TLDR: Saks Fifth Avenue has partnered with NLX and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to introduce voice-first, generative AI-powered conversational experiences aimed at enhancing customer service and reducing call volumes. This collaboration leverages NLX’s patented Voice+ technology, integrated with Amazon Connect and Amazon Bedrock, to provide a multimodal customer interaction platform that mimics human agents.
NEW YORK – August 8, 2025 – Saks Fifth Avenue, a prominent luxury retailer within the Saks Global portfolio, has announced a strategic collaboration with NLX, an AI platform specializing in advanced conversational experiences, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). This partnership is set to revolutionize Saks Fifth Avenue’s customer service operations by implementing voice-first, generative AI-powered conversational experiences.
The initiative aims to elevate the customer service experience to match the high expectations of luxury clientele while simultaneously improving operational efficiency and reducing agent call volume. The core of this transformation lies in the integration of NLX’s patented, multimodal Voice+ technology with Amazon Connect, AWS’s unified, AI-native customer experience solution, and Amazon Bedrock.
Customers engaging with Saks Fifth Avenue’s service channels for inquiries such as order status or returns can now interact with AI in a manner closely resembling human agents. This advanced system allows for spoken communication, text exchanges, and guided visual steps on a shared screen, offering a truly multimodal experience.
Jessica Bengtzen, Vice President, Service Centers, Saks Global, emphasized the strategic importance of this integration. “At its core, luxury is personal. By thoughtfully integrating advanced technology like NLX, we are not replacing the human touch, we are enhancing it. This allows us to work smarter to elevate every customer interaction, ensuring our teams are empowered to deliver exceptional, high-touch service across all facets of the customer journey,” she stated.
The deployment of this new technology has already yielded tangible benefits for Saks Fifth Avenue. The luxury retailer has observed a significant decrease in agent call volume, with approximately 20% of callers opting into the visual voice-guided Interactive Voice Response (IVR) experience. Beyond customer-facing improvements, the generative AI solution also empowers customer support agents by providing data for more informed decisions, summarizing lengthy conversations (e.g., a 20-minute call into a few sentences), and reducing after-call workload by an average of 15 seconds per interaction. Saks Fifth Avenue can now also monitor customer sentiment and access real-time and historical metrics.
Andrei Papancea, CEO of NLX, highlighted the market demand for such sophisticated solutions. “Saks Fifth Avenue understands that its customers expect excellence in everything, and their post-purchase service experiences are no exception,” said Papancea. “As consumers increasingly expect brands to offer fast and efficient service while preserving the high-touch experience, retailers like Saks that deliver the most delightful and advanced technology will capture their loyalty and their business.”
Rich Geraffo, Vice President & Managing Director, AWS North America, added, “Luxury retail customers expect conversational experiences that are personalized and feel as natural as speaking with an in-store associate would be. NLX is delivering exactly that – elevated, seamless interactions through a unique pairing of its own AI capabilities with Amazon Connect and Amazon Bedrock. For Saks Fifth Avenue, this equates to meeting customers exactly where they are, with the speed, sophistication and white-glove service they demand.”
Also Read:
- AWS Revolutionizes Account Planning with Amazon Bedrock-Powered Generative AI Tool
- DTDC Revolutionizes Logistics with Generative AI: Introducing DIVA 2.0 Powered by Amazon Bedrock
Utilizing NLX’s proprietary no-code platform and the support of AWS Professional Services, Saks Fifth Avenue was able to build, test, and analyze these voice-first, generative AI-powered conversations within weeks, circumventing the need for extensive IT resource allocation.
