Agent Answers

Introduction

Unified CCE leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to provide services that assist agents. These services are available for the agents in the Cisco Finesse desktop gadgets.

Agent Answers feature provides relevant suggestions and recommendations in real time for the agent to consider. The suggestions and recommendations are based on the ongoing conversation between the caller and the agent.

More often than not, agents lack the depth of knowledge about the products and services of the business they serve. Agent Answers enhances the customer experience because the timely suggestions improve the ability of the agent to respond. Businesses can cut down on training costs and time.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites for configuring Agent Answers are:

  • The Agent Answers feature requires 17.12.3 or later version of the vCUBE Catalyst 8000V platform or ISRs 4431, 4451-X, or 4461 CUBE platforms.

    For more details on supported CUBE platforms and configuration, see the WebSocket-Based Media Forking for Cloud Speech Services chapter in the Cisco Unified Border Element Configuration Guide - Cisco IOS XE 17.6 Onwards at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/voice/cube/ios-xe/config/ios-xe-book/websocket-forking-for-cube.html.


    Note

    The WebSocket-based forking method has been deprecated. The Agent Answer feature will now be supported via a new forking mechanism. Please transition to the new method to maintain support and functionality. For details and guidance, refer to https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/unified-communications/unified-border-element/deprecation-notice-websocket-based-media-forking.html.

  • The following components must be on release 12.6(2): CCE components (Router, Logger, PG, and AW), Cisco Finesse, Cisco Unified CVP, and Cloud Connect.

  • Ensure that your Unified ICM AW server has 443/8443 ports opened and is able to access the following websites:

    • *.wbx2.com

    • *.ciscoccservice.com

  • Ensure that CUBE has access to the following websites:

    • *.cisco.com

    • *.ciscospark.com

    • *.rtmsprod.net

    • *.wbx2.com

  • Ensure that Packaged CCE AW, Cloud Connect, CUBE, and Agent Desktop components have access to Webex services to use the Agent Answers.

Important Considerations

Consider the following before configuring the Agent Answers services:

  • Agent Answers services are supported on calls that originate from CVP routing clients. Calls originating from routing clients other than CVP or calls that are sent using the translation route to CVP do not support the Agent Answers services.

  • The following failover scenarios don’t support Agent Answers services:

    • CCE components running in maintenance modes switch to the peer side, passing the call context to the other side. If the call context (required to trigger the Agent Answers services) is lost, Agent Answers services may not work as expected.

    • Agent Answers services is supported during VRU PG failovers before and after the transfer. However, Agent Answers services aren’t supported when the transfer is in progress.

    • Agent Answers services aren’t supported during Agent PG failovers.

  • Agent Answers services aren’t supported in the following call scenarios:

    • Direct Extension calls

    • Outbound campaign calls and agent-initiated outbound calls.

    • Calls routed to agents on non-CUCM Peripheral Gateways such as the TDM PG and System PG

    • Transfer and conference calls

  • Agent Answers services are supported only with G.711 μ law.

  • A CUBE instance can support either WebSocket-based forking or Network-based Recording (NBR) forking. However, you cannot enable both types of forking on the same instance of CUBE.

Contact Center AI Services Task Flow

Follow this procedure to enable the CCAI services that equips your Contact Center for Agent Answers services.

Procedure

Step 1

Create a CCAI configuration in Cisco Webex Control Hub at https://admin.webex.com. A CCAI configuration leverages CCAI Connectors to invoke the CCAI services.

For details, see the Create a Contact Center AI Configuration article.

Step 2

Ensure that the Cloud Connect publisher and subscriber are installed.

For more information, see the Create VM for Cloud Connect Publisher and Create VM for Cloud Connect Subscriber sections in Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise Installation and Upgrade Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/packaged-contact-center-enterprise/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Step 3

Configure Cloud Connect in Unified CCE Administration. For details, see Configure Cloud Connect section in the Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise Administration and Configuration Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/packaged-contact-center-enterprise/products-maintenance-guides-list.html.

