Third-party contact is service integrator for $Salesforce (C...

Third-party contact is service integrator for $Salesforce (CRM.US)$ , $ServiceNow (NOW.US)$ , $Freshworks (FRSH.US)$ , etc. focused on call center space.

Was constructive on $CRM AgentForce product and sees a lot of pilots beginning – but also notes $Salesforce (CRM.US)$ spending fatigue is very real so they really have to execute here. Positive on $ServiceNow (NOW.US)$ AI and thinks $Freshworks (FRSH.US)$ / $ZEN are dogs.

Highlights
-CRM AgentForce looks pretty good thus far in demos as far as capabilities and installation requirements. Have quite a few customers looking to run AgentForce pilots including a large retailer that wants to try it out for customer support.

-In US, see large companies running 60% of call center in-house and 40% outsourced. Cost / head / hour in US are $32-35, Mexico is $15-16 ($12-13 if run by cartel), Phillipines is $8-12, Ireland is $13-14, Jamaica is $12. India has a wide range of $5-23 but probably averages 12 and can get a PhD for high-end tech support for $23.

-Assuming AgentForce can address easiest support cases for now, assume a $10 / head / hour proxy w/ 42-45 productive min / hour so 5 calls an hour or $2 / call. But places like Phillipines have very high turnover so additionl cost of travel / training makes actual cost an hour $15 vs $10 headline. So maybe $2 / ticket is starting price but probably needs to be lower.

-There is very, very real CRM fatigue as customers don’t want to spend more. Will evaluate and purchase AgentForce but it needs to work well and live up to promise. So far demos have been solid and appears they have a lot of things there that need to be there.

-Another issue is that more than 50% of contact senter seats are still on-prem. So more of an integration challenge for rolling out AI agents.

-$NOW agent AI is pretty good. Have it deployed in 6 customers and works really well. Company just lost CJ, their head of AI team. Also fatigue in spending more on $NOW exists as well – but positive is that their ITSM product does help customers reduce overall cost.

-$FRSH is in trouble. Company pivoted from core customer support and put all energy into ITSM, upmarket, etc. and core product has fallen behind. Freddy AI can only do basics but no chance it can replace an agent. Have quite a bit of clients moving off FRSH. Freservice is not good.

-$ZEN did same thing as $FRSH and lost focus by pivoting to messaging / comunications.

-Have been launching a ton of POCs to test these AI concepts and seeing success rate of 30% - has improved from 20% earlier this year. Definitely will get better.

-Have found it better to work w/ existing software / systems of record but narrow the application and make sure multi-channel (text and voice). Can layer on more sophisticated databases / AI but still want core system of record in place and have it be first stop.

-Call center outbound much larger than inbound. Largest area of agent displacement has been in business development reps, cold-callers, lead follow-up people. Success of AI for replacing these roles has been nothing short of staggering.