Before the holidays, I had the privilege of speaking with Joel Sylvester, Chief Client Officer, and John Coulter, Vice President of Business Development at Five Star Call Centers, about their journey deploying AI in their organization.
Five Star Call Centers is a Midwest-based business process outsourcer (BPO) operating in the US and Latin America. Like many BPOs, they use a mix of technologies—some selected by clients, others by the company itself. As a mid-sized player, they’ve embraced technology to maintain a competitive edge and were early adopters of AI.
Joel and John, both industry veterans, generously shared their insights. As with many practitioners, they initially approached AI with caution regarding accuracy, choosing to first deploy it for back-office functions.
One of their initial AI use cases was recruitment. Five Star Call Centers recruits an average of 5,000 associates annually, processing more than 50,000 resumes across multiple countries. They introduced AI to manage the top of the recruitment funnel, reviewing applications and conducting the initial interview through an avatar. The process is supervised by recruiters who remain in the loop. This approach doubled their efficiency, improved the handling of seasonal fluctuations, and freed recruiters to focus on subsequent interviews. Beyond efficiency gains, attrition rates dropped by an impressive 40%, a clear testament to improved hiring. Applicants report a better experience, appreciating the convenience of completing the initial interview on their schedule and benefiting from more meaningful interactions with recruiters later in the process. Recognizing the potential for greater customization, the team eventually developed their own AI solution tailored to their unique needs.
Their next step was leveraging AI for role-based training. AI eliminated the need to remove top-performing agents from production for mock calls, chats, and emails and allowed for individualized training programs. The impact was significant: a 20% reduction in training time to reach the same performance levels. Agents also appreciate the flexibility to choose training times, boosting show rates by 20%.
Automated Quality Assurance (AQA) was another breakthrough. Previously, only 3% of calls were randomly reviewed and scored. With AI, over 70% of calls are now analyzed automatically, surfacing the important ones to supervisors. This transformation has freed up 50% of their time, enabling more targeted training programs and proactive agent coaching.
Finally, they implemented agent assistance, most often leveraging the built-in capabilities of the CCaaS platforms to provide real-time nudges based on customer sentiment and keywords or intents identified during conversations. The impact of agent assistance is harder to quantify—given that simpler interactions are increasingly handled via self-service, leaving the urgent, more complex, and emotional ones to agents. Associates appreciate its unobtrusive design: usage is voluntary, and there’s no penalty for opting out unless performance metrics are unmet.
Five Star Call Centers' journey exemplifies the value of a phased approach to AI adoption, addressing one use case at a time while prioritizing buy-in at every stage. It highlights varied metrics required to measure AI's impact. I was particularly impressed by their focus on adoption, ensuring associates were engaged at every step and giving them control over AI.