pattern: over 75% of contact centers already use AI, and 83% expect to expand usage this year. Yet only 16.6% of customer-facing AI purchasing decisions are led by the contact center. The very function that must deliver the outcomes is too often absent from the table.
The Price of Leaving the Contact Center Out of AI Decisions
The study surfaced the real costs of leaving contact center voices out of AI governance. Each one hits the business harder than executives expect.
Broken Rollouts
AI chosen without frontline input fails to align with actual customer journeys. The data shows long wait times, repeated transfers, and inconsistent responses remain the leading sources of customer frustration. When new tools don’t solve these basics, customers notice immediately.
Contracts in Crisis
Leaders we interviewed described renegotiations and scope changes that sent professional services fees soaring. Every missed requirement that surfaces late creates delays and drains resources.
Agent Disengagement
Adoption falters when employees feel AI has been imposed on them. Instead of empowerment, agents experience distrust. Our study found nearly a third of leaders believe AI’s ROI is underestimated—a direct reflection of stalled adoption.
Missed Opportunities
Thirty-eight percent of executives admit they undervalue the intelligence the contact center gathers from customer interactions. Without that input, AI decisions fail to capture one of the richest sources of growth and innovation.
Each outcome traces back to one choice: excluding the people closest to the work.
Why Contact Center AI Decisions Are a C-Suite Issue
Metric Sherpa and Glia’s research also found that 90% of leaders rate customer value as critically important, and 86% say the same of strategic value. These outcomes are decided in the contact center every day.
This is where customer loyalty is reinforced or lost in moments of truth. It is where feedback reveals product flaws and unmet needs. It is where coaching and development either scale a workforce or stall it. And it is where the brand either earns credibility or erodes it.
When customer-facing AI decisions bypass the contact center, organizations weaken their ability to achieve these priorities. AI investments end up disconnected from the realities of service delivery, making them harder to prove and harder to sustain. Nearly a third of leaders already acknowledge that AI’s return is underestimated. That admission reflects a gap in governance, not in potential.
Four Steps to Bring the Contact Center Into AI Decisions
The Metric Sherpa + Glia study didn’t just highlight the risks. It pointed to a clear path forward for leaders who want to close the governance gap and capture AI’s potential.
1. Establish Cross-Functional Governance
Executives or IT alone make nearly half of AI decisions.. The fix is creating councils that blend strategic oversight with frontline expertise. This ensures investments are measured not only in technical capability but also in customer and employee impact.
2. Prioritize Friction Reduction
The study identified the top pain points for both customers and employees: long wait times, transfers, system switching, and manual data entry. These are the pressure points where AI must prove itself first. Addressing them early builds credibility across the enterprise.
3. Measure What Matters
Leaders in our research said they define AI’s value through customer satisfaction (75%), employee productivity (61%), and cost savings (60%). These metrics resonate with executives and can be expanded to include loyalty and strategic insight generation. The more visible the wins, the more influence the contact center gains.
4. Pilot with Purpose
Executives in the study stressed that small, frontline pilots revealed gaps long before formal deployments. Pilots don’t just de-risk investments—they also give employees a voice, increasing trust and adoption.
The Core Truth About AI and the Contact Center
The research keeps pointing to the same conclusion: ignoring the contact center in customer-facing AI decisions creates costs that ripple through the organization. The price is visible in broken rollouts, ballooning contracts, disengaged employees, and missed opportunities.
The upside of including the contact center is equally clear. Decisions are grounded in operational reality, adoption improves, and the full value of AI shows up across customer, employee, and strategic outcomes.
AI Governance Starts With the Contact Center Voice
Our latest research confirms that AI is already here. The focus now must be on how to govern it.
Executives and IT leaders play vital roles. But unless contact center leaders claim their seat and ensure their perspective is heard, the cycle of underperforming AI will continue.
The cost of ignoring the contact center is already being paid in wasted investments and disappointed customers. The organizations that win the next era of customer experience will be those where the contact center is not a bystander but a trusted stakeholder in shaping customer-facing AI.
