It’s a fascinating concept. The idea isn’t to replace the human on the phone but to give them a teammate that actually does things.

Before we get into the details, if you are trying to keep track of everything happening this week, you can find our full AWS re:Invent 2025 Event Guide here and our full re:Invent hub of news here.

The headline news centers on ‘Agentic AI’—a term you are likely familiar with by now. Amazon Connect is rolling out 29 new capabilities designed to show it’s more than just a buzzword. Unlike the rather rigid chatbots that would get confused if you phrased a question the wrong way, these agents can reason, look up accounts, and process requests. The goal is to handle the drudgery, the notes, the summaries, the form-filling, so the human agent can focus on being, well, human.

“We’re now entering an era of agentic AI in Connect.” — Pasquale DeMaio

Here is what that actually looks like for the people doing the work.

Agents Get Instant Access to Enterprise Knowledge

There is nothing worse than being on the phone and not knowing the answer. It’s awkward for everyone.

To fix this, Amazon Connect is connecting its AI agents directly to enterprise knowledge bases via Amazon Bedrock. It means the AI can pull accurate answers instantly during a conversation.

They have also added support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It sounds technical, but it essentially means the AI can talk to other systems—like inventory databases or order management platforms—without a fuss. And for those already invested in the ecosystem, these AI features now extend seamlessly into the Salesforce Contact Center.

Amazon Connect Just Made Proactive Outreach Easier for Service Teams

Ideally, you fix the problem before the customer has to call you.

The new “Journeys” feature allows businesses to design multi-step experiences that adapt based on what the customer does. Combined with new predictive insights, the system can spot churn risks or purchasing interests and suggest reaching out proactively.

They have also added WhatsApp support for outbound campaigns. Given how much of the world lives on that app, it feels like a necessary addition.

Amazon Connect Delivers Complete Visibility for Teams Trusting Autonomous AI

Handing control over to an AI can feel a bit risky. To calm those nerves, Amazon Connect has introduced “enhanced observability.”

You can now see exactly why the AI made a decision, what tools it used, and how it got there. It provides a level of transparency that has been missing. They have also added tools to simulate thousands of interactions, so you can test how the AI behaves before you let it loose on real customers.

Global Brands Get Genuinely Human Voice Interactions

Robotic voices are usually a bit odd. They kill the mood.

Amazon Connect is launching “Nova Sonic” voices. These are designed to sound genuinely human, with the ability to handle interruptions gracefully and understand different accents.

If you prefer other flavors, they have also opened the platform to third-party speech tools like ElevenLabs and Deepgram. It gives businesses a choice, which is always nice.

• Read Amazon Nova Sonic: The End of the “Robot Pause” in CX?

Amazon Connect Removes Analytics Headaches for Managers with Natural Language Queries

If you have ever stared at a complex dashboard wondering why call volumes are spiking, this might appeal to you.

Amazon Connect is introducing an AI assistant for managers that lets you ask questions in plain English. You can simply ask, “Which agents need coaching on product knowledge?” or “What is causing the spike in call volume today?”

The AI digs through the data and gives you an answer. It removes the friction of needing to be a data scientist just to run a contact center, which seems like a rather sensible move.

What’s Next?

I began to wonder if we are moving toward a world where the “superhuman” agent is the standard, not the exception. It is a lot to digest.

We will be digging into this all week. Stay tuned for exclusive video interviews and a few more scoops from the event floor here on CX Today.

At AWS re:Invent 2025, the team introduced Amazon Nova Sonic, and it feels like they might have finally bridged that gap. It’s a new speech-to-speech foundation model designed specifically to make conversational AI feel, well, conversational.

Rather than just transcribing what you say and reading back a script, it listens, understands, and responds in real-time—much like a person would. It’s rather impressive, if a bit eerie at first.

The “Under the Hood” Bit

To understand why this is different, you have to look at how we used to build voice bots. The old way was a bit of a relay race: your voice was turned into text, sent to an LLM, processed, turned back into text, and then synthesized into speech. That relay race created lag.

