As investment in AI accelerates across customer operations, new findings suggest many organisations are still in the early stages of understanding whether AI Agent Assist tools are delivering sustainable improvements and long-term agent development.
Insights published this week by Elephants Don’t Forget (EDF), based on a recent industry webinar featuring ContactBabel’s Steve Morrell, Reynolds Busby Lee’s Elaine Lee and EDF’s Ben Scales, found that none of the participating contact centre leaders polled said they were confident AI Agent Assist was working well.
Among 46 respondents:
- 70% said they were not yet using AI Agent Assist and were still evaluating the technology.
- 30% said they were already using it but were unsure whether it was developing agents over the long term.
The findings complement ContactBabel data, which shows AI Agent Assist adoption has increased from 14% to 21% in the past year, with 59% of organisations planning deployments within two years, suggesting implementation is moving faster than confidence in long-term outcomes.
Ben Scales, Head of Sales at Elephants Don’t Forget, said:
“AI Agent Assist can surface information instantly, but access to information isn’t the same as understanding. The opportunity isn’t to replace human judgement, but to combine AI with genuine competence and confidence to deliver better customer outcomes.”
Customer perceptions of AI also remain mixed. According to ContactBabel research cited during the webinar, 69% of consumers believe AI understands their issue worse than a human agent, while 59% say resolution quality is worse. Speed was the only area where AI approached parity with human support.
Speaking during the webinar, Steve Morrell, Managing Director at ContactBabel, said:
“We are at the start of the AI revolution.:
“This technology will improve, but current experiences are not tremendously positive from a customer perspective.”
Elaine Lee, Director at Reynolds Busby Lee, believes organisations should think carefully about where efficiency gains are reinvested.
“I think we could and should be investing in our people. The time saved by AI should be reinvested into coaching, regular one-to-ones and ongoing development, ensuring areas like vulnerability are continually reinforced rather than treated as a once-and-done training exercise.” she said.
The importance of ongoing development is reflected in EDF’s own data. Analysis from more than 200 million interactions through their Clever Nelly solution found average competence levels among users stood at 54% before the introduction of continual assessment and reinforcement.
Taken together, the findings suggest AI and human competence should not be viewed as competing priorities. As simpler interactions become increasingly automated, organisations need to ensure the competence, judgement and confidence of frontline employees evolve alongside the technology.
The findings are taken from “The AI Adoption Gap: From AI Agent Assistance to Sustainable Performance”, published June 2026.
The webinar featured Steve Morrell (ContactBabel), Elaine Lee (Reynolds Busby Lee) and Ben Scales (Elephants Don’t Forget), hosted by Martin Teasdale (Get Out of Wrap).
Elephants Don’t Forget is the home of Clever Nelly, a multi-award-winning AI-powered continual assessment solution that helps organisations turn workplace training into lasting in-role competence. By continually assessing and reinforcing knowledge using proven learning science, Clever Nelly helps organisations improve performance, reduce risk and strengthen customer outcomes. The company works with customer service, operations and compliance leaders across a range of sectors and financially guarantees to improve employee competence.
For additional information on Elephants Don’t Forget visit their Website