Step 4

Register Cloud Connect in the Unified CCE Administration console to establish a secure and trusted communication channel between the Cisco Contact Center on-premises deployment and cloud services.

For details, see the Cloud Connect Integration section in the Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise Administration and Configuration Guide https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/packaged-contact-center-enterprise/products-maintenance-guides-list.html..

Step 5

Import the Cloud Connect certificate to the CVP Server.

For details, see the section Import Cloud Connect Certificate to Unified CVP Keystore in the Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/unified-customer-voice-portal/products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html.

Step 6

In the Unified CCE Administration console, do the following with the CCAI configuration (created in step 1):

  1. To view and sync the Contact Center AI configuration which is associated with all call types as a global configuration.

  2. To view, update, or delete the Contact Center AI configuration associated with a specific call type.

Step 7

In the Script Editor, associate the Contact Center AI Config ID and the call GUID with two new ECC variables. For more information, see Modifying CCE Script to Configure Agent Answers.

Step 8

Do the following in the Cisco Finesse Administration console.

Once enabled, the Agent Answers gadget appears on the Home tab and displays relevant articles and suggestions during an incoming call. For details on how to use the gadget, see the Contact Center AI Gadgets Guide.

Note

 

Gadget auto-hide/un-hide and notifications capability is available only if the gadget is configured as a multi-tab gadget in Cisco Finesse. For more details, see Configure Multi-Tab Gadget Layout section in the Cisco Finesse Administration Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/finesse/products-maintenance-guides-list.html.

Step 9

To add the Agent Answers gadget to the Cisco Finesse desktop layout:

  1. Enable the Agent Answers gadget in Cisco Finesse Administration.

    For details, see the Manage Desktop Layout section in the Cisco Finesse Administration Guide.

  2. Enable the Agent Answers service in Unified CCE Administration for an agent or multiple agents together.

Once enabled, the Agent Answers gadget appears on the Home tab and displays relevant articles and suggestions during an incoming call. For details on how to use the gadget, see the Contact Center AI Gadgets User Guide for Cisco Contact Center Enterprise.

Note

 

Gadget auto-hide/un-hide and notifications capability is available only if the gadget is configured as a multi-tab gadget in Cisco Finesse. For more details, see Configure Multi-Tab Gadget Layout section in the Cisco Finesse Administration Guide.

Step 10

Perform the following steps to configure WebSocket-based forking in CUBE.

  1. Create a SIP profile and associate it at the dial-peer level in CUBE. For details, see Importing Cube Certificate.

  2. Import the WebSocket Connector certificate to CUBE. For details, see Importing Cube Certificate.

  3. Configure WebSocket-based forking in CUBE. For details, see the WebSocket-Based Media Forking for Cloud Speech Services chapter in the Cisco Unified Border Element Configuration Guide - Cisco IOS XE 17.6 Onwards.

CUBE uses a WebSocket connection to fork the media streams of the agent and the caller towards the Webex CCAI Orchestrator service. For more details, see the Contact Center AI Services Considerations section in the Solution Design Guide for Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise .

Note

 

The WebSocket-based forking method has been deprecated. The Agent Answer feature will now be supported via a new forking mechanism. Please transition to the new method to maintain support and functionality. For details and guidance, refer to https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/unified-communications/unified-border-element/deprecation-notice-websocket-based-media-forking.html.

Step 11

To use the regionalised media support, see the Regional Media Data Center Region Mapping section.

Contact Center AI Configuration

In the Unified CCE Administration console, the Contact Center AI (CCAI) feature tab allows administrators to associate the CCAI configuration (created in the Control Hub at https://admin.webex.com/) with all the call types (global configuration) or with a specific call type. Upon associating a CCAI configuration with the call type, the global configuration (if any) gets overridden for the specific call type.


