Banking Study: Less Than 30% Getting Full Value of Contact Centre AI, Glia Finds
Research with Metric Sherpa’s Justin Robbins identifies 5 barriers holding financial institutions back from unlocking contact centre value in the AI era
Nearly nine in 10 business leaders now say their contact centres, traditionally utilised solely as service endpoints, have become core to their strategic innovation, a new industry study has found.
Published by Glia, the leader in AI-powered interactions for banking, the survey signals a pivotal elevation in the contact centre’s value as AI unlocks the wealth of untapped intelligence contained in customer and member interactions for banks and credit unions.
The report, titled “The New Equation: Redefining Value, Effort, and Impact in the AI-Era Contact Centre” reveals a widespread “maturity gap” where AI adoption is outpacing the strategic frameworks required to capitalize on its true ROI. Despite nine in 10 leaders recognizing the contact centre’s strategic importance, fewer than three in 10 have evolved the roles and metrics needed to realize its full business potential unlocked by AI.
Dan Michaeli, CEO and Co-Founder of Glia, said,
“This research makes it clear: AI’s biggest impact isn’t just about cutting costs — it’s about extending the capacity of your team,”
“When banks and credit unions deploy Glia AI, they create unprecedented capacity. And when they do, the real question becomes, what will you do with all those newfound increases and savings?
What we’re hearing from customers is shockingly consistent: reskill and reallocate agents to servicing centres, stop paying for after-hours and overflow support agencies, be more proactive with financial literacy education programs and do more in the community. Too often, AI is treated like a tech decision, when really, it’s a shift in how we think about labour allocation and project prioritization. It opens up the opportunity to reallocate resources — budget and talent alike — toward innovation, customer and member value, and human potential.”
Conducted in partnership with Metric Sherpa, the next-generation analyst firm for customer interaction leaders, the study identifies five key barriers hindering financial institutions in capitalizing on the true business value their contact centres can contribute when cost-centre mindsets are replaced with reimagined forward-thinking:
– AI adoption outpaces operational maturity: 75% of contact centres use AI, but only a third fully embed it into daily workflows and measurement systems.
– Strategic value is hidden in plain sight: 86% of contact centres say AI is crucial, but only 27% measure its impact — missing a key link to enterprise priorities.
– Customer and agent friction mirror each other: Long wait times and system switching erode not only customer and member satisfaction, but also employee efficiency.
– AI savings are funding talent — not just cuts: 43% of organisations reinvest savings into higher pay and hiring standards, reaffirming AI as workforce fuel.
– AI decisions are disconnected from frontline needs: Only one in six organizations trust contact centres to lead AI decisions, risking misalignment.
The research paints a picture of a contact centre landscape in transition — where AI adoption is high, but the operational foundations needed to realize AI’s value remain underdeveloped. Leaders recognise value in four dimensions — customer, employee, economic and strategic — but struggle to measure that value consistently, especially when it comes to strategic contributions. At the same time, inconveniences faced by customers, members and agents are shaped by the same root causes: disconnected systems, poor context and manual workflows.
Justin Robbins, Founder and Principal Analyst at Metric Sherpa, commented,
“The contact centre probably knows more about the business than any other function — but more often than not, it isn’t being asked,”
“If you’re only using AI to cut costs, you’re missing out on its greatest potential: driving growth through strategic intelligence. Modern AI can turn every customer interaction into actionable insight — fuelling innovation, improving experiences and driving long-term growth. With thoughtful AI deployment, business leaders can elevate the contact centre from merely a service endpoint to a key innovation driver.”
To download the Report Click Here
Glia is the leading AI customer interactions solution for banks and credit unions. Our platform unifies AI and human agents across every voice and digital interaction with our proprietary ChannelLess® Architecture. With Glia’s AI for All™, organizations solve the efficiency vs. experience trade-off by using AI to automate interactions, elevate agent performance and transform reporting and insights for leaders.
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