ACP: The Amazon Connect Podcast

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Aug 2026

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About the show

This is The Amazon Connect Podcast - the show that focuses on Amazon Connect and related technologies. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io . On ACP our experts meet once every 2 weeks to discuss the latest news and deep dive into topics such as CRM integration, AI, Scheduling & Forecasting, Training & Development and lots more. If you're a contact centre supervisor, a service owner, and IT Admin or an AWS Developer there's something for you here. Increase your knowledge and understanding of Amazon's popular customer service application. We'd love to answer your Amazon Connect questions on the show so if you have something you'd like our experts to discuss email us at podcast@cloudinteract.io. ACP: The Amazon Connect Podcast is created and produced by CloudInteract and is not affiliated in any way with Amazon Connect.

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41 recent

August 18, 2026Episode 4129 min

41: Mark Pritchard, Jabra

Send us Fan Mail Join us as we welcome Mark Pritchard, a senior platform and automation consultant at Jabra, to discuss Jabra’s move to Amazon Connect starting in 2021 and how the shift improved flexibility, number management, and cloud operations after COVID. Mark explains the challenges of running four global Connect instances with a small admin team, the need to standardize IVRs, scripts, and flow design for easier troubleshooting, and practical conventions like embedding related phone numbers in flow attributes. He describes replacing a third‑party callback solution with a native Connect approach, then using AI tools (nicknamed “Bob”) with Cursor and GitHub Copilot to build internal portals for callback visibility, skills-based routing changes, and a new migration portal to selectively move resources to new instances during a major business separation, while sharing tools via a new LinkedIn group: Amazon Connect Tools Development. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

August 4, 202631 min

40: New AI Voices and other news

Send us Fan Mail This episode of ACP recaps a busy July of Amazon Connect Customer updates. The headline is a major quality upgrade to Amazon Connect’s AI voices (announced July 20), adding 100 new voice options across 50+ languages, improved turn-taking and interruption handling, fewer gaps, and more control over speed, volume, emotion, and SSML-like markup (including optional laughter 😂). We play before/after demos in US English plus Australian and UK variants, noting increased naturalness but limited regional UK accents. Additional releases include new supervisor dashboard metrics for agent queues, automatic example evaluations to support agent coaching, workforce planning/forecasting expanded to emails and tasks, a new “interrupt agent” flow block to force routing to specific agents even when unavailable, and rule-based redaction that blurs specified apps or web pages in agent screen recordings to reduce PII exposure. The episode also reiterates AWS’s April rebrand splitting Amazon Connect into four products under an agentic AI banner. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

July 21, 202628 min

39: Hannah Bloking, AWS

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we welcome Hannah Bloking, Senior Manager for Applied AI Acceleration Solutions Architecture at AWS, to discuss her career path from fine arts into tech, her work across the Executive Briefing Center, Amazon Connect (now Amazon Connect Customer), and leading Amazon’s internal rollout of what evolved from Amazon Q into QuickSuite. Hannah shares how AWS and partners are adapting to rapidly evolving agentic AI, why the biggest challenge is choosing and understanding the right use cases rather than the technology itself, and how Amazon Connect’s expanded portfolio (including examples like Connect Talent) is being received by customers. We also cover the intersection of contact center data and BI/analytics with Quick, the importance of focusing on end-customer experience over cost optimization initially, and advice to upskill, embrace change, and not fear making mistakes. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

July 7, 202631 min

38: Call Recordings

Send us Fan Mail This week we deep dive into call recording in Amazon Connect, covering how recording evolved from expensive, tape-based systems into ubiquitous digital recordings driven by compliance needs like PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, and financial regulations. We discuss how most recordings historically went unreviewed, but AI transcription and analytics, such as Amazon Connect Contact Lens, now make it feasible to analyse 100% of calls for transcripts, sentiment, topics, summaries, compliance flags, evaluations, and structured reporting via data lakes. We also highlight risks around governance, third-party AI, and the importance of PII redaction (including new screen recording redaction capabilities). The episode clarifies retention: audio in S3 isn’t deleted by Connect, but contact records become unsearchable after two years unless customers build indexing/search solutions. Finally, we discuss migration options and new AWS APIs enabling import of legacy recordings into Connect with conversational analytics, including constraints, quotas, and pacing considerations. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

June 23, 202628 min

37: Amazon Connect Customer EMEA Community Event

Send us Fan Mail We recap the two-day Amazon Connect Customer Community event in London, noting that the agenda and partner conversations were overwhelmingly focused on AI, especially agentic AI, rather than traditional contact center topics. We discuss workshops on setting up agentic AI and automating evaluations/quality monitoring, emphasizing that while building an agent can be fast, ongoing monitoring, measurement, and business change are critical. Key themes from sessions and keynotes include AI agents evolving from rigid chatbots into collaborative coworkers that may orchestrate multiple agents, the provocative idea that an “AI boss” could arrive before an AI colleague, and “machine customers” where an AI acts on behalf of users and selects the most efficient experience. We highlight strong AWS investment signals, the value of in-person community access, and the urgency for organizations to start now. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

