A Whole New World: AI’s Expanding Role in CX

The ever-growing power of computing is transforming our lives. Today we can see the inclusion of artificial intelligence in many aspects of daily life. One of them is in the improvement of customer service and experience.There are several reasons for this.The most obvious is grounded on the shortcomings of the human workforce in efficiency and work capacity. For example, an average human agent can handle one request at a time while ensuring quality customer service. An AI agent, on the other hand, can handle several requests in real time. This allows businesses to save on manpower resources while keeping their clients satisfied. AI can also help to improve self-service and capture invaluable data from customer interactions which could help companies predict customer behavior and improve the customer experience. Let’s take a look at AI and its expanding role in today’s Customer Experience!

Calling Mr. Watson

Because of the development on the frontiers of machine understanding of natural language, companies such as IBM have developed computer systems that can practically take on the role of chat agents. IBM’s Watson, a workload-optimized super-system that makes use of parallel POWER7 processors, is an example of question-answering or QA machines.

Such natural-language AIs, often categorized as “chat-bots,” can process simple questions efficiently, saving human agents from simple, frequently asked questions. Where is my package? What is the return policy? What are your hours of operation?  At the same time, when a question becomes too complex for the AI agent to handle, the system allows for the redirection of the customer to human agents capable of addressing such queries. With this, the whole system becomes more streamlined, allowing for greater efficiency, productivity, and time management. This allows your agents to focus on more complex requests and scenarios, thus providing them with more time to provide a quality customer experience.

Because information is exchanged in the act of questioning, the AI can process this data in order to personalize the customer’s experience, refining product selections based on the customer’s queries and, if available, buying history. In a way, an AI system uses its capability to access and understand data faster than the average human brain as its main tool for analyzing customer needs and tailoring the customer’s experience according to those needs. 

Nipping Customer Dissatisfaction in the Bud

Increasing AI autonomy also helps in creating solutions before problems even begin. This preventive and responsive nature is highlighted in the Fluid’s Expert Personal Shopper (XPS) of The North Face. An outdoor product company, The North Face utilizes IBM’s Watson systems in creating the Fluid’s XPS, which allows the AI to access even local weather conditions in order to help the customer make the most efficient and effective shopping choice online. While such autonomy is subject to occasional hiccups, such as customer struggles with interacting with system interface, its benefits when fully developed and utilized hold vast potential in helping customers get the most of their money.

AI Gatekeeping

Another advantage of using AI as the ultimate middleman for online transactions can be seen with Beverly Hills-based ticket sales and distribution company Ticketmaster Entertainment. Essentially, the company makes use of an AI system to ensure that their customers are truly human, and not merely scalper bots. This task, if given to human agents, would be truly a time-consuming effort, but with a smart enough AI, even well-made scalpers could not bypass the security systems.

Let’s Get Personal

Even Spotify makes use of AI. With its advantage in processing data at high speeds, Spotify AIs use customer data to predict what the customer will like. It has developed, for instance, a rating system known as the “Discover Weekly” playlist that displays the predicted songs for the customer’s benefit.

Can I Take Your Order?

And if that wasn’t convenient enough, Domino’s Pizza, an American pizza restaurant chain, utilizes a Facebook Messenger-based chatbot known as “Dom” that enables customers to place orders online simply by messaging the word “pizza.” The process is so streamlined that it takes the AI less time than a customer call to process the order.

Conclusion

Overall, one can say that the use of artificial intelligence in determining and catering to customer needs can vastly improve customer experience, not only through the sheer speed of online transactions but also by undermining security threats. AI’s predictive ability, largely done through high-speed data processing, allows the customer to experience highly personalized inventory lists that are tailored by specific factors — all for the benefit of the customer. [Read some more about AI flipside here]

With the increasing obsession with speed and convenience, the world is fast catching on. In a study done with 550 senior executives, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review found that a vast majority of the world’s top companies have begun adopting artificial intelligence into their management systems. Given the AI’s far-reaching advantages over more human capabilities, this is hardly a surprise.

Have you explored the adoption of AI for your contact center? We would like to talk through any questions you have and help you acquire right AI solution that fits your need. Not just that we can help test, change manage and implement best in class solutions that are aligned with industry best practices. Contact me directly by clicking here or call me at 218-286-4006 and we can take the next step to an optimized future state!