Dave Vernon, Senior Solution Architect at Cyara, discussed the current state and challenges of Agentic AI in contact centers as part of the CX of 2030 seminar series. He explained how contact centers have evolved from deterministic IVR systems to natural language processing, generative AI, and now to agentic AI that can reason, plan, and take actions independently. Dave highlighted that while 62% of enterprises are experimenting with agentic AI, fewer than 15% have proper testing, governance, and assurance plans in place, emphasizing the need for careful implementation. He shared that successful early adopters are moving slowly with deliberate, methodical approaches, starting with small flows like bill payments or appointment bookings rather than full rip-and-replace deployments.
The discussion covered the shift toward hybrid environments where human agents remain in the loop, with testing evolving from deterministic word-matching to objective-based testing that includes different personas and real-world scenarios. Dave stressed that continuous testing and validation from the beginning of development is crucial, as once customer trust is lost, it’s very difficult to regain, and predicted that by 2030, agentic AI will become more prevalent in contact centers with proper governance and assurance processes in place.
