Salesforce Voice: Enabling AI Capabilities in Your Contact Center

Salesforce has announced the planned retirement of Open CTI, with official retirement scheduled for February 28, 2028. Customers are encouraged to migrate their telephony operations to Salesforce Voice. This transition represents more than just a system upgrade; it's a fundamental shift towards leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) within contact centers.

From Open CTI to Salesforce Voice: The AI Imperative

Open CTI, introduced in 2012, has served as a bridge between Salesforce and external telephony systems, providing softphone features like call controls, logging, and click-to-dial. However, it was designed for a different era and offers limited integration of interaction records. Modern customer experience demands immediacy, personalization, and unified interaction data. Salesforce Voice addresses this by providing a single, integrated platform that allows customer data to fuel real-time actions and insights, rather than post-interaction updates.

This real-time data exchange is crucial for integrating agentic and generative AI functionalities, such as Salesforce Agentforce, into contact center operations.

Migration Status and Benefits

Research indicates that 55% of Salesforce Open CTI and Voice customers are actively exploring or underway with their migration. While there is still time before the retirement deadline, early adoption offers significant advantages. Migrating to Salesforce Voice is not just a compliance requirement but an opportunity to unlock AI-powered contact center functionality that can accelerate resolution times, reduce after-call work, and deliver a more consistent customer experience.

Key AI Use Cases Enabled by Salesforce Voice

Salesforce Voice, in conjunction with AI technologies, facilitates several key improvements in contact center operations:

1. Real-Time Compliance

AI can monitor agent conversations against company guidelines and compliance documentation, providing real-time prompts and guidance. This ensures interactions remain accurate and consistent, reducing the risk of compliance breaches. Salesforce Voice users report 18% higher usage of "call quality assurance" compared to Open CTI users.

2. Automated Knowledge Retrieval

AI analyzes conversations in real-time to surface relevant information, such as answers to customer questions, help articles, or policy documents. This reduces agent search time mid-call, improves customer experience, and accelerates resolution. 76% of respondents using agentic AI report using or implementing "automated knowledge retrieval."

3. Handling Routine Tasks

AI can autonomously handle routine requests like address changes, refunds, or appointment bookings, either asynchronously or in the background during a human agent's call. This frees up human agents for complex, high-value interactions, reducing cost-per-interaction and expanding capacity.

Salesforce Voice customers show 28% higher adoption of "end-to-end handling of transactional workflows."

4. Automating Post-Call Tasks

AI can automate tasks such as compiling call notes, populating CRM fields, and assigning follow-up actions. This reduces hidden costs associated with post-call work and minimizes human error. Salesforce Voice respondents are 81% more likely to have implemented "automated post-call work" and 31% more likely to rank "real-time ‘co-pilot’ guidance for human agents" as a key outcome.

5. Proactive Customer Service

AI can monitor metrics (e.g., failed transactions, delayed deliveries) to identify issues before customers report them. AI agents can then resolve straightforward issues, assign complex tasks to humans, or proactively notify customers. This leads to reduced call volumes and an improved customer experience. Salesforce Voice customers demonstrate a 28% higher adoption of "proactive customer service."

6. Agentic Fraud Prevention

AI can analyze live call data and telephony signals to detect fraudulent behavior, reducing the reliance on cumbersome security questions. This improves call efficiency and mitigates risks. Enterprises combining Salesforce Voice and Agentforce are 2.6x more likely to adopt agentic fraud detection.

Key Takeaways

• Open CTI Retirement: Salesforce is retiring Open CTI on February 28, 2028, necessitating a migration to Salesforce Voice.
• AI Integration: Salesforce Voice is a foundational component for integrating advanced AI capabilities into contact centers.
• Real-Time Data: The platform enables real-time data exchange, critical for AI-driven insights and automation.
• Enhanced Use Cases: Salesforce Voice unlocks AI-powered features like real-time compliance, automated knowledge retrieval, routine task handling, post-call automation, proactive service, and fraud prevention.
• Strategic Advantage: Migrating to Salesforce Voice presents an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage through AI-enhanced customer service operations.