Customer Experience and the Age of AI: How AI is Changing CX Forever

Not so long ago, “AI” seemed like a concept from science fiction to most business owners. Now, it’s making its way into virtually every aspect of how we live and work. Everything from UCaaS technology to CCaaS solutions are being infused with the power of intelligent algorithms.

One of the most powerful environments for AI investment is the “CX” landscape. As customer expectations evolve and the customer journey grows increasingly complex, AI can help brands to navigate their interactions with clients more effectively.

Aspects of AI in the contact centre, like “conversational AI” are growing at an exceptional rate (around 21.8% CAGR) to a projected value of $18.6 billion by 2026.

AI in CX: Trends in Intelligent Customer Experience

Experts say customer journeys are becoming increasingly complicated. While the average consumer has more options than ever before, this also leads to a number of new challenges for companies.

In today’s landscape, you need to be able to serve your customer consistently across multiple channels, provide personalised product recommendations, and even predict what customers might need before they ask for it. Without AI, staying ahead of the curve would be impossible.

Artificial Intelligence is the tool which allows businesses to collect essential data from interactions with customers and use that information to deliver the meaningful experiences clients are looking for. While there are many different kinds of AI in CX, some of the most common include:

Automation:

• • Automation is one of the most exciting solutions leveraging AI in CX today. In a world of ever-more demanding customers, human agents are struggling to keep up with their customer’s requests for agile, round-the-clock assistance. Automation can help with this.

Intelligent automation allows companies to set up workflows which take some of the strain off their human employees. These tools, created with triggers can help with everything from collecting information for compliance purposes to answering repetitive queries instantly via chatbots. Machine learning solutions can even empower automated systems to learn from each interaction, so they become more efficient over time.

Automation and AI working together allow companies to build more sophisticated workflows for boosting team efficiency. When bots are handling more repetitive tasks, your human agents in the contact centre have more time to focus on delivering the best possible outcomes for clients.

Conversational AI:

• • Considered the “next step” from chatbots by many business leaders, conversational AI is gaining a lot of attention in recent years.

With conversational AI, companies can create virtual agents and intelligent IVRs, which can leverage concepts like natural language processing and understanding. This means your bots will be able to understand customers more effectively. Conversational intelligence will allow bots in the contact centre to evolve beyond being automated FAQ systems.

Conversational tools can learn from every discussion they have with a customer, and help clients complete common tasks, like renewing a subscription or checking the status of an order. Though human empathy and creativity will still be necessary in some interactions, conversational AI will pave the way for new levels of customer care.

With conversational AI, brands can offer their clients more of the self-service experiences they need, while speeding up time to resolution.

Employee Assistants:

• • The right conversational AI can even support your employees just as effectively as your customers. These tools can help with collecting information and completing tasks on the behalf of human agents, to streamline day-to-day workflows.

AI solutions can automatically start recording a call for compliance purposes with nothing but a voice command from a human agent. These solutions can also help to align team members in discussions over customer queries, by automatically checking calendars and finding out which employees might be available for a call.

Some AI assistants can even help with improving understanding in conversations. For instance, there are tools which can automatically translate language to improve understanding between people from different points in the globe.

Enhanced Analytics:

• • One of the most

significant trends

• • for AI in CX has always been intelligent analytics. AI algorithms have the capacity to sort through huge amounts of data at much faster rate than we can accomplish as human beings. This makes it easier for these tools to pinpoint trends which humans might miss.

AI solutions built into a contact centre environment can use insights and analytics to make real-time suggestions on the next steps in a conversation, by assessing data about a customer from a CRM. The same solution can use historical analytics to find potential trends and make predictive recommendations about what a customer might need next.

Advanced analytics solutions in AI will help to create an environment where companies can effectively predict what their customers need before they ask for it. This is a concept growing increasingly important in a world where the speed of service must be proactive.

AI Security:

• • Finally, in a world where customers are becoming increasingly concerned about the safety of their online identities, AI is becoming a critical part of the security strategies for the CX landscape. Customers need to know the companies they’re interacting with are taking their data privacy requirements seriously, and AI can help with this.

In the last few years, we’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of companies using biometric technology to enhance customer experience. Facial scanners and cameras equipped with AI solutions can help to protect access to crucial information.

In the contact centre, brands are even experimenting with voice biometrics as an effective way of allowing their customers to confirm their identity without having to remember complex passwords or go through a multitude of security questions.

Embracing AI in Customer Experience

While its difficult to know for certain hat the future of the customer experience landscape might bring, it’s fair to say AI is definitely going to be a part of the conversations we have tomorrow. Over the last couple of years, artificial intelligence has become an increasingly essential component in the way companies understand and interact with their customers.

With AI, brands can finally develop a deeper knowledge of what their clients really need from each interaction, and ensure they’re delivering excellent service with speed.