If the classic movie The Graduate were remade today, Mr. McGuire’s career advice to new college graduate Benjamin Braddock wouldn’t be “plastics.” It would be two words: “artificial intelligence.” Avaya and some of its partners clearly agree with the value of that advice.
Avaya made several announcements this week at GITEX GLOBAL 2024 in Dubai, all centered around AI delivered with a growing ecosystem of partners.
Virtual Operations Manager
Avaya announced its Virtual Operations Manager. Calling it the company’s “vision for a future of customer experience orchestrated by AI,” the concept demonstrates how human and artificial intelligence can collaborate to change how contact centers manage the customer experience.
Avaya built the showcase on its Avaya Experience Platform, which integrates contact center data and operations to provide centralized insights and boost performance. An avatar-based, virtual contact center operations manager advises and acts on behalf of contact center leaders.
The use of AI in the contact center has primarily been directed toward the agent, but this solution is aimed at helping the operations manager.
At the Avaya stand, I talked with Giselle Bou Ghanem, VP of Product Marketing at Avaya, and she told me:
With contact centers, operation managers can get overwhelmed with data. We use orchestration APIs to unify and analyze data across the business ecosystem, giving contact center managers the information to perform complex workforce orchestration.
AXP was built to be open to support a broad ecosystem. The analytics is done using Microsoft PowerBI with Co-Pilot while the customer can choose the avatar solution of their choice.
Real-Time Translation for Customer Service
Avaya also announced it is partnering with Transcom, a global customer service provider, and Sabio Group, an international expert in CX transformation, to create “an AI-powered, real-time translation solution that can enable contact center agents from anywhere in the world to converse with customers in over 100 languages.”
Avaya bills the solution as “a significant step forward” for the business process outsourcing industry. It will enable Transcom to recruit agents based on what they know, not which languages they speak.
Jakob Westgren, SVP and Head of IT Products and Partners for Transcom, said it can be “challenging to recruit enough agents to support all our global markets.” He said collaborating with Avaya and Sabio will empower global agents to “offer high-quality customer service in every required language for our clients.”
Per the announcement, the offering integrates “real-time translation and conversational AI tools with an Avaya Experience Platform contact center core. Speech-to-text and text-to-speech AI technology are paired with multiple translation engines and custom dictionaries to create real-time voice translation, eliminating language barriers between agents and customers.”
Transcom’s Westgren estimates that with real-time voice translation, “we believe we can reduce costs for these types of clients by 25%, or as much as 65%, depending on the use cases and markets.”
Rob Scutchings, CTO at Sabio, said the solution “showcases the transformative power of AI. By integrating cutting-edge speech transcription and real-time language translation capabilities with Avaya’s robust platform, we’re not just breaking down language barriers—we’re redefining the possibilities of global customer service.”
Cloud-Based Workplace Communications for Enterprises
Avaya announced it is partnering with The Beyon Group, a global leader in enterprise CX, to create the Avaya Communication & Collaboration Suite delivered through the Beyon cloud. The offering enables Beyon “to blend existing communication tools for up to 30,000 users with a suite of next-gen voice, video, and key integrations that connect org-wide initiatives.” Beyon and its subsidiaries are already using the solution, which the companies are also rolling out to enterprise customers Beyon serves.
The announcement said that in addition to Beyon, other large Bahraini enterprise customers upgrading their employee experiences with the new solution include the Bahrain International Circuit, a Formula 1 racing circuit, Bapco Energies, and multiple Bahraini government ministries.
Dubai Police Deploys an AI-based Virtual Agent
The company announced it is implementing an AI-based virtual assistant for the Dubai Police. The solution, done with AI provider Cognigy, aims to improve the citizen experience while removing much of the heavy lifting from the police department’s staff.
The use of AI-based virtual agents will enable the Dubai Police to use chatbots and orchestrate journeys across all the various touchpoints citizens have with the agency. The first use case will be for self-service on the Dubai Police mobile application. The second phase will include voice and digital channels supported by its contact center, designed to create a unified, AI-powered experience regardless of the channel.
No vendor can provide every element of a solution when it comes to AI. At its stand at GITEX 2024, Avaya did an excellent job of highlighting the power of an ecosystem. What I found particularly interesting was the breadth of different AI use cases that spanned all communication channels. GITEX is about the art of the possible, and that’s what Avaya delivered.
Thanks to Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research, for submitting this article.
Dave Michels, another prominent CX analyst, joined Kerravala at GITEX 2024. Here’s what he had to say about the event.
