Cloud-based artificial intelligence was supercharged following the COVID-19 pandemic, as consumers increasingly wanted a self-service option when interacting with contact centers. In the future, data transformation is set to be taken to the next level, so consumers can seamlessly interact with AI or human agents, depending on their needs. “Conversational AI is driving the contact center of the future, leveling up the customer experience, and opening doors for innovation and revenue growth among Value Added Resellers (VARs) and channel partners,” says Michelle Paitich, Global Vice President of Channel Sales for 8×8.
Conversational AI: The Next Frontier
Conversational AI – or technologies that users can talk to – is supercharging the contact center experience by leveraging Natural Language Understanding (NLU), emotional intelligence and customer analytics. The integration of conversational AI and knowledge management empowers, informs, and assists throughout the customer journey. In the contact center, a hybrid agent workforce of conversational AI-powered virtual and live agents is elevating the experience and outcomes.
Conversational AI is the evolution of IVR (Interactive Voice Response). When IVR was widely introduced into contact centers in the 1990s, call queuing and automatic call routing became common. It provided 24/7 access to virtual agents and knowledge banks, reducing the reliance on human agents to deal with routine, mundane tasks. This reduced human workforces and lowered business costs. Reliance on virtual interactions and their functionality has increased since – including speech-enabled user interfaces and integration with back-end knowledge management.
The Role of AI in the Contact Center
AI has been gaining importance in the contact center – from the first flush of IVR to today’s ecosystem including ML, NLU, natural language processing (NLP), automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), and speech-to-text (STT) processing. AI is no longer just powering self-service in the contact center – it is integrated into workforce and performance management, customer interaction analytics, and process automation throughout the enterprise.
Solutions such as 8×8’s Intelligent Customer Assistant (ICA) are transforming call center experiences. ICA enables call centers to effortlessly engage customers with human-like interactions and help reduce customer friction. The tool allows for smooth handoffs between channels – including bots and live agents – and creates engaging, personalized conversations with bi-directional CRM sync.
Frost & Sullivan’s 2023 Contact Center Outlook – Customer Perspectives report has provided us with the current and projected use of AI in the contact center. Significantly, 61% of the 751 contact center stakeholder respondents consider investing in self-service technology in the next two years to be either important or crucial. According to Frost & Sullivan’s Global State of AI report, 71% of enterprises have embarked on the AI journey to support business outcomes. The Contact Center Outlook report identified process automation (80%) and voice authentication (79%) as the top technologies that have already been deployed or are planned within the next two years.
“AI use in the contact center is on the rise and conversational AI is the primary area of innovation and investment,” says Paitich.
IVR in Action
Currently, contact center agents in tech support must talk customers through technical issues that are difficult to visualize. This usually ends in the agent scheduling for an engineer to visit the site to fix the issue – which is expensive and results in delays in solving the customer’s problem.
Here’s where the IVR comes in. It can be employed on a mobile device to assist a customer in diagnosing and fixing a problem before bringing in an agent. The service tech bot works alongside the customer using the mobile app, integrated camera, augmented reality (computer vision), and intelligent search to provide a feature-rich, immersive, and engaging CX. Visual assistance is presented at every step, including graphics or diagrams, images, documents, or how-to videos. If an engineer is required, the AI application can help diagnose the issue, check inventory and order parts if required. The process is streamlined and sped up.
Agent Assist
The interplay of human and virtual agents is the next primary area of innovation and collaboration. Frost & Sullivan’s 2023 Contact Center Outlook found that 52% of respondents plan to invest in agent assist capabilities and the same percentage plan to invest in RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and process automation. This increased reliance on automation and AI helps address some of the key customer frustrations with contact centers, namely: lack of personalized experiences and unengaged agents.
AI can take the mundane tasks away from human agents – reducing workforce churn and ostensibly resulting in human employees that are more experienced, specialized, and willing / able to address complex customer needs. Agent assist helps agents retrieve the most relevant information about a customer quickly and significantly reduce the amount of after-call work time by automatically filling in customer information collected. Nurturing and empowering this hybrid workforce of human and digital agents brings a human touch to the effectiveness and efficiency of digital channels.
AI at the Top of Funnel
Improved digital channels not only help contact centers better serve their existing customers – they also improve the experience for prospective customers. Not only does today’s customer enjoy self-service, they will also use the internet to research and compare product features, prices, and service. This could be among family / friends, social media, review websites, and more. If product information is hard to find, you could lose a potential customer to a competitor before they’ve interacted with you. Frost & Sullivan outline some of the ways AI can enhance processes at the top of the funnel:
Prospecting
- Conversational AI-enhanced sales and marketing analytics
- Integration with marketing platforms for proactive outbound marketing
In-the-moment online assistance
- How can I help you from the start?
- Targeted personalized assistance based on what is known about the prospect
- AI-enhanced search function for product or service information
Interested prospect
- Intent recognition and analytics to predict what the prospect/customer wants
- Personalized recommendations based on where the prospect/customer is in the journey
- Proactive outreach on channel of choice to prospects or existing customers
- Predictive analytics to tailor the offer or suggestions for similar items/features/services
New customer engagement
- IVA for customer onboarding, product acquisition, payment, shipping, and scheduling
- Customer service and support
- Brand recognition/customer loyalty
- Ongoing proactive outreach
- Built-in IVA assistance with customer loyalty and reward programs
Finding a Conversational AI Partner
To leverage the exciting innovations and benefits of conversational AI in the contact center, you’ll need a scalable, reliable CCaaS platform that provides carrier grade voice quality and full omnichannel capabilities with the flexibility to customize. Conversational AI can also be integrated into existing systems to enhance your current offer.
