By Marcus Law
Publication Date: 2026-02-10 14:14:00
A week ago, Gartner predicted that by 2027, half of companies that cut customer service staff due to automation will end up rehiring for similar roles under different job titles. Only 20% of the 321 service leaders surveyed had actually reduced headcount. Most said staffing held steady — even as interaction volumes grew.
The takeaway for UC buyers is straightforward: the workforce isn’t shrinking, it’s splitting. Human agents and virtual agents are increasingly sharing the same workload, and the operational tools haven’t kept pace.
At Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam this week, Cisco made its clearest pitch yet for what those tools should look like.
How Cisco Is Redesigning Workforce Operations for AI
The centrepiece of Cisco’s announcements is a trio of contact center capabilities that share a common design principle: human and AI agents are a single resource pool.
AI Routing uses real-time context (caller history, intent, and…
