Amazon Connect's new features bet on data plumbing, not flashy AI
On March 10, 2026, AWS's contact-center-as-a-service unit Amazon Connect announced four new features: Predictive Insights (PI) and Assistant for Managers (AM), both currently in preview, plus Testing and Simulation (T&S) and Conversational Analytics for Email (CA), both generally available now. Pasquale DeMaio, vice president of Amazon Connect at AWS, told No Jitter the goal is to feed customer activity — browsing history, last week's service issue — back into the data layer agents and managers draw on, rather than ship a single new AI model. No Jitter's Matt Vartabedian broke the news; the piece is one of several the outlet has run this year on where contact-center AI investment is actually landing.
What do the four features actually do?
Two ship now for general use, two are preview-only pilots: Testing and Simulation and email analytics are available today, Predictive Insights and manager assistance are not.
Testing and Simulation lets teams dry-run bot flows and agent scripts before they hit live customers — the kind of pre-launch QA step that's normally bolted on with a third-party tool. Conversational Analytics for Email extends Connect's existing voice and chat analytics to inbox traffic, so email threads get the same sentiment and intent tagging as a phone call. Predictive Insights and Assistant for Managers are the more ambitious pair: PI surfaces prior browsing and service context to personalize an interaction, and AM is aimed at supervisors rather than frontline agents. Both are preview, which in AWS's own terms means no committed GA date and no guarantee the feature ships as demoed.
Why is AWS leading with a data layer instead of a chatbot upgrade?
Because Connect's whole pitch depends on a shared data layer wiring together the systems of record a contact center already runs, not on any one AI feature.
DeMaio framed it as treating "every touch point" as a chance to learn about the customer and hand that context back to the people running the interaction. That's a reasonable strategy on paper — it's also exactly the pitch every CCaaS vendor makes when they want you locked into their platform rather than a best-of-breed stack. The unified layer is the product; PI, AM, T&S and CA are just four ways of exposing it.
Does AWS's "no deflection" line mean anything you can act on?
Not yet — it's a stated intent about not using AI to divert customers, with no published metric attached to it in this announcement.
DeMaio called blanket deflection "sort of an insane concept" when personalized service is possible instead. Fine as a design philosophy, but it's AWS's own framing of what counts as good AI behavior, not an independently measured outcome. If you're evaluating Connect — or any CCaaS vendor making the same claim — ask them directly how they define and measure deflection versus containment, who audits that number, and whether it's reported per-customer or blended across their book.
What should you check before piloting the preview features?
Get a firm commitment on GA timing, pricing, and what customer data PI and AM actually touch before allocating pilot resources.
Preview status on AWS features has historically meant timelines can slip and scope can change before general release. Given PI's whole value proposition is pulling in browsing and service-history data across more than 75 integrated systems of record, per AWS's own description, it's also worth asking precisely which systems are in scope for your account and what happens to that data if you don't move forward past the pilot.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a new product or an update to existing Amazon Connect?
It's four feature additions to the existing Amazon Connect platform, not a new standalone product — two shipped generally available, two in preview.
Does this require an AWS-only contact center stack?
The source doesn't specify a hard AWS-only requirement; Connect's data layer is described as integrating with outside systems of record, so ask AWS directly about your specific stack before assuming lock-in either way.
Sources: No Jitter, "Amazon Connect: 4 features smooth contact center operations," by Matt Vartabedian, March 10, 2026.