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Glossary & Key Terms Explained

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AI Containment Rate

Definition: The percentage of customer calls that are completely handled by AI from start to finish, without needing to transfer to a human agent. How It Works:
  • 30-50% containment rate (India):
    • Out of 100 customer calls, 30-50 are solved entirely by the AI bot
    • The customer gets their answer, issue resolved, transaction completed—all by AI
    • Only 50-70 calls need to be “escalated” to a human
  • 6% containment rate (Global average):
    • Out of 100 calls, only 6 are handled completely by AI
    • The other 94 calls still need a human agent to finish the job
    • The AI might start the conversation, but a human has to take over
Why This Matters: Cost savings:
  • If an AI agent costs 0.50percallvs.ahumanat0.50 per call vs. a human at 5.00 per call
  • 50% containment = saving $2.25 per call on average
  • 6% containment = saving only $0.27 per call on average
The India Advantage: India companies are achieving 5-8× higher success rates with AI handling calls than the rest of the world. This means:
  • More cost savings
  • Faster customer service
  • Less dependency on hiring thousands of human agents
Simple Mental Model: Think of it like a restaurant:
  • 50% containment = Self-service kiosk successfully completes half of all orders
  • 6% containment = Kiosk only works for 6 out of 100 customers; everyone else needs a cashier
The claim is that Indian contact centers have figured out how to make the “kiosk” (AI) work much better than anywhere else in the world.

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References

[End of Report] For questions, clarifications, or deeper analysis on any section, please contact the research team.