Philipp Heltewig, Chief AI Officer at NiCE and General Manager at NiCE Cognigy talks about the evolution of AI agents and how this is impacting customer experience workflows in this MarTech Series interview:
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Hi Philipp, tell us about NiCE Cognigy and how it enables end users in marketing / sales? How does your recently launched AI Ops Center tie into this?
NiCE Cognigy brings together advanced conversational and generative AI to help enterprises deliver customer experiences that are faster, more consistent, and more human. For marketing and sales teams, that translates into more responsive and personalized engagement, AI agents that qualify leads, answer product questions, and guide customers through purchase or renewal journeys, all in real time and across any channel.
The newly launched AI Ops Center builds on that mission by ensuring reliability behind the scenes. As organizations scale AI agents across multiple channels and systems, operational complexity increases. The AI Ops Center gives teams real-time visibility and control over these interactions, detecting bottlenecks, managing dependencies, and ensuring AI systems remain trusted and available. It’s essentially the “control tower” that keeps enterprise AI performance stable as it grows.
How is today’s CX ecosystem transforming with the impact of Artificial Intelligence?
Customer experience has shifted from being a reactive support function to a proactive engagement discipline – and AI is the catalyst for that change. With the right orchestration of conversational and generative AI, companies can deliver hyper-personalized, humanlike, 24/7 interactions that were previously impossible.
The next evolution is toward agentic systems, goal-oriented AI agents that can autonomously reason, adapt, and collaborate with AI and humans. This model fundamentally transforms CX operations by combining human empathy with AI efficiency, allowing organizations to scale without compromising quality.
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How are you seeing some leading SaaS brands use AI to empower better CX workflows?
Across industries, we’re seeing a clear shift toward AI-enabled CX that blends automation with human oversight. Many SaaS-driven organizations are rethinking their service operations around AI agents that can handle end-to-end workflows, from qualifying requests and resolving issues to providing context-aware handovers to human teams. These companies are also using real-time AI assistance to empower their employees: copilots that surface knowledge, summarize interactions, and predict next best actions during live conversations.
The broader pattern is that CX is no longer seen as a reactive function but as a continuous feedback loop powered by AI, learning from every interaction, adapting to customer behavior, and delivering personalization at scale.
What’s next for AI Agents?
We’re moving toward a world where AI Agents don’t just respond — they reach out. Outbounding is the next frontier. These agents will identify opportunities, initiate meaningful conversations, and represent the brand directly with customers. It’s not about replacing human interaction, but extending it — enabling enterprises to engage intelligently, consistently, and at scale. The result is faster, smarter, and more adaptive customer engagement that drives growth and deepens relationships.
Final thoughts around the future of CX and AI before we wrap up?
The next few years will be about turning AI from a novelty into dependable infrastructure. AI will increasingly become the first point of contact in most customer interactions because customers now expect instant, personalized service on their terms. Enterprises will move from experimentation to operational excellence, focusing on performance, transparency, and trust at scale.
Voice is making a powerful comeback. As conversational AI becomes more natural and context-aware, customers will rediscover the ease of simply speaking — and AI will finally be good enough to make that experience seamless.
Ultimately, the future of CX won’t be about replacing people with machines; it will be about designing teams where humans and AI work side by side. The organizations that thrive will be those that treat AI not as a tool but as a trusted member of their workforce, one that scales empathy as effectively as it scales efficiency.
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NiCE Cognigy delivers AI that works—fast, human, and enterprise-ready. As the leading AI Agent platform built for enterprise-grade CX, we combine Generative and Conversational AI through orchestration, tools, and enterprise systems to power Agentic AI. Backed by global CX leader NiCE, we empower brands with AI Agents that redefine customer experiences and achieve measurable ROI—instantly, across every channel and in 100+ languages. Forrester, and IDC, we continue to lead the market in enterprise AI for CX; secure, scalable, and partner-first.
About Philipp
Philipp Heltewig, is Chief AI Officer @ NiCE and General Manager at NiCE Cognigy
