First Horizon uses AI to reduce call-center stress

Summary

First Horizon Bank is using artificial intelligence in its contact centers to identify when customer-service agents are becoming highly stressed and provide a short intervention. The Cisco system assigns each agent a stress score using signals such as survey results, queue and interactive voice response wait times, repeat calls, and language or tone in calls and chats. When an agent crosses a personalized threshold, the system can route the customer to another representative or deliver a one-minute Thrive Reset: a montage of the agent’s family or vacation photos, chosen music, inspirational text, and breathing prompts. A nine-week pilot involving 28 agents and two supervisors reported a 13% reduction in self-reported burnout, a fourfold improvement in handle times, and a 2% increase in customer-satisfaction scores, although the bank did not release raw figures. In a second six-week trial with 160 agents and 14 supervisors, burnout fell 20%, average handle time improved by 36 seconds, and satisfaction increased from 4.8 to 4.9 out of five. First Horizon planned to extend the program to its 3,000 customer-service agents in March. Separately, Synchrony reported that 92% of surveyed agents felt more effective after a reset and 78% preferred the 60-second intervention to reclaiming the time. First Horizon also plans a conversational IVR system, AI-generated call summaries, and broader evaluation of AI products, while examining legal and data-use questions.