AI Technology Functions Best Alongside Humans
Jay Gupta, Director of Product Marketing – AI, Automation & Analytics, Talkdesk, speaks about how using conversational AI to field basic customer queries is often an accessible starting point for brands looking to expand their AI capabilities. Gupta said that with the emergence of low- and no-code AI technologies, companies don’t need to rely on […]
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Jay Gupta, Director of Product Marketing – AI, Automation & Analytics, Talkdesk, speaks about how using conversational AI to field basic customer queries is often an accessible starting point for brands looking to expand their AI capabilities.
Gupta said that with the emergence of low- and no-code AI technologies, companies don’t need to rely on data scientists or AI-trained specialists to serve as those humans in the loop.
Excerpts from the interview;
How is conversational AI set to be a game-changer in improving CX?
With brands constantly seeking new and innovative ways to drive efficiency, artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a ‘must-have’ within the modern contact centre. Not only can AI-powered technology improve day-to-day processes, it also plays a key role in helping agents to deliver a better, more seamless CX.
Using conversational AI to field basic customer queries is often an accessible starting point for brands looking to expand their AI capabilities. Today’s virtual agents (VA) are quickly replacing the basic chatbots and traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems synonymous with contact centres in the early 2000s.
When designed and implemented well, conversational AI technology allows contact centres to apply deeper intelligence and automation to a wider variety of communications. VAs can help create more human-like interactions for customers, even when the human agents are not yet involved in the conversation. And, when more basic and repetitive tasks are handled through automation, human agents have more time to manage complex customer queries.
How does AI-powered automation improve the operational efficiency of the contact centre team?
Most customers, if asked, will say they’d rather engage with a human. However, customers also make clear they want basic requests addressed quickly. This juxtaposition leads brands to grapple with a fundamental question for the modern contact centre – how can queries be resolved to the same high standard customers expect and resolved in a fraction of the time?
AI-powered automation is the answer. AI technology can help triage, field, and route customer queries efficiently. AI-powered tools, like VAs, can even fully resolve the more basic queries without requiring human agent involvement. This, in turn, relieves pressure on human agents, freeing their time to invest more fully in customer service issues that require complex considerations, as well as empathy.
When deployed strategically and aligned to direct human agent attention to essential enquiries, AI-powered automation can be crucial in increasing success rates for issue resolution on first contact.
Does it impact retention?
People can get a little worried about the possibility of their jobs being replaced by machines when it comes to AI. But is that danger, even in the long term? The answer is no. AI technology will always function best alongside humans – assisting rather than replacing us – as has been the case with most technological development throughout history. Human interactions and conversations are deceptively complex, something that’s easy to understate because we take it for granted. Even with the most advanced AI applications that can simulate a more-human interaction, there is no replacement for the human agent at the end of the day.
Once any science-fiction-fuelled misconceptions about AI are put aside, the argument can be made that AI-powered automation in the contact centre can help support a better work environment and help stem attrition.
Contact centre agents in any industry are under intense pressure. They must interact with people who might be upset, need information immediately, and have expectations for specific issue resolutions. These agents must also field such queries quickly, politely, and with empathy, often while being monitored and evaluated by supervisors. Unsurprisingly, burnout can be a major cause of staff turnover in the contact centre.
Giving agents the support, flexibility, and tools for better performance with less stress is the most important step CX leaders can take to help reduce agent burnout. The right technology is critical to making this kind of flexible environment possible. AI-powered features – like agent assist, automation of repetitive tasks, and self-service options for customers – are certainly a big part of that ideal technology stack.
Why is designing automation around human language and behaviour essential to ensure seamless CX? Please share insights about working with enterprises in the MENA Region.
Why is a customer reaching out to a contact centre? To resolve an issue. Getting the customer from point A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible ensures the most seamless, satisfying, and trouble-free path to issue resolution.
When designing automated conversations, several best practices are built around understanding human language and behaviour.
Humans can only really remember three to five points at a time, so keeping the conversational flow, whether, with humans or machines, simple and straightforward is essential.
Writing voice prompts that mirror the way customers speak is more engaging. Overcomplicated and flowery language, or too many marketing-centric messages, can distract or frustrate customers.
Tone, expressions, and mannerisms are essential elements of productive conversations, but these are not inherently present in automated conversations. Discourse markers – words like “OK,” “thanks,” or “got it” – can be used to mark progress in a virtual conversation when traditional visual and tonal cues are missing.
Building in prompts that communicate the potential for wait time while information is located by the system is critical to managing customer expectations around possible dead spaces in conversation.
With regards to the MENA region, more businesses in this geography are expanding their market reach, which will see them selling to more international markets and widely diverse populations in-country. For example, the UAE has more than 200 nationalities, with the expatriate community outnumbering the population of UAE nationals.
