Generative AI trends have become a hot topic in the last year. Since the release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, interest in generative bots and LLMs has skyrocketed. The market for generative AI technology is predicted to reach $667.97 billion by 2030.
Though there are numerous use cases for these next-gen AI technologies, they appear particularly valuable for the contact center. Around 97% of businesses believe tools like ChatGPT will transform their business. A further 64% think they’ll be crucial to strengthening customer relationships.
If you plan on leveraging generative AI in your contact center during 2024, it’s worth paying attention to the latest trends. After all, this landscape is evolving at an incredible speed, and part of staying competitive is staying on the cutting edge.
Here are some generative AI trends we think will impact the contact center this year.
1. Advanced Autonomous Agents
For many contact centers, one of the biggest benefits of generative AI is the ability to create more powerful self-service experiences for customers. Generative AI solutions build on the ability of conversational bots and assistants powered by natural language processing and machine learning.
They can deliver more creative, personalized, and human-like responses to customer questions and even help create engaging self-help resources, such as articles and FAQs. The rise of tools for developing powerful gen-AI agents in the contact center will give business leaders more freedom to augment their existing human teams.
Advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques built into generative AI bots ensure these tools can evolve and adapt to new situations with minimum human intervention. Additionally, the ability to connect to CRM systems, customer data platforms, and business databases will lead to the development of more advanced, customized bots.
2. Multimodal Generative AI Trends Transform Omnichannel
Most of today’s business leaders know they must consistently serve consumers on a range of channels to earn their loyalty. However, fewer than a third of contact centers deliver truly “omnichannel” experiences. Initial generative AI solutions only allowed companies to provide immersive, personalized experiences through text.
However, evolving generative AI trends in the “multimodal” landscape could change all this. Some of the most advanced generative AI solutions today, such as Google’s new “Gemini” model, can understand and respond to content in various forms. They can even create different types of content, from videos and images to human-sounding speech.
The rise of multimodal AI in 2024 will help businesses implement generative AI tools to deliver a more consistent experience across various channels. Additionally, multimodal solutions will allow companies to create bots and virtual agents that are more intuitive, creative, and dynamic.
3. Evolving Opportunities for Personalization and Proactivity
Alongside consistent omnichannel experiences, today’s consumers expect high levels of personalization. Around 71% of buyers say they want personalized interactions with contact centers, and 66% are frustrated when brands don’t deliver.
Generative AI solutions have already proven their ability to enhance personalization in the contact center. The right tools can leverage in-depth data about customers to coach employees on how to respond to questions or deliver personalized guidance in a self-service interaction.
As generative AI solutions become more customizable, with no-code and low-code bot-building platforms and tools like Microsoft’s Copilot Studio, the options for personalization will grow. Companies can create generative AI tools designed explicitly for specific customer segments and use cases.
The opportunity to customize bots and generative AI models will also open the door to opportunities for proactive customer service. Allowing bots to analyze historical data and interactions will mean they can deliver predictive insights that ensure companies can follow up with and engage customers at the most relevant times.
4. The Rise of New Dedicated Solutions
Tools like ChatGPT introduced many businesses to the potential of generative AI in the contact center. However, as generative AI trends and practices have evolved, many organizations have discovered limitations with these initial models. Not every large language model or bot can deliver exceptional experiences tailored to the needs of specific audience segments.
Additionally, many early-stage models lack the security, compliance, and governance components to protect businesses and their data. This has led to many startups, CCaaS innovators, and vendors producing specific models for the contact center.
Companies like Salesforce and Dialpad are producing generative AI copilots specifically tailored to the needs of customer service leaders. These tools integrate with other platforms in the contact center tech stack and adhere to business leaders’ security and privacy standards.
Companies are even introducing new “small language models” specifically tailored to address specific tasks, like responding to customer queries on a messaging app. These tools may be more attractive to smaller companies with limited bandwidth and storage resources.
5. Stronger Focus on AI Governance
Speaking of the lack of security and governance solutions offered by initial generative AI solutions, compliance will be a major focus area for contact centers in 2024. Throughout 2023, countless companies encountered the risks of using “bring your own AI” tools in the contact center.
Generative AI solutions pose several security and safety challenges in customer service, mainly if they’re not implemented correctly. In the future, companies must implement more advanced strategies to control how employees use and train generative AI tools.
There’ll be a growing focus on securing and protecting the data fed to generative AI bots and ensuring these systems can align with existing compliance standards. Additionally, businesses may need to invest extra time and resources into monitoring the responses of the generative AI systems. Watching for signs of AI hallucinations will be crucial to preserving brand reputations.
The Major Generative AI Trends in the Contact Center
Generative AI trends are evolving at an incredible rate. While the technology is still relatively new, it’s already significantly impacting a range of business processes. Generative AI offers contact centers a new opportunity to enhance customer experiences, boost efficiency, and transform employee productivity.
However, there will be challenges to overcome, too, from customizing your gen AI tools to your company’s specific needs to preserving compliance.
