Generative AI has taken the contact center by storm. Offering intuitive, intelligent support for everything from outreach automation to self-service, and employee assistance, Gen AI tools are becoming a must-have in the modern CX landscape. Unfortunately, generative AI comes with challenges to overcome.
A reliance on access to high volumes of data, alongside unpredictable models, and ever-evolving capabilities makes preserving compliance, security, and privacy standards complex.
Regulations are needed to establish a framework and rules of engagement that are understood by all parties. However, in lieu of clear regulation, we are already seeing legal challenges from end users, with courts now tasked with ruling on whether current practices breach existing laws.
The outcomes of legal action will no doubt have a short-term impact, but with widespread regulations pending, how can contact centers get ahead of incoming Gen AI regulations?
Regulating Generative AI: The Rise of New Rules
While generative AI might seem to be everywhere these days, it’s still a relatively new and complex concept that industry leaders are struggling to deploy and govern. However, this doesn’t mean that regulatory guidelines aren’t beginning to emerge. As Gen AI and LLMs extend further into business landscapes, governments and institutions are taking action to protect users and customers.
President Biden signed the Executive Order of AI Safety in 2023, outlining standards for ensuring AI is transparent, safe, secure, and trustworthy. The European Parliament also introduced the EU AI Act in 2024, described as its first regulation on artificial intelligence.
The EU and US aren’t the only regions investing in new regulatory requirements, though they do represent some of the biggest markets for many contact centers. Everywhere you look, government groups are working together to craft a future where we can access generative AI without harming data privacy or compromising civil rights.
Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO at Content Guru, says:
“Many of the use cases for Gen AI that we hear about are still theoretical and unproven, but in CX it’s real and deliverable. AI is playing a role at every stage: before, during and after customer interactions.
The ability to benefit from cutting-edge AI is exciting, but being on the front line of technology innovation means pre-empting regulations and adapting to them at speed.
Failure to prepare for changes based on regulations will hamper AI-driven projects across the business and has the potential for competitors to surge forwards in the market. As a result, the time to prepare is now.”
The Impact of Gen AI Regulation on Contact Centers
Ultimately, global AI regulation is inevitable. Standards are developing all the time, throughout countless countries and territories. Of course, it’s unlikely we’ll see a universal agreement among governments and regulatory bodies any time soon.
We can expect is that organizations, nations, and individual customers will look to the regulations created by the EU and US for inspiration. We saw a similar process taking place when the EU introduced their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines a few years ago.
For contact centers, this means implementing Gen AI will require a careful consideration of both current and likely near-future guidelines implemented for safe, transparent, and ethical use.
For instance, some of the key concepts outlined by current EU and US regulations include: