Spring 2025 will mark the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic: an almost unimaginable disaster causing immense loss and disruption that has left a lasting impact on nearly every industry, including contact centers.
The pandemic forced an emergency shift to remote work, which has now – half a decade later – developed into sophisticated hybrid models powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and remote support technology. But the pandemic didn’t just change where contact center agents work, it changed how they work.
The Breaking Point That Led to Breakthroughs
Overnight, contact centers were forced to transition their operations from in-person to remote. While this was an emergency response born out of necessity, it has since become a catalyst for innovation.
But with the help of remote support technologies, such as device access, monitoring, patch and update management, and repair, now enabled by AI, contact centers have been able to address long-standing industry challenges. These include knowledge transfer and service consistency.
...the pandemic didn’t just change where contact center agents work, it changed how they work.
Our recent data shows that 79% of decision-makers now engage with AI at least weekly, with over a third using it daily. This represents a dramatic increase from just 52% weekly usage in 2023.
This uptick in adoption, paired with remote support capabilities, has transformed contact centers into efficient hybrid operations.
Moving way beyond viewing these technologies as temporary emergency responses, contact centers now regard them as invaluable to everyday operations.
AI: The Game-Changer
We can’t talk about new technologies without talking about AI. And much like with most industries, the integration of AI into remote support platforms has been transformative for the contact center industry.
Tasks that historically took five to 10 minutes – such as documenting a remote support case – are eliminated with the help of AI.
This type of technology alone is making a huge difference in how contact centers operate.
But AI-powered tools can do more than just routine tasks. They can now serve as intelligent assistants enhancing agent capabilities.
Remote support technologies, powered by AI, can analyze customer patterns to identify common issues. From there, the systems can suggest solutions and even predict potential problems before they occur or escalate.
With these predictive tools, we estimate that an organization that is handling 600 monthly support sessions can cut an average of 75 hours of work every month.
Our clients’ experience bears this out. Transparent BPO, which delivers contact center services and customer support with over 3,000 employees across multiple countries – was facing significant challenges supporting their distributed workforce.
By implementing an integrated remote support solution, Transparent BPO revolutionized their IT support process with a 70%-80% reduction in time spent per incident.
Remote support technologies, powered by AI, can analyze customer patterns to identify common issues.
But there is more. With AI, agents can quickly access customer history, previous interactions, and other helpful information, enabling much more personalized experiences.
Security and Compliance
With most technological advancements come their downsides. In this case, as contact centers become more digitalized and dispersed, they become prime targets for cyberattacks.
With the combination of more people working remotely and AI advancements, keeping the security and privacy of customer information a top priority is paramount.
With 75% of U.S. business leaders concerned about data management in the use of AI, these types of concerns are at the forefront in fields like contact centers, where agents handle sensitive customer information across various regions and regulations.
Remote support technologies have evolved significantly in the past five years to address these concerns and challenges. They now take a comprehensive and layered approach to security. From identity management to multiple authentication protocols, these tools now ensure both agent and customer identities before any support session begins.
Monitoring and threat detection must happen preemptively and in real-time. Especially in distributed environments.
Remote connectivity tools that take a layered security approach prioritize constantly analyzing behavior patterns to identify potential risks before they become reality. For contact centers, this type of approach enables greater operational flexibility as agents can engage in safe remote operations.
Best Practices
With an increase in remote, including hybrid contact centers, there are a handful of key practices to successfully manage them.
First, comprehensive training is key. Businesses must provide ongoing education for their employees about AI-powered tools. Not only how to use them, but more importantly, how to use them safely.
Rather than implementing AI tools “just because,” organizations should consider where these tools might actually provide the most value. Examples include routine task automation, documentation, knowledge sharing, and predictive analytics.
Through their training, agents will learn that they will remain at the heart of operations. Boundaries between AI-powered tasks and those requiring human judgement are critical.
Secondly, security is a critical factor in hybrid or remote contact centers. Organizations should:
- Implement robust multi-factor authentication.
- Make consistent security updates and install patches.
- Establish clear protocols for dealing with sensitive data.
And – maybe most importantly – implement consistent and ongoing security training for agents to ensure they are up to date on the latest best practices in mitigating vulnerabilities. As these measures get woven into daily operations, they will become second nature to agents.
Lastly, for any workplace operating in a hybrid or remote environment, maintaining team cohesion is critical. But it requires both structure and effort. This can look like scheduling regular virtual team meetings that include team building activities.
For contact centers, where knowledge sharing is critical for successful operations, opportunities for casual interactions and relationship building help remote agents feel more connected to their colleagues. They also help cope with job stress and tamper burnout by letting them know that they are not alone: by enabling them to share their experiences, ask questions, and receive insights.
The Human Element in a Tech-Driven Environment
Even with these technological advancements and increased physical distance, humans will remain at the center of contact center operations.
For customers, they are a crucial element. It’s a matter of finding a way to incorporate AI-powered tools and remote technology solutions to empower humans, rather than replace them. They can help free agents to focus on building customer relationships – something that AI will never be able to do – and solve complex problems that require emotional intelligence and creative thinking.
Looking Ahead
So much has evolved since spring 2020, when most Americans took home their work computers and began to work remotely. What started as reactive and emergency efforts, has evolved into proactive remote support efforts, using AI to predict and prevent issues before they even get a chance to impact customers.
Like with most industries, the pandemic has left a lasting mark on contact centers. They have become more aware of both their criticality to customers and their vulnerability to disruption when disasters strike. At the same time, centers will continue to be shaped by remote work, AI, remote support technologies, and whatever innovations lay on the horizon.
Contact centers that embrace both this reality and these changes, while keeping security and agent empowerment at the core, will come out on top.