Smartly applied, this groundbreaking technology will improve employee retention while delivering a better experience for your customers
Are whip-rounds and farewell morning teas an all-too-common feature on the calendar in your contact centre? If the answer is yes, you're far from alone. A high staff churn rate has long been this sector's sine qua nom, here in Australia and around the world.
Local contact centres with 500 seats and up had an average employee attrition rate of around 43 per cent in 2025, according to the latest Australian Contact Centre Industry Best Practise Report. It draws on responses from 250 senior leaders and more than 2000 contact centre agents.
Absenteeism – the hallmark of a workforce that's less than enamoured with the task at hand – remains stubbornly high at 12.9 per cent, with larger contact centres performing significantly worse on this metric.
Meanwhile, speed to competency is an issue for many organisations, with just 45 per cent of new agents getting up to speed in under eight weeks, and more than a quarter taking longer than 12 weeks.
Typically, it's a resource intensive process, one which incorporates coaching and mentoring from high performing agents, as well as online and in-person training sessions.
Stay just a little bit longer…
No surprise then that the average cost of replacing a contact centre agent now sits at $21,561 – approximately 32 per cent of the average annual salary – according to the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association's latest research.
Increasing the length of agents' tenure, even by just a few months apiece, can reduce recruitment expenditure significantly and generate a substantial bottom line boost for larger operations.
That's where AI has a major role to play. Smartly implemented, it can increase engagement and job satisfaction among contact centre workers, making them less likely to start considering their options after slogging it out for a year or two on the frontline.
Providing your agents with instant access to comprehensive customer data and an automated summaries of callers' past interactions with your organisation can, for example, enable them to understand and resolve issues more effectively.
So can supporting them with context-based suggestions and prompts, delivered in real time, that allow them to answer unusual questions and deliver optimum outcomes on first contact, that delight the customer and make staff feel appreciated.
AI can also reduce the daily drudgery by eliminating the need for agents to deal with matters that don't require much thinking. Delegating AI-powered chatbots to handle routine queries and questions – think change of customer address and enquiries about opening hours – frees their human counterparts up to focus on more interesting and complex issues.
Given repetitive unchallenging work is one of the commonly cited reasons for agents deciding it's time to move on, that make AI adoption a smart move for organisations that are serious about slowing the churn.
Preserving the knowledge
But the advantages of hanging on to high calibre employees for a few extra months or years extend beyond the savings to be made on recruitment and training
Longstanding agents are an invaluable asset for other reasons.
Their knowledge of your organisation, amassed over several years' service, means they've seen and dealt with all manner of enquiries and issues. That makes them better equipped to deal with tricky problems and customers deftly and fast, and to mentor and support new starters as they get up to speed.
Enlisting expert assistance
Determining how and where to incorporate AI into your contact centre operations isn't necessarily straightforward. A fragmented approach can be ineffective and, in a worst-case scenario, counterproductive, degrading your employee and customer experience and not delivering the desired efficiency dividend.
That's why it can pay to draw on the expertise of seasoned specialists – customer experience consultants who can share scientific and invaluable insights into how other organisations have harnessed the power of AI to eliminate pain points and support their agents more effectively.
Enlisting their services at the outset can enable your organisation to get the most out of its investment in AI by implementing a fit-for-purpose solution that delivers better outcomes for employees, customers and your business. Additionally, they can help with change management to see adoption of the technology motivate the team.
Turning the tide on employee churn in 2026
In today's times, a high performing contact centre is an invaluable asset. It's impossible to build one without the right people – capable agents who can deliver superb service to customers, suppliers and partners, via all the channels, all the time.
Drawing on the power of AI can help you empower and support stand-out staff so well they stay engaged and on your team for longer. If that's an outcome you're keen to achieve in 2026, now is the time to start planning your transformation journey.
