Brace yourself: AI is not a cure-all.
No! You don’t say!
No surprises there, of course, but organisations and their technology providers would do themselves a service by acknowledging the fact and adopting more of a granular approach to its deployment than is often the case.
The truth is that inside every contact center there are specific processes which, in isolation, may benefit significantly from AI. Identify those processes and focus fully on enhancing them for both agent and customer – then you are beginning to leverage the AI dividend.
In short, particularly for small to mid-sized businesses, there is not yet a cost-effective way of pushing a giant AI button, however, push a few smaller ones and the benefits can be swift and significant.
“AI has the power to affect multiple aspects of the way in which businesses operate but its widespread deployment and adoption can require a huge amount of commitment – the best initial approach is to use it to bridge functionality gaps in existing tooling,” says Srijit Dutta, Lead AI Implementation Strategist , at leading contact center solutions provider Computer Talk, which is helping thousands of organisations all over the world to map their AI journeys.
“Knowledge Management is a great example. Most organisations already have various tools and portals within their contact center solution and their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform which provide information and metrics. However, much of it remains locked in spreadsheets and tables that are often siloed and difficult to access. AI can be deployed to aggregate, analyse, and present that information in a relevant, customized, and highly useful way. Interpreting and acting on that insight is what drives improved business outcomes.”
Similarly, quality assurance can be enhanced with AI. For small and medium enterprises in particular, it is often a highly manual process of re-listening to calls and triaging them. Deploying AI to assess and rate customer interactions saves time and enables human agents to focus on more complex, value-adding tasks.
“These key, granular aspects of their day-to-day operation is what organisations should focus on,” says Dutta. “What is their primary pain? What are they trying to achieve? What is the gap in their existing tool set? There is no single AI button to click that will solve it all in one go. Breaking things down into bite-size elements is how to derive return on investment.”
It is a strategy that is helped most by picking a provider which takes a more modular and consultative approach to AI. A provider must understand that different organisations have different issues, and that it may be inappropriate to attempt to solve them all simultaneously.
Indeed, the pace of AI deployment can be as important as the deployment itself. Adoption, too, is critical. A recent report revealed that 70% of contact center managers do not expect AI to replace jobs and, instead, they view AI as an augmenter of human ability. Employees will learn how to do more with less; so not a diminished workforce, but a more enabled one.
“Elements of the workforce can be repurposed because they have been augmented with AI-powered tools,” says Dutta. “For example, they are no longer bogged down with simple change requests, but instead are free to deal with more pertinent matters, such as invoice related issues or anything that requires a more personalised or context-driven response.”
“In turn, the high-quality nature of that work has massive downstream effects. Agents are happier and more fulfilled in their roles, and that is reflected in the enhanced way in which they interact with customers.”
“So as businesses get more customer centric, evaluating AI tools becomes a game of opportunity costs. What will drive differentiators? What will enhanced visibility tell us about our pressure points? Can this technology be a critical enabler of the workforce?”
Considering these questions can add up to serious gains across the board.
To learn more about how Computer Talk can help your and your customers’ businesses leverage the benefits of AI, visit the website.
