Why Enterprise Automation Vendors Should Rethink Their CX Strategy in the Age of AI Skepticism

Gartner 's 2024 State of the Customer report uncovered a critical and underexplored reality: despite the surge in AI-driven initiatives, customer trust is faltering. A striking 64% of consumers prefer that companies not use AI in customer service. More concerning, 53% would consider switching to a competitor if AI is used improperly, and 60% fear AI will make it harder to speak to a human agent. These are not abstract concerns—they pose a strategic risk to any organization using AI in the contact center without a human-centric design philosophy.

For CX leaders, the takeaway is clear: AI must serve as a catalyst for more seamless, human-centered experiences—not as a barrier to them. However, when we examine how major contact center platforms like Genesys, Talkdesk, and others are deploying AI today, a critical gap emerges. Many AI-powered solutions—particularly in IVR—are designed primarily to deflect interactions away from human agents, rather than enhance them. Meanwhile, "agent assist" capabilities remain basic, offering surface-level support like real-time prompts or contextual data, but falling short of true integration with the broader enterprise workflow. This lack of deep, cross-functional orchestration limits their ability to drive real impact.

The limitation? Most CX platforms lack deep, cross-system integration capabilities. Without access to various enterprise-wide applications or custom back-office systems, agent assist tools become shallow—good for surfacing a script or opening a tab, but not for driving end-to-end resolution.

Meanwhile, major enterprise platforms like Salesforce and SAP are embedding domain-specific AI agents directly into their ecosystems. These AI agents have deep context—but they’re siloed. Integrating them into front-office workflows (like those in the contact center) typically requires pro-code effort and lacks orchestration flexibility.

This is where platforms like Automation Anywhere and UiPath have a unique, largely untapped opportunity. Their strength lies in orchestrating workflows across heterogeneous environments, with both attended (human-in-the-loop) and unattended automation. If they build lightweight, modular integrations with leading contact center providers—enabling AI-driven task automation and orchestration across front and back-office—they can fill a critical gap in the CX stack.

However, the go-to-market execution thus far has been unfocused. Attempts by automation vendors to penetrate the contact center market have suffered from low adoption, due in part to high complexity and pricing models that add friction. With enterprise buyers wary of AI already, adding another expensive platform into the mix is a hard sell.

To address this, automation vendors must rethink pricing and packaging. A consumption-based model, tied to outcomes (e.g., number of resolved tasks or agent productivity gains), with minimal upfront platform fees, could reduce buyer risk and increase adoption.

It’s also worth noting that newer entrants focused on desktop consolidation and agent workflow unification are beginning to address these needs—but they lack the enterprise-grade orchestration and “human-in-the-loop” design expertise that UiPath and Automation Anywhere have developed over years of RPA deployment.

The opportunity is clear: Enterprise automation vendors can win in the contact center—if they act with precision, build the right integrations, and adopt customer-friendly pricing. In doing so, they won’t just enhance agent productivity—they’ll rebuild the trust that AI has eroded.