Case study · Telecommunications
Contact Center: Chatbot to Agentic AI
Replaced rules-based chatbot with agentic AI resolving 40%+ of tickets autonomously.
Key results
- Auto-resolution 41%
- Handle time -28%
- Customer satisfaction +14 NPS
Context
A telecommunications provider operated a rules-based chatbot that handled roughly 10% of customer contacts but frustrated users with rigid conversation flows. Most contacts still routed to human agents handling queries the chatbot could have addressed if it had been more capable.
Challenge
Upgrading to agentic AI required guardrails: the agent had to handle consequential actions (plan changes, credits, appointments) with appropriate human approval gates, had to refuse requests outside its authorization envelope cleanly, and had to escalate without losing conversation context.
Approach
Thoughtwave deployed the TWSS AI Custom Agents platform adapted for contact-center: tiered approval gates (autonomous for routine informational, human-approval for account changes, escalation for complex issues), tool-scoped access to back-office systems, and full trace audit. The 6-month engagement replaced the chatbot and ran in parallel with human agents during rollout.
Outcomes
Auto-resolution reached 41% of contacts without human involvement; average handle time on escalated contacts dropped 28% because the agent pre-gathered context; customer satisfaction improved 14 NPS points — users preferred the agent's capability to the chatbot's rigidity.
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