In our latest episode of the OC CX Impact Series, Outsource Consultants’ Tom Luther sat down with Chloe Duckworth, Co-Founder and CEO of Valence AI, to explore a seismic shift happening in CX: the rise of tonal and emotional intelligence as a performance lever.
From the outdated five-call-per-agent model to real-time tone-matching and emotion-aware IVRs, this episode offered a fast-paced, deeply human look at how next-gen AI is driving better outcomes—not just for customers, but for agents and BPOs, too.
Featuring Chloe Duckworth (Valence) & Tom Luther (Outsource Consultants)
🔍 From Neuroscience to CX: Why Emotion Is the Missing Layer
Chloe Duckworth didn’t come from a traditional contact center background—she came from the lab.
“I worked in neurotech and brain-computer interfaces, specifically looking at ways to model human behavior and neurological data using machine learning. And I realized: we haven’t applied this to one of the most human-facing industries—CX.”
The result? Valence AI—a platform designed to decode emotion from voice, helping BPOs coach agents, improve outcomes, and scale empathy.
🔬 The Quality Problem: “He Said, She Said” QA and Its Fallout
Tom Luther didn’t hold back in naming the elephant in the QA room:
“One person’s opinion in a moment of time may be grossly different than mine… I’ve had 50 conversations where agents said, ‘My supervisor doesn’t like me. That’s why I got scored that way.’”
Valence’s solution? Tonal analysis that scores 100% of calls and reduces subjectivity with real-time, voice-based models.
🛠️ Real-World Results: Assertiveness in Collections, Empathy in Healthcare
Chloe shared a powerful example from the collections space:
“We help agents walk the fine line—being assertive enough to get a promise to pay, but not so aggressive that the customer hangs up. Emotion AI flags those tonal mismatches and guides the agent live.”
The tool also flags when an agent says the right thing, but their tone doesn’t match—think of it as sentiment analysis with lie detection capabilities.
📈 Beyond “Nice Words”: Scoring Empathy, Predicting Churn, Driving Revenue
Valence doesn’t just track what was said. It scores how it was experienced—an innovation that turns QA into a revenue function.
“You can’t score empathy with a transcript. You need to hear it. Our models pick up those nuanced signals—things even humans miss—and coach agents in real time.”
Chloe reported significant results:
-
Higher CSAT
-
Lower handle time
-
Increased revenue per customer (via upsell prompt detection)
🔄 Emotion-Aware AI IVRs: Human Routing, Scaled
Another breakthrough? AI IVRs that sense frustration, know when to escalate, and even hand off from bot to human mid-call:
“Our AI is beating humans at emotion detection—even across accents. And that’s not scary—it’s scalable empathy.”
💡 Key Takeaways
-
Emotion is CX’s new power metric. Traditional QA misses what tonal intelligence can reveal: tension, empathy, emotional alignment.
-
Real-time feedback changes agent performance. Agents now get guided, unbiased coaching during the call—not weeks later.
-
Emotion AI isn’t replacing humans—it’s humanizing automation. Valence keeps the human in the loop, scaling intent, not just automation.
“This isn’t about replacing agents. It’s about making sure every call gets scored fairly, and every customer feels heard.” — Chloe Duckworth, Valence
Curious about integrating emotion AI into your QA or IVR stack?
Book a strategy call with OC to explore pilot options with Valence.
