Integrating AI in Workforce Management: A Series of Case Studies from Various Companies

Jomer Gregorio on February 15, 2025

With the rise of today’s fast-paced business landscape, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) has become indispensable, not just in technology-driven industries but even in workforce management. In fact, a report by McKinsey showed that 65% of respondents claimed their organizations are regularly using generative AI for business functions. It includes the usage of AI in marketing and sales and product or service development. More so, a study found a 66% boost in employee productivity using AI tools, which makes work more efficient.

Integrating AI in Workforce Management during a meeting
Professional developers discussing ideas for new project

As companies strive to optimize operations and improve employee productivity and decision-making, AI offers a powerful solution that can alter traditional workforce practices. By automating routine tasks, analyzing extensive amounts of data, and supplying actionable insights, AI helps firms to respond swiftly to evolving market conditions while ensuring an efficient workforce.

There are various cases in which companies in different industries leverage AI-driven tools to develop operations and service delivery, empower employees, and lead to a more effective workforce. Here are some examples:

Walmart: Enhancing Performance and Customer Service

Walmart, regarded as America’s multinational retail giant with an estimated 230 million customers in 2024, has long been at the forefront of embracing AI technology to streamline operations. The incorporation of AI into Walmart’s workforce management system has remarkably enhanced performance tracking and customer service delivery. Walmart has been able to refine the shopping experience through its voice order service and enforced voice assistance for in-store associates through conversational AI called Ask Sam. Moreover, AI also enabled Walmart to enhance customer service and supplier negotiations through chatbots.

This AI-driven process has also become apparent in tailored training programs for employees with the use of the AI tool My Assistant. Further, Walmart’s AI systems can predict peak shopping times and staffing needs, which minimizes wait times and maximizes labor efficiency. 

With this support, staff become empowered to expand their roles and job satisfaction, translating into Walmart’s more promising customer service, shopping experience, and sales. It also showcased how AI can lead to functional excellence and exceptional customer engagement.

Shell: Streamlining Operations and Administrative Efficiency

In the energy sector, Royal Dutch Shell, most known as Shell, as one of the largest oil and gas companies, effectively utilized AI to streamline operational and administrative processes. With a vast global workforce, it implements an AI-powered workforce management tool like IBM Watson and collaborates with generative AI algorithms from SparkCognition. This seeks to perform predictive analytics and automate scheduling and resource distribution, which could lessen administrative burdens. 

In fact, Shell is employing over 100 AI applications from various departments, which has a great impact on attaining sustainability efforts. It frees up managers to concentrate on strategic decision-making while ensuring that the right experts are available when needed. This holistic process not only optimizes resource allocation but also encourages a culture of data-driven decision-making, enabling Shell to adapt to changing market conditions.

Through leveraging AI, Shell has seen marked improvements in both operational efficiency and employee satisfaction, as team members feel more supported in their roles. To add, it has led to process improvements, cost reductions, and increases in production.

Deloitte: Leveraging Analytics for Workforce Insights

Deloitte, a global leader in professional services, has harnessed AI to advance workforce analytics capabilities. By employing AI algorithms through tools like Tableau and SAP SuccessFactors, Deloitte can analyze employee data to pinpoint trends and predict future workforce needs. 

Further, Deloitte also rolls out PairD, an internal generative AI platform to assist employees with tasks, writing code, and creating project plans. This approach has also led to acquiring valuable insights and engagement, improved decision-making in acquisition, retention, and development, and actionable predictions from data.

On the other hand, through AI-powered analytics, Deloitte can assess the effectiveness of its training programs to enhance employee skill sets and foster greater job satisfaction. The company’s strategic use of AI guarantees that the company stays competitive in a rapidly changing market environment while empowering the workforce.

Microsoft Teams: Revolutionizing Remote Work Management

As remote work becomes increasingly prevalent, Microsoft Teams has emerged as a leading workforce management tool that promotes AI to enhance collaboration, productivity, and project management. The platform integrates AI features like Copilot that facilitate effective task management of virtual teams and adds AI-driven insights that streamline workflows. For instance, Copilot can summarize key action items or decisions without the need to sift through lengthy recordings. Hence, such AI tools can drive productivity in a hybrid work environment,

Meanwhile, Microsoft Teams uses AI as well to monitor engagement levels during virtual meetings, empowers organizations to adjust workforce management strategies, and ensures that employees feel connected. They also use some AI software to detect screen content processing, as well as monitor audio and video quality to deliver high-quality experiences while in a remote work setup.

Ignite Your Workforce’s Potential with Call Design

These case studies have illustrated the transformative impact of AI on workforce management. By successfully employing AI-driven tools, companies in differing industries have improved efficiency and decision-making, as well as produced a culture of constant development. As companies persist in embracing generative AI, the future of workforce management appears favorable with the potential to boost employee engagement, operational efficiency, and overall business success.

At Call Design, we are committed to assisting organizations in elevating their workforce management tactics. Our expertise empowers businesses to cultivate environments where high-performing employees are motivated to excel. 

If you are keen to harness the potential of AI and execute strategies that nurture success, contact us today, and let us help you establish a dynamic and positive workplace.

Top Workforce Management Trends to Watch in 2025

Ryan Wyman on February 4, 2025

As businesses adapt to a rapidly evolving digital landscape, workforce management (WFM) has become a critical element for achieving operational excellence. In 2025, organizations will continue to leverage emerging technologies and innovative strategies to streamline processes, enhance employee satisfaction, and improve customer experiences. Here are the top workforce management trends to watch this year:

1. AI-Powered Workforce Optimization

Artificial intelligence (AI) will play a pivotal role in optimizing workforce management processes. Advanced AI tools can predict staffing needs, analyze agent performance, and even forecast customer demand patterns. By automating repetitive tasks, AI empowers managers to focus on strategic initiatives and create more efficient workflows.

2. Personalized Employee Experiences

Employers are recognizing the importance of a personalized approach to employee management. Customizable dashboards, flexible scheduling options, and targeted training programs will help businesses cater to the unique needs of their workforce, boosting engagement and reducing turnover.

3. Integration of Remote and On-Site Teams

Hybrid work models are here to stay, requiring robust WFM solutions that seamlessly integrate remote and on-site team management. Tools that facilitate real-time communication, performance tracking, and workload distribution will be essential for maintaining productivity and collaboration.

4. Real-Time Analytics for Decision-Making

Access to real-time data analytics will continue to be a game-changer for workforce planning. Managers can use live dashboards to make data-driven decisions, quickly adapt to changes, and improve overall efficiency.

5. Focus on Employee Well-Being

Organizations are placing a greater emphasis on mental health and work-life balance. Offering wellness programs, flexible hours, and supportive resources will not only improve employee satisfaction but also enhance performance and retention.

By embracing these trends, businesses can stay competitive in a dynamic market while fostering a motivated and productive workforce.

It’s time to check in with your team

Call Design on February 8, 2023

With all the layoffs in the news, your team may be assuming the worst. In a challenging environment, those assumptions are additional stress that your team doesn’t need.

It was only 90 days ago that we found out Twitter was laying off roughly half of its workforce, and the layoff stories haven’t stopped since then. Meta, Salesforce, Amazon, Microsoft of course make headlines, and we all know of smaller scale (but still painful) layoffs within the contact center industry–  we’ve got the posts on our LinkedIn timelines to prove it. A friend of mine directed me to Layoffstracker.com but a quick online search reveals many more layoff tracking sites, all showing the grim timeline. And even though I try to avoid doomscrolling in general, it sometimes seems like that’s the only kind of scrolling there is.

Every day my news feed brings another clickbait anecdote about how employees laid off from Google feel particularly poorly treated, either because of the way their termination was handled, or because they feel like they company saw them as “disposable”, or because of the perceived randomness of who got picked for a pink slip. The stories range from a new mother who received her layoff email hours after giving birth, to married couples who went from two incomes to none, to employees with 20 years of service getting a mass email instead of a call. I don’t mean to single out Google, but I do think their status as a household word has made them a particular focus in the media. Meanwhile, the employees who still have jobs are confused and upset, some suffering from survivor’s guilt. 

