New research from Verint and Five9 reveals that organizations are struggling to embrace new customer service realities due to a shift in the nature of the contact center. The contact center is no longer the customer’s first stop for assistance, but it remains the primary repository of customer experience data. However, organizations are overwhelmed by the increasing volume of customer interactions and struggle to derive insights from the data. Larger companies are more likely to store engagement data in multiple silos. To address these challenges, organizations must leverage the power of AI and customer experience (CX) automation to improve productivity in contact centers. A new concept known as Open CCaaS, or Contact Center as a Service, is emerging as a solution. Open CCaaS is based on an open systems platform that leverages AI and CX automation to unify engagement data and augment the human workforce with specialized AI bots. By adopting an open approach to contact center architecture, organizations can modernize their operations while lowering costs and achieving best-in-class contact center operations.