With housing providers struggling to upgrade systems and adopt technologies that enable them to deliver better outcomes for their tenants, meaningful implementations of AI can understandably seem a long way off.
There is a general assumption about advanced technologies, such as AI, that legacy systems and data infrastructures must be modernised significantly if organisations want to reap the benefits of any integration, but when it comes to the contact centre, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The legacy problem
Most housing providers operate with decades of layered IT systems, such as legacy housing management systems, standalone repair modules and a patchwork of compliance databases. Rarely do these systems talk to each other cleanly.
When teams are used to operating independently, with their own systems and processes, inefficiencies are unavoidable. Contact-centre employees are on the frontline when it comes to managing this inefficiency because they’re responsible for ensuring inbound tenant issues are directed to the right teams and resolved.
On top of this challenge, contact-centre staff deal with a high volume of tenant interactions across multiple communication channels, such as telephone, SMS and email, and must be able to demonstrate knowledge of complex issues and contact histories. With disparate systems, a significant amount of time is spent reviewing historical interactions, establishing context and assigning a level of priority.
In an age in which digital applications deliver immediate value in every aspect of our lives, this experience understandably falls well below tenants’ expectations.
Leapfrogging legacy
Legacy systems and processes are a significant hurdle to delivering more streamlined and automated workflows with AI within housing providers, but when it comes to the contact centre, it’s possible to harness the technology without modernising the organisation’s entire technology stack.
The advantage of today’s AI services is that they don’t require a rip-and-replace approach. Modern AI tools can be deployed tactically, overlaid on existing systems through secure connectors and APIs, to deliver immediate benefits in areas such as call handling, triage and summarisation. For housing providers that have been paralysed by the complexity of modernisation, this modular approach makes adoption realistic. AI becomes an accelerator, not another multi-year IT project.
In this respect, cloud services that are abstracted from the legacy core systems are the most effective means of overcoming legacy.
By adopting hosted AI-powered omni-channel communications services, such as Dynamics 365 Contact Center, housing providers can deliver a support posture that reacts in real time to inbound requests and queries, whether they are received via phone call, email, online chat or SMS.
Underpinned by large language models (LLMs) that understand context, these cloud-based solutions can immediately deliver AI capabilities and value. For example, the response to inbound inquiries can be categorised because key words and sentiment can be examined in real time, enabling intelligent routing to the right teams, alongside a prioritisation score.
As an example, if we take a tenant following up on a complaint via email, a contact-centre employee would need to read through a lengthy explanation of the problem and review the previous correspondence to gain a full understanding of the situation. This is a time-consuming process that only serves to help the employee forward and escalate the problem to the right teams. But by automating these processes, housing providers can expedite manual processes and enable their staff to focus on higher value tasks and customer engagement.
Enhancing remediation with automation
AI introduces a single intelligence layer across all channels. Every incoming interaction, whether a phone call transcribed in real-time, a tenant email or a portal request, can be categorised, prioritised and routed automatically. High risk or urgent cases are surfaced instantly while routine queries can be redirected to self-service channels. The outcome is a smoother workflow for staff and faster resolutions for tenants.
For frontline agents, AI also reduces the burden of repetitive administration. Case notes can be automatically generated from call transcripts, saving time and ensuring accuracy. Instead of typing up every interaction, staff can focus on resolving the issue at hand.
Further to automation for the benefit of tenants and contact-centre staff, there are other benefits that directly affect housing providers’ regulatory compliance, in a landscape that is becoming less forgiving. In October this year, Awaab’s Law will take effect in the social rented sector, requiring housing providers to fix emergency hazards and damp and mould cases within strict timeframes. Additional phases in 2026 and 2027 will extend to other housing hazards.
Just as importantly, AI-generated case records can provide a clear audit trail with time-stamped notes, helping housing providers to demonstrate compliance across the ‘big six’ safety areas of gas, electrical, asbestos, legionella, fire safety and lifts.
With LLM-driven AI support, call-centre staff can immediately identify whether a case might breach compliance thresholds, prompt the right escalation and generate clear notes that flow automatically into housing management systems. That means less risk of things slipping through the cracks and greater assurance that the housing provider can demonstrate compliance if challenged.
Deeper AI capabilities for self-service
By connecting to existing systems and data sources, advanced contact-centre solutions enable incredible efficiency gains through self-service. For example, chatbots can manage many low-level inquiries, often just through directing tenants to information that is readily available on the housing provider’s own website. If further information is needed or a tenant begins to show signs of frustration or distress, the chatbot will escalate the issue to a contact-centre agent.
When chatbots are connected to other systems, such as CRMs, their ability to deal with more specialised inquiries will be enhanced. This is perhaps a bit further on for many organisations, because to really gain the benefits of enhanced automation, data across systems must be in a usable state and data infrastructures must be modernised.
Ultimately, there are many advanced solutions that housing providers can adopt and integrate to deliver value for tenants, but the human element must be preserved with any digital transformation.
Housing contact centres deal with sensitive and often complex issues where empathy and reassurance matter. Done right, AI allows agents to spend less time searching for information and more time engaging with tenants.
Sarah McRow is the head of housing sales at Infinity Group.