On top of all that, some companies are announcing plans to pull remaining employees back into the office whether they like it or not. So many of us have come to value the flexibility that a work from home situation has afforded us. And while some employees say they’re fine with a hybrid home/office scenario, there’s something about the stories of large companies mandating that move that rubs a lot of employees the wrong way. A study by Monster shows that two-thirds of workers would quit if forced to return to the office! Hearing stories about large, well-known companies announcing the end or partial reduction of Work from Home is just another factor that is likely weighing on the minds of your team. 

That level of stress isn’t just the employees’ problem though; the whole organization has a stake. Research confirms something that we see in colleagues and also feel in ourselves on a personal level: stress has an impact on productivity. Stressed employees are more likely to be absent, and more likely to exhibit presenteeism (which means that they sign in for work, but are less productive because of physical illness or mental stressors). You don’t need a study to tell you that stressed employees find it more difficult to focus on creating schedules, interacting positively with their co-workers, or delivering the kind of “delight” level experience that customers demand today. 

Employee wellbeing has been a trending topic that is growing out of the overall interest in Employee Experience (EX). Most of us are on board with the idea that EX is important, not just because we care about our colleagues as fellow human beings. Our companies have a real material stake in EX because it impacts Customer Experience (CX), and ultimately the bottom line. So our companies have to have a real interest in employee mental wellbeing. 

Maybe your company isn’t planning layoffs and you’re happy allowing employees to work from home. But is that something your teams know? Is it something they have a gut feeling to be true? The current economic climate, the layoff news, the ratio of tough calls to easy ones– it all makes now a great time to check in with your team. 

  1. Make time to meet with your team, treat that time as sacred.

One thing we’ve always said about the contact center is that you can always expect the unexpected. We’re already facing a staffing crisis, doing our best with the employees we’ve got. And then there are the unpredicted contact volume spikes, the unplanned absences, the many customer service fires that break out during the day. In spite of all this, meetings have to be treated as critical priorities. Making time to talk to your team as a group and as individuals sends a clear message that they matter. Feeling like easily-replaceable cogs in an uncaring machine is a common complaint in the tech company layoffs, and we don’t want that contagious feeling spreading to our teams. 

  1. Communicate what you can.

So your company may not even be considering layoffs or cutting off Work from Home. Even if that’s true, you can’t make promises that it would never happen, especially in this economic climate. Focus on what you can communicate with honesty. If upper management has given out any messages on this topic, share what you can. Thinking back to my time as a frontline agent, I might have taken messages from upper management with a grain of salt, but I still appreciated some transparency from my team leaders, even if they couldn’t make promises. 

  1. Ask them how they feel.

Most of us have one-on-ones that are scheduled as frequently as we can manage given the massive workload we have to deal with. Talking to our team members about goals, stats, and key performance indicators is certainly important, that’s a given. But can you make time in those meetings to mention the layoff elephant in the room, and ask just how your team member is feeling? This kind of communication can build a sense of trust, openness to collaboration, and a sense of being valued. Don’t underestimate the power of making a team member feel seen.

  1. Listen actively.

It’s not a given that any of us can easily focus in a meeting, especially in a multitasking world. But making the time with a team member count is crucial. Actively listen to you what your team member is saying, don’t spend that time formulating a response. Make them feel safe to be as honest as they can, and be attentive to non-verbal cues that might tell a story of their own. This is especially important when bringing up a topic like the layoff trend. Active listening can go a long way to building trust and a feeling of partnership between you and your team.

  1. Follow up. 

Team members are a rich source of insight into the employee experience. If your team is telling you about layoff fears or any other stressor making it difficult to deliver great customer experience, listen and follow up. If there are causes of stress that your company can do something about, make sure that message is communicated to the right people. Then make sure to let your team know that they have been heard and their concerns have been made known to the decision makers.

  1. Consider a Voice of the Employee (VoE) tool.

With more concern shown to Employee Engagement, we’ve seen many VoE solutions hit the market. Some of them measure employee sentiment by doing regular automated “How are you feeling” surveys that can run far more often than any of us could possibly schedule face to face meetings. These scores and survey results can become another valuable data point that gives insight into Employee Experience that is trackable in our performance dashboards. And it gives the team members another channel to tell us how they feel. 

