ACP: The Amazon Connect Podcast

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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