Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as machines that learn from experience while emulating human thinking and actions. They are designed to mimic human beings to make our lives easier. When it comes to customer experience (CX), they perform mundane tasks so human agents don’t have to. Though despite being designed to copy human behaviours, it has recently come to light that while these fascinating machines are learning from experiences, human beings – or more specifically – businesses are not. Research has found that despite the destruction the past 18 months has caused due to COVID-19, 89% of European organisations are yet to invest in AI to aid their businesses post-pandemic. Added to that, nearly 8 in 10 respondents recognise their organisations’ lack of knowledge when it comes to understanding different AI technologies. This shocking study was published by top CX solutions provider Odigo in a brand-new report called Leveraging AI to Enhance CX – a Look at European
Businesses. CX Today welcomes David Noone, Strategic Innovation Lead UKI at Odigo, to provide an insight into these findings and tell us why without AI in CX businesses could crumble.
“There was so much industry hype that positioned AI as the cure for everything,” Noone begins
“We heard talk of replacing agents with robots, everybody throwing their traditional phones away and this massive digital takeover by anything and everything automated. It created one heck of a stir. But now we all know that the reality is completely different.”
Noone is referring to the misinformation surrounding the topic of AI, which sadly, is still in circulation today. This could be anything from a general anxiety about machine intelligence to the fear of mass unemployment. Noone explains it’s Odigo’s, and indeed the industry at large’s, responsibility to better educate businesses on the matter.
Noone says: “Businesses need a level of understanding on the true capabilities of what AI can and cannot deliver for their customer base. This really helps eradicate their concerns and builds a case for AI. It helps business leaders better understand why they’d invest in this technology, what is it going to do for their companies, how will it change their customer experience, how is it going to make customers happier and make the lives of their agents easier? This is achieved by setting that level of reality but doing so in a manner that business leaders can understand.”
Simple advice from Noone, but what’s causing the delay with European countries deploying AI, particularly when business leaders believe that investing in AI is a good way to improve their organisations’ CX – specifically 88% in the UK, 90% in France, 97% in Spain, 89% in Germany and 82% in Belgium and the Netherlands. So what’s the hold up with these countries updating their contact centres?
“There’s a lot of confusion about where they actually begin to deploy AI, and some of this comes from a real problem in most organisations with disconnected data. By this, I mean that when you actually start to look at some of the needs of these new user experiences, they’re very reliant on quality data. And when we start talking to organisations that data tends to live in various systems within various different political organisations, and it can become very difficult to actually get a full view of the customer. As a customer, some data is in marketing, some data is in the contact centre, some data is in sales and some is in fulfilment or delivery. If the business can look at how it can bring that panoramic data view together, that would help. “
“Another point to consider is that people often forget that with many businesses, the contact centre is pretty much the front door for the organisation and critical in the delivery of the brand’s customer experience. Think of the concept of trying to change the wheels on a car which is travelling at 100mph – you can’t stop it and can’t stop the car, but you know you need to change the wheels. So how do you do that? Again, this comes down to having a realistic view of the change strategy in terms of a strong value-driven roadmap.”
The report states another reason European nations are holding back on AI implementation is a lack of skills as well as a lack of knowledge. The research states that 75% agree that a lack of AI knowledge stops their investment in improving CX and nearly eight in 10 business executives say that no one or only a few people are AI experts in their area of work.
Noone says: “We’re currently in the midst of a huge employment surge in professionals that work in the field of data science. It’s one of the fastest-growing courses at universities and is a fundamental building block of a lot of AI technology. It’s similar to the last five years when we had a growth of analytics professionals. And what we’re also seeing is a further growth in the psychology involved in CX. There’s a serious interest in the emotional state of the customer, how they’re feeling and empathy involved in the general contact centre experience.”
The sectors that think it’s vital to invest in AI are financial services, utilities and telecoms, transport, travel and leisure, the report states. Perhaps expectedly, organisations polled intend to invest in the latest AI and CX technologies to get ahead of their competitors. But their reasons for investing are fascinating. 85% said they’d invest to boost smart data management, the same number for process automation, another 85% solely for CX purposes, 83% for intelligent CX and 82% for omni-channel customer profiles.
Another interesting takeaway from the report is that 72% suggest they are eager to advance NLP projects, with 66% planning to launch them in the next two years. Companies in financial services, transport, travel, leisure and telecoms are more eager to launch NLP projects as this technology is regarded as business critical for their survival, the study adds.
Despite these companies’ ideas for what they want to use AI for, Noone says there is a disconnect in what business leaders think AI can do to provide better CX and customers preferring human engagement. This can result in a delay in businesses investing in AI technologies to improve CX.
“There’s a perception gap regarding how people think AI and NLP can help their business and this comes from businesses being overly dependent on KPIs, dashboards and metrics. They can end up losing reality of what’s happening in the real world. They need to take a step back think about how these technologies will help their business and keep customers and employees happy, especially in this post-COVID world we’re emerging from. People, at a fundamental psychological level, still need human interaction even though the pandemic has changed the face of customer experience.”
To conclude, companies believe to achieve the best possible CX they must invest in AI. In fact, 59% of the IT sector, 48% of those in finance, 47% in sales, 46% in leadership and strategy and 40% in distribution all strongly agree AI is a vital component in CX to keep their businesses alive. Yet a mix of over-enthusiastic hype and lack of skills and knowledge is delaying this all-important business decision to be made. These European businesses must get with the programme like their global counterparts and make that investment. AI is now no longer a choice in CX, it’s fast becoming a requirement.
