The rise of artificial intelligence and robotics in the contact centre has changed the way that today's companies work. As we enter a world where robots can manage customer queries, issue reports, and even complete transactions on the behalf of a business, some people are beginning to worry that robots could make the human contact centre agent redundant.
Fortunately, innovators like NICE believe that there's another path available for organisations that want to unlock the benefits of artificial intelligence. "NEVA" is NICE's innovative virtual assistant solution designed to support the everyday employee by providing them with useful information and solving complex customer queries on the go. We caught up with Gareth Hole, the Alliances Director at NICE to find out more.
Tell Us About Yourself and NEVA
Gareth told me that he's been working at NICE for almost six years now, focused completely on the AI and robotics sector of the business. "I've been helping large UK customers to get the most out of their investment in NICE and find new ways to generate business too. I also recently began working with our strategic partners to help them do the same kind of thing."
The NEVA solution from NICE stands for NICE Employee Virtual Attendant. Gareth told me that many people have different views on what AI, robotics, and other concepts mean to the business space. "We believe that this technology should help people when they're doing their work. We're not looking for a way to replace end-to-end processes with robotic automation. Instead, we're addressing the challenges that workers face in the office, contact centre, and backend every day."
With their virtual attendant, NICE wants to help employees work more productively and efficiently by helping them to make decisions, collect the information they need, and more.
"NEVA guides employees and helps them to find the right things to do in real-time."
"However, it also gains insight from what goes on in the business environment and uses that insight to help even further. It's the augmentation of people with robotics, rather than the replacement of the human workforce."
How Do You Describe NEVA as a Product?
Gareth told me that NEVA was designed both to help people become better at their work and make the contact centre more efficient at the same time.
"What our customers really want is the ability to help people in the contact centre, while also being able to react to the customer conversation and what people are doing."
