The marketing machines are running at full speed when it comes to AI applications, AI bots and Agentic AI solutions. Most of this is relatively new, especially in the customer contact sector. Where are the early adopters of these types of applications? For this article, we asked Verint for concrete examples.

 

Maurice van der Heyden, VP Sales Verint Benelux since April last year and responsible for Verint's digital portfolio for EMEA, emphasizes in advance that the market is still young. "There is still a lot of noise in the AI ​​market and it is all still in its infancy. Also with users who experiment with it, to see if it works and how. There are not many examples of practical applications that can make a difference in your business operations, but companies are looking for them. The last edition of the Conversational Conference mainly featured pilots and small-scale examples."

AI for specific applications

Verint has focused over the past year on bringing to market what Van der Heijden likes to call “proven applications.” “Software that can solve a specific business issue. So it’s not a generic AI application, but an application intended for a CX environment.”

Martin Melissa, director Solutions Consulting: “The promise of Agentic AI is that almost everything can be automated. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said at the end of last year 'SaaS is dead', everything is automated. It would then concern all kinds of other processes, especially those that take place after the conversation. That is rather optimistic, because there is a lot of complexity there. The big players, to whom a lot of funding goes, should gradually start making things happen.”

As far as Melis and Van der Heijden are concerned, for the time being it is all about specific applications and “it is not about address changes. Access to the desktop is very interesting for software developers, but we have had that access for a long time – think of screen recording and desktop process analytics applications. Based on the experience we have with that, we also know how difficult it is to automate processes.”

The 'happy flow' is often already automated

The complexity, according to Melis, lies mainly in all the exceptions – that is, that which does not fit into the happy flow. Everything that does fit in well has often already been addressed. But in large companies that regularly have to deal with mergers or acquisitions, processes and IT landscapes are constantly changing, according to Melis. “As soon as you have finished standardizing, the standard has often already changed.”

 

If everyone runs away with further automating customer contact, the space for creating distinctiveness with personal contact becomes increasingly smaller. How do you see this?

Van der Heijden: “People who work in customer contact do indeed contribute to the distinctiveness. Companies will increasingly have to choose where in their processes they do or do not want to speak to their customers – digitally or verbally. In principle, you can automate almost everything. You will have to decide where you want to make a commercial difference. Nowadays, you can no longer cancel a newspaper subscription online – that is where the meaning and value of human contact comes to the fore.”

 

So the reverse order – reducing costs and automating and then looking at how we keep the relationship with the customer alive – is not smart?

“Brands cannot avoid certain contact moments with their customers. In telecom, the majority of customers no longer engage in conversation with their provider at all. You can automate everything and make it frictionless, but then little remains of the relationship. In that case, you are almost forced to introducing friction into your process to get in touch – consider cancelling your subscription.”

Where are those proven use cases?

Then the search for use cases around AI in customer contact. Customer contact professionals are hungry for real, proven examples; certainly as a counterbalance to all the marketing violence around AI applications. "Various applications are still relatively new," Melis starts off, "So not much has been implemented yet. Our knowledge bot, for example, was introduced last summer and it makes it easier to unlock knowledge from various internal sources to employees, based on questions in natural language and including source references. This is done with an LLM in combination with RAG. "

The knowledge bot is now being used by an international bank – the name may not be mentioned – and ensures that customer contact employees see the right answer on their screen 20 seconds faster. “For more than 4.000 employees this meant a capacity increase of 7 percent,” says Van der Heijden.

“Florius is a great example of an organization that fully embraces innovations”

The summary bot, which summarizes conversations with customers and writes them down after approval, is also used by several Dutch customers, including Florius. Florius has also been using real-time coaching for some time by pushing relevant knowledge articles or tips. This has led to a measurable NPS improvement and a shorter training time. Wrap-up was implemented at Florius in two weeks, with the summary being checked by an employee in accordance with AI regulations.

“Florius is a great example of an organization that fully embraces innovations,” says Melis. “Every year there is something on the program and successful pilots are actually rolled out. In doing so, they look closely at what is needed within the human side of the organization to make that happen.”

AXIS

Another practical example is the quality bot for AXA. This international insurer uses the quality bot for real-time coaching and training of employees, which ensures fast processing and better quality. Axa has achieved a decrease of more than 20% in AHT with this bot and other Verint applications, according to Van der Heijden.

 

On June 17, 2025, Verint will organize the annual event in Maarssen Engage on the Road Benelux, which demonstrates concrete applications of GenAI in customer contact.

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