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Lorikeet News Desk
Jun 25, 2025
TL;DR
Kentis Gopalla of Zoom says AI's role in customer service is increasing cognitive demands on human agents as simpler tasks are automated.
Some companies are leveraging AI to allow agents mental breaks, improving their handling of complex interactions.
Contact center intelligence is being used to inform product development, not just to evaluate agent performance.
Gopalla advocates for open platforms to ensure customer data control and adaptability in the evolving CX landscape.
The simpler interactions are now dealt with by AI. By the time an interaction reaches a human, it’s incredibly complex and heavy—the cognitive load is very high.
Kentis Gopalla
Head of CX Product & Ecosystem | Zoom
For every easy task AI takes, it leaves a harder one for a human. The tradeoff is piling a heavy cognitive tax on support teams and forcing companies to rethink how customer service roles are structured and supported.
Kentis Gopalla, Head of CX Product and Ecosystem at Zoom, says the real impact of AI isn’t automation. It’s the human stress it leaves behind.
Mental buffer: “The simpler interactions are now dealt with by AI. By the time an interaction reaches a human, it’s incredibly complex and heavy—the cognitive load is very high,” Gopalla says.
While some companies use the time saved from AI to push agents into the next call, Gopalla sees a smarter play emerging. “Some of our customers are now using that free time to give their agents a ‘mental break’ between calls so they can perform better. They’re recognizing that agents now handle more demanding and emotionally taxing interactions.”
Talk the talk: The shift in the agent’s role does more than reshape the workday; it’s redefining the value of the contact center itself. The intelligence gathered in live conversations is turning into a powerful feedback loop for product and engineering teams.
“Product and engineering teams now get direct insights from conversations happening in the contact center about how people are actually using their products,” Gopalla says. “Conversational intelligence is used not to score agents, but to drive the product roadmap and get direct feedback.”
Three speeds ahead: But not everyone is operating at that level. Gopalla sees the market moving at three distinct speeds. First are the “outcome-driven” customers who understand AI but are laser-focused on results, asking, “Am I saving time? Am I saving money? Is my NPS going up?” Then there are the “foundational strugglers,” who are still tackling core challenges like moving to the cloud or simply “keeping the lights on.” Finally, there are the “mandate-driven” companies with a top-down directive to adopt AI, who must now figure out how to pivot their strategy for an immediate return.
Customer data is their data. We’ve made it clear that we are not training our AI models on customers' data; they have a choice in how they want to use it. You can't control everything.
Kentis Gopalla
Head of CX Product & Ecosystem | Zoom
Evolution, not revolution: “Whether it was IVRs evolving into conversational AI or now the agentic era, it’s still about self-service,” says Gopalla. “The outcome is still the same: how do you resolve issues?” Gopalla frames these changes as an evolution, not a revolution. He notes that the fundamental disciplines of CX remain the same even as the tools become exponentially more powerful.
No walled gardens: Companies need flexibility to navigate the fragmented market, which is why Gopalla is adamant about an open platform. He insists that customers need choice and control over their own data, a direct challenge to vendors who are increasingly locking down their ecosystems. “Customer data is their data. We’ve made it clear that we are not training our AI models on customers' data; they have a choice in how they want to use it,” he states. “You can't control everything. It's an ecosystem play when it comes to customer experience.”
Show me the proof: For Gopalla, the industry’s next move is clear: the conversation has to shift from potential to performance. “Right now, there's a lot of buzz around how AI can improve customer experience. But as we work with customers, we need to start tracking those proof points and show them exactly how it’s improving their business.”
