System and method for providing a message-based communications infrastructure for automated call center operation

A system for efficiently operating an automated call center through text-based messaging, comprising:

• a telephony interface interfacing to a caller through a telephonic medium and exchanging speech that is converted into incoming text during a call into an automated call center;
• a session manager managing each call as a session and automatically assigning each session to a live agent;
• a speech recognition engine converting an incoming stream of verbal speech into incoming text provided to the live agent;
• an agent application progressively processing the incoming text by executing at least one action specified by the live agent;
• and
• a text-to-speech engine converting outgoing text messages into an outgoing stream of synthesized speech provided to the caller.

A system for providing assisted automated call center operation, comprising:

• a messaging server accepting a call comprising an incoming stream of verbal speech that is converted into incoming text from a caller into a call center;
• a session manager managing the call and automatically assigning the call to a live agent;
• a script engine executing a script provided as an automated dialogue with the caller based on the incoming stream of verbal speech that is converted into incoming text received from the caller during the call;
• and
• an agent application coopting execution of the script to trigger involvement of the live agent, progressively executing commands responsive to the live agent, resuming execution of the script, and sending outgoing text messages that are converted into synthesized speech to the caller.

A system for providing assisted automated call center operation, comprising:

• a messaging server accepting a call comprising an incoming stream of verbal speech from a caller into a call center and automatically assigning the call to a live agent;
• an agent application progressively processing the call by executing commands responsive to the live agent based on incoming text converted from the stream of verbal speech received from the caller during the call;
• and
• a script engine executing a script as an automated dialogue with the caller, wherein the agent application resumes execution of the commands upon termination of the script.