Five AI Features You Can Activate Right Now
PLUS: Test Your AI Agent’s Escalation Handoffs
Start every workday smarter. Spot AI opportunities faster. Become the go-to person on your team for what’s next.
Now Available: The Psychology of CX 101: Master the Hidden Drivers of Customer Behavior
📅 September 25, 2025 | ⏱️ 3-min read
🎯 The big picture
Today’s lineup isn’t about future promises—it’s about AI features you can literally turn on and start using. These are the specific integrations and capabilities that teams are activating right now to handle real customer work.
📊 Today’s lineup
• Bandwidth launches OpenAI Realtime API integration for instant voice agents
• Algolia’s Agent Studio connects AI to your enterprise search data
• ServiceTitan’s Atlas AI automates contractor workflows from call to invoice
• Klaviyo’s K:AI Customer Agent handles support and drives sales simultaneously
• New API integrations make WhatsApp automation enterprise-ready
1️⃣ Bandwidth launches OpenAI Realtime API integration for instant voice agents
What’s happening:
• Bandwidth just activated OpenAI Realtime API integration, letting enterprises deploy GPT-powered voice agents on their network infrastructure.
• The integration includes pre-built connectors for Google Dialogflow and Cognigy, plus support for third-party conversational AI platforms.
• Enterprises can now activate voice agents that respond in real-time using OpenAI’s latest language models directly on Bandwidth’s communications cloud.
What’s so great about this: This eliminates the technical complexity of building voice AI from scratch. Companies can now deploy conversational voice agents powered by GPT in minutes instead of months, using Bandwidth’s existing phone infrastructure.
What’s next: Voice-first customer service becomes accessible to any business with a phone system. The barrier to entry for AI-powered voice support just dropped to nearly zero.
Go deeper: PR Newswire
2️⃣ Algolia’s Agent Studio connects AI to your enterprise search data
What’s happening:
• Algolia launched Agent Studio, a platform for building AI agents that can search across your entire enterprise data ecosystem.
• Agents can retrieve and synthesize information from knowledge bases, documentation, CRM systems, and other business data sources in real-time.
• The platform includes unified retrieval, tool orchestration, and observability features so teams can deploy production-ready AI agents safely.
What’s so interesting: Most AI agents can’t access your specific business data, making them generically helpful at best. Agent Studio solves this by connecting AI directly to your search infrastructure, so agents can give answers that are actually relevant to your business and customers.
What’s next: Generic chatbots are officially obsolete. Customers will expect AI that knows your products, policies, and procedures as well as your best human agents do.
Go deeper: CMSWire
3️⃣ Phrase drops an AI agent that speaks your customers’ language
What’s happening:
• Phrase launched a new AI Agent alongside major upgrades to Phrase Studio for smarter localization workflows.
• The AI can handle translation requests, content updates, and localization tasks across multiple languages and markets.
• It integrates directly with existing translation workflows to speed up content delivery for global teams.
What’s so interesting: Global CX just got a lot simpler. Instead of managing complex translation workflows manually, the AI agent handles routine localization tasks while keeping human translators focused on the nuanced work that matters.
What’s next: Multilingual customer support becomes table stakes. If you’re not thinking about how AI can help you serve customers in their preferred language, you’re already behind.
Go deeper: Phrase
4️⃣ Klaviyo’s K:AI Customer Agent handles support and drives sales simultaneously
What’s happening:
• Klaviyo activated K:AI Customer Agent, an AI that doesn’t just answer customer questions—it actively guides them toward purchases.
• The agent automatically pulls product information from your storefront and can add items to cart without customers leaving the chat interface.
• When escalation is needed, it hands off conversations to humans with complete context and conversation history intact.
What’s so interesting: This AI actually converts browsers into buyers while handling support requests. Instead of treating customer service as a cost center, K:AI turns every support interaction into a potential revenue opportunity.
What’s next: E-commerce support becomes a profit center. The companies that deploy AI agents capable of both service and sales will capture revenue that others are leaving on the table.
Go deeper: Klaviyo
5️⃣ Kolo AI’s cross-platform assistant unifies customer conversations across SMS, app, and web
What’s happening:
• Kolo AI launched out of stealth with the first AI assistant that seamlessly connects SMS, mobile app, and web interactions into one unified experience.
• Customers can start a conversation via text, continue it in the mobile app, and finish on the website—with full context maintained throughout.
• The platform is now available for consumer use across all channels, offering businesses a way to provide consistent AI-powered support regardless of how customers prefer to communicate.
What’s so great about this: This solves the massive frustration of channel switching. When customers move from SMS to app to website, they usually have to restart their conversation. Kolo AI maintains context across all touchpoints, making the experience feel like one continuous conversation.
What’s next: Channel-agnostic customer experience becomes the new standard. Customers will expect AI that remembers their preferences and conversation history no matter how they choose to reach you.
Go deeper: PR Newswire
⚡ Quick hits
• Five9 added voicemail playback and click-to-call features for Service Cloud Voice → agents can now handle voicemail directly within CRM workflows
• Microsoft Teams enhanced AI-powered compliance features → real-time meeting analysis and automated compliance reporting for enterprise customers
• Theta Lake launched AI compliance monitoring for Webex → automated security and compliance analysis across video communications
💡 CX Prompt Tip of the Day
Test Your AI Agent’s Escalation Handoffs
I’m testing our AI agent’s escalation process to ensure smooth handoffs to human agents.
Context: [Describe your AI agent setup and current escalation triggers]
Your task:
1. Create 5 realistic customer scenarios that should trigger human escalation
2. For each scenario, write the exact conversation flow from AI detection to human handoff
3. Identify what context information the AI must pass to the human agent
4. Design a test script to verify handoff quality and timing
5. Create success criteria for measuring handoff effectiveness
Format: Scenario → AI Detection Point → Context Transfer → Human Readiness → Success Metrics
Focus on making the transition invisible to customers while giving humans everything they need.
Quick win: Test one escalation scenario this week. Most AI implementations fail at the handoff, not the automation—make sure your humans are set up for success.
🤔 CX reflection
Question of the day: Looking at today’s specific feature launches, which single integration could you activate this week to immediately reduce your team’s manual workload?
See you tomorrow!
Mark
💡 P.S. Grab the FREE 32 Power Prompts That Will Change Your CX Strategy – Forever → Get prompts