2023 could be the year when AI pivots from a “nice to have” to a necessity for contact centers.
Indeed, many operations have reached the point of no return. Just consider the current environment, where contact centers are struggling to:
- Bring in enough new employees to meet demand
- Cut costs in preparation for the economic downturn
- Unpack data in complex technology environments
Fortunately, low-hanging fruit use cases are much more accessible than ever before. The lack of which had held many operations back from investing in AI transformation.
Yet, by considering the following five examples, contact centers can envision just how practical AI implementation is becoming.
Indeed, each offers businesses a secret weapon as they navigate what promises to be an unpredictable 2023.
1. Voice Assistants
The IVR is the first point of contact for a customer. In a traditional IVR scenario, a customer follows multiple, cumbersome steps: press one for service, two for support, three for sales, and more.
AI has changed all that.
"In a traditional static IVRs, a customer must endure answering a series of questions like providing their name and account number, and then working through various nested IVR menus to get to an agent," said Alain Mowad, Director of Product Marketing at Talkdesk." It's complicated, it's annoying, and it often causes many customers to hang up."
Today, AI-powered voice assistants provide a seamless experience. No more nested menus. The customer reaches an agent in seconds, as the bot understands the customer's intent from just a few spoken words.
Also, thanks to voice assistants, customers can self-serve over the phone, helping to remove many of the simple, transactional contacts from call queues.
2. Chat Automation
Alongside automating voice interactions, chatbots enable contact centers to mechanize contact center interactions across digital channels.
Such use cases are picking up steam, with Gartner finding that, by 2026, conversational AI will automate six times more agent interactions than it does today.
Of course, there is still complexity associated with deployment. Nevertheless, increasing AI sophistication and low-code innovation have significantly simplified the process.
Moreover, vendors like Talkdesk support their clients by helping them implement bots that collect customer information as they wait to be served. They then pass this on to agents at the start of the call, streamlining the subsequent conversation.
As a result, businesses can completely automate many contacts and support agents with additional information as they combat more complex queries.
3. Agent Assistance
When customers transfer to an agent, they expect an effortless experience. The faster the resolution, the better the customer and the agent experience.
AI agent assistance plays an increasingly important role in this scenario.
Indeed, the technology surfaces information relevant to the customer-agent conversation in real-time, scouring internal systems, including the knowledge base, CRM, and other databases.