June 2, 202623 min

36: Forecasting, Capacity Planning & Scheduling

Send us Fan Mail Amazon Connect Forecasting, Capacity Planning & Scheduling (FCS) Explained — Native WFM, Agent Self-Service, Data Lake & Notifications Tom Morgan and Alex Baker welcome Pavan Dusanapudi, a senior architect on the Amazon Connect team, to discuss Amazon Connect Forecasting, Capacity Planning, and Scheduling (FCS) and how it compares to workforce management. Pavan explains how FCS uses historical contact data and ML/AI to forecast volumes, plan staffing, and optimize schedules, emphasizing native, one-click enablement versus lengthy third-party WFM integrations. They cover agent-focused capabilities in Amazon Connect workspaces such as schedule viewing, overtime offers, time-off requests, and shift exchanges, plus a new schedule/activity notification feature using the Connect rules engine with email, tasks, and EventBridge destinations. The episode also highlights Amazon Connect Data Lake access for FCS data and use cases like adherence, payroll reporting, shift rotation equity, and scheduling metrics, and recommends piloting FCS in one business unit with available funding options and a 90-day free trial. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

May 19, 202627 min

35: TACUG

Send us Fan Mail Tom and Alex welcome John Ing, freelance Amazon Connect consultant and founder of the independent Amazon Connect user group , to discuss the group’s rapid growth over two years, its community-led agenda, and why smaller, Chatham House Rules-style events enable candid sharing and practical problem-solving. John compares Connect community dynamics across the UK, Australia, and the US, noting similar challenges but greater scale and regional “clusters” in America that may require multi-city events. He outlines the difficulty of funding events while preserving independence and keeping attendance free. The conversation also covers AWS’s recent Amazon Connect rebranding, speculation on broader strategy beyond contact centers, and where organizations are on agentic AI adoption—mostly experimentation and POCs, with production limited due to testing, observability, and risk concerns—before talking about the upcoming user group even in London on June 3 - register at tacug.org . Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

May 5, 2026Episode 3430 min

34: Acquisitions & Renames

Send us Fan Mail In an unplanned “emergency” episode of the Amazon Connect Podcast, host Tom Morgan, co-host Alex Baker, and AI agent co-host Aria recap AWS Summit London and discuss two major announcements that reshape how they talk about Amazon Connect: AWS’s acquisition of NLX and the “What’s Next with AWS” event in San Francisco. They note the increased visibility and buzz around Amazon Connect at the London summit, then unpack NLX as a low/no-code visual builder for conversational AI flows, including examples cited like United Airlines deploying on Connect faster than expected, plus questions about integrations, platform agnosticism, and whether AWS is acquiring talent. They then explain AWS redefining Amazon Connect as a four-product family—Amazon Connect Customer (the original platform), Health, Decisions, and Talent—framed around “humorphism,” and debate implications, bias risks in AI-led hiring, ecosystem impacts for partners, and the growing need for testing and governance of AI agents. Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

April 21, 202626 min

33: News and Events

Send us Fan Mail Tom Morgan and Alex Baker catch up on recent Amazon Connect and contact center updates, including a blog post on the EU AI Act requiring clear AI disclosure at first interaction and strong logging/auditing by August 2, with significant GDPR-scale penalties and shared-responsibility implications for AWS customers. They also discuss a LinkedIn video on voice models that argues data, prompts, guardrails, action execution, and testing matter more than voice choice, and discuss roadshows, the Amazon Connect User Group event in London on June 3, and AWS Summit London at ExCeL with multiple Amazon Connect sessions and demos. AI agent co-host Aria joins to discuss customer examples like Centrica’s reported 38% handle-time reduction and Richmond, Virginia moving 911 dispatch to Amazon Connect, plus Salesforce deprecating the CTI adapter in favour of Service Cloud Voice and new Connect coaching workflows tied to evaluations. Links: EU AI Act Article 50: What Contact Centre Owners Need to Know Before August | The thoughtstuff Blog Video: Everyone wants to know what voice model to use for their AI Agent | LinkedIn The Independent User Group for Amazon Connect AWS Summit London 2026 00:00 Welcome Back to ACP 00:48 Episode Agenda Catch Up 01:32 EU AI Act Deadline 05:15 Compliance Shared Responsibility 06:54 Voice Models Beyond Hype 08:23 Roadshows and User Group 10:18 AWS Summit London Preview 14:57 Aria Joins News Roundup 16:11 Richmond 911 on Connect 18:38 Salesforce CTI Deprecation 21:26 New Voices and Languages 22:02 Coaching Workflows and Culture 25:11 Wrap Up and Subscribe Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .

April 7, 202625 min

32: We're Back... and AI Agents have changed everything

Send us Fan Mail Tom Morgan and co-host Alex Baker return to the Amazon Connect Podcast after a break since re:Invent, explaining that rapid developments in AI agents and increased client demand have driven their focus. They revisit Amazon Connect’s Unlimited AI pricing and argue it now makes more sense as AI features spread across the entire platform, reflecting a shift toward an “AI-first contact center,” bolstered by nearly 30 AI capabilities announced at re:Invent. They discuss Enterprise Connect news including Predictive Insights and Amazon’s view that call deflection is the wrong sole success metric, plus Amazon Connect Health as a vertical offering with built-in healthcare agent capabilities. They introduce ARIA, an AI co-host, to debate deflection vs. resolution, Klarna’s AI-first staffing reversal, and why processes, monitoring, transcript analysis, and human escalation paths are critical for successful AI-agent deployments. 00:00 Welcome to ACP 00:36 Why We Went Quiet 01:24 Unlimited AI Pricing Shift 02:53 AI First Connect Era 04:32 Enterprise Connect Highlights 05:36 Amazon Connect Health Focus 07:58 Klarna Reality Check 09:32 Meet ARIA AI Co Host 11:01 Rethinking Deflection Metrics 14:22 Designing Human Escalation 17:02 Observability and Iteration 18:54 Are AI Agents Ready 22:33 ARIA Name and Takeaways 23:52 Debrief and Wrap Up Find out more about CloudInteract at cloudinteract.io .