Amazon Nova Sonic uses a unified speech-to-speech architecture. It processes audio input and generates audio output directly. Because it doesn’t have to constantly translate speech into text and back again, it cuts out the latency. It uses a bidirectional streaming API, which is a fancy way of saying it can listen and talk at the same time—just like a telephone call.

The “Vibe Check”: Why Audio-First Matters

There is a subtle but critical technical shift here. By moving to a native speech-to-speech model, we aren’t just stripping out latency; we are keeping the “data” that usually gets lost in translation.

In the old “Speech-to-Text” method, if a customer sighed heavily or sounded sarcastic, that emotional data was often stripped away when it was converted to plain text for the LLM. The bot read the words, but missed the mood.

Nova Sonic processes the audio directly. It hears the sigh. It detects the hesitation. It allows the AI to respond to the mood of the conversation, not just the transcript. In the contact center, that is the difference between solving a problem and losing a customer.

Where this actually changes the game (Use Cases)

It’s easy to get lost in the specs, but the real question is: where does this actually fix a broken experience? I’ve been looking at a few scenarios where that ultra-low latency is non-negotiable.

1. The “Panic” Call (Banking & Insurance)

When a customer calls because they’ve lost their credit card or had a car accident, they are already stressed. The old three-second “robot pause” between sentences spikes that anxiety. It feels like the machine is failing.

Nova Sonic’s ability to match the customer’s pace and tone—calm, efficient, and immediate—can de-escalate a situation before a human agent even needs to intervene. It’s not just about efficiency; it’s about digital bedside manner.

2. The “Messy” Booking (Travel & Hospitality)

Have you ever tried to change a flight with a voice bot? It’s usually a disaster because humans don’t speak in linear commands. We say things like, “I need to fly to London on Tuesday… actually, make that Wednesday morning, oh, and I need an aisle seat.”

Because Nova Sonic handles “barge-ins” (interruptions), the customer can correct themselves mid-sentence without breaking the bot’s logic. It mimics the fluid, messy nature of real human planning.

3. The Patient Tutor (Education & Training)

AWS highlighted Education First as an early adopter, and it makes perfect sense. In language learning, “latency” kills the flow. If you’re practicing French pronunciation, you need instant feedback, not a delayed grade.

The model’s ability to detect non-verbal cues—like a hesitant pause before a word—allows it to offer encouragement (“Take your time”) rather than just staring blankly into the digital void.

For the Builders: Getting Started is Surprisingly Simple

For the developers and architects reading this, you might expect a nightmare of integration. Usually, stitching together speech recognition, an LLM, and text-to-speech engines is a fragile “Frankenstein’s monster” of plumbing.

AWS has simplified this rather elegantly. Because it’s all one model, you don’t need to manage the hand-offs. You simply toggle access in the Amazon Bedrock console and use their new bidirectional streaming API. It handles the input and output streams for you, much like a standard phone connection.

The most refreshing part? Defining the bot’s personality doesn’t require complex code. You just set a system prompt—something as simple as “You are a friend, keep responses short”—and the model handles the nuance. It lowers the barrier to entry from “PhD in Linguistics” to “Standard Developer,” which is exactly what the industry needs to scale this tech.

Why this matters for CX Leaders

We often talk about “empathy” in CX, but it’s hard to be empathetic when there’s a delay after every sentence. Amazon Nova Sonic removes the friction that makes automated service feel like a chore.

It allows brands to build agents that can handle complex, multi-turn conversations without making the customer want to hang up. And in an industry obsessed with efficiency, making the robot sound a little less like a robot might be the most efficient move of all.

Sources: Amazon Nova Sonic, AWS News Blog

• Just posted: Amazon Connect Delivers “Superhuman” Powers for Frontline Teams
• Explainer: Amazon Nova Sonic: The End of the “Robot Pause” in CX?

