Collaborating with customers has become increasingly challenging as organisations strive to meet expectations in terms of providing the best customer service, as well as achieve the desirable results. Migrating to the cloud has opened new doors and unravelled a new age of artificial intelligence (AI) and low-code integrations that are proven to help meet customers’ needs, improving customer service and user satisfaction. 

AI is enabling innovation in contact centres, with automation enhancing collaboration in today’s digital workspace.

What is AI?

According to IBM, AI essentially attempts to replicate the human mind by problem solving or, “systems that think like humans”. It is essentially a product that “combines computer science and robust datasets”. AI is the parent technology of machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), both of which accomplish the same tasks as AI including problem solving and automation to boost overall efficiency and significantly reduce human error.

“Many customer interactions don’t need to be serviced by a human where potentially extended time on hold is experienced by callers. Leveraging AI based services means that many requests can be handled in a much timelier manner improving customer satisfaction” says Barry Fialkov, Collaboration Practice Lead at Outcomex. 

Using AI for the contact centre

There are many positives of using AI, including 24/7 service and support, reduced waiting time for customers, and most importantly according to Aberdeen Strategy and Research, an international market research agency, cutting down costs. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a spike in the use of AI among businesses, which then revealed that it helped increase productivity by automating tasks, such as “forecasting and scheduling of agents, next-based action guidance on the agent desktop, [and] customer workflows”.  

According to leading online customer experience publication, CX Today, 75% of organisations that have migrated to the cloud say that they actually trust AI, and 51.8% of contact centres have renewed their strategies to implement AI.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a pivotal time for the adoption of AI where customer service became heavily limited.  AI is a key tool that helped businesses maintain regular contact with customers. 

One of the main benefits of AI in customer service includes virtual assistants (VA) – during the pandemic, VAs helped save businesses time and money by keeping customers informed, automated answers, and automating the customer review process. 

AI also assists contact centre agents through automating tasks such as customer records. With AI, voice and text data can be automatically transcribed and analysed to determine customer satisfaction throughout an interaction –  a complete history is maintained for a customer across multiple different types of interactions.  

Distinguishing customer satisfaction has also become automated with natural language processing (NLP) – by analysing data provided by customers’ feedback, it has become easier to read trends and better understand the quality of service provided.

The promise of artificial intelligence is well-known – it has revolutionised how we live and work, as well as proven its ability to boost our efficiency and productivity. But questions remain surrounding the extent to which AI can be trusted with complex decision-making tasks and personal information. While AI may offer many benefits to individuals, businesses, governments, and society as a whole, there are some downsides that must be considered before implementation.  

 
Any issues which customers once came across with customer service often tied back to the authenticity – or the lack thereof. Virtual assistants are beneficial for 24/7 service and simplifying what was once considered tedious tasks for contact centre agents. However, AI still has a fair way to go in terms of development. When using virtual assistants, at times it can be frustrating for a customer who might ask very specific questions, but will not receive the answer they want from these chat bots as they often rely on answering based on key words. Not to mention, although they aim to reduce costs, the customisation and deployment of virtual assistants can be quite expensive, especially for larger scaled organisations. 

To counteract such issues and to get the most out of AI, it is best to consult those with expertise in this area. At Outcomex, our team of engineers and collaboration experts can help you discover how to best utilise AI for your organisation in the most cost-efficient way, and create a solution tailored to your needs.