Replace or Regret.

NICE just landed a $100M+ deal with Europe's largest contact center. A nine-figure investment to optimize human-powered customer service.

But here's the thing: we're witnessing the last days of human-operated contact centres.

I've been watching this space closely. Your CX vendors are happily selling you expensive "AI augmentation" tools, fancy dashboards, and "hybrid" approaches. They're building elegant systems to make humans more efficient at tasks that won't need humans very soon.

It reminds me of Blockbuster spending millions renovating stores right as Netflix streaming was taking off. We all know how that ended.

When you ask these vendors about fully autonomous AI agents, they'll hit you with a wall of excuses. "AI hallucinations." "The technology isn't ready." "Compliance concerns." "Complex conversations need human empathy."

Pure defense mechanisms.

The truth? Agentic Voice AI companies are already handling millions of calls with fully autonomous AI agents. Customers are already seeing higher conversion rates with AI than with humans. That's not the future. That's happening now.

The $350 billion spent annually on customer support salaries is up for grabs. Why spend another dollar optimizing a system that's on its way out?

So when a vendor pitches you a million-dollar contract to "optimize" your contact center operations, ask them a simple question: "Why aren't we investing in replacing it entirely?"

The companies that recognize this shift will save millions and deliver better customer experiences. The rest will be left maintaining expensive legacy systems while their competitors move on.

Sometimes the most powerful move isn't making something better.

It's replacing it altogether.