Mapping Markets
June 11, 2024

AI Agent Assistants Market Map: Contact centers get a (much needed) upgrade

Patrick Wingo's headshot
Patrick Wingo
Head of Research, Elion

This is part of Elions weekly market map series where we break down critical vendor categories and the key players in them. For more, become a member and sign up for our email here.

AI ambient scribes may be one of the hottest use cases for speech-to-text technology, but they’re hardly the only one in the healthcare industry. AI agent assistants for contact centers are leveraging advancements in automatic speech recognition and generative AI to transcribe, summarize, and surface information to help contact center agents do their jobs better and faster. Some common use cases include:

  • Call summarization, classification, and structured data collection (i.e. filling out CRM fields)

  • Agent response and next best action support (for both chat and phone conversations)

  • Real-time caller sentiment analysis

  • Real-time QA and agent feedback

  • Automatic surfacing of relevant information (e.g. SOPs, help content, and customer info)

Greater Breadth = Greater Expertise?

Unlike other categories we cover, the AI agent assistant category is perhaps dominated by vendors who are not specific to the healthcare industry. This may be considered a strength, as these solutions are generally part of a more comprehensive omnichannel contact center, including features like AI conversational chat, AI contact center intelligence, patient-facing calling, and more. Some examples include:

Additionally, there are a handful of industry-agnostic vendors who offer agent assistants as a standalone product or paired with intelligence, like QA and analytics, but without the other contact center features. These include:

While many of these vendors offer implementations for the healthcare industry, we don’t consider them a “healthcare-specific” product unless they are purpose-built for healthcare.

Scalpels vs. Sledgehammers

Where the vendors above offer solutions that will work across all contact center use cases, there are instances where point solutions for specific healthcare workflows — such as medical billing — are needed.

While these solutions may not work for your entire contact center, they can drive meaningful value for specific aspects of your operation. Examples include:

  • BirchAI - healthcare-specific AI-powered agent assistants and call center intelligence

  • Laguna Health - AI-enabled care management platform for post-acute transitions to home care

  • Rotera Alyks - digital assistant for revenue cycle call center operations

  • Verbal - AI-enabled assistance and QA platform for virtual care clinicians

Only time will tell whether organizations will be willing to implement a bevy of specialized vendors or will sacrifice specificity for efficiency with one-size-fits-all options. With operators focused on their bottom line, it may be that the vendors to win in this space will be the ones who can offer solutions for specific use cases while still serving as a full-scale contact center solution.