Note

To access this feature, add Cloud Connect to the inventory and register it in the Unified CCE Administration console.

Associate Contact Center AI Configuration with All Call Types

You can view, update, or reset the Contact Center AI configuration, which is associated with all call types.

View Contact Center AI Configuration

In the Unified CCE Administration, navigate to Overview > Features > Contact Center AI. The Contact Center AI Configuration search box displays the name of the CCAI configuration that was previously associated with all call types.

Reset Contact Center AI Global Configuration

This procedure explains how to reset the Contact Center AI configuration. Upon reset, the previously associated configuration is cleared from the search box.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Unified CCE Administration, navigate to Overview > Features > Contact Center AI.

Step 2

In the Contact Center AI Configuration search box, next to the configuration name, click the x icon.

Step 3

Click Save.

Associate Contact Center AI Configuration with a Call Type

You can view, update, or delete the Contact Center AI configuration associated with a specific call type.

View Contact Center AI Configuration

In the Unified CCE Administration, navigate to Overview > Call Settings > Route Settings > Call Type. The Contact Center AI Configuration search box displays the name of the CCAI configuration that was previously associated with the call type.

Associate Contact Center AI Configuration

Before you begin

This procedure explains how to associate the Contact Center AI configuration with a call type.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Unified CCE Administration, navigate to Overview > Call Settings > Route Settings.

Step 2

Click the Call Type tab.

Step 3

Click New to open the New Call Type window.

Step 4

Complete the mandatory fields in the General tab. For more information, see the Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise Administration and Configuration Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/packaged-contact-center-enterprise/products-maintenance-guides-list.html.

Step 5

Click the Contact Center AI tab.

Step 6

In the Contact Center AI Configuration search box, click the search icon. A pop-up window displays a list of CCAI configurations.

Step 7

Select the required configuration and click Save.

Update Associate Contact Center AI Configuration

You can create a Call Type using the Configuration Manager tool. However, you can use the Unified CCE Administration to associate a Contact Center AI configuration with a call type. This procedure explains how to update the Contact Center AI configuration associated with a call type.


Note

Only one configuration can be associated with a call type.
Procedure

Step 1

In the Unified CCE Administration, navigate to Overview > Call Settings > Route Settings.

Step 2

Click the Call Type tab and select the call type for which Contact Center AI configuration has to be updated.

Step 3

Click the Call Type tab and select the call type for which Contact Center AI configuration has to be associated.

Step 4

Click the Contact Center AI tab.

Step 5

In the Contact Center AI Configuration search box, click the search icon. A pop-up window displays a list of CCAI configurations.

Step 6

Select the required configuration and click Save.

Reset Contact Center AI Configuration

This procedure explains how to reset the Contact Center AI configuration. Upon reset, the previously associated configuration with the call type is cleared from the search box.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Unified CCE Administration, navigate to Overview > Call Settings > Route Settings.

Step 2

Click the Call Type tab.

Step 3

In the Contact Center AI Configuration search box, next to the configuration name, click the x icon.

Step 4

Click Save.

Enable or Disable Contact Center AI Services for Agents

Contact Center AI Services can be configured for each agent. Administrators and supervisors can enable or disable the services for an agent or multiple agents together.

Configure Contact Center AI Services for an Agent

Administrators can configure Contact Center AI Services for an agent while adding the agent. Supervisors can only enable or disable the services for an agent.
Procedure

Step 1

In Unified CCE Administration, choose Users > Agents.

Step 2

Click New to open the New Agent page.

This page has: General, Attributes, Skill Groups, Supervised Teams, Enable Email & Chat, and Contact Center AI tabs.You cannot save the agent until you have entered all required fields on the General tab. You can complete other tabs as needed and in any order. For more information, see Add and Maintain Agents section in the Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise Administration and Configuration Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/packaged-contact-center-enterprise/products-maintenance-guides-list.html.

Step 3

Click the Contact Center AI tab.

