Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as machines that learn from experience while emulating human thinking and actions. They are designed to mimic human beings to make our lives easier. When it comes to customer experience (CX), they perform mundane tasks so human agents don’t have to. Though despite being designed to copy human behaviours, it has recently come to light that while these fascinating machines are learning from experiences, human beings – or more specifically – businesses are not. Research has found that despite the destruction the past 18 months has caused due to COVID-19, 89% of European organisations are yet to invest in AI to aid their businesses post-pandemic. Added to that, nearly 8 in 10 respondents recognise their organisations’ lack of knowledge when it comes to understanding different AI technologies. This shocking study was published by top CX solutions provider Odigo in a brand-new report called Leveraging AI to Enhance CX – a Look at European
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David Noone[/caption]
Businesses. CX Today welcomes David Noone, Strategic Innovation Lead UKI at Odigo, to provide an insight into these findings and tell us why without AI in CX businesses could crumble.
“There was so much industry hype that positioned AI as the cure for everything,” Noone begins
“We heard talk of replacing agents with robots, everybody throwing their traditional phones away and this massive digital takeover by anything and everything automated. It created one heck of a stir. But now we all know that the reality is completely different.”
Noone is referring to the misinformation surrounding the topic of AI, which sadly, is still in circulation today. This could be anything from a general anxiety about machine intelligence to the fear of mass unemployment. Noone explains it’s Odigo’s, and indeed the industry at large’s, responsibility to better educate businesses on the matter.
Noone says: “Businesses need a level of understanding on the true capabilities of what AI can and cannot deliver for their customer base. This really helps eradicate their concerns and builds a case for AI. It helps business leaders better understand why they’d invest in this technology, what is it going to do for their companies, how will it change their customer experience, how is it going to make customers happier and make the lives of their agents easier? This is achieved by setting that level of reality but doing so in a manner that business leaders can understand.”
Simple advice from Noone, but what’s causing the delay with European countries deploying AI, particularly when business leaders believe that investing in AI is a good way to improve their organisations’ CX - specifically 88% in the UK, 90% in France, 97% in Spain, 89% in Germany and 82% in Belgium and the Netherlands. So what’s the hold up with these countries updating their contact centres?
“There's a lot of confusion about where they actually begin to deploy AI, and some of this comes from a real problem in most organisations with disconnected data. By this, I mean that when you actually start to look at some of the needs of these new user experiences, they're very reliant on quality data. And when we start talking to organisations that data tends to live in various systems within various different political organisations, and it can become very difficult to actually get a full view of the customer. As a customer, some data is in marketing, some data is in the contact centre, some data is in sales and some is in fulfilment or delivery. If the business can look at how it can bring that panoramic data view together, that would help. “
“Another point to consider is that people often forget that with many businesses, the contact centre is pretty much the front door for the organisation and critical in the delivery of the brand’s customer experience. Think of the concept of trying to change the wheels on a car which is travelling at 100mph - you can't stop it and can't stop the car, but you know you need to change the wheels. So how do you do that? Again, this comes down to having a realistic view of the change strategy in terms of a strong value-driven roadmap.”
The report states another reason European nations are holding back on AI implementation is a lack of skills as well as a lack of knowledge. The research states that 75% agree that a lack of AI knowledge stops their investment in improving CX and nearly eight in 10 business executives say that no one or only a few people are AI experts in their area of work.