If you’ve led a contact centre over the last decade, you’ve lived through more change than most industries see in a lifetime.
Contact centres have come a long way. Once viewed as cost centres focused on transactional efficiency, they’ve evolved into strategic assets that shape customer experience, brand perception, and operational excellence.
From the shift to omni-channel, to rising customer expectations, to the complexity of hybrid teams; leaders have been navigating relentless change while still trying to deliver consistent performance, great culture, and customer-first experiences.
Despite this evolution, many contact centres still face a leadership capability gap, highlighted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI):
- 82% of managers have never received formal leadership training
- Only 27% of employees rate their manager as highly effective
- 46% believe promotions are awarded for the wrong reasons
These ‘accidental managers’ often struggle to lead in environments that demand emotional intelligence, digital fluency, and strategic thinking.
In this article, we explore how blending AI-driven insight with a structured approach to leadership development can close the capability gap and drive sustainable performance.
AI is transforming how leaders understand their operations
We’re already well into the next seismic shift, with the integration of AI capabilities and considerations of what the ‘agent of the future’ looks like.
AI is way past the stage of just automating simple tasks. It’s giving leaders unprecedented visibility across conversations, culture, and performance. The ability to analyse sentiment at scale, assess whether messages are being cascaded effectively, identify risks in real time, and understand customer experience is changing how leadership operates.
This is accelerating decision-making and strengthening the link between insight and action.
But even with these tools, one truth remains constant. Technology can improve processes, but only great leaders improve overall outcomes.
Dashboards and advanced analytics cannot replace accountability, coaching, cultural stewardship, or human influence. Leadership capability continues to drive customer experience, employee engagement, and operational performance.
In an ever-evolving and still somewhat unknown landscape, the organisations that succeed will be those with leaders who are confident, consistent and equipped for the future.
Eliminating Blind Spots: How AI identifies hidden risks and drives growth
AI not only surfaces the conversations happening within your business, but also reveals what’s missing. From gaps in knowledge and misaligned messaging to missed opportunities for growth, AI-driven insights help businesses refine training, enhance customer interactions, and maximise performance. By identifying these blind spots, organisations can proactively address challenges, improve customer satisfaction, and fully capitalise on growth opportunities.
Traditional observational practices like ‘go see,’ in-the-moment coaching, and call listening provide valuable insights, but they’re time-consuming and often limited in scale. AI transforms this process by rapidly analysing hundreds of conversations, uncovering trends, and identifying the root causes of performance issues.
Analytics from our Large Language Model have already pinpointed billing confusion, root cause complaint drivers, and leadership inconsistencies that directly impact customer experience. These insights inform and strengthen our market-leading Leadership Excellence Programme, ensuring targeted and effective cultural transformation.
Without full visibility, hidden issues can escalate, leadership conversations can become misaligned with operational goals, and ineffective behaviours can go unchecked. Staying informed through AI is essential to maintaining strategic momentum, empowering leaders, and enabling long-term, sustainable success.
How BFY helps contact centres build exceptional leadership capability
At BFY, we’ve helped organisations elevate leadership across hundreds of team managers, senior leaders and operational specialists. Our Leadership Excellence diagnostic gives organisations a clear view of where leadership capability stands today and where development is needed most.
It includes:
- Psychometric Testing
Identifying high-performing and high-potential leaders, and those requiring targeted support. - Face-to-Face Interviews
Exploring culture, confidence, time management and behavioural patterns. - Observational Assessment
Understanding how leaders coach, influence and problem-solve in real situations. - Cultural Maturity Assessment
Evaluating whether the environment enables high performance, brilliant people, continuous improvement, and standardisation.
This feeds into our award-winning Leadership Excellence programme, which strengthens leadership capability and improves culture, customer outcomes and operational delivery. For our clients, it’s delivered x3 ROI and a 40% leadership capability improvement.
To find out how we make this possible, watch our team’s short video below:
If your contact centre is evolving, your leadership must evolve with it
AI and automation will continue to reshape operations, but leadership will remain the defining factor in who thrives. Strong leadership is the difference between insight becoming action, and ambition becoming delivery.
If you’re attending the European Contact Centre Awards or leading an operation undergoing change, we’d be happy to discuss how we can support your leadership development ambitions.
Contact Kev Brown to see how we can help.
