Transforming the contact centre experience with AI
Kiwi insurer, Tower, and Deloitte New Zealand have modernised the contact centre experience with AI, with the aim of setting a new, global benchmark for customer service in New Zealand.
When Kiwi insurer, Tower, decided to reimagine its contact centre, it partnered with Deloitte New Zealand to help realise a future-ready vision.
Over the past five years, Tower has undergone a significant digital transformation. As part of a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, the business chose to invest further in digital and data to maintain a leading customer experience and operate more efficiently and effectively.
Under the leadership of Dr. Amanda Williamson from Deloitte’s AI Institute, the team worked closely with Tower Head of Frontline Operations Enablement, Erin Rushton, to design a small pilot project. Using Amazon Bedrock, the pilot explored how AI and emerging technologies could enhance Tower’s customer service through digital transformation.
This project, among the first from Deloitte New Zealand’s AI Institute, showcased the use of emerging AI technologies to deliver better customer outcomes.
Amanda emphasises the critical role Deloitte plays, “Organisations like Tower have a better understanding of how AI could change the way they work. By partnering with Deloitte, together we can develop tailored AI solutions with support from our technology partners, such as AWS."
Following the pilot, Tower made the bold move to procure an AI-driven contact centre. Deloitte’s proven expertise, innovative solution design and earlier trial positioned them as the clear choice. Tower selected the Deloitte and AWS partnership as their trusted vendor to deliver this vision, and the project kicked off in late 2024. Tower and Deloitte then embarked on a broader transformation journey, rolling out a comprehensive, AI-driven contact centre solution using Amazon Connect.
Deloitte partner, Kylie Bryant, explains, “We see Tower as a genuine leader driving innovation in the insurance industry, and our partnership is extremely important to Deloitte. This is only the beginning of Tower’s ongoing progress as they set a new standard for service excellence in the years ahead.”
We are investing heavily in technology to operate more efficiently and deliver better customer outcomes. Our AI-driven contact centre is one of the key aspects of this work and we’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved in partnership with Deloitte. Ultimately, this is about continuing to ensure we are there for our customers no matter what.
Paul Johnston, Tower CEO
Amazon Connect is leading the way in speed, simplicity, and efficiency benefitting Tower’s customers and employees alike. Frontline teams benefit from reduced manual effort, improved productivity, and faster onboarding, while customers receive quicker, more consistent service with a scalable platform ready for future AI enhancements. Functions that are now live include real-time call transcription, sentiment analysis, and call summarisation. Contact centre agents benefit from a single pane of glass that contains customer data and handles all channels from voice to email.
“We were able to offer Tower our unique, ongoing ‘innovate and change’ service which runs alongside Deloitte’s cloud-managed support to make sure the platform is optimised, the experience is leading-edge, and Tower receives AI feature releases aligned to their contact centre objectives,” continues Kylie. “This service ensures that Tower has an evergreen contact centre with the latest features, delivering the best customer experience and won’t suffer from a stagnating platform with no innovation.”
This project perfectly illustrates how the combination of AWS’ technology, Deloitte's implementation expertise, and Tower's innovation mindset created a blueprint for success that is delivering measurable results.
Tower CEO Paul Johnston says, “Tower has been helping Kiwi and Pacific communities protect what matters most for over a century and a half. To meet the modern needs of our customers, we have worked to digitise and simplify our business and use technology to provide a leading customer experience.”
“We are investing heavily in technology to operate more efficiently and deliver better customer outcomes. Our AI-driven contact centre is one of the key aspects of this work and we’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved, in partnership with Deloitte. Ultimately, this is about continuing to ensure we are there for our customers no matter what.”
Deloitte’s commitment to unlocking the full potential of AI ensures clients like Tower are not only equipped to meet today’s challenges but are positioned as pioneers shaping the future of customer experience.
This success story is more than a milestone; it is the foundation for ongoing innovation, demonstrating how strategic collaboration and technological excellence can continually raise standards and deliver lasting value across the sector.
