Artificial Intelligence seemed like a concept from science fiction not so long ago. Now, we have AI in almost every part of our lives. Whether you’re searching for a song title with Siri, or controlling your home through Alexa, the chances are you’re growing increasingly comfortable with AI.
As machines grow smarter, and consumers feel more comfortable using them, the role of AI in customer experience and service is increasingly too. Gartner notes that AI use grew by more than 270% in the years leading up to 2019. Now we’re in 2021, the market value of AI has surpassed $327.5, and it’s heading for further growth.
The Demand for Virtual and Live Agents
Virtual and live agents are just one component of the AI experience, but they’re something many companies are growing increasingly familiar with. Virtual agents, like the ones you talk to at the start of a call to ensure you’re patched through to the right place, and live support bots on websites are delivering a better level of self-services to customers.
These tools speed up the path to resolution for modern clients, empower agents to deliver better results, and even assist with data collection. Bringing virtual agents into the customer experience could lead to:
- Quicker problem resolution: Virtual agents can respond to customer needs much faster than human agents. An AI algorithm can sort through huge amounts of data in seconds to find the answer to a question. Some tools, equipped with predictive analytics, can even determine what a customer might need in the future, and support your agents in taking pre-emptive action to solve problems before they happen
- Enhanced self-service: Today’s consumers often prefer to solve problems on their own, without the assistance of a live agent. A virtual assistant could help customers to find solutions to their issues easily, without asking them to speak to a human being. This makes the support process more convenient for clients and reduces the pressure on your team
- Always-on support: Whether conversational agents in a contact centre or bots in a chat app, intelligent assistants can be always ready and waiting to answer questions. This ensures that business leaders can give their customers the consistent attention they crave. Around 43% of customers say they expect 24/7 service
- Empowered agents: Virtual and live agents aren’t just there to help your customers; they can support your staff members too. These tools can act as assistants to human workers, helping them to find data faster, leverage important customer information, and even record essential details. The result is more productive, efficient agents
The Virtual Agent is Evolving
Although the first virtual agents to arrive in the marketplace weren’t always reliable, thanks to clunky algorithms and poor access to data, the tools we have today are growing increasingly impressive. Today’s conversational agents and tools can easily respond to customer queries, empower agents, and enhance brand reputation in seconds.
As the virtual agent continues to evolve, companies will only continue to invest more into solutions that can enhance operations and improve customer satisfaction.