Displays a list of services for the agent.

Step 4

To enable or disable the required Contact Center AI Services, check or uncheck the check boxes corresponding to the services.

Step 5

Click Save.

Enable or Disable Contact Center AI Services for an Agent

This procedure explains how to enable or disable Contact Center AI Services for an agent.
Procedure

Step 1

In Unified CCE Administration, choose Users > Agents.

Step 2

Click on the agent row whose services are to be modified.

Step 3

Click the Contact Center AI tab.

Displays a list of services enabled or disabled for the agent.

Step 4

To enable or disable the required Contact Center AI Services, check or uncheck the check boxes corresponding to the services.

Step 5

Click Save.

Enable or Disable Contact Center AI Services for Multiple Agents

Administrators and supervisors can enable or disable Contact Center AI Services for multiple agents.

All agents must belong to the same site and the same department, or all agents must be global agents. The Edit button is disabled if:

  • Agents from different sites, departments, or peripheral sets are selected.

  • A mix of global and departmental agents are selected.

Procedure

Step 1

In Unified CCE Administration, choose Users > Agents.

Step 2

Check the check box corresponding to each agent whose services you want to edit.

Step 3

Click Edit > Contact Center AI.

The Edit Services dialog displays a list of services that are the service that is enabled or disabled.

  • If the service is enabled for all the agents selected for editing, the check box is checked.

  • If the service is disabled for all the agents selected for editing, the check box is unchecked.

  • If the service is enabled for some agents and disabled for the others, the check box has a dash (—).

Step 4

To enable or disable the Contact Center AI Services, check or uncheck the check boxes corresponding to the services.

Step 5

Click Save, and then click Yes to confirm the changes.

Enable or Disable AnswersContact Center AI Services for Agents using Bulk Job

Procedure

Step 1

Navigate to Unified CCE Administration > Overview > Bulk Import.

Step 2

Click Templates.

The Download Templates popup window opens.

Step 3

Click the Download icon for the Contact Center AI template you want to use.

Step 4

Click OK to close the Download Templates popup window.

Step 5

Open the .csv template in Microsoft Excel.

Step 6

Populate the file as described in the Bulk Contact Center AI Services Content File.

Step 7

Save the populated file to the local machine.

Step 8

Navigate to Unified CCE Administration > Overview > Bulk Import.

Step 9

Click New.

Step 10

In the optional Description field, enter up to 255 characters to describe the bulk job.

Step 11

In the Content file field, choose the file to upload, and then click Save.

Bulk Contact Center AI Services Content File

The content file for Contact Center AI bulk job contains the fields given in the following table. Enter the values appropriately in the given fields to enable or disable Contact Center AI Services for the agents.


Note
Bulk job is available for administrators only when Cloud Connect is added in the inventory and registered on the Control Hub.

Field

Required?

Description

agentId

Agent ID or Username

Existing agentId for which you want to enable or disable the Contact Center AI Services.

You must provide either an agentId or the userName. If both are provided, agentId takes precedence over the userName. If the agentId value is left blank, the userName will reference an existing agent.

userName

Username or Agent ID

Username of the agent for which you want to enable or disable the Contact Center AI Services.

If no agent is found with the given username, the Contact Center AI Services association fails.

agentServices

Yes (to enable Contact Center AI Services)

The type of Contact Center AI Services to be associated with the agent. Supported values are AgentAnswers, VAV Transcript, and Transcript. To associate more than one services, seperate the values using semicolon (;).

If the value is updated, any existing enabled service gets overwritten. If the value is left empty, no service gets associated with the agent.

