The E3 Effect: How AI Supercharges Human-Centered Performance

The Perennial Problems of Contact Centers

Daniel Roth has spent three decades in customer experience, and the core issues he saw at the start of his career remain today:

• Hiring: Are we hiring right?
• Time to proficiency: Training, team support, personalization
• Coaching effectiveness: Can we measure it?
• Mission alignment: Are performance metrics aligned with the organization's mission, not just financial and operational numbers?

These aren't technology problems—they're foundational organizational issues. And they create what Daniel describes as a "locked room" that organizations can't seem to escape.

The Underlying Blockers

When metrics aren't being met, Daniel looks for these root causes:

1. Is success clearly defined?

Many organizations can't define what success looks like in just a few sentences. Schedule adherence, AHT, and survey scores are all lag measures—they tell you what happened after the fact.

The question: Are there leading measures that help the team identify early if they'll hit their goals?

2. How robust is training?

Not just money invested, but intentionality and continuous improvement. When was the last time the company truly invested in training?

3. How many fires are you fighting?

"How many times were you not prepared for something in a way that you could just handle it easily?"

The objective: Be proactive enough to reduce fires. Every fire takes you away from strategic and tactical objectives.

The E3 Effect Framework

E3 stands for Enable, Empower, Endeavor—three phases for building high-performing teams that thrive at scale.

Enable: Define Culture and Establish Trust

• Be able to set expectations
• Ensure hiring profiles are clearly defined
• Get everyone involved in interviewing 100% calibrated
• Build trust with new and existing team members

Empower: Equip Teams with Resources and Clarity

• Bring decision-making lower in the organization where possible
• If escalations always get the same response, can that authority move down?
• Build critical thinking skills (essential as AI develops)
• Provide knowledge and resources when needed

Endeavor: Align with Purpose and Scale Performance

Why "endeavor" instead of "execute"?

"Execute means complete something—completion for the sake of completion. Endeavor is not only to reach a goal, but to continue to refine, to improve, to strive for the optimal level."

Endeavor takes execution and levels it up while maintaining human connection—absolutely critical for gaining and keeping engagement.

Getting Team Buy-In

A question from the audience: How do you get teams to not be scared of AI?

Include them.

• They care about their work (if they don't, that's a different issue)
• Identify influencers—the person everyone listens to whether you want them to or not
• Get their input (whether you use it or not, they want to feel heard)
• They know AI is coming; not talking about it builds distrust

Explain how AI will:

• Enable their jobs
• Make them more efficient
• Allow them to solve more challenging problems
• Level up results for customers

The Win Flywheel

Daniel defines a "win" as achieving a milestone or metric that's critical to the organization's mission.

Wins can be small.

Example: A team with 35% productivity wasn't going to jump to 60%. Instead:

• Can we get to 37.5%?
• Can we get to 40%?

These "step goals" create a flywheel effect—small wins that compound over time.

"Teams love to win. And this is a framework that creates winning teams that win over and over again."

How AI Supports E3

AI has many different roles in CX:

• Hiring: Improve selection processes
• Training: Provide natural, real-world scenario-based experiences
• Deflection: Handle routine inquiries
• Agent Assist: Support agents in real-time
• Workflows: Streamline behind-the-scenes processes
• Coaching: Enable development and performance improvement

The first step: Write your use cases.

This is the biggest gap Daniel sees in organizations wanting to roll out AI. A use case includes:

1. The problem (described succinctly and clearly)
2. The optimal outcome when solved
3. Associated metrics
4. Impacted workflows

Addressing AI Anxiety

One leader's framing that worked well:

"AI is not going to take your jobs. I'm here to protect you. We're all valuable together for our customers."

The reality: AI agents are spiking, but the total number of engagements is going way up. AI handles the transactional moments that make days mundane. Agents get the complex, engaging work.

For situations where jobs ARE at risk, Daniel's approach:

"None of our jobs are permanent. None of our jobs are guaranteed, including my own."

Be authentic. Put yourself in the conversation. It builds trust and rapport.

Creating Alignment Across Departments

To connect C-suite with frontline execution:

1. Have many alignment conversations
2. Ask: "What does success look like to you for the call center?"
3. Ask: "What are your outcomes at the end of the day?"
4. Engage as many departments as possible
5. Ask what they need from you—and tell them what you need from them

This creates buy-in across the organization and builds influence for your initiatives.

Making Meetings More Effective

If you already have meetings, communication, and reviews in place:

1. Review what you're actually covering
2. How intentional are your conversations—not just for today, but for 6-12 month roadmaps?
3. Have you shown them parts of the roadmap where they can make a difference?
4. Ask: "What's working?" and "What worked in the last shift?"
5. Build on successes: "How do we do more of that tomorrow?"

"Are we just solving the problems of today (firefighting), or are we solving problems that prepare us for the future?"

The Core Reframe

"AI is an enabler, an accelerator, a multiplier. It's not the solution. It's not a replacement."

If you think of AI as replacement, reconsider. Framing AI as enabler/accelerator/multiplier will make conversations with teams—and finance—far more effective.

Where to Start

1. If you haven't started or you're stuck: What is ONE small thing you can do today? One phone call, 30 minutes on use cases, a meeting with your team?
2. Don't try to boil the ocean: Build the flywheel with small wins
3. Involve the vendors: Tell them you need an ROI calculator. Keep pushing until they give you a format that works for your approvals
4. Aim for 1-year ROI: If payback is longer than 2 years, look for a different application

This session was part of the AI for CX Virtual Summit, presented by AmplifAI.