CX automation made its way into the spotlight in the early 2010s and has since continued to develop in many aspects. With artificial intelligence reaching new heights almost every day, the CX industry has adopted many AI-powered solutions to service customers with conversational AI being the most prominent among them.
Such sophisticated technology had a breakthrough in recent years, becoming needed by nearly every type of business. Low code/no-code approaches and NLP features are just a few of the capabilities that made enterprise conversational AI platforms some of the most sought-after solutions in the CX industry. To find out more about what the next 10 months will bring to the conversational AI space, CX Today spoke with Sebastian Glock, Senior Technology Evangelist at Cognigy.
Boost in hyperautomation
Over the past year, automation has proved to be able to do a host of processes more seamlessly than humans would, saving organisations both time and money. Glock thinks automation will continue to dominate the CX industry; however, it will also come with a particular human touch. He explains:
“The main goal of organisations is not to replace humans with virtual agents but to enable better service by leveraging the best of both worlds. Contact centre agents are able to handle customer issues more efficiently when supported by an automation-first strategy. One form of that is Agent Assist, which serves as a helping hand to agents while interacting with customers.”
Automation plays a huge role when handling sensitive data. To illustrate this, imagine a customer calling a financial institution and needs to verify personal credit card details. Instead of a live agent taking the information, a virtual agent securely collects the data so the agent can focus on the customer’s request.
Ambient AI support
There’s no doubt that conversational AI has already reached a certain level of sophistication. However, it will continue to develop in a direction in which users will notice a difference but won’t be able to tell that it is AI doing the job for them. Glock refers to this as “ambient AI support” and elaborates further:
“AI services will no longer be explicitly perceived as AI capabilities. They will just run in the background, quietly assisting people in their everyday lives. A great example of this is an email summary we usually get in the morning that tells us the agenda of the day or week.”
Services like these work according to the data they collect while we’re using a platform or an app, all to make our lives easier. They can offer the next best actions or quick suggestions that work as a helpful guide in day-to-day tasks.
AI will be more proactive
Conversational AI is made to be instantly available when a customer in need reaches out to an enterprise. However, in the future, AI will be the one that makes contact first, usually with a helpful notification or reminder. Glock predicts:
“There will be more use cases where virtual agents initiate conversations by giving a quick heads-up about something that directly concerns the customer. That can be an approaching driver’s license expiration date or a reminder to schedule a doctor’s appointment, for example.”
Virtual agents will work with customer data to produce these notifications that will ultimately give customers choice of next step. It significantly differs from an agent calling a customer and creating the sense of urgency that the customer needs to make the decision on the spot. The asynchronous nature of chat communication and the ease of use of consumer messengers makes such service experiences frictionless and convenient.
Conversational AI enters the Metaverse
Metaverse is certainly one of the hottest global topics at the moment, due to its novelty and enormous potential. Industry after industry is thinking of ways to grab their share of the pie. We’ve already seen virtual conferences and meetings held by global organisations take place in the Metaverse. But how does conversational AI fits into this? Glock says:
“Metaverse is still in its infancy, so the business application of the Metaverse is yet to see the light of day. However, people will be using their voices to interact not only with other humans but also with any kind of artificial agents. At the end of the day, any object in the Metaverse can potentially engage in a conversation.”
“For example, conversational AI could power AI sales agents that sit next to you in a virtual test drive of a new car. And it will elevate professional training and education to a whole new level by providing truly immersive and interactive learning experiences.”
Cognigy’s conversational AI solutions have been developed to deliver outstanding customer experiences on autopilot. Live agents today need the assistance of virtual agents, putting pressure on companies to adopt technology that is easy to use and quick to implement. Cognigy’s low-code platform offers a range of voice capabilities, praised for its enterprise flexibility and sustainability, including recognition as a leader for Enterprise Conversation AI Platforms in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant report. As the technology advances in areas like hyperautomation and proactiveness, look for an exciting year ahead for conversational AI.
