How Singapore’s government used Amazon Connect to make its contact center more human

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how governments interact with their citizens, turning critical touchpoints into highly personalized, efficient, and positive experiences. Where once contact centers could be a source of frustration to both workers and citizens, today AI-powered solutions deliver natural, intuitive, multilingual experiences that improve efficiency, lower costs and—most importantly—deliver better quality and proactive services.

One great example of contact center transformation is Singapore’s Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB). CPFB is the country’s mandatory multi-purpose social security fund, which covers retirement, healthcare, housing, and even government grants—with approximately SGD $600 billion (USD $460 billion) worth of assets and 4.2 million members.

CPFB’s 2,500 employees handle more than 100 million transactions annually, and the organization’s contact center received more than 600,000 calls in 2024. CPFB agents had to summarize every call they handled after each conversation ended, which resulted in manual and time-consuming work. Singapore is a multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural society with a population primarily comprising Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian groups—and the contact center fields calls from people speaking English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. To allow call agents to better focus on assisting citizens who needed more help, CPFB looked for a solution that would use AI to transcribe and summarize each call.

Connecting government and citizens

 After exploring several options, CPFB decided to implement Amazon Connect starting in July 2024, in order to enhance the performance of the organization’s agents. With AI features like automatic summarization, automatic transcription, and automatic evaluation, Amazon Connect helps agents focus their energy on what humans do best—allowing them to transition from manual, repetitive work to more meaningful interactions.

Thanks to the Salesforce Service Cloud integration, all information is integrated on one screen, allowing agents to easily search for data and concentrate fully on each conversation. The solution delivers quality analytics on each interaction, so that CPFB can continuously optimize calls for citizens and agents. The CPFB team employed native AI for every customer interaction without having to integrate, patch together, and manage different tools.

Cloud-enabled citizen services

The impact of Amazon Connect has been transformative. CPFB has seen significant improvements in operations. Its frontline staff now dedicate their time to providing empathetic support and handling complex cases, while AI manages routine work. Automated quality evaluations allow supervisors to concentrate on high-value activities like mentoring and coaching, helping to consistently maintain high service standards. Currently, the first-call resolution rate stands at 90%, and CPFB continues to work on enhancing this performance.

The AWS Cloud allows CPFB to start to build new solutions quickly and iterate with agility. Typically, large volumes of calls are received when new policy announcements are released. In the past, it might have taken CPFB weeks to expand capacity on its telecommunications and infrastructure resources to handle the new volume. By migrating to the AWS Cloud, CPFB has addressed that delay with Amazon Connect. Now, it takes as little as three business days as the service is highly scalable.

In just eight months, CPFB has launched a comprehensive solution that both transcribes calls and prioritizes customer needs. The solution works in English, Chinese, and Malay—and Tamil will be added soon. The successful implementation resulted from the close collaboration between the CPFB and AWS teams. Through regular feedback sessions and continuous monitoring, the teams identified opportunities for feature enhancements. For example, the automatic evaluation system was refined based on CPFB’s specific quality metrics and compliance requirements. The AWS team maintains constant updates of new Amazon Connect features, allowing CPFB to quickly implement beneficial updates. Recent enhancements include enhanced sentiment analysis capabilities and improved multi-language support for transcription and summarization, directly responding to CPFB’s operational needs.

Enhanced human capabilities through AI

 Another important fact is that CPFB has also launched an intelligent feature that identifies and prioritizes less tech-savvy callers. Data from a caller’s profile, such as whether they have accessed digital services recently, flags to the system that self-help options may not be suitable. This solution allows CPFB to identify this group of citizens as a priority, meaning they can speak to a human agent within 27 seconds. This approach particularly benefits elderly citizens who may require additional support, effectively bridging the digital divide while maintaining high service standards.

CPFB also uses Amazon Connect to assess whether each human agent has addressed a call with empathy. The solution evaluates soft skills and gives agents immediate feedback—so that they can continuously improve their customer interactions and service delivery.

Watch the video below to learn more about CPFB’s implementation of Amazon Connect.

Triple impact: Citizens, organization, and workforce

The implementation of Amazon Connect and AI services has delivered substantial benefits across all key stakeholder groups: citizens, the organization, and its workforce.

For citizens:

• Faster response times, particularly for less tech-savvy users who now reach human agents within 27 seconds
• High first-call resolution rate of 90%
• Personalized service delivery

For CPFB as an organization:

• Improved scalability, reducing system expansion time from weeks to just three days
• Enhanced compliance through automated quality monitoring
• Better data analytics for policy and process improvements
• Greater flexibility during peak periods following policy announcements
• Expected cost reduction of up to 15% per call

For individual agents:

• Around 20,000 hours saved annually from AI transcription and summarization with multi-language support
• Improved ability to focus on complex cases and provide empathetic assistance
• Real-time feedback for performance improvement
• More meaningful interactions with citizens

Transformation leader takeaways

The CPFB’s transformation isn’t just about technology—it’s about creating a more inclusive and efficient service for all Singaporeans. The CPFB is demonstrating how AI can enhance rather than replace human capabilities in public service. If you are a public sector leader considering a similar transformation, consider the following:

1. Define your organization’s pain points: look across process, system, customer experience
2. Identify the right technology to address these pain points
3. Begin and end with what citizens need

For more information about Amazon Connect, visit this webpage or contact us via this form.