Why This Year Is Different

Forget everything you know about chatbots and IVRs. Agentic AI represents autonomous agents that reason, make decisions, and take action independently—while seamlessly collaborating with human agents. The proof? Companies like Zepz are deflecting 30% of contacts while processing $16 billion in transactions. TUI Group migrated 10,000 agents across 12 European markets and cut operating costs by 10%. UC San Diego Health integrated Epic EHR for self-service patient authentication. These are full production deployments, and they are already delivering measurable ROI.

“We’re in that ‘teach a person to fish’ mode, so you’re empowered to not just get some near-term benefit and then get left behind.” – Pasquale DeMaio

The Stakes: Early adopters are gaining significant competitive advantages. By the time you read about their success in case studies, they’ll be two years ahead. Re:Invent 2025 is your chance to close that gap.

Your Three-Track Amazon Connect Focused Strategy

Here are our recommended sessions across the five-day event, one things for sure, you need a plan. Choose your track:

Track 1 – Breakout Sessions led by Amazon Connect Customers and AWS Experts

Other sessions:

• BIZ211 | So Energy streamlines customer service with AI-powered automation
• BIZ212 | Anthology boosts contact center efficiency with AI
• BIZ213 | Petco unlocks agentic AI-powered customer service with Amazon Connect
• BIZ214 | Traeger accelerates contact center agent productivity with agentic AI
• BIZ215 | Cochlear enhances contact center observability with Amazon Connect
• BIZ216 | Redefining service excellence: Canada Life’s AI-powered contact center
• BIZ217 | Global tourism brand transforms customer service with Amazon Connect
• BIZ218 | UC San Diego Health modernizes patient engagement with Amazon Connect
• BIZ219 | Personalize Customer Experiences at scale with AI-powered Amazon Connect
• BIZ220 | Transforming contact centers in financial services with Amazon Connect

Outcome: Business case validation, ROI metrics, peer testimonials, strategic roadmap.

Track 2 – Business applications technical sessions Led by Amazon Connect Experts

Must-attend sessions include:

• BIZ302 | Create advanced self-service experiences with Amazon Connect
• BIZ308 | Modernize your contact center agent workspace with Amazon Connect
• BIZ310 | Optimize contact center staffing using AI-powered assistants
• BIZ311 | Optimize customer conversations in your IVR with Amazon Connect
• BIZ316 | Streamline Amazon Connect management with agentic AI-powered controls
• BIZ318 | Transform data into insights with AI-powered Amazon Connect
• BIZ320 | Unlock intelligent generative AI-powered email with Amazon Connect

Outcome: Production-ready skills, architectural patterns, implementation blueprints.

Track 3 – CX Leaders Take Note: Three Keynotes You Cannot Miss

Your Day-by-Day Navigation Plan

Monday

Arrive early, get your badge, attend foundational sessions.

PQ sessions:

• Biz 221 | Agentic AI advancements in customer experience with Amazon Connect 10:00-11:00am, Las Vegas | Wynn | Latour 2
• INV203 | Innovation Talk | The agent-enabled workplace: Transforming businesses 12:00pm-1:00pm Venetian | Level 5 | Palazzo Ballroom B

Other sessions:

• BIZ215 | Breakout session | Cochlear enhances contact center observability with Amazon Connect 11:30 AM-12:30 PM, Las Vegas | Wynn | [Silent Session] Lafite 7 (Pink Theater)
• BIZ211 | Breakout session | So Energy streamlines customer service with AI-powered automation 1:00pm-2:00pm Las Vegas | MGM | Grand 123
• BIZ214 | Breakout session | Traeger accelerates contact center agent productivity with agentic AI 2:30-3:30, Las Vegas | Venetian | Lido 3106

Hit the Welcome Reception (4:00-7:00 PM) to orient yourself and network.

Tuesday

Matt Garman’s keynote at 8:00 AM-10:30AM sets the agenda.

