Getting Comfortable: Your contact center snapshot

• Tell me about your center's size and scope, including number of agents, channels handled, and average daily interactions.
• On a typical month, how many calls and digital interactions does your team handle? Options: Under 10,000, 10,000–50,000, 50,000–200,000, Over 200,000
• Describe the team you would include in a pilot, the roles you'd pick, and how shifts are covered across those roles.
• How often do you update agent scripts, knowledge articles, or outbound templates? Options: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Less often
• Which KPIs does your leadership cite most when evaluating agent performance? Options: Average handle time, First call resolution, Quality/compliance score, After-call wrap time, Customer satisfaction (CSAT/NPS), Other
• Is there any contractual, vendor, or regulatory barrier that would prevent a third-party from accessing live call audio or agent desktops for a short pilot? Options: Yes, contracts prevent it, Yes, regulatory reasons prevent it, No, access can be granted, Unsure - need to check

Where the day-to-day breaks, and why it matters now

• In the most recent compliance audit that missed targets, which single operational failure caused the biggest alarm?
• Give a concrete example of a call where an agent skipped a required disclosure or step, and walk me through the customer outcome and follow-up work.
• When agents are uncertain about a policy during a live call, who do they contact first and how long does that typically take? Options: Supervisor/lead, Peer in chat, Knowledge base search, Escalation to specialist, Other
• How much supervisor time do you estimate is spent each week reviewing flagged compliance issues or coaching related to missed disclosures? Options: Under 2 hours, 2–8 hours, 8–20 hours, Over 20 hours
• Name the single downstream cost that mattered most from these gaps, for example fines, rework hours, or customer churn. Options: Regulatory fine risk, Rework labor hours, Increased escalations, Customer churn, Brand/reputation damage, Other

Who pulls the levers: stakeholders, decision rights, and trust

• Who on your leadership team must sign off before a pilot can access live agent desktops and call audio?
• List the stakeholders who must be informed within 24 hours of a compliance flag appearing during a pilot. Options: Contact center operations, Legal and compliance, IT/security, People/HR, BPO partner, Other
• Describe typical agent reactions when a new tool surfaces prompts or routing changes mid-call, including examples of pushback or quick wins.
• On average, how many platform or security review gates does a new vendor pass through before approval to run in a production-adjacent environment? Options: 1–2 reviews, 3–4 reviews, 5 or more reviews, Depends on scope
• If agent trust drops and adoption stays below 30 percent during the pilot, what would you do next? Options: Pause the pilot, Reduce scope and retry, Run targeted training, Proceed but limit to supervision, Unsure

If you could snap your fingers: success criteria that move the deal

• If the pilot reduced your average handle time by 20 percent, who inside your organization would be first to call that a success and which metric would they highlight?
• Which acceptance metrics for a 60 to 90 day pilot are absolute deal-breakers versus nice-to-have? Options: AHT reduction, First-call resolution lift, Quality/compliance score improvement, After-call wrap time reduction, Agent satisfaction, Other
• Select the primary metrics you want us to capture during the pilot Options: Average handle time, First call resolution, Quality/compliance score, After-call wrap time, Agent satisfaction, Escalation rate
• Write the acceptance threshold that would trigger commercial conversion, for example percent improvement or absolute score targets.
• Name the single condition that would stop you from converting the pilot to production even if the agreed metrics are met.

The other paths you are weighing

• Enumerate the other solutions or approaches you are actively evaluating and indicate which one looks most likely.
• For any incumbent contact center vendor you might keep, what would have to change about their delivery for you to stay?
• Is there an internal team that has proposed building this capability themselves, and if so, what timeline and resourcing did they propose? Options: Yes, in-house team proposed build, No internal proposal, Unsure
• Select the main reasons you might prefer an internal build over an external vendor Options: Control over code, Lower long-term licensing cost, Data residency or ownership, Existing contracts with vendor, Faster internal bug fixes, Other
• Given a scenario where your current approach could meet all acceptance metrics with no change, would you still consider an external pilot and why? Options: Yes, for speed and third-party validation, Maybe, depends on cost, No, prefer current approach, Unsure

Integration and data gatekeepers: can we plug in?