Nature hates a void, and that goes double for an informational void. Something will fill the empty space left by that lack of information, and because of human nature, it’s usually our worst assumptions. Don’t let the rumor mill interfere with the hard work you’ve invested into building your contact center operation. Now is a great time to check in with your team to let them know you feel some of same stresses they do, you’re listening, and you’ll be as transparent as you can be in these challenging times. 

– Shawn McCormick

Top Contact Center Resolutions to Make for 2023

Call Design on January 10, 2023

Group of contact center agents working.

As we get back to work for the start of 2023, we do so not only with familiar 2022 challenges still hanging around, but with the added prospect of economic downturn looming ahead. While a possible recession could have us asking if we can afford the very best contact center performance, we should be asking if we can afford not to make the contact center a top priority. Let’s look at the dawn of 2023 as an opportunity to face uncertainty and volatility with some resolutions to make the contact center thrive.

Resolution 1 – Fight the Recession with Great Customer Experience

The last few months have seen multiplying predictions of a slowing economy coming in 2023; but rather than waiting to react, it’s a chance to be proactive when it comes to Customer Experience. The competition for customer loyalty has been fierce enough even before we had the specter of a downturn. As consumers tighten their budgets, customer retention will be determined to an ever larger extent by the highest level of Customer Experience (CX).  

Customers now demand to be met on the channel of their choice with an excellent, personalized experience. Great experiences build lasting customer relationships, while substandard experiences are now more likely than ever to not only end a relationship, they’re also more likely to be shared on social media. While personalization and omnichannel integration used to be nice-to-have items on many contact centers’ wish lists, 2023 customers will see them as must-haves. 

Customers have become accustomed to algorithms anticipating their desired content and will hardly put up with unnecessarily long interactions where they aren’t recognized or have to repeat themselves over and over. They expect that their complex customer journeys are seamless from your website and across multiple contact channels. 

The good news is that for contact centers, these journeys present not only a larger range of ways to reach your customers, but also a chance to track omnichannel interactions and gain insights into who your customers are and what they want. Mining this valuable data gives you the ability to create initiatives for even more personalized customer experiences. 

A crucial part of that personalization is not just an omnichannel technical solution, but also successful, smart interactions on every channel– especially when an agent is required. The foundation of great Customer Experience is equally great Employee Experience, ensuring that agents are happy and fulfilled at work. Which brings us to our next resolution:

Resolution 2 – Invest in your Employees

Smiling customer service agent.
Fully empowered employees at every level are the best pro-active way to ensure a positive customer experience

In 2022 we couldn’t get away from stories about the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting; they really got the conversation going about Employee Experience. Will 2023 be the year that contact center employees are universally recognized as the critical assets they can be? Even with all the capabilities of a powerful omnichannel technological solution at your disposal, today’s customers aren’t satisfied by a live interaction with an agent who is disengaged, doesn’t have answers at their disposal, or conducts the entire interaction from a generic script. Fully empowered employees at every level are the best pro-active way to ensure a positive customer experience: happy agents create better experiences for customers, informed supervisors manage their teams to success, insightful WFM analysts generate the accurate forecasts and optimal schedules that enable the center to run efficiently. 

However, they all must be recognized as value creators, critical to your ability to deliver great CX. Once this recognition becomes part of your culture from front line to C-suite, your organization can understand that your employees are the best place to invest– especially in times of economic turmoil. This means giving your employees the tools that enable them to perform at the highest level and meet your customers where they want to be met. Plus, customers want to be met with contextual information needed to create personalized experiences, and with the answers needed for real resolution. 

And we’re not talking about agents only. The need for the right toolset includes all of your employees including agents, team leads, executives, and the WFM team. Agents can benefit from AI-assisted Knowledge Management that gives them the guidance they need when they need it. Team leads need Gamification/Performance Management that helps them coach effectively and reward top performers. And the WFM Team can take advantage of Workforce Management solutions that automate manual tasks, freeing the team to think strategically and focus on transformative processes like truly flexible scheduling. 

Similar to the omnichannel routing solutions, technology can be a great thing, but to get the best Employee Experience, you must also invest in the human side of the equation. Without the right training to make the technology come to life, we can’t achieve the level of true transformational change needed for the coming year. And just as personalization is expected by customers, employees want an experience that fits their needs, such as customized expert training that can be delivered online on on-site where needed, digital training that is available online anytime employees need it, or AI-assisted training delivery systems that automatically send the module that an agent needs at the time that’s best for the agent and also protects service level. 