• BIZ213 | Breakout session | Petco unlocks agentic AI-powered customer service with Amazon Connect 1:00-2:00pm, Las Vegas | Venetian | Lido 3106
• BIZ219 | Breakout session | Personalize customer experiences at scale with AI-powered Amazon Connect 4:00-5:00pm Las Vegas | Wynn | [Silent Session] Lafit 7 (Turquoise Theater)

Connect Customer Event 6:00pm-8:00pm at the Cromwell. Customers are encouraged to attend!

Attend post-keynote sessions on new announcements. Explore the Expo (10:00 AM-6:00 PM). Evening networking receptions (6:00-8:00 PM).

Wednesday (Busiest Day)

Agentic AI keynote (8:30 AM), hands-on workshops midday, Partnership keynote (3:00 PM), Expo Happy Hour (4:30 PM), networking receptions (6:00 PM).

• Swami Sivasubramanian Keynote 8:30am-10:30am Venetian
• BIZ220 | Breakout session | Transforming contact centers in financial services with Amazon Connect 10:00-11:00am Las Vegas | MGM | Grand 123
• BIZ217 | Breakout session | Global tourism brand transforms customer service with Amazon Connect 12:00pm-1:00 Las Vegas | MGM | Grand 119
• BIZ212 | Breakout session | Anthology boosts contact center efficiency with AI 4:30pm-5:30pm, Las Vegas | Wynn | [Silent Session] Lafite 7 (Orange Theater)

Thursday

Infrastructure keynote (9:00 AM), choose between ACQUIRED event or sessions (11:00 AM), Werner Vogels closing keynote (3:30 PM), re:Play party (7:30 PM).

• BIZ216 | Breakout session | Redefining service excellence: Canada Life’s AI-powered contact center 12:30-1:30pm Las Vegas | Wynn | Latour 2
• BIZ218 | Breakout session | UC San Diego Health modernizes patient engagement with Amazon Connect 3:30pm-4:30pm Las Vegas | Wynn | [Silent Session] Lafite 7 (Pink Theater)

Friday

Final sessions wrap at 12:30 PM. Plan departures accordingly.

Insider Tips for Maximum ROI

1. Book Repeat Sessions Strategically Popular workshops like BIZ302 (self-service AI) and BIZ312 (AI agents) have repeat offerings marked “-R” or “-R1”. If your first choice is full, grab the repeat. Some sessions, like BIZ221 and BIZ219 will be Simulcast into a content hub. If you can’t get into a room, check out a content hub!
2. Leverage the Guided Expo Tours AWS experts lead 60-minute tours at specific times (Tuesday-Thursday at 11 AM and 3 PM). First-come, first-served but invaluable for navigating 400+ sponsors.
3. Download Session Content Early Presentations and code samples often appear in the mobile app during or immediately after sessions. Download before WiFi gets congested.
4. Use Multi-Venue Travel Time Wisely Allow 20-30 minutes between The Venetian, Caesars Forum, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, and Wynn. Use this time for informal networking or catching up on notes.
5. Attend Chalk Talks for Peer Learning Unlike lectures, chalk talks are interactive discussions where you can ask specific questions and whiteboard solutions with AWS experts and peers.
6. Visit the Certification Lounge Open Monday-Thursday (7:30 AM-5:00 PM) at The Venetian. Get certified, verify existing certifications, or access study materials. Sponsored by Accenture.
7. Balance Keynotes with Hands-On Time Don’t just collect slide decks. Workshops provide production-ready skills you can implement within 30 days of returning.

What to Bring

• Laptop (essential for workshops)
• Comfortable shoes (10,000+ steps daily)
• Business cards (old school, still effective)
• External battery (charging stations get crowded)
• Light jacket (venues vary in temperature)

The Bottom Line

AWS re:Invent 2025 isn’t just announcing the future of customer experience—it’s demonstrating it with production deployments, real ROI metrics, and hands-on workshops that give you the skills to implement immediately.

The companies presenting their success stories aren’t waiting for AI to mature. They’re already deflecting 30% of contacts, reducing costs by 10%, and serving customers across 130+ countries with AI agents that reason, decide, and act autonomously.

Your competition is in those sessions. The question is: will you be there too?