Amazon Connect Contact Center Gets a Facelift

From third-party application support to generative AI-powered post-contact summaries, AWS this week unleashed a flurry of updates to its Amazon Connect contact center platform, which also saw advancements to its "Contact Lens" abilities. 

Now AWS says Contact Lens can evaluate agent performance for all customer interactions using a feature that leverages conversational analytics. It automatically fills out and submits evaluations with no need for manual intervention. It also sheds light on agent performance over time.

Pasquale DeMaio, VP of customer engagement services for Amazon Connect, said the most recent set of updates stem from customer conversations.

"Customers can embed the experience they want to have as homegrown apps or from other vendors, directly into their agent desktops," he said.

AWS' Pasquale DeMaio

DeMaio said doing this makes it easier to get the right thing in front of the agent, who often has to toggle back and forth between apps, something vendors across the space increasingly hope to eliminate for their user base. 

AWS added step-by-step guides for Amazon Connect users as well, noting with the tool, contact center agents can create interactive self-service experiences using said guides, something it hopes will help resolve customer service experiences faster via the drag-and-drop tool. 

Thinking big picture, DeMaio said these updates all benefit the channel.

"Our customers have wanted this for a while," DeMaio said, and partners can help deliver these services to AWS customers who rely on the firm's contact center offering. 

Amazon Connect Contact Center Channel Partner Benefits

With generative AI on full display at this year's Enterprise Connect, owned by Informa, Channel Futures' parent company, DeMaio said AWS wants its application of generative AI to "deliver real-world" value. But does that transfer over to partners and them making a profit? 

DeMaio says that the Amazon Connect Contact Center is abundant with partner opportunities. He said partners must work with their customers to ensure they get the most value from generative AI. This typically translates to partners getting creative with how they deploy generative AI. 

Channel partners such as value-added resellers and managed service providers stand to make a profit and increase recurring revenue shares with Amazon Connect Contact Center, DeMaio shared. 

But how?

"We have a 'powerful' set of APIs that partners can leverage, and that is a huge time-saver for people," said DeMaio.

Thus, the partner opportunity resides in how they can access all the tools to build a contact center offer that gives partners a swifter route to market with tools designed by a provider that essentially makes the standard for the foundation of contact center technologies.

"Channel partners also have a lot of opportunity in the vertical space in areas like financial services," he told Channel Futures.