AWS re:Invent recap: New Amazon Connect innovations shape the future of customer experience

AWS re:Invent 2023 showcased some of the most promising innovations and concepts for a future that will be shaped by generative AI. AWS services continue to be central to that future, and they are evolving to support it.

At re:Invent 2023, we announced new generative AI features communication channels that are directly integrated into Amazon Connect. These capabilities require no development, allowing customers to quickly innovate. We also showcased Amazon Connect customers (DISH, Capital One, NatWest, Adobe, John Hancock) who are leveraging Amazon Connect and these new capabilities to drive benefits for their businesses. This blog post will recap some of these announcements and customer stories.

New generative AI and communication innovations in Amazon Connect

The new generative AI features integrated in Amazon Connect will help businesses reimagine their customer experience, improve customer outcomes and improve efficiency of contact center agents. These new capabilities, outlined below, provide a one-stop solution that helps empower agents, augments conversational analytics to understand trends, delivers better customer profile information, and improves customer self-service experiences.

• Amazon Q, a generative AI-powered assistant designed for work that can be tailored to your specific business needs, is available directly within Amazon Connect. This will assist contact center agents with real-time responses and recommended actions. As a result, it can help agents address customer queries faster and improve customer satisfaction scores. Listen to AWS CEO- Adam Selipsky explain the value of Amazon Q in Connect during his keynote at AWS re:Invent 2023.
• Amazon Connect Contact Lens now offers improved contact summarization with generative AI (preview). This will help reduce agent effort in capturing notes and minimize the time it takes for mangers to analyze contacts. The new capability provides supervisors a high-level, generative AI-summarized abstract that succinctly describes the key aspects of customer conversations including how the issue was addressed, and any pending follow-up items.
• Amazon Connect Customer Profiles now automatically aggregates and maps customer data with generative AI, reducing the time and effort needed to provide personalized customer experiences to customers.
• Configuring and managing customer self-service experiences with chatbots has also been enhanced with generative AI making it easier to build effective and engaging self-service experiences for customers. For example, you can now resolve slot values in user utterances with greater accuracy. This means if a customer says they want to reserve a hotel room for “Saturday and Sunday,” the self-service system correctly interprets the response as “two nights.” This is powered by the advanced reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), which improve accuracy and provide a better customer experience. Learn about all of the new enhancements for customer self-service experiences.
• Amazon Connect also added out-of-the box omnichannel capabilities including two-way SMS and in-app and web voice calling with video support. With these new built-in communication channels, you can deliver a unified, personalized experience for your customers that is automated and agent-assisted across the channels they prefer.

Amazon Connect business impact in the spotlight

Highlighting customer success was an integral part of re: Invent 2023. These stories demonstrated how some of the world’s leading organizations are leveraging Amazon Connect to drive their businesses forward. (Click each company link below to view presentations.)

DISH showcased their two-week migration of 15,000 contact center agents to Amazon Connect.   This has improved resolution of complex and difficult customer inquiries, increasing agent efficiency. Capital One revealed how they are tapping the power of outbound communication to modernize its contact center and improve service at scale. NatWest spoke about Amazon Connect’s omnichannel capabilities, including in-app, web, and video calling. They also highlighted how this has improved their customer satisfaction in a proactive, and cost-effective fashion.

AWS customers Adobe and John Hancock also took to the stage to show how they are realizing results with Amazon Connect. Adobe has crafted personalized and automated interactions across chat and voice channels to provide consistent experiences for customers. On the other hand, John Hancock is leveraging Amazon Connect’s analytics and optimization capabilities to enhance contact center efficiency.

Focusing on the future

How will your organization leverage Amazon Connect to create value for your customers? Discover how the latest Amazon Connect capabilities can help you shape the future of your business. Visit our Amazon Connect page to learn more.