Amazon Connect enhances flow modules with 3 powerful new capabilities

At the core of Amazon Connect, the AI-powered customer experience solution from AWS, are flows and modules – flows define the customer journey, while modules serve as reusable building blocks that streamline operations.

Today, we’re announcing three new capabilities that make flows and modules more powerful, flexible, and maintainable than ever before. These enhancements address common challenges contact center architects face when managing data exchange between flows and modules, bringing unprecedented flexibility and clarity to your contact center designs.

Transform module flexibility with custom blocks

Simplify and strengthen your contact center operations with our latest upgrade to flow modules: custom blocks. By implementing industry-standard JSON schema v4 syntax, this powerful feature gives you precise control over input and output objects while enabling dynamic experiences at the block level.

What makes this truly transformative is how it streamlines your contact flow architecture. Your team can now create designated output paths and configure custom branch names, eliminating the complexity of traditional data passing mechanisms. This structured approach not only reduces development overhead but makes your flows more intuitive to build and maintain.

Configure custom input and output parameters for modules using UI components

Configure custom branches for modules

Drive deployment confidence with versioning and aliasing

Managing module updates has always been a challenge in production environments, but our new comprehensive versioning and aliasing capabilities change that entirely. You can now create immutable version snapshots of your modules, ensuring consistency across deployments while maintaining the flexibility to test and iterate safely.

The alias management system is where this really shines. When you update an alias to point to a new version, that change automatically applies everywhere you’ve referenced that alias throughout your contact center implementation. This means you can update booking logic, customer service workflows, or any other business process across all your implementations simply by changing a single alias reference. The peace of mind this brings to deployment processes cannot be overstated.

Publish new versions

View all versions in the Versions tab and select a prior version to view configuration in read-only mode

Create alias and associate alias with a specific version

Expand beyond traditional flows with modules as tools

Perhaps one of the most exciting developments is the ability for flow modules to be invoked outside of flows by various systems as independent execution units. This opens up new use cases with established automation tools where AI agents can use modules as tools to execute payment workflows, automated tasks, and other business logic during customer service interactions.

This approach allows you to define business logic once as modules and execute it across multiple channels and contexts. Whether you’re handling a voice call, chat interaction, or automated process, the same reliable module can be invoked, ensuring consistency while reducing development overhead. You can create new tool modules directly in the Modules tab or convert existing modules using the “Save As a Tool” option, though it’s worth noting that not all blocks are supported in tool modules.

You can create a new tool module in the Modules tab, you can use these modules using blocks that are available in the block library.

Create Module as Tool

Save as Tool

Real-world example: travel industry use case

Imagine running a travel company where customers constantly need to book, cancel, or modify their hotel reservations. Instead of managing these requests differently across various contact centers, you can create a single, powerful booking module that standardizes everything.

Think of this module as your master control center. When a customer calls about their reservation, regardless of whether they’re speaking to someone in New York or London, the same efficient process unfolds. The system knows exactly how to handle each request type, following consistent rules and procedures.

The real power shows up when you need to make changes. Rather than updating instructions across dozens of locations, you simply modify one version and update the alias – like changing the master key that automatically unlocks all doors. Every contact center instantly works with the new version, ensuring all customers get the same high-quality service.

Implementation in practice

Here’s how it works in practice: You build your booking module with clear instructions for handling different scenarios. When customers call, they select their needs through a simple menu. Booking requests flow through your specialized module, while other support needs connect directly to agents. The system reads the customer’s input, processes it through the appropriate channels, and delivers consistent results every time.

Best of all, it’s easy to manage. You can test new features in a separate version before going live, define exactly how you want different requests handled, and access all booking information through a straightforward data structure. This means your team can focus on what really matters – delivering excellent customer service – instead of wrestling with complex technical processes.

Using the new capabilities

These examples assume a working knowledge of Amazon Connect Flows and Modules. For details on how to perform basic administration tasks with these services, see the following:

Amazon Connect administration guide
Amazon Connect flows module

* Note that these screenshots are for demonstration only and show partial flows that have not been fully tested end to end. You can use these examples as a starting point and customize them for your specific use cases.

Create a booking operation module

You can define your booking operation module input, output, and custom branches under the Settings tab.

