Slice of ice Recap: Enhancing Your Contact Center with Chat and Bots

As customer expectations continue to evolve, contact centers are turning to digital channels like chat and AI-powered tools like bots to deliver faster, smarter, and more personalized support. These technologies not only boost customer satisfaction but also empower agents to focus on complex, high-value interactions. 

In our latest Slice of ice session, Mike Kraybill, Account Executive at ComputerTalk, explored how chat, FAQ bots, and AI bots can be seamlessly integrated into your customer journey. Attendees learned about practical use cases and implementation steps, and witnessed a live demo showcasing how these technologies come to life using ice Contact Center. 

The following topics were covered during the Slice of ice session: 

• Pre-Contact AI (Before the interaction)
• Real-Time AI (During the interaction)
• Post-Contact AI (After the interaction) 

Click here to view the recording. 

AI Across the Customer Journey 

AI is usually thought of as just a single feature, but it’s much more than that. It’s an ecosystem that supports every stage of the customer journey. The session outlined three key areas during the customer journey where AI enhances operations: pre-contact (before the interaction), real-time (during the interaction), and post-contact (after the interaction).

Pre-Contact AI: From Traditional to Generative AI and Beyond 

The session kicked off by exploring how bots have evolved – transforming from simple rule-based responders to intelligent, purpose-built assistants that set the stage for seamless customer experiences.  

• Traditional Bots: Early bots followed rigid, single-question formats. Their interactions were limited to predefined responses, making them efficient for basic tasks but not truly conversational.
• Generative AI Bots: The next leap came with Generative AI, enabling bots to understand context, hold natural conversations, and handle more nuanced requests – whether through chat or voice. These bots can dynamically adapt, creating smoother, more human-like interactions.
• Purpose-Built AI Agents: Building on that foundation, organizations can now create specialized bots for targeted use cases, like ticket management or case creation, automating repetitive processes and improving efficiency across departments.
• IVR AI Voices and Generative IVR: The evolution continues with AI-enhanced voice systems, which move beyond traditional text-to-speech. By analyzing previous interactions, sentiment, and intent, these systems enable intelligent routing that ensure customers are connected to the right resources faster and with greater personalization.
• Agentic AI Agents: The next step in this evolution will see fully autonomous, Agentic AI Agents capable of managing end-to-end customer interactions with minimal human oversight.  

From static scripts to dynamic, context-aware conversations, this evolution illustrates how AI is reshaping the pre-contact experience – making every interaction more intelligent, responsive, and efficient. 

Real-Time AI: From Reactive Support to Intelligent Assistance 

As customer conversations unfold, real-time AI has become the driving force behind more productive, insightful, and human-centered interactions, and that’s where ice Contact Center excels.  

Rather than relying on basic call scripts or canned responses, ice leverages real-time insights to empower agents with live intelligence that adapts to every moment of the conversation. 

Mike highlighted several key real-time features within ice Contact Center, including: 

• Agent Assist: The Agent Assist tool provides agents with contextual support during live interactions. From suggesting relevant knowledge articles to performing live transcription and sentiment analysis, this tool ensures agents always have the right information at the right time.
• Live Transcription and Sentiment: AI in ice now captures conversations as they happen with live transcription and sentiment analysis. This gives agents immediate visibility into tone and customer mood, allowing them to adapt responses in the moment and de-escalate where needed.
• Conversational Analytics: Beyond transcription, conversational analytics in ice interpret intent and emotional cues to provide actionable insights, helping agents steer conversations toward better outcomes.
• Wrap-Up Automation: Once the conversation is over, AI in ice can streamline post-call tasks by automatically summarizing the discussion, compiling notes, and recommending next steps for the agent. This saves valuable time and ensures consistent, accurate reporting.
• AI-Powered Collaboration: Another key AI feature in ice is call summary on transfer, which ensures smooth handoffs between agents, giving the next representative instant context without repeating questions.
• Coming Soon: Mike also highlighted a few of ice Contact Center’s upcoming innovations such as Conversational Agent Assist and Intelligent Voice Recognition, enabling more natural, fluid interactions that allow AI to anticipate needs in real time rather than simply respond to them. 

In essence, real-time AI has evolved from being a passive observer to an active collaborator that helps agents perform at their best, improves consistency, and enhances the customer experience with every interaction. 

Post-Contact AI: From Conversation Data to Continuous Improvement 

Even after a conversation ends, the work doesn’t stop there. ice Contact Center’s AI continues to deliver value after the call by transforming every interaction into actionable insights that improve future customer experiences.  

• Post-Contact Transcription and Summarization: While real-time transcription supports agents during live conversations, post-contact transcription in ice captures the entire interaction in full context from start to finish. Once the conversation has finished, AI generates accurate summaries and structured notes that provide supervisors and analysts with a reliable record for review and training.
• GenAI Insights vs. Real-Time Sentiment: As mentioned previously, real-time sentiment analysis helps agents adjust their tone and approach as a conversation unfolds. After the interaction, the same capabilities of sentiment analysis evolve into deeper GenAI insights, analyzing tone, emotion, and patterns across large sets of interactions. This enables teams to spot trends, identify recurring customer pain points, and measure satisfaction at scale.
• Advanced Contact Analytics (Creovai): Building on the foundational data collected in earlier stages, Creovai delivers powerful post-interaction tools for ice Contact Center such as AI coaching, automated call scoring, and call intent categorization. These insights to help leaders evaluate performance, guide training, and ensure service quality across the organization. 
• PII Redactor: As more data is collected, privacy and compliance become more high priority topics. ice now uses AI to automatically detect and remove personally identifiable information (PII) from transcripts and summaries, helping your ice Contact Center to maintain trust and regulatory compliance effortlessly.
• CRM Integration: The intelligence gathered in the post-contact phase doesn’t live in isolation. By syncing transcripts, summaries, and GenAI insights directly into your CRM, ERP or another customer database, every team gains access to a unified view of the customer journey that fuels smarter decision-making across the business. 

Together, these capabilities illustrate how AI’s role in ice shifts across the contact lifecycle. This evolution ensures every customer interaction – past, present, or future – contributes to a smarter, more responsive contact center. 

Bringing AI to Your Contact Center 

From streamlined chat experiences to intelligent, AI-powered automation, the possibilities for enhancing customer engagement have never been greater. Adding chat, FAQ bots, and AI to your ice contact center can boost efficiency, improve response times, and create more personalized customer journeys. 

Whether you’re just beginning to explore AI or ready to bring it to life in your contact center, ComputerTalk is here to help you take the next step. 

Contact us today to request a personalized demo and see what’s possible with ice.