Five9 is known for its contact center solutions across the globe as well as its advanced AI solutions for contact centers, so I sat down with Five9 CTO, and Head of AI, Jonathan Rosenberg, to chat about how agents and management can leverage the technology from the comfort of their homes. According to him, AI can assist employees who have never worked from home before to be ‘more productive than they’d be in a traditional office setting,’ adding, they might find the process a bit challenging, however.
These individuals will need little-to-no convincing to come over to the other side, especially once they get a taste of working from home during the COVID-19 period. According to Rosenberg, one of the main reasons employees are afraid of remote working is because they think they’ll get bombarded with distractions and need a lot more oversight. Rosenberg, an expert in AI, told me, with the help of voice bots and chatbots — ‘deflection tools’ — agents can reduce large call and chat volumes. “This application of AI generally doesn’t connect the customer with an agent. There’s also agent assist, a far more interesting application of AI technology.
While customers connect with an agent over the phone, AI listens in on the call and uses speech detection as well as natural language processing to understand how the customer feels. It then interacts with the agent to present them with data-driven solutions that can even take action on the agent’s behalf. This includes scheduling an appointment or adding a new package to a monthly subscription.
“The help from the AI is what helps the agent focus their attention on the customer. This is different from IVA or IVR, and it offers better results for the customer, the agent, and the company”
With solid assist technology, AI can work alongside human agents to collect and organize data, relieving some of the extra burden likely felt during the novel Coronavirus era. AI ‘agent assistance’ is another way to train new contact center employees companies have hired to handle higher demands. “A company can identify the best behaviors of its more experienced agents, and instead of placing those insights into training courses or documents, the company can codify them into software that defines how the AI should operate.”
This, I’m told, can ‘drastically’ reduce the amount of time it takes to onboard agents. It also makes the quality of each interaction more consistent, “Because you can give the same feedback to all your agents in real-time.” Another central theme that’s emerged as a result of millions of new home workers entering the market is trust.
Rosenberg told me, with AI, contact center management can see if agents follow company guidelines as AI listens in on conversations and tracks to ensure they are met. All this gives contact center administrators an incredible amount of visibility and the ability to measure of how contact center agents perform when working from home. AI can help guide employees through new situations, jobs, and solutions implemented in the remote workforce, but and but there’s one thing it will never do, fully replace human interactions, Rosenberg added.
