For telcos, customer experience (CX) is no longer a differentiator. It is a survival requirement. Today’s digital-first customers expect immediate answers, intuitive interfaces, and personalized interactions. Churn rates remain high, competition is intensifying, and expectations are shaped not only by other telcos but also by digital natives such as Amazon, Netflix, and Uber.
So, what does seamless CX mean? Unlike the traditional model where customers bounced between channels, agents, and knowledge silos, seamless CX is unified, intelligent, and anticipatory. Customers receive the right answer the first time, across any channel, without friction.
Achieving this is not simple. Many telcos face barriers including:
- Technical debt locked into aging monolithic systems
- Complex governance and compliance requirements that slow down decision-making
- Siloed knowledge bases that frustrate both agents and customers
- Uncertainty about generative AI maturity and business readiness
At the same time, cost pressures make incremental modernization difficult to justify yet too costly to avoid.
AI-driven modernization is no longer a future vision. It is the practical path forward. Leading telcos are leveraging AI and cloud platforms to transform knowledge management, automate workflows, and deliver the next era of customer experience.
At Architech, we have seen firsthand how modernization moves from pilot to production. In partnership with a leading North American telco, we revamped its customer support search experience. The result: containment increased by over 20%, average handle times dropped by 30%, and customer satisfaction rose significantly. Faster answers, happier customers, and empowered agents.
Case Insights
At the heart of our telco partnership were two critical priorities: enabling customers to self-serve effectively, and equipping agents with faster, more accurate information.
Customer Self-Serve Search
Customers struggled to find the right information online, leading to unnecessary call-ins. The telco tracked this through a metric called containment, which measures the percentage of customer problems successfully solved in self-service channels without escalation to an agent.
The objective was clear: increase containment by helping customers resolve more issues online.
The solution was an AI-augmented search tool. Instead of browsing through endless support pages, customers could ask their question in natural language and instantly receive a concise, accurate summary pulled from verified support content. The experience mirrored Google’s simplicity, direct, clear answers rather than a long list of links. Containment rose by double digits, reducing call center pressure and improving overall satisfaction.
Agent Knowledge Management
On the agent side, the challenge was navigating decades of manuals, articles, and constantly updated content. Different agent roles, from field technicians visiting homes to sales reps recommending plans, required radically different knowledge bases. Finding the right resource was often slow and frustrating.
The solution was an AI-powered agent assist tool that unified multiple knowledge systems into a single intelligent interface. By migrating and consolidating libraries, the telco also reduced subscription costs. More importantly, agents could now ask questions and get context-aware answers tailored to their role. Average handle time decreased by nearly a third, and first-call resolution rates improved.
Together, these two use cases illustrate how AI improves both sides of the CX equation:
- Self-serve search increases containment and reduces call volume
- Agent assist improves efficiency, accuracy, and customer outcomes when calls do occur
Industry-Wide Relevance: Why GenAI Works for Telco Operations
The promise of AI in telco is not abstract. Large Language Models (LLMs) understand natural language, enabling agents and customers alike to get the right answer faster without navigating dozens of knowledge articles.
Beyond telco, we see the same challenges and results in adjacent industries such as insurance and financial services . This reinforces that AI-powered search is not just a telco solution it is a cross-industry imperative.
From Architech’s work with telcos, several lessons apply across the industry:
- Modular architecture delivers speed: building modern, API-first services allows telcos to modernize piece by piece
- Quick wins matter: AI search, knowledge management, and agent assist deliver immediate impact without wholesale overhaul
- AI augments, not replaces agents remain central, but now they have a co-pilot that reduces error rates and accelerates response times
Modernize with Confidence
Successful telcos avoid trying to transform everything at once. Instead, they focus on high-impact, manageable use cases such as:
- Knowledge management – unify content into AI-powered search
- GenAI-assisted workflows – reduce repetitive manual work for agents
- Ticket triage – accelerate resolution by routing issues to the right team instantly
But success requires more than technology. Leading organizations follow four principles:
- Production-grade deployments – pilot quickly, but design for scale
- Strong governance and security – ensure compliance without slowing delivery
- Trusted partnerships – work with proven partners like Microsoft and Architech
- Clear ROI metrics – track value in reduced handle times, improved NPS, and lower cost-to-serve
The shift to seamless CX in telecom isn’t a question of if but how fast. The lesson from Architech’s telco partnership is clear: start small, modernize with confidence, and build on success.
Agents stopped “searching the search tool” and began finding answers in seconds. Customers stopped abandoning self-service and started resolving their issues online. That shift from friction to fluency embodies what seamless CX really means.
Ready to explore what seamless CX could look like for your organization? Let Architech help you cut 20–30% in call volume and accelerate resolutions with AI. Schedule a 30-minute consultation with our team today!