Input

Output

Branches

Design the module

The booking operation module can be adapted to your specific business needs by routing requests to different operational bots based on the input parameters you define. Each booking operation can return customized outputs through the return block, giving you complete control over how different scenarios are handled. This modular approach means you can easily expand your booking capabilities over time—whether you need to add new reservation types, integrate additional services, or modify existing workflows—simply by extending the module’s logic and configuring the appropriate output paths for each new operation.

Simple Booking Example

Working with module inputs and outputs

Within your module, you can access input parameters through the Modules namespace, ensuring that the parameter values align with your module’s input schema definition. When configuring the return block, you have the flexibility to choose which custom branch should handle the response back to the calling flow. The output data you define must conform to the structure specified in your module’s output schema, giving you predictable and reliable data exchange between your flows and modules.

This structured approach to input and output management means you can build modules with confidence, knowing exactly what data will be available and how it will be formatted when passed between different parts of your contact center solution.

Inputs

Outputs

Building your booking flow with module integration

The booking flow demonstrates how customers naturally interact with your contact center when they need assistance. When customers call, they hear prompts that guide them to select the type of support they need—whether that’s creating a new reservation, modifying an existing booking, or canceling their travel plans. The fourth option connects customers directly with a live agent for more complex inquiries that require human assistance.

What makes this approach powerful is how seamlessly the flow transitions between automated and human support. When customers select any of the booking-related options, the flow automatically invokes your booking operation module using the information collected during the initial interaction. This allows the module to handle the specialized booking operations while the main flow orchestrates the overall customer experience.

The flow intelligently manages different outcomes through the branches you’ve defined in your module. In this example, successful booking operations complete the call automatically, while any scenarios requiring additional assistance—such as complex modifications or error conditions—smoothly transition the customer to a queue where they can connect with a human agent who has full context of their previous interactions.

This design ensures customers receive efficient automated service when possible, while maintaining the option for personalized human support when needed, creating a seamless experience that adapts to each customer’s specific situation.

Flow with Modules Integration

Configuring module inputs for seamless integration

When setting up your invoke module block, you have complete control over how your booking operation module integrates with your contact flow. You can choose to reference the module by a specific version for precise control, or use an alias for flexible deployment management that adapts as your module evolves. The configuration process allows you to define which custom branches should be active for your specific use case and specify the exact input parameters that will be passed to the module.

This structured approach ensures that your data flows seamlessly between components while maintaining the integrity and reliability your customers expect. The input data types automatically align with your module’s schema definition, giving you confidence that the integration will work consistently across all your contact center operations.

Accessing module output using JSON path

You can access your module’s output data directly by using the JSON path for the Modules attribute. The path $.Modules.ResultData follows the same data structure defined in the module’s output schema. In this example, $.Modules.ResultData is a JSON object containing two properties defined in the module output: bookingId and confirmation.

Testing and validation

Testing your implementation is as simple as assigning a phone number to your contact flow and calling it to follow the prompts. When customers enter touchtone responses for different booking operations, they invoke the corresponding booking operation module and receive prompts for booking IDs followed by confirmation messages. This demonstrates the seamless integration of custom-defined inputs, outputs, and branches.

The same framework that works for booking operations can be adapted for various other use cases including SMS sending, balance checking, password resets, and virtually any other business process you need to standardize and reuse across your contact center operations.

Transform your contact center operations today

These three powerful enhancements to Amazon Connect flow modules represent more than just new features—they’re a fundamental shift toward more maintainable, scalable, and intelligent contact center operations. Custom blocks eliminate the complexity of data exchange between flows and modules, while versioning and aliasing bring enterprise-grade deployment confidence to your contact center architecture. The ability to use modules as tools opens entirely new possibilities for AI-driven customer service automation.

The travel industry example we explored demonstrates just one application of these capabilities, but the potential extends across every industry and use case. Whether you’re managing financial transactions, healthcare inquiries, retail support, or any other customer interaction scenario, these enhancements provide the foundation for building contact center solutions that evolve with your business needs.

We’re excited to see how you’ll leverage these enhancements to transform your Amazon Connect implementations. The combination of improved module flexibility, deployment confidence, and expanded automation capabilities creates opportunities that simply weren’t possible before. Start exploring these new capabilities today and discover how they can elevate your customer experience while simplifying your contact center operations.

Ready to get started? Visit the Amazon Connect documentation for detailed implementation guides and best practices and begin building your next-generation customer experience.