• Identify the integration point that, if unavailable, would prevent a real-time assist pilot from running on your agent desktops.
• Choose from the list the systems we must integrate with for the pilot Options: Telephony/PBX or carrier interface, Cloud contact center platform, Customer relationship management (CRM), Workforce management, Knowledge base/content store, Single sign-on/identity provider, Quality monitoring platform, Other
• Who owns the APIs or connectors for each system you selected, and will they grant external vendor access for a short pilot? Options: Internal IT/Platform team, Third-party vendor, Managed service/BPO, No owner identified yet
• Outline the data retention and data sharing constraints the pilot must respect for compliance purposes.
• Identify any regulatory approvals or legal reviews required before pilot start and the typical durations for those reviews.

The pilot that proves it: design, execution, and gateways

• Specify the smallest agent cohort size that, if it achieved a 20 percent AHT reduction, would make the result convincing to your leadership. Options: 10–25 agents, 26–50 agents, 51–100 agents, Over 100 agents
• Choose the pilot duration you prefer Options: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, Other
• Typically, how many supervisors will be available each day to review compliance flags and coaching recommendations during the pilot? Options: None dedicated, 1–2 supervisors, 3–5 supervisors, More than 5
• Provide the rollback criteria you would require during rollout, for example acceptable false positive thresholds or maximum customer complaints per week.
• Assuming the pilot meets the agreed metrics but agent satisfaction declines, what tradeoffs would you accept and who has final decision authority on next steps?

Locking the calendar: decision timeline and next moves

• Point to the single timeline constraint that, if missed, would stop the project from moving forward. Options: Budget cycle deadline, Regulatory window, Contract expiration with incumbent, Leadership availability, Other
• List any blackout dates, seasonal peaks, or technology migrations that would block agent access during a proposed pilot window.
• Pick the procurement or contracting steps that typically add the most time Options: Legal review, Security questionnaire, Data processing agreement, Procurement approval, Budget approval, Other
• Provide the names and roles of the people who must attend the pilot review meeting that signs off on acceptance metrics.
• Given a successful pilot, estimate the earliest date procurement and legal could finalize a commercial agreement and any blockers to that timeline.

• Solution Experience — Real-Agent Walkthrough

• Confirm the current state and cost to your team
• You confirm the demonstrated compliance workflow eliminates the disclosure failures shown in the scenario.
• Provide three representative call recordings and associated dispositions for scenario playback and baseline measurement
• You confirm the routing scenario meets your needs for reducing AHT and agree the measurement approach captures that impact.
• Compliance scenario walkthrough, real-time assist
• Confirm the pilot agent cohort and the primary acceptance thresholds for AHT, resolution rate, and compliance
• Run the scripted scenarios on the platform and deliver a short proof-of-value report comparing current versus projected AHT and disclosure compliance before the follow-up session
• You confirm the automated after-call documentation achieves the agent time savings required to justify pilot expansion.
• Routing scenario walkthrough, intelligent routing
• Share the integration dependency checklist detailing telephony and CRM endpoints required for the pilot
• You agree on the pilot cohort and exact acceptance thresholds for AHT, resolution rate, and compliance for the 60–90 day evaluation.
• After-call documentation walkthrough, automated summarization
• Review measurement plan and acceptance criteria
• Identify any internal privacy or data access approvals needed to stream calls for the pilot
• Validation checkpoint

• Solution Experience — Real-Agent Walkthrough
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Integrate with existing telephony platform
• Integrate with source CRM for contact and case sync
• Deploy agent desktop real-time assist plugin
• Configure intelligent call routing and prioritization rules
• Implement real-time speech-to-text and intent extraction
• Map knowledge articles and policies to intent triggers
• Enable next-best-action prompt delivery in real time
• Automate after-call summarization and CRM logging
• Configure AI quality-scoring rules and automated sampling
• Implement compliance detection and automated flagging
• Load historical interaction transcripts for model tuning
• Deliver agent onboarding and hands-on coaching sessions
• Configure escalation and exception handling paths

Integrate with existing telephony platform

• Which telephony architecture hosts your contact center (select primary)? Options: Cloud PBX, On-premises PBX, Hybrid (cloud + on-premises), Carrier SIP trunk only, Other
• How many concurrent voice channels must the integration support for the pilot cohort? Options: Less than 50, 50-200, 201-500, 501-1,000, More than 1,000
• Describe the automatic call distributor (ACD) or routing engine you use and the control interface available (for example CTI, SIP headers, or REST API).
• Do you provide a CTI (computer telephony integration) API or SIP event stream we can subscribe to for real-time call events? Options: CTI API with event webhooks, SIP event stream (SIPREC/SIP OPTIONS), Only screen-pop integration, No real-time event interface available, Unsure — need to check
• Which authentication and network patterns are required to connect to your telephony endpoint (for example OAuth 2.0, API key, mutual TLS, or on-prem connector)? Options: OAuth 2.0, API key / Basic auth, Mutual TLS, On-prem connector only, Not yet defined
• Provide any maximum acceptable end-to-end audio latency or jitter for real-time assist to meet agent expectations (milliseconds).