For brands to succeed globally, they must design and support CX journeys that cater to the different languages, communication styles and accessibility needs of a geographically and culturally diverse customer base. AI technology can offer many language models, including variations for accents, which can be designed into the automation system to improve multilingual support.
Why should frontline staff be the custodians of AI and automation?
A key principle with AI adoption in the contact centre is that AI functions best when human agents provide hands-on guidance and training. The benefits of AI are directly proportional to the effort invested in training the AI – to the care and feeding of the technology, as it were. AI technology deployed and then left on its own won’t know how to consistently provide customer service as well as a human agent can because AI systems can’t grasp the full intentions behind human interactions.
The “human in the loop” is critical to successfully integrating AI in contact centre workflows. Human agents need to provide corrective actions to help train the AI system. With the emergence of low- and no-code AI technologies, companies don’t need to rely on data scientists or AI-trained specialists to serve as those humans in the loop – frontline contact centre agents will be able to serve in these roles without formal training or programming skills. The non-technical frontline agent insights will ultimately provide the most meaningful guidance to the AI systems.
Democratising AI maintenance can tangibly lower the cost of AI investment and help fill talent gaps. It’s also important to note that AI adoption is most successful when the whole team – not just the frontline agents – is committed to using the system. When collectively embraced by contact centre leaders and agents, these systems can become truly transformational in the context of better CX.
Please share the three challenges ahead of contact centre setups.
Recent Talkdesk research explored why CX leaders find it challenging to realise the full potential of AI technology in the contact centre. Findings reveal that the challenges brands currently face with AI implementation can be grouped into three categories:
Security and IT risks
AI security presents a dilemma for CX leaders. Organisations expect AI-powered solutions to improve identity and authentication checks and security and better handle customer data. At the same time, security risks and IT infrastructure limitations are viewed as the two most significant barriers to successful AI implementation. Among the CX professionals in our research, 75 per cent agree that AI technology will allow customer data to be more secure than a live agent. In comparison, 80 per cent agree that AI will significantly help companies improve identity and authentication security in the next two years.
This belief that AI will improve security contradicts the perception that security is a top barrier to implementing AI. However, for many organisations, it’s not the new, AI-powered technology causing concern. Instead, it’s the limitations of existing contact centre systems and infrastructure.
Many brands struggle with contact centre architecture that does not fully support AI implementation, highlighting the need for these organisations to move to the cloud or upgrade to a modern cloud contact centre platform. Those using modern cloud-based platforms typically meet the array of legal, ethical, and compliance concerns surrounding data security and benefit from advanced AI’s enhanced security features.
Gaps in the talent needed to build, use, and maintain AI
Despite 44 per cent of CX professionals in 2022 agreeing that their agents had the skills needed to leverage AI technology (compared to 37 per cent who felt the same in 2021), organisations should always seek to involve agents in the building, use and basic maintenance of AI.
This is where the human-in-the-loop concept previously mentioned comes in. AI vendors are developing machine learning capabilities that allow agents to train and maintain AI models without formal AI or programming skills. A lack of staff with advanced AI skills certainly should not stop contact centres from adopting AI technology. Instead, companies can harness the power of AI to close talent gaps.
Misalignment and resistance among leaders
Of course, the implementation of new, transformational technology is always likely to cause apprehension among business leaders and the fact that contact centre leaders reported feeling less familiar with AI tools than they did a year ago certainly needs addressing. There are many theories around why this has happened – from staff turnover to rapid technological advancement and the fact that leaders have been distracted by more pressing priorities.
Any potential hesitance around AI adoption should not curb long-term ambitions. To help overcome this resistance, brands should look to engage with experienced AI vendors, who will be well-positioned to act as trusted advisors and educators in the changing AI landscape.
What advice would you give to enterprises looking to adopt newer technologies in their existing call centre setup?
CX leaders wishing to make smart advances towards AI adoption and optimisation in their contact centres should critically consider the following:
Do their agents have the proper training and resources to leverage the technology effectively? Before launching new tech solutions, the agents in place must understand how the technology will impact day-to-day operations, as well as best practice training to ensure their skills are aligned.
Do they have the internal resources to make AI operations accessible? AI will continue evolving, and the singular way for a brand to truly reap the benefits of the technology is by making it accessible to everyone, regardless of previous experience or training. This is part of the process towards democratising AI maintenance, as previously mentioned.
Does the contact centre have a current system to support the safe integration of advanced AI technology? Without the right foundation, AI technology will never be fully utilised. Taking time to transition to the cloud or upgrading to the most modern cloud contact centre, as well as consolidating redundant tech stacks, are integral cornerstones of the right foundation.
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