Peter Isaacs
Senior Prompt Engineer, Voiceflow
Peter’s current obsessions include LLMs and conversational AI. When Peter’s not writing furiously about saving the future of AI, you can find him solving a Rubik's Cube in under 60 seconds. (Note: may not result in single-colored sides.)
Automate by Cost to Resolve, Not Ticket Volume
Rank automation targets by cost to resolve, not ticket volume, so your next rollout actually cuts cost per contact.
October 2, 2026 Read → Blog postBuild a Twilio Chatbot Without Hand-Rolling Dialog State
Twilio ships the pipes for your chatbot, not the brain: split transport from reasoning and your build gets faster and more reliable.
October 2, 2026 Read → Blog postFix AI Ticket Routing by Grounding It in Context, Not Tags
Ground ticket routing in the same knowledge your agent uses to resolve tickets, not keyword tags, and trace every decision it makes.
September 30, 2026 Read → Blog postDecagon vs Sierra Comes Down to Control, Not Capability
Decagon and Sierra look different in the demo. Here's the pricing and control criteria that actually predict which one fits your team.
September 24, 2026 Read → Blog postRetail Voice AI: Reach Your Systems, Not Your CRM
A retail voice agent evaluation should test system reach and pricing under spike load, not how natural a demo sounds.
September 23, 2026 Read → Blog postDecagon Pricing: Model the Curve, Not the Quote
Decagon doesn't publish pricing. Here's the mechanism behind the quote, the cost curve it creates, and what to ask before you sign.
September 3, 2026 Read → Blog post5 Free Chatbot Templates You Need [2026 Tutorial]
Five free chatbot templates worth copying: customer support, lead gen, e-commerce, booking, and marketing, each with a real example plus how to customize one.
July 23, 2026 Read → Blog postPython Chatbot Code You Can Copy and Paste [2026]
Get ready-to-use Python chatbot code snippets that actually work. Step-by-step examples to build your own AI assistant—no advanced coding needed.
July 20, 2026 Read → Blog postHow to Build a Chatbot in Python With ChatterBot (2026 Guide)
ChatterBot was revived in 2025. Here's how to build and train a Python chatbot with it in 2026, what it's good for, and when to use a platform instead.
July 15, 2026 Read → Blog postAI Voice Bots: How They Work and How to Build One [2026]
What an AI voice bot is, how it works, and how to build one in 2026. Latency, grounding, handoff, and the Voiceflow voice stack, explained.
July 9, 2026 Read → Blog postContact Center Automation in 2026: What Actually Works
What contact center automation can handle in 2026, where it breaks, and how to choose a platform. A practitioner's guide to the best AI options.
July 9, 2026 Read → Blog postAI Phone Calls: Automate Your Phone With AI Agents [2026]
How AI voice agents automate inbound and outbound phone calls in 2026: how they work, where they pay off, what to look for before you build, and the TCPA rules.
July 6, 2026 Read → Blog postHow to Build an AI IVR and Call Center [2026]
Stop losing customers to frustrating phone trees. This guide explains what AI IVR is, how it uses conversational AI to solve problems in real-time, and how to implement it to boost your bottom line.
July 1, 2026 Read → Blog postHow To Create a Conversational Voice Chatbot [No Code]
Build your own AI voice chatbot without writing a single line of code. Learn the step-by-step process to design natural conversations your users will love.
June 26, 2026 Read → Blog postWhat Is a Voicebot? How It Works and How to Build One
What a voicebot is in 2026, how voice AI agents actually work, where they pay off, and how to build one that handles real customer calls.
June 19, 2026 Read → Blog postConversational AI Design: A Practitioner's Guide [2026]
What conversational AI design actually is in 2026: the three layers that matter, a step-by-step design process, and the mistakes most teams make.
June 15, 2026 Read → Blog postAI Call Bot 2026: How To Build One + The Best Platforms
I tested the top AI call bot platforms and built one no-code. How AI voice agents work, the TCPA rules, and which platform to pick in 2026.
June 10, 2026 Read → StoryAgent logs: Understanding why your agent did what it did
Debugging software is hard. Debugging agents is harder. How agent logs help you understand why your agent did what it did.
April 21, 2026 Read → StoryBuilding your AI centre of excelence
Building your AI centre of excellence: a customer experience piece on what you really give up by outsourcing your AI agents.
April 15, 2026 Read → Blog postAgentic AI in the Contact Center: 2026 Landscape
Where agentic AI in the contact center stands in 2026: what Gartner and Cisco forecast, what's real versus hype, and what the FCC's offshore call-center rules mean.
