Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over the business landscape. It helps to automate tedious tasks, surfacing deeper insights from data, and enhancing productivity on an incredible scale. Perhaps one of the most significant areas where AI is making waves, is in the contact center.
Some studies suggest that more than one in every five contact centers had already completed a major AI project by 2022, and numbers have continued to grow ever since.
However, despite increasing adoption, there are still plenty of misconceptions surrounding the concept of AI in the contact center. Today, we’re sharing 6 crucial truths you should know if you’re looking for a way to enhance your contact center with intelligence.
Be Aware of Potential AI Risks
As powerful as AI technologies are in today’s world, there are risks to implementing any new innovative solution into your workflows. The more advanced AI becomes, the more threats emerge, from concerns about ethical AI use, to the risk of deepfakes, and the rise of new regulations.
Companies need to have a comprehensive strategy in place to ensure they eliminate as many risks as possible, and protect vulnerable customers. Unfortunately, many companies have rushed to introduce AI into their solutions, without conducting the proper due-diligence.
Taking your time in the building stage, conducting the right research, and ensuring you’re aware of all the risks you might face will be crucial to success.
1. AI Will Make Companies more Compliant
The rise of generative AI has led to new concerns about ethical intelligence and compliance in the contact center. In a Gartner 2023 report, only 1% of risk executives said they were thoroughly prepared for the risks of AI adoption.
Now that IT leaders are prioritizing data and security in the contact center, to help minimize risks, it’s more important than ever to assess the value that AI can offer from a security perspective. In a world of evolving regulations, AI can give contact centers a crucial edge.
AI can help companies comply with standards like the FCA’s Consumer Duty Act, using speech analytics to recognize and pinpoint any possible vulnerable customers in an instant.
These tools can provide feedback to agents based on sentiment analysis, so team members can tailor their approach to calls effectively. Speech analytics can even analyze trends in calls and surface insights into how companies can improve compliance with regulatory standards.
2. Intelligence Enhances Customer Experience
In a difficult economic environment, one of the only ways to “future-proof” the success of your business, is to deliver consistently great experiences. Studies consistently show that improving the customer experience can increase sales revenue (by 2 to 7% in the case of McKinsey’s report).
While there is a cost involved in implementing AI, the impact on customer experience is significant. Around 21% of contact center leaders says that AI is helping them to boost customer satisfaction and retain more loyal customers. AI tools accomplish this in a range of ways. They can empower companies to offer more effective self-service strategies, and help guide agents through more effective and personalized conversations.
Plus, AI speech analytical tools provide companies with the in-depth insights they need to handle each conversation effectively. AI-driven analytics and sentiment analysis can even help companies to map and optimize each interaction more effectively.
3. AI Can Help You Save Money
As mentioned above, implementing an intuitive solution into the contact center, like AI bots and speech analytics tools does come with a cost. In the current economic climate, many contact center leaders are struggling to optimize their budget, and make the most out of the tools they have.
However, AI can actually help companies save money, and reduce operational expenses in the long-term. In fact, Gartner predicts conversational AI will reduce contact center labor costs by $80 billion by 2026.
Speech analytical tools, for instance, can help contact centers be smarter with how they distribute resources. They also help to reduce the costs associated with inefficient practices, like analyzing conversations manually. Additionally, AI is becoming more affordable for smaller contact centers as the technology develops.
AI can also help with staff resource management, providing insights into employee requirements by evaluating call volume patterns, helping to reduce overstaffing without compromising on customer experience. It can even identify cost-saving opportunities in call scripts, delivering a consistent return on investment for growing teams.
“There’s a common misconception that AI is a silver bullet for all contact center problems. This isn’t the case, but when implemented mindfully to streamline processes, AI absolutely gives contact centers a competitive advantage through elevated customer experiences, enhanced operations, and reduced costs.” – Ben Booth, CEO, MaxContact
4. AI in the Contact Center isn’t Just Chatbots
Chatbots are one of the most commonly used AI solutions in the contact center today. That’s particularly true now that 80% of customers are demanding more self-service solutions. With the rise of generative AI, natural language processing, and advanced machine learning algorithms, bots are becoming more efficient and powerful, driving even better customer experiences.
However, there’s more to AI in the contact center than chatbots alone. Intelligent tools can help to optimize customer experiences in a variety of ways.
For instance, intelligent IVR systems can help route customers to the right agent quickly, reducing call handling times and increasing first-time resolution rates. AI assistants can provide employees with real-time coaching and support, and AI dialers can help optimize the results of outbound campaigns.
5. AI Will Assist, Not Replace Agents
The rise of AI in the contact center was initially met with some animosity. Many employees, particularly those in the contact center, feared that bots would make their jobs redundant. However, as we’ve seen countless times in the last few months, AI works best at augmenting agents, not replacing them. One study found that over 61% of customer service leaders believe they won’t reduce their employee headcount by more than 5% as a result of AI.
In the contact center, AI can help to create a more engaging and efficient environment for staff.
It can minimize repetitive tasks like analyzing calls for useful information, summarizing conversations, and dialing contacts via outbound campaigns. Plus, with speech analytics, agents can access deeper insights into conversations in an instant, helping them to deliver more personalized and engaging experiences to customers.
What’s more, AI solutions can help companies train their agents to be more productive and efficient. Insights gathered from speech analytics tools are excellent for identifying areas for improvement, and ensuring companies can deliver personalized training to staff.
“Rather than trying to be a complete agent replacement, the true power of contact center AI will come from working alongside human employees. Imagine AI coaching agents in real-time, automating quality assurance, and freeing your team to focus on engaged, personalized customer interactions.” – Matthew Yates, VP of Engineering, MaxContact
6. IT and CX Collaboration is Crucial for AI Implementation
Finally, while AI delivers a host of benefits to contact center leaders, from improved productivity, agent and customer experience, and reduced costs, it still has challenges to overcome. Companies need a comprehensive strategy to ensure they’re managing the data that drives AI effectively, and ensuring it can flow across disparate systems.
Business leaders need a clear plan for what they want their AI systems to achieve, and how they’re going to analyze and report on the impact of their technology. To achieve the right results, businesses will need to ensure CX teams and IT departments are aligned around the implementation and use of artificial intelligence.
CX teams need to be clear on the purpose of AI in your contact center, and the tools they’ll be using to reach business goals. Additionally, IT teams need to be part of the conversation from day one, advising on the infrastructure and integration required.
Don’t Ignore AI in the Contact Center
Ultimately, AI holds incredible potential for the contact center. The chances are your company is already investing in some form of intelligent technology to support agents or enhance customer experience. As AI innovations continue to evolve, demand for this technology will grow, giving companies more ways to thrive and differentiate themselves from the competition.
However, to unlock the true value of AI, companies still need the right strategy, and the correct partner. Companies like MaxContact can help organizations leverage native AI features in their contact center software, ensuring these solutions integrate seamlessly with the tools they already use.
What’s more, MaxContact offers companies a cost-effective way to explore the benefits of AI, and start driving ROI instantly.