ACP: The Amazon Connect Podcast

CloudInteract - cloudinteract.io

This is The Amazon Connect Podcast - the show that focuses on Amazon Connect and related technologies. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.On ACP our experts meet once every 2 weeks to discuss the latest news and deep dive into topics such as CRM integration, AI, Scheduling & Forecasting, Training & Development and lots more.If you're a contact centre supervisor, a service owner, and IT Admin or an AWS Developer there's something for you here. Increase your knowledge and understanding of Amazon's popular customer service application.We'd love to answer your Amazon Connect questions on the show so if you have something you'd like our experts to discuss email us at podcast@cloudinteract.io.ACP: The Amazon Connect Podcast is created and produced by CloudInteract and is not affiliated in any way with Amazon Connect.

  1. 6d ago

    46: Forecasting, Capacity Planning and Scheduling (FCS) in Amazon Connect with Vikas Prasad, AWS

    Send us Fan Mail Join us as we welcome AWS senior solutions architect Vikas Prasad to discuss Amazon Connect FCS (forecasting, capacity planning, and scheduling) and how it helps match contact center demand to agent supply while improving agent and supervisor quality of life. We talk about the newly launched shift bidding (preference-based scheduling), enabling agents to rank multiple shift profiles with priority rules and supervisor review, and discuss use cases like covering peak periods with non-contact-center staff. Vikas explains FCS pricing differences between Amazon Connect Basic (per-agent monthly fee) and Connect Customer (included), and outlines AI-driven improvements including variable AHT modeling, a forthcoming natural-language “AI teammate” in beta, and intraday forecasting that refreshes every 50 minutes to predict next-24-hour spikes. The episode also covers adherence thresholds to reduce false out-of-adherence alerts and notes FCS expansion to tasks and email plus raw data availability in a data lake for BI tools. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

  2. Oct 13

    45: Amazon Connect News Roundup

    Send us Fan Mail Join us as we catch-up on Amazon Connect, highlighting major announcements from August–October including: - the agentic CX designer now generally available, - Contact Lens information extraction for voice and chat (including how it can help alongside redaction), - and new agent-to-agent collaboration using the open A2A protocol with voice support and detailed traceability.  We also discuss the newly GA AI Assistant for querying contact center metrics in plain language, improved dashboard reporting for routing steps and agent proficiencies, and multiple Workforce Management/FCS enhancements such as shift bidding, unplanned shrinkage, refreshed scheduling metrics, 15/30-minute capacity planning, added adherence metrics, and more granular task/email concurrency and interruption limits.  Additional updates include bulk user management improvements, QA evaluation scoring by points plus AI-assisted PDF QA-form import, Cases/Profiles dashboard metrics and CSV import, cross-region active-active global resiliency, and importing external recordings for Contact Lens analytics. We also highlight the free Amazon Connect sandbox environments via AWS Builder Center. link: Free Sandbox Environments for Amazon Connect Customer on AWS Builder Center | AWS Contact Center There's so much that's been happening in Amazon Connect over just the past few months, so this episode is your chance to catch up! Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

  3. Sep 29

    44: Hands On with Agentic CX Designer!

    Send us Fan Mail This week we welcome Bentley Paton, a Cloud Interact solutions architect, to discuss Amazon Connect’s Agentic CX Designer following AWS’s NLX acquisition and its move from preview to GA. This isn't just a review of features - it's talking candidly about the good and the bad of the new Agentic CX Designer with someone who is actually building production solutions with it today. Bentley explains how it combines agentic and deterministic IVR design in a drag-and-drop UI, removes the need to build Lex bots, and is invoked from a single Amazon Connect contact flow block that routes into CX Designer applications and flows.  We compare prior Connect AI agents and Lex-based approaches, cover when deterministic logic is preferred (e.g., payments) and how AI can invoke deterministic tools, and review integrations (currently REST/API calls often via API Gateway rather than direct Lambda).  We also talk about built-in chat-based testing, debugging, and automated test replays, note limited live-call audit visibility, discuss environment deployment via aliases, JSON export limits, business-user readability benefits, iteration needs in production, and current pricing understanding, including separate costs for related services and mention of Live Sync. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

  4. Sep 15

    43: Listening to some unedited AI Agent Calls...

