Real-time agent assist RFP template
We've filled out more than 100 of these so we pulled together the questions that matter for real-time agent assist. Hopefully they help you make the right decision. Download it for free below.
What is a real-time agent assist RFP template?
A real-time agent assist RFP template is a structured set of questions you send to vendors that provide live, in-interaction guidance for contact center agents. It helps you compare them on the same criteria: real-time capability and latency, answer accuracy and grounding, agent-desktop and CCaaS integration, adoption, security, and AI governance. A good template makes each vendor show whether it guides agents during the interaction, not just analyzes it afterward.
What's inside the template
Real-time agent assist capabilities
Live prompts and next steps, AI answers, grounding, dynamic compliance checklists, and objection handling.
Speed and latency
Transcription and guidance latency under production volume.
Guidance quality and grounding
How answers are chosen, kept accurate, and prevented from being invented.
Scope and fit
Assist that augments your agents versus an autonomous AI agent.
Agent desktop and CCaaS integration
Native, real-time, and inside the agent's existing tool.
Adoption and change management
Whether your frontline agents will actually use it.
Security, governance, implementation, support, pricing
The universal checks every RFP needs.
A 1-to-5 scoring column
Rank vendors side by side on the same questions.
Get the free template (Excel)
No form and no sales pitch. Download the Excel scorecard, send it to the agent-assist vendors you are evaluating, and score their answers against the same questions. Edit it however you like.
Score every agent-assist vendor on these dimensions
Real-time performance and speed
Does it guide during the interaction, with sub-second latency under load?
Guidance quality and grounding
Are answers grounded in your knowledge base, chosen by live context, and kept accurate?
Scope and fit
Is it assist that augments your agents, not an autonomous AI agent that replaces them?
Agent desktop and integration
Native, real-time, and inside the agent's existing tool and your CCaaS?
Adoption
Will frontline agents actually use it, and does it shorten ramp time?
Security and governance
Certifications, real-time redaction, model ownership, and human oversight?
Implementation and support
Weeks to value, a real proof of concept on live interactions, and responsive support?
Commercial
A clear pricing model and an honest first-year total cost.
The questions most agent-assist RFPs miss
Most templates were written for broad software or outsourcing, so they skip what actually separates real-time agent assist vendors. Add these.
Live guidance, or only analysis afterward?
Make each vendor state plainly whether it guides agents during the interaction or only analyzes it afterward. Analyzing afterward tells you what went wrong yesterday. Real-time assist changes the outcome while the interaction is still happening.
Latency under real volume
A recorded demo hides latency. Ask for real-time transcription and guidance latency at your peak concurrency, and insist on an unscripted live demo on your own audio, not a canned one.
Answer accuracy and grounding
Ask how the system decides which answer to surface, whether answers are grounded in your knowledge base, and what stops it from inventing responses. Ungrounded answers erode agent trust fast.
Assist, or an autonomous AI agent?
The word "agent" means two different things. Confirm you are buying assist that augments your agents, not an autonomous AI agent that handles interactions without a person. Mixing these up causes most evaluation mistakes.
Will the frontline actually use it?
Adoption is where rollouts die. Ask whether guidance appears inside the agent's existing screen without extra clicks, whether it feels like help rather than monitoring, and how it affects ramp time.
Real-time agent assist RFP FAQs
Real-time agent assist software listens to a live interaction and gives the agent guidance while it is still happening: suggested next steps, answers pulled from a knowledge base, dynamic compliance checklists, and prompts for handling objections. Unlike tools that only review interactions afterward, it helps the agent in the moment, so the outcome can change before the interaction ends.
Agent assist augments a person: it guides your frontline agents during live interactions but the agent stays in control. An autonomous AI agent handles interactions on its own, without a person. Many evaluation mistakes come from confusing the two, so decide which one you are buying before you compare vendors, and make each vendor state clearly which they provide.
A chatbot talks directly to the customer, usually over chat, and tries to resolve the request itself. Agent assist supports the human handling the interaction, surfacing answers and next steps to the agent rather than the customer. Agent assist is about making your people better in the moment, not replacing the conversation with a bot.
No. Agent assist is built to augment frontline agents, not replace them. It gives them answers, prompts, and reminders during the interaction so they perform like your best people. The person stays in control of the conversation and makes the decisions, while the software handles recall and consistency in the background.
Post-interaction analytics score and summarize an interaction after it ends, which is useful for coaching and trends. Real-time agent assist acts during the interaction, guiding the agent while the customer is still on the line. The difference matters because only real-time assist can change the outcome of the interaction that is happening right now.
It captures the live audio, transcribes both sides in real time, and uses that to detect intent, track required steps, and surface the right prompt or answer within about a second. Guidance appears in the agent's workflow as the conversation unfolds. Strong platforms ground their answers in your own knowledge base and adapt as the customer's intent changes.
Score every vendor on the same dimensions: real-time capability and latency, answer accuracy and grounding, agent-desktop and CCaaS integration, frontline adoption, security, AI governance, implementation, support, and total cost. Define your metrics up front, insist on an unscripted live demo on your own audio, and run a proof of concept on live interactions before you commit.
It varies by vendor and by how many integrations you need, but a focused agent-assist rollout is usually measured in weeks, not quarters, because it runs on top of your existing telephony rather than replacing it. Ask each vendor for a detailed plan with milestones, the resources they need from your team, and a proof of concept on live interactions.
Yes. The template is a free Excel scorecard with no form to fill out. Download it, edit it however you like, and send it to the agent-assist vendors you are evaluating. It was compiled by Balto from more than 100 contact center AI RFPs, so it reflects the questions that tend to matter most.
Evaluating AI across the whole contact center?
For a broader evaluation beyond agent assist, use our call center AI RFP template .
Download the real-time agent assist RFP template
Get the free Excel scorecard and start comparing agent-assist vendors on the same terms today.