What is Containment rate?
The share of conversations kept inside the automated experience. Directional at best, misleading as a success measure.
Updated June 2026
Containment rate is a close cousin of deflection: the share of conversations contained within the automated experience without escalation.
It shares deflection’s core weakness, treating "did not reach a human" as a proxy for "was solved." Useful as a directional signal, misleading as a success measure.
See it on SupportWire
Related terms
- Resolution rate The share of conversations an AI agent fully closes on its own. The most honest measure of whether your AI actually solves problems.
- Involvement rate How much of your inbound support volume the AI agent touches, whatever the outcome. A measure of footprint.
- Automation rate Resolution rate times involvement rate. The single number that ties AI impact to cost and capacity.
- Deflection rate Share of support requests resolved without a human. Useful when measured honestly; misleading when silence counts as success.