The contact center industry is at a crossroads. Customer expectations continue to rise, workforce challenges have intensified, and contact centers are adopting innovative AI solutions to help them keep up. How successful have these efforts been? What new challenges are businesses facing—and how are they measuring success? What does the future of the contact center have in store? To find out, Calabrio surveyed hundreds of CX leaders from the around the globe for State of the Contact Center 2025 report.
These leaders’ insights shed light on the biggest contact center and customer experience trends, developments which are rapidly reshaping the industry as we know it.
Read the complete State of the Contact Center 2025 report here
6 crucial contact center trends: Takeaways from our annual report
There’s much to explore in this year’s much-anticipated report. In this blog post, we’ll break it down, highlighting the key takeaways and the top contact centre trends to watch in 2025, straight from the experts shaping the industry.
1. AI isn’t the future of contact centers—it’s already here
AI is now a reality in nearly every contact center—98% use it in some form. But while AI is expected to simplify work, 61% of contact center leaders say conversations are actually getting harder. Why? Because AI isn’t designed to handle the most complex, emotionally charged interactions on its own. Without an AI-ready strategy to match, the latest technology can create new challenges instead of solving them. Organizations need a balanced AI-human strategy to truly enhance CX.
2. The AX disconnect: Contact center managers must walk the talk
AI is reshaping contact centers, automating routine interactions and tasks, while freeing agents to handle the most complex, emotional, and business-critical interactions. Leaders recognize the need for emotional intelligence, adaptability, and resilience, yet their actions don’t align.
Despite empathy being the most lacking agent skill, 64% of organizations aren’t prioritizing emotional intelligence or social interaction training. Meanwhile, 59% fail to provide ongoing coaching and support to help agents navigate AI-driven workflows. It’s no surprise that 32% of leaders cite agent distrust in AI as a major issue. The gap is clear: to truly empower agents, organizations must invest in the right support—not just the right technology.
3. Customers expect more personalization, speed, and 24/7 availability
Customers continue to expect more from the brands they do business with. 40% of leaders report their customers’ increasingly expect 24/7 support, while 36% say theirs are seeking greater personalization and speed. Many teams are looking to AI to provide an answer. Shirking concerns about AI-related growing pains, 83% of leaders believe that AI will enable 24/7 support across channels—and 79% say it will transform contact centers into strategic value drivers in the process.
4. Channel preferences are evolving—omnichannel is key
Customers aren’t only seeking fast experiences. They’re also after flexibility—and to get it they’re turning to a wider variety of communication channels than ever before, from voice and chat to social media and self-service portals. Traditional channels like voice are remain essential, but contact center adoption of AI-powered solutions is growing in response to emerging needs and changing preferences.
At the same time, self-service adoption is rising, with 51% of contact centers already offering self-service portals and another 35% planning to implement them. Customers increasingly expect instant, frictionless support, and businesses that provide intuitive self-service options can reduce contact volume while improving satisfaction.
However, even as they add channels to their customer service arsenal, many contact centers are still playing catch-up when it comes to creating seamless connections between those channels. Just 36% of leaders report having a true omnichannel contact center setup that’s foundational to enabling the experiences that more and more consumers are after.
5. WFM is lagging behind AI innovation
Despite AI’s transformative potential, only 38% of contact centers use cloud-based WFM solutions. Many still rely on manual processes, limiting their ability to optimize scheduling, reduce shrinkage, and enhance workforce agility.
6. The KPIs that matter most are shifting
The most common contact center success metrics are evolving beyond traditional efficiency KPIs. Performance and retention metrics like loyalty/churn propensity and customer effort score are now just as critical as operational KPIs like AHT and FCR. Meanwhile, AI-focused metrics, such as bot experience scores are becoming more prevalent, highlighting the growing role of automation in performance evaluation.
Want to dive deeper into the latest data, contact center trends, and insights into the future of the industry? Download the full State of the Contact Center 2025 report and take the next step in optimizing your workforce strategy.
