Manager Memo podcast · Len Samborowski, MBA Associate Professor, Nichols College

Glia: Automate and Elevate

·36 min·2 clips

“The frontline agent is already the doctor” because the virtual assistant handles authentication first.

Rick DeLisi joins Manager Memo to talk about customer experience, AI, and the contact center. He is introduced as a communication practitioner, author, and expert in optimizing customer experience by harnessing the power of the on-screen world. The conversation opens with a simple check-in, then moves straight into his new report on AI. That report is about redefining value, effort, and impact in the AI-era contact center. The main point is not whether companies are using AI. The real question is whether they are adapting it well enough to get the most out of it. Rick says a lot of the AI conversation is muddied by myths and bad information. He treats that as a reason to think more clearly about strategy, not as a reason to slow down. The episode keeps its attention on customer work rather than drifting into abstract tech talk. Rick explains that bots and virtual assistants can take on early tasks that human agents usually have to handle themselves. That includes authentication and the first steps in the customer journey. The result is more capacity that is no longer tied up in repetitive work. That extra room can then go toward work that matters more. The episode also points to a business upside beyond efficiency. If AI creates savings and new revenue, that money can help raise salaries. It can also support recruiting the right people for the job. Rick uses a doctor's office analogy to make the workflow easy to picture. A customer often moves through receptionist, nurse, and doctor stages before the real issue gets solved. In the model he describes, the virtual assistant handles the front-end checks first. That lets the frontline agent start closer to the actual solution. The episode ends with an AI-for-all model. In that setup, the system predicts the best interaction type for a person at a given moment. The goal is to match the service path to the issue instead of forcing every customer through the same process. It closes on a practical note: make the interaction feel easier, not more complicated. Rick is thanked for sharing a framework that makes AI feel more usable in everyday service work. The show closes by inviting listeners to like and subscribe and stay part of the management team.

As heard by us

A practical look at how AI can free service teams for higher-value work.

Manager Memo frames a practical case for AI in contact centers, focusing less on patching staffing pressure and more on reworking the job itself.

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Why you'd press play

If AI in contact centers feels fuzzy, this gives you a clear working model.

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