    Send us Fan Mail Host Tom Morgan runs a solo episode of the Amazon Connect Podcast to play five unedited recordings of Amazon Connect Customer AI agent calls and explain what’s happening under the hood. Four clips come from CloudInteract’s multi-industry demo environment and one from a noisy conference floor. Scenarios include airline fare lookup with email capture, retail banking identity verification, transaction clarification, balance and loan payoff (with calculations done via external tools) and a guarded handoff for address change, a retail order address-change handoff showing the value of ID verification and intent capture, healthcare appointment rescheduling with mishearing detection/correction and a safety transfer for medication side effects, and a conference concierge agent that performs well amid background noise. Tom emphasizes guardrails, tool use, 100% QA via evaluations and rules, AI agent performance metrics, and the GA release of the Agentic CX Designer visual canvas. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

  5. Sep 1

    42: 911 Secure

    Send us Fan Mail Join us as we welcome Kevin Kito (President & CEO) and Allan Gaspe (Solution Architect) from 911 Secure to discuss 911 obligations and solutions for cloud contact centers, especially Amazon Connect.  They explain common misconceptions about 911 location accuracy, the complexity introduced by cloud and nomadic workers, and key U.S. legislation: Kari’s Law (direct 911 dialing, routing to the local PSAP, and immediate on-site notification) and Section 506 of RAY BAUM’s Act (dispatchable location beyond just an address). They describe how 911 Secure’s Gatekeeper maintains dynamic location using network signals and prompts remote users to confirm location, how Amazon Connect queries their API only during 911 calls, and how shared callback numbers enable PSAP call-backs to reach the correct agent. They also cover cell-phone 911 alerting via geofencing with RapidSOS and stress the real-life stakes of getting E911 wrong. Although this is a more US-focused episode than normal, there is definitely something for everyone here, and we end with a discussion about the moral, not just legal, obligations that administrators worldwide have when considering emergency calling. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

  6. Aug 18

    41: Mark Pritchard, Jabra

    Send us Fan Mail Join us as we welcome Mark Pritchard, a senior platform and automation consultant at Jabra, to discuss Jabra’s move to Amazon Connect starting in 2021 and how the shift improved flexibility, number management, and cloud operations after COVID.  Mark explains the challenges of running four global Connect instances with a small admin team, the need to standardize IVRs, scripts, and flow design for easier troubleshooting, and practical conventions like embedding related phone numbers in flow attributes. He describes replacing a third‑party callback solution with a native Connect approach, then using AI tools (nicknamed “Bob”) with Cursor and GitHub Copilot to build internal portals for callback visibility, skills-based routing changes, and a new migration portal to selectively move resources to new instances during a major business separation, while sharing tools via a new LinkedIn group: Amazon Connect Tools Development. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

  7. Aug 4

    40: New AI Voices and other news

    Send us Fan Mail This episode of ACP recaps a busy July of Amazon Connect Customer updates. The headline is a major quality upgrade to Amazon Connect’s AI voices (announced July 20), adding 100 new voice options across 50+ languages, improved turn-taking and interruption handling, fewer gaps, and more control over speed, volume, emotion, and SSML-like markup (including optional laughter 😂).  We play before/after demos in US English plus Australian and UK variants, noting increased naturalness but limited regional UK accents.  Additional releases include new supervisor dashboard metrics for agent queues, automatic example evaluations to support agent coaching, workforce planning/forecasting expanded to emails and tasks, a new “interrupt agent” flow block to force routing to specific agents even when unavailable, and rule-based redaction that blurs specified apps or web pages in agent screen recordings to reduce PII exposure. The episode also reiterates AWS’s April rebrand splitting Amazon Connect into four products under an agentic AI banner. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

  8. Jul 21

    39: Hannah Bloking, AWS

    Send us Fan Mail On this episode we welcome Hannah Bloking, Senior Manager for Applied AI Acceleration Solutions Architecture at AWS, to discuss her career path from fine arts into tech, her work across the Executive Briefing Center, Amazon Connect (now Amazon Connect Customer), and leading Amazon’s internal rollout of what evolved from Amazon Q into QuickSuite. Hannah shares how AWS and partners are adapting to rapidly evolving agentic AI, why the biggest challenge is choosing and understanding the right use cases rather than the technology itself, and how Amazon Connect’s expanded portfolio (including examples like Connect Talent) is being received by customers. We also cover the intersection of contact center data and BI/analytics with Quick, the importance of focusing on end-customer experience over cost optimization initially, and advice to upskill, embrace change, and not fear making mistakes. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.

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About

This is The Amazon Connect Podcast - the show that focuses on Amazon Connect and related technologies. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io.On ACP our experts meet once every 2 weeks to discuss the latest news and deep dive into topics such as CRM integration, AI, Scheduling & Forecasting, Training & Development and lots more.If you're a contact centre supervisor, a service owner, and IT Admin or an AWS Developer there's something for you here. Increase your knowledge and understanding of Amazon's popular customer service application.We'd love to answer your Amazon Connect questions on the show so if you have something you'd like our experts to discuss email us at podcast@cloudinteract.io.ACP: The Amazon Connect Podcast is created and produced by CloudInteract and is not affiliated in any way with Amazon Connect.

Information

  • Creator
    CloudInteract - cloudinteract.io
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    46
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 CloudInteract - cloudinteract.io
  • Show Website
    ACP: The Amazon Connect Podcast

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