But when it comes to transformation that makes a real difference and gets attention at the highest levels of your organization, you’ve got to aim for the right target:

Resolution 3 – Move from Optimization to Transformation

For CX and EX in the coming year, not only is there room for optimism—it’s a must. As the economic environment changes, we must have the resolve to change in substantive ways to meet the challenges that 2023 will bring. According to a BCG survey from November 2022, a majority of organizations plan to increase their investments in digital transformation in spite of the fact that they complain that they don’t receive help in prioritizing the steps of transformation. The first step has to be committing to transformation that creates a new level of EX and CX, not just reinforcing existing processes. 

Investing in the best Workforce Management tools may give our WFM team the ability to game out new scheduling strategies, but without the will to actually implement the best of those scheduling strategies, there’s no transformative flexibility to improve employee engagement with better work/life balance. Having the best performance scorecards, fully connected to Quality Management and other important systems is a powerful achievement in itself, but without the commitment to act on those insights with coaching and meaningful recognition for top performers, there is no moving the needle on Customer Experience in a way that goes beyond business as usual.

Digital-based training is always there when needed, but if training isn’t aligned with the WFM team so that it’s delivered automatically at the best-possible time, there’s no transformative increase in employee experience coupled with the protection of customer experience. And beyond the inbound front office, just think of opportunities for efficiency and performance gains that might be achieved by extending the transformation strategies and WEM tools into the outbound and back office areas. Simply put, don’t just add technology without the right mindset for change. With the right cultural commitment to innovation, everyone can feel connected to the transformation effort, being fully aware of the key role they play in making the organization a great place to work and a trusted partner for its customers. 

These are just three possible resolutions for new year. We’re already a week into 2023, and maybe not all of our resolutions are getting off to a great start, but one area where we can’t afford to fail is finding new levels of success in the contact center. There’s nothing inherently magical about the start of the new year, it simply gives us a convenient point to try something new. But we can make it special by committing to being proactive in preparing for whatever 2023 might have in store for us. 

If you’re looking for ways to make your contact center even better this year, Call Design can help. We’ve got the tools and consulting skills to make your resolutions a reality, whether you’re looking to move from spreadsheets to an automatable Forecasting/Scheduling solution, searching for a CX platform that enables better customer experiences, or meaningful ways to improve agent engagement for better employee experience.

How IVR’s Have Changed the Contact Center Industry

Call Design on May 25, 2021

IVR’s…love them or hate them, they are an almost ubiquitous part of the contact centre industry and have been around for a very long time. In fact, according to Wikipedia, the first commercial IVR system was built to perform order entry and inventory control back in 1973, although the technology was certainly in its infancy, and considered expensive and difficult to implement.

The Impact of Increased Handle Times

Call Design on July 8, 2020

n our third instalment in the WFM and New Normal series, we talk about the impacts of increased handle times. As a lot of contact centres have quickly had to adopt work from home strategies to maintain BAU status, there have been some things to be wary of, and increased AHT is one of them.

Effective Strategies for Managing a Contact Center

Call Design on June 30, 2020

Contact centres are the frontline of your customer service operation, which means that your contact centre must be operating at optimum capacity at all times. The management of your contact centre is an essential element to operating successfully and providing your customers with the very best customer service.

Making Your Contact Center Work Better

Call Design on June 23, 2020

Contact centre changes are never an easy venture, but it’s crucial to embrace an opportunity for change. While the world is slowly returning to normal after a global pandemic, now is the time to identify how your contact centre can be improved.

Increasing Agent Satisfaction with Better WFM Tools

Call Design on May 28, 2019

Aspect Software’s most recent Contact Center agent survey listed agents’ top factors that drive their sense of engagement: Work/life balance came in 3rd, two spots above competitive wage with flexible work schedule not far behind.

A skilled scheduling team can do great work with spreadsheets, but when you add a best-fit Workforce Management tool, you open up new possibilities for truly transformational improvements in agent satisfaction. Adding more flexibility to the scheduling process can help agents find that work/life balance they want, but contact centers still need to maintain the right staffing levels to achieve their service goals. The right WFM tool can help you find the right balance.

