What to do next
Show the working, step by step
Where I used this
On the Lifebuoy hotline we set up at Praava, doctors took roughly 3,000 calls a day. At that volume, the share of calls that never needs a person decides the size of the team, so it is the first number I would test before buying any AI agent.
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What to count before you switch
- Resolved, not deflected. Containment is the share of contacts the AI finishes with no person. A customer who gives up and calls back is not contained; count them twice.
- The handoff. Escalated contacts cost a person plus the AI turn before it, and a bad handoff makes them longer. Measure handle time on escalations separately.
- Quality. Track complaints, repeat contacts and satisfaction for AI-handled contacts against people for the first three months.
- The rules. If the agent decides anything that matters to a person, such as triage or eligibility, run the AI risk triage first.
Same math, different lever in Bangladesh and the US
In the US, a person-handled contact is expensive, so even a modest containment rate saves real money. In Bangladesh, wages are lower, so the break-even containment rate is higher and the case often rests on speed, 24-hour cover and answering in Bangla rather than on wages. Run both: if the saving is thin, the reason to deploy has to be service, and it should be measured as service.
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Questions
How do you calculate the savings from an AI agent?
Saving = contacts a month times (containment rate times the human cost per contact, minus the AI cost per contact). Escalated contacts still need a person, so they keep their full human cost on top of the AI cost.
What containment rate does an AI agent need to break even?
Divide the AI cost per contact by the human cost per contact. At 0.60 of AI cost and 6.00 of human cost per contact, the AI must fully resolve 10% of contacts before it saves anything, before counting the setup cost.
What is a containment rate?
The share of contacts an AI resolves end to end with no person involved. Count only resolved contacts: a customer who abandons the chat and calls back has not been contained.