• Login
  • Status
  • Support
  • Partners
  • Pricing
  • Careers
  • ENLanguages
    • English
    • Deutsch
    • Français
    • 日本
    • 简体中文
    • العربية
    • 한국
    • Español
Customer Experience (CX) AI Platform
  • Customer Experience (CX) AI Platform×
  • Platform

      CXone Mpower Platform

      • Platform Overview

        Complete AI platform for customer service automation

      • Purpose-built AI for CX

        Powering smarter CX with AI-driven insights and automation.

      • Cloud Architecture

        Innovative cloud-native foundation to rapidly scale extraordinary CX

      • Voice as a Service (VaaS)

        Crystal-clear, scalable voice interactions for effortless interactions

      • Dashboards & Reporting

        Gain a full operational picture of your contact center, with enhanced visualization of real-time and historical insights

      • Integrations

        Seamlessly connect your business systems with our platform

      • Trust & Compliance

        Securing your trust with every interaction

      Discover the full value of AI in customer service

      Understand the benefits and cost savings you can achieve by embracing AI, from automation to augmentation.

      Calculate your savings

    • Products
      • Explore all Products

      • Capabilities

      • Workflow Orchestration

        Workflow Orchestration

        Evolve from interaction management to workflow orchestration across the entire organization.

        Learn more

        • Omnichannel Routing

          Reduce wait times and boost conversions with smart customer-agent matching.

        • Proactive Engagement

          Generate more revenue, minimize hang-ups, and proactively connect to reduce friction.

        • Workflow Orchestrator

          Unify and optimize every customer service workflow from intent to fulfillment.

        • Agent Desktop Workspace

          Connect front and back office teams with data, conversations, and workflows together in one place.

      • Workforce Augmentation

        Workforce Augmentation

        Move beyond tools to empower employees with real-time, actionable intelligence that elevates performance.

        Learn more

        • Specialized AI Copilots

          Elevate human performance with specialized AI copilots for every role.

        • Workforce Engagement Management

          Elevate employees, adapt to flexible work, and meet expectations - without compromise.

        • Automated Summary

          Instantly summarize interactions to accelerate resolution times and efficiency.

        • Voice of the Customer

          Unlock customer insights to enhance experiences, drive loyalty, and boost business growth.

        • Interaction Analytics

          Gain AI-powered insights from 100% of interactions to drive continuous improvement.

      • Service Automation

        Service Automation

        Go beyond answering questions to fully automate customer intent through fulfillment.

        Learn more

        • Intelligent Virtual Agent

          Boost self-service satisfaction and conversion with conversational AI agents.

        • Experience Optimization (XO)

          Synthesize real customer conversations to identify your top automation opportunities.

        • AI Agents

          Instantly create no-code AI agents powered by your data—build once, deploy everywhere.

        • Proactive AI Agent

          Keep customers engaged in conversation from onboarding to installation, service, and retention.

        • Knowledge Management

          Activate AI-powered enterprise knowledge to increase self-resolution rates and loyalty.


      • Solutions

      • By Business Initiative

        By Business Initiative

        • Grow Revenue

          Boost conversions and win rates to accelerate growth

        • Engage & Empower Employees

          Create a workplace of truly engaged employees

        • Boost Customer Loyalty

          Improve customer loyalty on interactions across the journey

        • Drive Digital Transformation

          Integrate digital technology at the center of CX

        • Small and Medium Business

          Drive growth and boost revenue with smarter, cost-effective customer service built for SMBs.

        • Call Center Software

          Empower agents to provide better experiences

        • Increase Operational Efficiency

          Leverage AI and automation to increase agent retention

        • Move to the Cloud

          Elevate experiences by moving operations to the cloud

        • Improve Compliance

          Protect your consumers with pre-built compliance solutions

        • Proactive Customer Engagement

          Elevate customer satisfaction with proactive conversational AI

      • Integrations & Custom Solutions

        Integrations & Custom Solutions

        • CXexchange Marketplace

          Discover partner solutions to extend capabilities on our platform

        • Pre-Built Integrations

          Seamlessly connect your business systems with our platform

        • Developer Tools & APIs

          Endless customization options with RESTful APIs and robust SDKs

        • Partner Ecosystem

          Embark on a journey of shared success and collaboration

        91% of customers recommend NiCE as a preferred CCaaS vendor

        Gartner® named NiCE the only Customers’ Choice CCaaS vendor in its 2024 Peer Insights™ “Voice of the Customer for Contact Center as a Service” report.

        Get report


      • View All Products
    • Industries

      By Industry

      Industry focused solutions built to elevate experiences in the moments that matter most.

      View all

        • BPO

          Business Process Outsourcers

        • Financial Services

          Customer experiences that count

        • Government

          Elevate citizen trust

        • Healthcare

          Healthy patient experiences

        • View all Industries

        • Insurance

          Secure policyholder experiences

        • Retail

          Delight customers where they shop

        • Telecom

          CX for Telecommunications

        • Travel & Hospitality

          Boost traveler and guest loyalty

        Discover the full value of AI in customer service

        Understand the benefits and cost savings you can achieve by embracing AI, from automation to augmentation.

        Calculate your savings

      • Services
        • Explore all Services

        Professional Services

        • Professional Services

          Industry-leading expertise, tools and know-how

        • Implementation Partners

          NICE-certified implementation partners

        • Business Consulting

          Your partner for successful transformation

        Training

        • Contact Center Training

          Tailored education delivered by CX experts

        Support & Assistance

        • Customer Support

          Global support you can depend on

        Make the smartest buying decision with the latest Gartner analysis

        NiCE has been named a Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ Leader for Contact Center as a Service for the 11th consecutive year and is positioned furthest on Completeness of Vision.

        Get report

      • Resources

          Knowledge Base

          • All Resources

            Whitepapers, datasheets, demos and more

          • Analyst Perspectives

            Contact center reports from third party analysis

          • Terms Glossary

            Detailed descriptions of industry-related terms

          • FAQs

            Contact center focused frequently asked questions

          • Guides

            Expert insights for superior CX

          Learning & Insights

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Browse our extensive webinar catalog

          • Interactive Product Tours

            Explore the complete platform with our self-guided demos

          • Blog

            CX industry guidance by contact center experts

          • Why NiCE? Video Series

            Step Inside The Room Where It Happened to see CX AI in action

          Community

          • Events

            Upcoming events and webinars

          • Customer Stories

            Our customer's success is paramount. Read case studies about real CX transformation

          • NiCE Clubs

            Collaborate, learn, and share best practices for customer service excellence

          Make the smartest buying decision with the latest Gartner analysis

          NiCE has been named a Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ Leader for Contact Center as a Service for the 11th consecutive year and is positioned furthest on Completeness of Vision.

          Get report

        • Company

            Company

            • About Us

              Powering seamless cloud experiences

            • Investors

              Investors relations, reports and filings

            • Global Offices

              Interactive map of locations worldwide

            • Careers

              View job openings and learn about our culture

            • NiCE Leadership

              Meet our global leadership and executive team

            News & Media

            • Events

              Upcoming events and webinars

            • Press Releases

              Find the latest updates from NiCE

            • Media Center

              Media contacts and resources

            Corporate Governance

            • NiCE Trust Center

              Securing your trust with every interaction

            • Market Leadership

              Discover why NiCE is the market leader

            • Corporate Responsibility

              In a world where you can be anything, be NiCE

            Meet NiCE Cognigy

            Together, CXone Mpower and Cognigy AI enable organizations to accelerate AI adoption and scale it seamlessly across every customer experience.

            See what’s possible

            • ENLanguages
              • English
              • Deutsch
              • Français
              • 日本
              • 简体中文
              • العربية
              • 한국
              • Español
            • Get Started
              • Login
              • Status
              • Support
              • Partners
              • Pricing
              • Careers

            Company

            • About Us
            • Careers
            • Global Leadership
            • Media Center
            • Investors
            • Awards
            • Global Office Locations
            • Contact Us
            • CCaaS
            • Customer Experience
            • NiCE Public Safety
            • NiCE Actimize
            • NiCE RPA

            Partners

            • NiCE Partners Overview
            • Developer Partners (DEVone)
            • CXone Mpower Partner Portal
            • NiCE Help Partner Portal
            • NiCE User Group

            Customer Support

            • Customer Support Overview
            • CXone Mpower Support Login
            • NiCE Customer Support
            © 2025 NiCE
            • Terms of Use
            • Site Map
            • Privacy Policy
            • Legal
            • Cookies Settings
            • Accessibility

            Stay Connected

            © 2025 NiCE
            The controllables contact centers should optimize now to win in the recession and labor shortage turns ahead

            The controllables contact centers should optimize now to win in the recession and labor shortage turns ahead

            by Andrea Matsuda
            February 9, 2023
            Share

            This is the third blog in a three-part series in which we explore lessons learned from the previous recession and define the strategies and tools contact center leadership should implement now in order to do more with less and win in the turns ahead. You can find the other blogs in the series here and here.

            Well before recession warnings went mainstream, contact centers were managing the fallout of the “great resignation.” As record numbers of workers left the traditional workforce in 2021 in favor of work-anywhere-anytime gig economy options, contact center leaders were forced to do more with less.

            Today most economists forecast a global recession, albeit a short and shallow one, on the near horizon. And while recessions have been accompanied by job losses and high unemployment rates, this one may be different.

            With nearly two job openings for each unemployed person in the United States, workers hold the upper hand in terms of demanding higher wages and preferential working conditions from labor-strapped contact centers. In Britain that upper hand is fueling recession pressure. In response to ongoing competition for talent, wages grew at the fastest pace in more than a year in 2022’s third quarter, putting greater financial pressure on British companies already bracing for economic turns ahead.

            As the uncontrollable factors of a recession and an ongoing labor shortage loom, contact center leaders should consider how they are optimizing one critical controllable: scheduling. Optimized scheduling does more than just manage net staffing and aggregate costs; it can be your competitive differentiator in a fight for top talent. In the turns ahead, smart contact center leaders will seek to not just control the controllables but also harness and optimize them for cost savings and greater employee satisfaction.

            Optimize scheduling to meet net-staffing requirements and service level objectives, automatically

            Despite contact center leaders’ best efforts to accurately forecast and schedule, staffing gaps often emerge after a schedule is published. Those gaps may occur as a result of unplanned schedule modifications, absenteeism, or unexpected shifts in demand. These changes have a direct effect on operational costs, customer satisfaction scores (CSATs), and other key performance indicators (KPIs). When overstaffed, operational costs such as aggregate pay to agents rise. When a contact center is understaffed, customers face longer wait times and lower levels of customer service, which can increase churn. The duty to resolve these variances falls on contact center workforce management (WFM) teams, which are tasked with forecasting staffing levels and managing head count for each interval.

            Automated staffing optimization matches fluctuating needs with employee schedule preferences and then automates schedule changes to fix gaps. It instantaneously solves complex multifaceted scheduling issues by identifying opportunities for self-swaps, voluntary time off, paid time off, extra hours, shift trades, and more. In doing so, it takes the challenging process of identifying and resolving staffing gaps off the shoulders of the WFM team.

            Harness scheduling as your winning competitive differentiator in a race for talent

            Contact center agents have spoken, and 47% report that they want flexible scheduling with 24-7 access. Agents can become frustrated when they feel they don’t have control over their schedules. When they can’t get the schedule they want, have to wait hours or days for a schedule change approval, or miss an opportunity for time off or overtime, employee job satisfaction and engagement suffer. This adds hidden costs to manual intraday management in the form of absenteeism, reduced adherence, and decreased employee retention.

            However, truly flexible scheduling requires robust rules and interconnected real-time staffing analysis that only AI can manage at scale. The right AI-lead program can facilitate self-trades, promote less desirable shifts, and enable communications that support work-life balance while protecting net staffing across multiple skill profiles, channels, and locations.

            Moreover, intraday automation boosts agent engagement with employee self-scheduling, which gives agents the control, flexibility, and autonomy they need to independently manage their work-life balance.

            NiCE Employee Engagement Manager (EEM) automates intraday scheduling to avoid net staffing shortages and excessive overtime. As agents report unplanned absences, next-generation WFM systems can instantly forecast net staffing shortages and promote resulting shift openings to the right agents, avoiding overtime and targeting those most likely to opt in based on their self-selected preferences.

            Intelligent Intraday Automation from NiCE EEM matches staffing requirements with agents’ individual needs, skills, and preferences to speed staffing gap closure and achieve best-fit scheduling needs. Agents can view their schedules anytime from anywhere and select among automatically approved schedule change options that align with the contact center’s business needs.

            This type of long-term forecasting coupled with the emergent issue solutioning NiCE EEM provides has been shown to increase acceptance of shift change offers by 34% and reduce overtime hours by 36%.

            The degree to which contact centers will be impacted by looming recessionary pressures and ongoing labor shortages is yet to be fully known. However, it’s safe to predict that contact center leaders will be forced to do more with less—less financial flexibility, less talent, and less room for error. By optimizing and harnessing an automated AI-driven scheduling system now, contact center leaders can deliver on CSAT and KPI goals, even with less staff, and boost their odds of winning in the turns ahead.

            About the Author

            Andrea Matsuda

            Andrea Matsuda is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at NiCE, where she directs product marketing strategy, thought leadership and sales enablement in connection with select Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) product categories. With over 10 years’ experience in the contact center, Andrea is passionate about helping contact centers deliver a world class customer and agent experience.

            See All Blogs

            Follow Us

            Follow us to get the latest news from your preferred Social Network

            linkedinlinkedinlinkedinlinkedin

            Popular Posts

            October 20, 2025

            The 30-second shopper: How retailers can win in the era of instant decisions

            Read

            October 15, 2025

            Effortless by design: Experience soars when people, tech, and process fly in sync

            Read

            October 10, 2025

            Cut through complexity: Six companies reimagining workforce management

            Read

            October 7, 2025

            Customer Service Appreciation Week 2025: Celebrating the people behind every great experience

            Read

            October 3, 2025

            Why building a connected, intelligent workforce model creates operational excellence

            Read

            More from the blog

            AI

            The 30-second shopper: How retailers can win in the era of instant decisions

            Fall retail season is in full force – in case you haven’t already noticed everything is infused with pumpkin spice these days.

            October 20, 2025

            AI

            Effortless by design: Experience soars when people, tech, and process fly in sync

            Customer experience won’t be won in the contact center alone. Often, it will be won – or lost – in the back office.

            October 15, 2025

            Workforce Optimization

            Cut through complexity: Six companies reimagining workforce management

            In today’s world, rapid growth doesn’t just create opportunity – it creates complexity, and without workforce management, that complexity will crush even the fastest-growing companies.

            October 10, 2025