March 30, 2026 Read → Blog postHow to Automate Tier 1 Tickets Without Sacrificing CX
What Tier 1 support automation actually contains, with sourced benchmarks instead of vendor math. Which categories to automate first, and how to design the escalation path.
March 30, 2026 Read → Blog postWhat Is Arize AI? Pricing, Pros and Alternatives (2026)
Arize AI explained: what it does, the real AX pricing tiers, where it falls short, and how it compares to Langfuse, LangSmith, Braintrust, and Voiceflow.
March 30, 2026 Read → Blog postWhat Is Braintrust AI? Pricing, Limits and Alternatives (2026)
Braintrust AI explained: what it does, the real pricing tiers, where it falls short, and how it compares to Langfuse, LangSmith, Phoenix and Voiceflow.
March 30, 2026 Read → Blog postWhat Is Ticket Deflection? Formula, Benchmarks, and What It Hides
Zendesk's deflection formula returns a ratio. Decagon's returns a percentage. Here is what the metric measures, and the four numbers that tell the truth.
March 30, 2026 Read → StoryFrom POC to production: How to actually ship AI agents
There's no shortage of AI pilots, but most of them never ship. The ones that do all have these things in common.
March 13, 2026 Read → Blog postAI Agentic Workflows: Design Patterns for Enterprise Teams
The five agentic workflow patterns teams actually ship, and a four-question test for deciding which parts of a process get a fixed path and which get to reason.
February 18, 2026 Read → Blog postVoice AI Agents: The Enterprise Buyer's Guide [2026]
What a voice AI agent is, where it pays off in the contact center, and how to evaluate platforms on latency, telephony, handoff, and security before you buy.
February 18, 2026 Read → Blog postWhat’s IVR (Interactive Voice Response)? [2026 Guide]
IVR explained for 2026: how interactive voice response works, what it is genuinely good at, where it breaks, and how it compares to AI voice agents.
February 18, 2026 Read → StoryBehind the hype: How Klarna's customer support agent falls short
Earlier this year, Klarna unveiled an agent that does the work of 700 full-time people. But how effective is the Klarna agent, really?
May 15, 2024 Read → Story3 reasons everyone hates your AI agent (and what you can do about it)
Customers have been having mediocre conversations with chatbots for years and those poor experiences have left a mark. Here are the three reasons why your chatbot might suck and what you can do about it.
April 8, 2024 Read → StoryArchitecting the Future of AI Agents: 5 Flexible Conversation Frameworks You Need
Traditional turn-by-turn conversation design is quickly becoming outdated. As language models become more advanced, we need a new approach—organic conversation.
April 1, 2024 Read → StoryThe context window paradox: Why bigger might not be better
Controlling LLM context windows is a must for creating efficient AI agents. The context window paradox, and why bigger might not be better.
January 8, 2024 Read → StoryBuilding a virtual agent from scratch? Start here.
Building a virtual agent from scratch? Start here: Pete looks at the process for building an AI agent from step 1 to launch.
November 6, 2023 Read → StoryThe case for a full-stack conversation designer
Effective agents are built by full-stack designers and teams, and here's why: the case for a full-stack conversation designer.
October 13, 2023 Read → StoryThe Complete Guide to Better CxD Workflows
Great agents start with a good creation workflow: the complete guide to building better CxD workflows in conversation design.
October 5, 2023 Read → StoryConfessions of a CxD killjoy: Why I think your AI assistant shouldn’t be funny
Peter Isaacs shares why humor is not always the right choice for designing better AI assistants, and why your AI assistant shouldn't be funny.
September 13, 2023 Read → StoryAI will kill apps and I can’t wait
Why AI will kill apps, and why I can't wait: apps are merely a stop on the journey to a far more innovative destination.
July 31, 2023 Read → StoryConversational AI has a massive, UX-shaped hole
Conversational AI has a massive, UX-shaped hole: nonlinear chat, ephemeral apps, and my ideal future of conversational AI.
July 14, 2023 Read → StoryThe 4 layers every AI assistant needs (hint: more than just an LLM)
Yes, LLMs are the future. But they aren't the entire present. The 4 layers every AI assistant needs, and why it takes more than just an LLM.
June 22, 2023 Read → StoryThe future of conversational AI
The future of conversational AI: the four changes catalyzed by AI that will push conversation designers to adapt and evolve.
May 30, 2023 Read →