Integrate with source CRM for contact and case sync

• Which CRM object types must be synchronized during the pilot (select all that apply)? Options: Contact / Customer, Case / Ticket, Account / Company, Interaction / Activity, Custom object
• How many active contact and case records exist for the pilot cohort that will require bi-directional sync? Options: Fewer than 5,000, 5,000-25,000, 25,001-100,000, More than 100,000
• Describe the CRM integration surface available (for example REST API with CRUD for case object, webhooks for case updates, or database export).
• Do you have API rate limits or concurrency caps on the CRM that will affect real-time logging from after-call summarization? Options: Yes — strict rate limits, Yes — moderate limits, No significant limits, Unsure
• Which authentication mechanism does your CRM use for integrations (for example OAuth 2.0, API key, SAML service account)? Options: OAuth 2.0, API key / token, SAML / service account, On-prem connector / VPN, Undetermined
• List the mandatory CRM fields and disposition codes that must be populated by automated after-call logging for the pilot.

Deploy agent desktop real-time assist plugin

• Which agent desktop environment will host the real-time assist plugin for the pilot (for example web-based CRM in Chrome, Windows thick client, or softphone desktop app)? Options: Web-based CRM (browser), Windows thick client, MacOS desktop app, Native softphone client, Other / hybrid
• How many agents in the pilot cohort will receive the plugin and what are their primary job roles (for example Tier 1 retention, billing disputes)?
• Do your agent desktops allow installation of browser extensions or native agents, or do you require a cloud overlay (for example screen-scrape or CTI screen-pop only)? Options: Browser extension allowed, Native agent install allowed, Cloud overlay / screen-scrape only, Restricted — need admin install
• Specify minimum workstation specs and network restrictions for agent desktops in the pilot (for example CPU, RAM, corporate proxy, or outbound port blocks).
• Who on your team approves desktop installs and can provide an admin image or software distribution mechanism (name and role)?
• Indicate any accessibility or screen-reader requirements the plugin must support for your agents. Options: Keyboard-only navigation, Screen-reader compatibility, High-contrast mode, None of the above / not required

Configure intelligent call routing and prioritization rules

• Which routing attributes drive priority in your current flows (for example customer tier, SLA breach time, skill, or product line)? Options: Customer tier / VIP, SLA time-to-respond, Agent skill set, Product or line of business, Other
• How many distinct routing rules or queues should be tested in the pilot and what are their target SLAs? Options: 1 queue, 2-3 queues, 4-6 queues, More than 6
• Describe any overflow or failover paths required when preferred routing cannot find a matching agent (for example overflow to supervisors, voicemail, or outsourced vendor).
• Do you require routing decisions to consider real-time conversation signals (for example intent or sentiment) in addition to static attributes? Options: Yes — intent and sentiment required, Yes — intent only, No — static attributes only, Undecided
• Which maximum decision latency is acceptable for routing (time from call arrival to routing decision in milliseconds)? Options: <100 ms, 100-300 ms, 300-1,000 ms, 1,000+ ms
• Identify any routing compliance constraints such as data residency, language matching, or standby agent rules.

Implement real-time speech-to-text and intent extraction

• Which spoken languages and dialects must be supported for real-time speech-to-text in the pilot?
• How will you supply audio for real-time transcription (for example SIP fork, media relay, or client-side microphone stream)? Options: SIP fork / media fork, Media relay through connector, Client-side browser microphone stream, Post-call upload only, Other
• Describe any domain-specific vocabulary or named products, service codes, or acronyms we should add to the speech model lexicon.
• Do you require speaker diarization and agent/customer channel separation in the transcript outputs? Options: Yes — diarization required, No — single mixed transcript acceptable, Optional
• Indicate maximum acceptable transcription latency for a usable real-time assist (for example 500 ms, 1 second). Options: <300 ms, 300-700 ms, 700 ms-1 s, More than 1 s
• List any regulatory or redaction requirements for transcripts (for example PCI card redaction, HIPAA PHI masking) that must be enforced before model tuning or storage.