Create a SIP Profile at the Dial-Peer Level in CUBE

Run the following CLI commands on the CUBE terminal to create a SIP profile and associate that profile at the dial-peer level. These commands add a SIP header to the SIP profile configuration, allowing CVP to identify which CUBE device can receive the forking request. 

voice class sip-profiles <SIP-profile-identifier-a>
request INVITE sip-header Call-Info add "X-Cisco-Forking: supported"
dial-peer voice <SIP-profile-identifier-b> voip
voice-class sip profiles <SIP-profile-identifier-a>

Example:

voice class sip-profiles 104
request INVITE sip-header Call-Info add "X-Cisco-Forking: supported"
dial-peer voice 4445 voip
voice-class sip profiles 104

Import or Verify WebSocket Connector Certificate to CUBE

By default, the trust pool bundle includes the IdenTrust Commercial certificate. This certificate is required for validating the WSConnector certificate during the TLS connection establishment of the WebSocket Connector.

Procedure

Step 1

Run the command to verify if the certificate is included.

show crypto pki trustpool | include IdenTrust
cn=IdenTrust Commercial Root CA 1
o=IdenTrust Inc
cn=IdenTrust Commercial Root CA 1
o=IdenTrust Inc

Step 2

If IdenTrust certificates are not present, add the certificates to CUBE.

  1. Open the following URL https://www.cisco.com/security/pki/.

  2. Locate the Cisco Trusted Core Root Bundle under the Trusted Root Stores.

  3. Select the Cisco Trusted Core Root Bundle, right click, and then select Copy link. The URL for the bundle is copied to your clipboard.

  4. Run the following command in CUBE terminal:

    CUBE# configure terminal
CUBE(config)# crypto pki trustpool import clean URL <URL copied in step 2(c)>

    Example:

    CUBE(config)# crypto pki trustpool import clean URL http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/trs/ios_core.p7b

    Output

    Reading file from http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/trs/ios_core.p7b
Loading http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/trs/ios_core.p7b
% PEM files import succeeded.

The IndenTrust certificates are added to CUBE. To verify the addition, run the following command show crypto pki trustpool | include IdenTrust. The output will display the IdenTrust certificates as shown in Step 1.

Reconfigure Agent Answers after Upgrade to Packaged CCE 12.6

Before you begin

In Packaged CCE 12.6, the CCAI services include the following enhanced capabilities when compared to 12.5:

  • Reporting: The Agent Answers Analytics report compares an agent's handle time when the Agent Answers service was enabled vs. when the service was disabled. The report helps you understand the impact of the Agent Answers services on an agent's performance.

  • Enable the CCAI Configuration for Specific Call Types: The CCAI Configuration can be enabled for all or specific call types.

  • Enable the CCAI Services for Specific Agents: The CCAI Services can be configured for each agent. Administrators and supervisors can enable or disable the services for an agent or multiple agents.

If you used the CCAI Services on Packaged CCE 12.5, you've already completed most of the configurations that are required for the Agent Answers and Call Transcript services to work in Packaged CCE 12.6. No changes are required to the existing Google CCAI, CUBE, or Cloud Connect configurations.

While configuring the CCAI services in Packaged CCE 12.5, you enabled Cisco Finesse 12.6 to display the CCAI gadgets to all the agents by running the enableCustomAgentServices CLI command.

Once you complete the agent configurations (at Step 3 in the following procedure) and run the enableCustomAgentServices CLI command to disable the gadgets for all the agents (at Step 4), Cisco Finesse relies on agent-specific configuration in Unified CCE Administration to display the gadgets.

Follow these steps to complete the CCAI configuration in Packaged CCE 12.6 and leverage the enhanced capabilities listed above:

Procedure

Step 1

In Control Hub, set a CCAI configuration as the default configuration for all calls. For more details, see Step 7a at https://help.webex.com/en-us/npbt02j/Configure-Contact-Center-AI.

Step 2

In the Unified CCE Administration console, do one of the following:

Step 3

In the Unified CCE Administration console, enable or disable CCAI Services for an agent or multiple agents.

For more details, see Enable or Disable Contact Center AI Services for Agents.

Step 4

Undo these CCAI settings configured when Packaged CCE was in 12.5: