Case Study: Carnival UK

Carnival UK of Carnival Cruises operates both the Cunard and P&O Cruises brands. Guest service is a critical part of any cruise experience, and Carnival UK’s contact center is one of the main centers of support for guests. In the last few years, the company has undergone a large-scale digital transformation, which included the contact center’s switch to NiCE CXone Mpower. After laying a strong foundation with the new CCaaS solution, Carnival UK has launched several initiatives with an AI feature focus, leading to improvements in guest experience, employee sentiment, efficiency, and sales profit.

01 Before

An enthusiastic contact center in need of better infrastructure

Carnival UK operates Cunard and P&O Cruises under the Carnival banner. Their contact center team is an integral part of the company’s reputation for stellar customer service, helping guests book vacations and solve issues on board. They manage 1.2 million interactions a year and often play a role in guests’ perception of their vacation. One strength the contact center has always had is the team’s true love of connecting with people and helping guests.

“The people we have are great,” said Jon Wells, Head of Global Customer care at Carnival UK. “Our agents are very enthusiastic and love speaking to guests.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, the importance of Carnival UK’s contact center became even more clear. The customer service-driven agents needed a CCaaS platform that could support a robust operation and ideally position them for an AI-enhanced future.

Carnival UK also wanted to move away from its legacy WFM platform to a platform that was fit for purpose. This shift was part of a broader business case to gain efficiencies from technology.

02 Desire to change

Improved contact center structure ready to scale with AI

Carnival UK ultimately selected NiCE to partner on several solutions over the next few years, including CXone Mpower with NiCE Workforce Management and Employee Engagement Management. These tools helped the contact center move away from its legacy solution that was no longer offering the technology or people support it needed. Initially, AI wasn’t on the radar, but that soon changed.

“We needed a partner for this shift that would help us professionalize our structure and focus on that first,” Wells said. “But we also wanted to future-proof and needed a partner that understood AI.”

Alongside the technology investment, Carnival UK saw the value of a long-term partnership with NiCE’s Value Realization Services (VRS). The VRS team provided ongoing guidance on best practices, technical support, and regular check-ins, helping the contact center adopt changes smoothly and maximize the value of its solutions. Over time, VRS became a trusted strategic advisor, ensuring Carnival UK’s employee- and guest-first approach stayed at the center of its digital transformation.

Once CXone Mpower was brought on board, the contact center saw immediate improvements in efficiency, agent workloads and sales. As the team settled into roles now supported by real time analytics, streamlined dashboards, and smart scheduling practices, leadership turned their focus to how AI could continue their digital transformation.

“Now that we have the foundations in place, we’re looking beyond our original program and continuing to invest in NiCE products.”

Jon Wells

Contact Centre Director,
Carnival UK

03 NiCE solution

AI-infused throughout the operation

The team at Carnival UK quickly began strategizing on specific CXone Mpower features that could boost their contact center to new heights. Where they previously had been operating with disparate solutions and manual processes, there were now numerous options available thanks to the scalability of CXone Mpower. Wells said each of the use cases for AI was centered on either enhancing the guest experience, or helping their people feel more empowered and less burdened, instead of using AI to reduce headcount.

Autopilot is now the first touchpoint with most guests who reach out. This tool handles the initial steps in an interaction, guiding guests through self-service or connecting them to an appropriate agent when needed. Guests will soon be able to solve some issues on their own quickly, making room on agents’ plates to deal with more complex needs.

Expert is now the main source of knowledge information for contact center team members, travel agents, and the onboard crew. Retrieving quick information helps meet guests’ needs appropriately and fast, saving the team from needing to track down information. Expert AI has been enabled for internal users and will be the knowledge base source for agent assistance inside Copilot. Carnival UK recently launched CXone Mpower Actions, providing the team with immediate actionable data. Actions help get answers to questions in the moment, and give the team the needed details to move forward and continue improving self service and agent interactions.

The team also introduced capabilities that gave agents more autonomy and leaders better visibility—directly supporting the contact center’s double-digit efficiency gains. Agents could now swap shifts and claim overtime directly, while self-service tools streamlined holiday requests and meeting scheduling. Enhanced dashboards provided real-time workforce insights, enabling smarter planning and faster response to demand. These changes contributed to the significant increases in employee engagement scores.

04 Results

Happy guests and more sales netted

In conjunction with their broader digital transformation efforts with CXone Mpower, Carnival UK’s AI focus has greatly enhanced their customer service approach and improved the agent experience. Internal NPS has risen almost ten points, pointing to a strong increase in employee sentiment in response to the new tools. Agents are now able to answer more sales calls, something Wells says was a missed opportunity before.

“We’re answering 95% of those calls now,” he said. “We just had a record-breaking month for sales as well.” Employee engagement improved as agents gained more autonomy in managing their schedules. Capacity previously spent on manual administrative tasks was unlocked and reinvested in value-add activities within workforce management. The combination of AI-driven tools and smarter workforce management drove the contact center’s double-digit efficiency gains.

05 Future

In-depth AI-driven insights

Carnival UK is planning to continue expanding its AI usage with a people-first approach. Wells said it’s about enhancement and automation, and not eliminating positions. “We won’t invest in something unless there’s a clear employee and guest benefit,” Wells said.

AutoSummary has been rolled out across both of the company’s brands with the goal of further reducing agent workload and shortening resolution time. They’re also planning to introduce Proactive AI Agent for outbound interactions to improve agent effectiveness and uncover even more sales opportunities. Carnival UK has been at the forefront of introducing AI solutions into the broader Carnival brand, and plans to continue leading as they tap additional NiCE solutions.