Customer service outsourcer Spoken.cx has expanded its offering to include outsourced video meetings, demonstrations and customer appointments. The move shows how contact centre providers are repositioning human agents around complex, high-value conversations as AI absorbs routine enquiries.

Spoken, which has team members in the UK and internationally, has traditionally provided telephone answering and live chat services to businesses outsourcing parts of their customer service. Its agents can now run scheduled meetings, product demonstrations, consultations and support calls on a client's behalf through platforms including Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

The structural driver is AI taking over routine customer service tasks, leaving humans to handle complex, sensitive or higher-value conversations. Gartner forecasts that no Fortune 500 company will fully eliminate human agents by 2028, and that half of organisations planning severe contact centre headcount cuts because of AI will drop those plans by 2027.

"AI is undoubtedly changing customer service, but that does not mean the human side of the industry disappears," said a spokesperson for Spoken. "But when the conversation becomes more complex, when the customer is frustrated, when there is significant value attached to the enquiry or when somebody needs to properly understand the situation, the quality of the human interaction becomes much more important."

Agents are trained on a client's products, services and internal processes before attending meetings under its brand, covering software demonstrations, initial sales consultations, existing customer support or issues easier to resolve face to face. Spoken has also built teams for higher-value sales conversations and situations where customers need greater reassurance.

"A video meeting is ultimately another customer interaction," the spokesperson added. "The difference is that it often requires somebody with a deeper understanding of the product, the customer and what the business is trying to achieve."

Outsourcing meetings lets businesses that run frequent demonstrations add capacity without building an equivalent internal team. Spoken uses AI within its own operations to support its teams rather than replace them, and operates internationally across different markets and time zones.

For the sector, the expansion reflects outsourcers shifting from answering every call to managing the interactions technology cannot adequately handle, with customer experience tied directly to sales, retention and brand reputation.

Source: Business Daily / Spoken / Customer Experience Dive