Microsoft opens contact center agents to Five9, Cisco and Avaya users
Contact Center Intelligence sells customer service and quality agents, plus analytics, on top of the platform a company already runs, with no move to Microsoft’s own Dynamics 365 contact center software
- Agents: Customer Assist Agent, Quality Assurance Agent and Service Operations Agent, the last listed as coming soon
- Platforms named by Microsoft: Five9, Cisco WebEx Contact Center and Avaya
- Pricing: usage-based through Copilot Credits
- Fees some contact center vendors charge for API access or voice channel licenses are not included
- Availability: global public preview, except Austria
A firm can keep its telephony and routing contract and buy the agent layer separately. The cost then arrives as two bills – Microsoft’s consumption charges and whatever the incumbent vendor asks for access – which is harder to forecast than a per-seat license.
“Customers don’t wake up wishing they could replace their contact center platform.”Karl Phenix, vice-president, Microsoft GTM & Solution, TTEC
Microsoft put Microsoft Contact Center Intelligence (CCI) into global public preview on 21 October. It puts Microsoft’s AI agents, quality scoring and analytics into contact centers that run on other vendors’ software, linked through what Microsoft calls an open connector.
In a blog post announcing the launch, Darya Mazandarany, corporate vice-president, Dynamics 365 Contact Center at Microsoft, said CCI extends capabilities first built for Microsoft’s own Dynamics 365 Contact Center to third-party platforms. Microsoft says the Customer Assist Agent can resolve queries on its own or support human staff in real time, handing a call to a person through the existing contact center or Microsoft Teams. The Quality Assurance Agent scores interactions against quality, compliance and brand standards.
Quality scoring without sampling
Microsoft says the quality agent can measure up to 100% of conversations rather than a sample. For now that covers historical self-service conversations, with real-time evaluation to follow. Callers can also choose to verify their identity by voiceprint during a live call, and the check carries over when the call moves to a human.
The agents draw on Microsoft IQ and more than 1,700 connectors, and are governed through Microsoft Agent 365. Luis Taveras, executive vice-president and chief digital and information officer at Thomas Jefferson University, said the university began its preview in September and was preparing to go live six weeks later.
Sources
- Microsoft, “Microsoft Contact Center Intelligence: Transforming customer experience at agentic speed”, Dynamics 365 blog, 21 October 2026. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2026/10/21/microsoft-contact-center-intelligence-transforming-customer-experience-at-agentic-speed/
- CX Today, “Microsoft CCI Challenges the ‘Rip and Replace’ Contact Center Model”, 21 October 2026. https://cxtoday.com/microsoft-cci-challenges-the-rip-and-replace-contact-center-model
