NiCE Cognigy: How Agentic AI Transforms Customer Service
Agentic AI is a step-change for support teams. It moves past scripts to systems that read context, plan next moves and get things done across your tech stack.
Philipp Heltewig, Chief AI Officer at NiCE and General Manager at NiCE Cognigy, has been building this from the ground up since 2016. Today, NiCE Cognigy leads with AI agents that combine conversational and generative capabilities to deliver instant, personal, multilingual service across every channel. More than 1,250 brands use the platform to rebook flights, process claims, solve technical issues and support human teams where it matters.
Why agentic beats rule-based for support teams
Scripted bots break when customers go off-path. They answer FAQs; they stall on real issues.
Agentic AI reads intent, taps real-time data, and executes transactions. It can handle a flight disruption, a refund or an IT ticket without a fixed flow. For support leaders, this means higher resolution rates, faster responses and a better CSAT-without forcing customers into rigid menus.
Inside NiCE Cognigy's momentum
NiCE's acquisition of Cognigy-recognized as Europe's largest AI deal to date-signals how far the market has come. Europe is producing enterprise-grade AI platforms with global traction, and established providers are acquiring specialized capabilities to speed up delivery and reduce integration risk.
This move also reflects growing confidence in AI for customer experience. With operations across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East, NiCE Cognigy pairs regional compliance strengths with global scale.
Personalization at scale: real cases
Personalization comes from context, history and live system data-not long scripts. Lufthansa used NiCE Cognigy to handle hundreds of thousands of rebookings during an airport strike, adapting to each passenger's itinerary.
Bosch rolled out more than 90 AI agents across HR and customer support, hitting a 76% resolution rate in sales inquiries. These are real outcomes at enterprise scale.
Security, privacy and trust: what to get right
- Data privacy and compliance: protect PII and align with applicable regulations across regions. See the EU's data protection guidance here.
- Secure integration: connect to CRMs, ERPs and ticketing systems with strict access controls, auditing and logging.
- Scalable controls: keep policies, permissions and monitoring consistent as you expand across teams and countries.
- AI-specific risks: define error handling, input validation and clean escalation to human agents. The NIST AI Risk Management Framework offers a useful reference here.
How this changes the work of human agents
AI agents take on repetitive work-rebookings, password resets, status checks-so your team can focus on cases that need empathy and judgment. Support roles shift from task execution to relationship management and complex resolution.
The result: fewer repetitive tickets, lower burnout, and more time for the conversations that actually build loyalty.
Implementing agentic AI at scale
Technology checklist:
- Wire up clean data connections and APIs so AI agents can read context and take action.
- Choose platforms proven to handle millions of interactions with strong APIs and low-code tools for fast iteration.
- Instrument everything: observability, conversation analytics, outcome tracking and feedback loops.
People and process checklist:
- Train teams to design prompts, review conversations, and fine-tune automations over time.
- Define co-working patterns: AI handles; humans supervise, step in on edge cases, and improve flows weekly.
- Set clear governance: data policies, escalation rules and change management across regions and brands.
Where to start
- Pick 3-5 high-volume intents with clear outcomes (refunds, rebookings, order status, simple tech fixes).
- Integrate the core systems those intents touch (CRM, billing, booking, ticketing).
- Set success metrics up front: first-contact resolution, average handle time, containment, CSAT-and review weekly.
Upskill your team for AI-enabled support
If you're building an AI-augmented support operation, get your team ready with focused training. Explore role-based programs for support leaders and agents here, or add a practical certification in AI automation here.
The takeaway
Agentic AI isn't a deflection trick. It's a dependable teammate that reads context, takes action and hands off when it should. For support leaders, the path is clear: start with real use cases, integrate tightly, measure outcomes and train your people to work side-by-side with AI.
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