Webex has revealed several new AI-powered features to help brands combat rising customer expectations.
Announced at Cisco Live US – the company’s premier tech vendor event – Webex’s software will be undergoing a series of enhancements and additions aimed at boosting its customer and employee experience offerings.
Chief among these improvements are the additional capabilities of the Webex AI Assistant, which now includes Assistant for Meeting Recordings, Custom Dictionary, and a ‘Be Right Back and Catch Me Up’ feature.
The first two features are currently slated to be released in Beta in July, with the former allowing users to easily revisit topics and discussions that have taken place during recorded meetings by asking the AI assistant.
Regarding the latter, organizations will be able to introduce commonly used terms and acronyms that are specific to their team into AI assistant training data.
The “Be Right Back” tool – which will become generally available in June – builds on the functions of the Meeting Recordings Assistant.
The solution uses video intelligence capabilities to detect when a user leaves an in-progress meeting, automatically muting the microphone and disabling the camera, and providing a summary of the major points missed during their absence.
The “Catch Me Up” feature was mentioned by Aruna Ravichandran, SVP & Chief Marketing and Customer Officer at Webex by Cisco, when discussing the company’s latest AI releases:
While we continue innovating, one of my favorite capabilities is “Catch Me Up.” Life happens, and sometimes, I need to step away from my desk or join a meeting after it has started.
“With ‘Catch Me Up,’ the AI Assistant can quickly tell me what I’ve missed and capture any action items.”
Why Now?
With the vast majority of the customer experience and service sector currently investing in various forms of generative and traditional AI, Webex’s releases could have been just another example of a tech provider leveraging the latest technology.
However, the company states that its solutions are specifically in response to a study conducted by Dimensional Research on the role of AI in the CX space.
Sponsored by Webex, the research surveyed over 500 business leaders and executives on the current state of AI adoption, with the findings outlining a disconnect between the impact of AI and how efficiently companies are deploying it.
While those surveyed were overwhelmingly positive about the impact of AI – with 95% of contact center leaders deeming it critical to improving CX, and 97% of companies believing that AI will improve the work experience for customer-facing personnel – there were clear deficiencies in the implementation of the tech.
Indeed, only 36% of respondents admitted to having an AI strategy, with only 31% having deployed some form of GenAI, and 30% having incorporated conversational AI.
So, how can Webex’s latest enhancements help bridge the gap between companies’ desire for incorporating AI and their execution of the same?
Simplifying AI Adoption
With a focus on the findings of the AI adoption research, Webex appears to be equipping its tools with features that will help to simplify the deployment process.
Aside from the improvements to the AI Assistant discussed above, the company also announced the following new features:
Native Voice Virtual Agents: The company’s AI-powered virtual agent is integrated directly into its Webex Cloud Contact Center, consolidating all functionalities in one platform.
Bring Your Own Virtual Agents: Customers are able to integrate select third-party virtual agents into Webex Contact Center via the Webex AppHub, the company’s developer platform, providing them with greater flexibility.
AI-Powered Agent Wellness: Detects when a contact center agent is nearing burnout and automatically takes actions like granting breaks, switching to less stressful digital channels, and adjusting schedules dynamically.
Automatic Customer Satisfaction Scores: AI-powered automatic CSAT predicts customer satisfaction by analyzing survey responses and interaction details like sentiment and hold times. Webex believes that this data offers deeper insights into agent performance.
Topic Analytics: Users can easily identify top call drivers and create automated workflows for proactive outbound communications and self-service options.
This overall strategy of simplifying AI adoption and eliminating complexities so that companies can maximize the potential of the technology was specifically recommended in the study:
As companies pursue the business opportunities that AI provides, they need to seek AI-enabled tools for their customer services teams: one that makes it easy for the customers to solve problems themselves, one that brings relevant data and solutions to agents, and one that integrates with internal systems.
More News from Webex
Announced earlier this year, Cisco has made the Verint Open Platform’s Data Hub available to Webex Contact Center customers via the Webex App Hub.
This Data Hub integrates with the CCaaS platform and third-party tools, centralizing behavioral data from all customer interactions.
By consolidating data from reporting, analytics, surveys, and quality assurance, it eliminates data silos and enhances the usefulness of information for contact center leaders, as well as enabling real-time data usage and unlocking new value.
This new value can enhance the deployment of contact center AI, as the Data Hub serves as a training ground for virtual agents and assistants.