More options in the scheduling process – Agents can feel more engaged when they feel more control over and connection with their work lives. You’ve forecasted the staffing levels to meet your service goals, and you can control the methods you use to fill those staffing levels. The right tools can add new options that might not have been feasible in the past.

  • Preference-Based Scheduling – Allowing agents some input into the scheduling process can be a very effective way to make agents feel more involved and invested. You can reward experienced senior employees with schedules build on their preferences for days worked and start times, or add another layer by adding performance scores to the mix as an incentive for above-average work. You can take a subset of agent and create preference-based schedules as a base, then building rules-based schedules on top to make sure all your requirements are covered.
  • Dynamic Scheduling – For flex agents or work-at-home agents, could you increase your options for schedule flexibility? If your work-at-home agents would like to work some hours in the morning, some in the afternoon or some in the evening, it could be a win-win for them and you. Giving them a schedule that better fits their lives while allowing you to have them working at the busiest times of your day without having to keep them on the clock at slower times when they aren’t needed. With manual scheduling, the logistics are daunting; but the right WFM tool can help you break down your staffing requirements into configurable blocks and then present the available blocks to agents so they can effectively build their own schedules.  
  • Shift Bids – Many contact centers use shift bidding to fill schedules and give agents a method to move from less-favored schedules to ones they like better when those schedules become available. But creating and executing a shift bid can be extremely time-consuming when done manually, limiting the frequency you can offer new bids, which limits the chances your agents have to move to a schedule they like. Having a WFM tool that helps automate this process means that you can offer shift bids more often, not only assisting agents to feel more involved, but also giving you the chance to use fresher schedules that are a more optimal fit for your current business requirements.

More options for intra-day changes – Agents want flexibility when it comes to meeting their need for planned time off as well as accommodating things that come up at the last minute.

  • Automated Vacation – Rather than going through a cumbersome process of contacting a manager to find out if vacation time is available, sending emails to the scheduling team, then waiting for those extremely busy people to have a chance to respond, an agent using an automated WFM request process can see available vacation hours and use self-service tools to enter vacation requests that are processed in a fraction of the time. Agents feel more control over their vacation strategy, team supervisors don’t need to stop what they’re doing to deal with vacation requests, and the scheduling team knows that staffing levels are protected against any accidental overpromising of vacation or feelings that favoritism is used in the process.
  • Ease of VTO and VOT – Some agents look for any opportunity for overtime, and others might need to leave early to deal with family emergencies; either way, it’s another opportunity to satisfy your requirements and satisfy agents at the same time. When you’re busier than expected and need additional agents, the right WFM tool can help you identify the agents who want overtime, while still tracking who is working OT and setting any limits to avoid giving too much OT to the same people. Similarly, you can make voluntary time off available to agents who need it, alleviating unexpected overstaffing by allowing those agents to request VTO though an automated process that gets them off the clock sooner and saving the contact center unnecessary staffing costs.  
  • Automated Trades – Opening the shift swap process to larger groups of agents, even agents at different sites means more opportunities for trades for your agents; but it also brings more complexity. An automated tool can keep tight control over the trade process, allowing agents to have more possible trade partners while automatically checking skill compatibility, staffing levels, protecting against overtime, controlling the number of times agents are trading, and other configurable rules that you would otherwise have to check manually. As with automated vacation request, agents get a response faster, and all users can be alerted so they can keep an eye on the trade process.

Mobile Access

Many agents would love 24/7 mobile access to their schedules, vacation requests, and trades; the newest generation of agents may even expect that they will be able to interact with their work schedules anytime from their phones. A Mobile WFM app can add another level of agent satisfaction to your scheduling process by making all of your schedule optimization efforts accessible even when agents aren’t online at work. This can be extremely helpful in streamlining and automating your callout process when agents can’t make it to work, as well as allowing you to communicate things like overtime availability to agents who might be willing to start work early if you need them. Shift bidding can be facilitated if you give agents the ability to meet their bid window even if they aren’t at work.

Added options for schedule flexibility is just one way that a best-fit Workforce Management tool can make a real difference to your agents’ satisfaction with their jobs, helping you keep your top performers and attract new talent. Contact us or email the Call Design team today to find out how we can help make it happen for you!