Map knowledge articles and policies to intent triggers

• Which knowledge base formats do you use for frontline guidance (for example HTML KB pages, Confluence pages, Word docs, or structured FAQ records)? Options: HTML / web KB, Confluence / wiki, Word / DOCX, Structured FAQ / JSON, Other
• How many active knowledge articles and policy documents are in scope for mapping during the pilot? Options: Fewer than 500, 500-2,500, 2,501-10,000, More than 10,000
• Describe the tagging taxonomy or policy identifiers used today that should be preserved when mapping to intent triggers (for example policy ID, procedure step number).
• Do you require versioning or approval gating so agents only see approved policy text for regulated interactions? Options: Yes — only approved versions, No — draft visibility allowed, Some teams only
• Indicate the maximum number of knowledge hits or suggestions an agent should see per intent before filtering (for example top 3 results). Options: Top 1, Top 3, Top 5, Top 10
• Who owns knowledge updates and will be available to validate intent-to-article mappings during the pilot (role and contact)?

Enable next-best-action prompt delivery in real time

• Which UI pattern should present next-best-action prompts on the agent desktop (for example inline card, modal pop-up, or side panel)? Options: Inline suggestion card, Modal pop-up, Side panel / docked, Toast notification
• How quickly must a next-best-action suggestion appear after the relevant intent is detected (milliseconds)? Options: <500 ms, 500-1,000 ms, 1-2 seconds, More than 2 seconds
• Describe how agents should be allowed to act on suggestions (for example one-click apply, edit then apply, or read-only guidance). Options: One-click apply, Edit then apply, Read-only guidance, Provide multiple action options
• Do you require an audit trail showing when agents accepted, edited, or rejected a next-best-action suggestion? Options: Yes — full audit required, No — not required, Partial audit (accept/reject only)
• Identify any escalation behavior if the agent ignores or rejects a next-best-action for a high-priority interaction.
• Who will own governance for the suggestion rules and tuning during the pilot (team or role)?

Automate after-call summarization and CRM logging

• Which CRM fields must be populated automatically by the after-call summary (for example summary text, disposition code, case status, SLA timestamps)?
• How quickly after call end should a summarized note be written to the CRM (for example immediately, within 30 seconds, or batched)? Options: Immediate (near real-time), Within 30 seconds, Within 5 minutes, Batched hourly
• List any mandatory redaction or privacy filters that must run on autogenerated summaries before they are stored (for example redact full card numbers, account numbers, or member IDs).
• Do you require agent review and edit of the auto-generated summary before CRM logging, or full auto-write with optional edit later? Options: Require agent review and approve, Auto-write then agent can edit later, Auto-write without edit
• What acceptance criteria will confirm after-call summarization is ready for production (for example average summary accuracy, average agent edit time saved, and percent of auto-logged records accepted)?

Configure AI quality-scoring rules and automated sampling

• Which quality rubrics and score categories do you use today (for example compliance checks, empathy, resolution steps, accuracy)? Options: Compliance checks, Empathy / soft skills, Resolution completeness, Knowledge accuracy, Other
• How many interactions per week do you want the system to auto-score during the pilot and what sample coverage is your target? Options: Low (1-2% sample), Medium (5-10% sample), High (20%+ sample), Full coverage
• Describe any existing manual QA forms or scorecards that the AI scoring must map to (for example scorecard questions and pass/fail thresholds).
• Do you require automated routing of flagged interactions to a supervisor review queue and, if so, what metadata should accompany the review alert? Options: Yes — include transcript + timestamped highlights, Yes — include summary only, No automated routing, Undecided
• What acceptance metrics will validate AI quality scoring during the pilot (for example correlation with human QA scores, minimum precision/recall thresholds, or false positive rate)?

Implement compliance detection and automated flagging

• Which specific compliance regimes and disclosure obligations must detection rules cover in the pilot (for example PCI card data, HIPAA protected health information, regulatory disclosure scripts)?
• How should flagged interactions be handled operationally (for example send to supervisor queue, auto-escalate to compliance team, or mark for periodic audit)? Options: Supervisor review queue, Auto-escalate to compliance, Mark for periodic audit only, Other
• List examples of phrases, disclosure steps, or policy items that, if missing, should trigger a compliance flag for your organization.
• Do you require configurable thresholding to limit false positives (for example only flag if missing phrase occurs on calls longer than N seconds)? Options: Yes — thresholding required, No — flag all occurrences, Need guidance
• What quantitative acceptance criteria will validate compliance detection for the pilot (for example minimum precision, recall, or maximum acceptable false positive rate)?

Load historical interaction transcripts for model tuning

• Which transcript sources will you provide for tuning (for example historical recorded call transcripts, chat logs, email threads) and what formats are they in (CSV, JSON, SFTP archive)? Options: Call transcripts (CSV/JSON), Chat transcripts (JSON), Email threads (EML/CSV), Other
• How many hours or records of historical interaction data are available for tuning the models? Options: Fewer than 100 hours, 100-500 hours, 500-2,000 hours, More than 2,000 hours
• Describe any redaction requirements for historical data before it can be used for model tuning (for example remove account numbers, redact PII, mask phone numbers).

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• success_criteria
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• Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
• Subscription Agreement
• Pilot Order Form
• Pilot Addendum
• Acceptance & Success Criteria
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
• Data Access Authorization
• Master Services Agreement (MSA) — assumption-based
• Statement of Work (SOW) — assumption-based
• Pilot-to-Production Conversion Agreement
• Regulatory Compliance Addendum (conditional)

• Go-live health check
• First measurement review
• Pilot acceptance gate (90-day decision)
• Operational issue and enhancement triage (recurring monthly)
• Quarterly business review (recurring quarterly)

• Ensure critical incidents progress toward resolution within agreed SLAs.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets recorded in Pilot Evaluation
• Produce a documented pass/fail decision for each acceptance criterion recorded in Pilot Evaluation.
• Capture the buyer's named signatory or documented acceptance decision for the pilot outcome.
• Agree remediation actions and timelines for any unmet criteria and confirm incumbent wind-down steps where applicable.
• Publish the acceptance decision record with pass/fail per criterion and signatory details.
• Open remediation tickets for failed criteria with owners and resolution deadlines.
• Execute incumbent decommission or read-only configuration and confirm data archival completion.
• Open incident review and impact analysis
• Reduce the quality/compliance false positive rate and limit supervisor review burden.
• Prioritize enhancements that have the largest predicted impact on AHT and after-call documentation time saved.
• Re-confirm success criteria and owners
• Score and publish the top 5 enhancement requests with estimated impact on AHT and implementability.
• Schedule a model tuning run and validate reduction in false positive rate on a test cohort.
• Close or reassign any stalled incident tickets and update expected resolution dates.
• Executive summary of outcomes vs Pilot Evaluation targets
• Confirm whether AHT and quality/compliance score meet sustained targets recorded in Pilot Evaluation.
• Validate the realized labor hours recovered from after-call documentation automation and record the operational impact.
• Agree the top operational priorities and risk mitigations for the next quarter.
• Publish the quarterly outcome report with AHT, resolution, QA scores, and labor recovery calculations.
• Update the operational roadmap to reflect prioritized items and scheduled delivery windows.
• Refresh dashboard thresholds and alerting for any metrics that require closer monitoring next quarter.
• Confirm the deployment is functionally live for the pilot cohort and integrations report nominal health.
• Document critical blockers with owners and target resolution dates.
• Agree the date and scope for the first measurement review.
• Publish deployment health checklist and open defect log with owners and target dates.
• Provide access to the usage telemetry dashboard for the buyer's operations team.
• Schedule the first measurement review within the 4-10 week window.
• Present first outcome data vs targets recorded in Pilot Evaluation
• Verify whether AHT and first-contact resolution are moving toward Pilot Evaluation targets and quantify the remaining gap.
• Agree a prioritized corrective action list with owners and completion dates to close gaps before the acceptance gate.
• Confirm any additional telemetry or reports needed for the acceptance decision.
• Implement the agreed configuration or script changes and report completion in the tracker.
• Run targeted agent coaching sessions for cohorts with low adoption and document session outputs.
• Enable additional logging for compliance flagging to reduce diagnostic gaps before the acceptance gate.
• Deployment and integration validation
• False positive and model tuning review
• Present outcome data against each acceptance criterion
• Adoption and cohort analysis
• Detailed review on AHT and resolution drivers
• Enhancement request backlog and prioritization
• Root-cause diagnosis for gaps
• Document pass or fail per criterion
• Realized labor recovery and ROI summary
• Early adoption and usage signals
• Corrective actions and timeline
• Formal acceptance decision and signatory capture
• Persistent risks and mitigation plan
• Action item burn-down and SLA compliance
• Blockers and incident triage
• Immediate remediation plan and next steps
• Next steps and owner commitments
• Decisions and commitments for the next quarter
• Remediation plan for failed criteria
• Confirm readiness timeline for acceptance gate
• Incumbent system wind-down check