Madrid, February 21, 2024.- In my current job, as in all those I have held in different construction companies around the world, I am required to be highly aware of technological innovations, especially those that directly impact business management.

The personal computer was born in 1970. Over the next 53 years, this device has moved from companies to homes. We have enjoyed it on a pocket glass screen, on a watch and on glasses. The computing age has been one of the greatest advances for human beings.

Forbes has published a synthesis on the specific effects of artificial intelligence in the business world. Without being a comprehensive investigation, it does offer clues that can be used by entrepreneurs, employees and professionals who are dedicated to managing business challenges. For example the article suggests that despite concerns about job displacement, Generative AI will not lead to mass layoffs, instead it will complement human agents to enhance operational efficiency and improve amongst other factors, CX (customer experience):

Customer experience will improve for first time in three years

A survey by TELUS International found that 72% of leaders spent more on digital CX in 2023 than 2022, with 68% increasing their digital budgets by up to 25%.

While there are a variety of staffing, retention and management issues that perpetually plague customer service, improved digital experiences have been a plus for customers. As we mentioned Telus research shows digital budgets have increased. As a customer you’ve probably noticed that ecommerce companies have made it increasingly easy for you to browse their website, imagine the product in your life, and return it if it doesn’t work.

Forrester predicts that while customer experience has been a longtime dance of a few steps forward and a few steps back, the upward increase will be driven by the small percentage of brands that have continued to get better over the years.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Won’t Kill the Contact Center But Will Give Rise To Collaborative AI

With the growing popularity of Generative AI the specter of mass agent layoffs has once again come front and center. It won’t happen in 2024 or in the near future. Contact center leaders are focusing on improving agent performance, CX, and operational efficiency with AI rather than reducing costs through automation. Ironically, the increasing use of Generative AI in the consumer world, like reading AI-generated summaries of Amazon reviews, or listening to a personalized AI DJ on Spotify, or (soon) talking to ChatGPT while driving a Volkswagen, will help reinforce the notion that working alongside AI, collaboratively, is just the new way of working in the contact center.

1 in 4 AI-driven Contact Center Agent-Assist Deployments Will Fail

While there are a multitude of awesome agent assist case studies that show -30% response times, +300% productivity gains, -10% in AHT, +5% in NPS, to name a few, in 2024 there will be a number of agent assist deployments that will fail due to:

Companies know what types of calls they receive but many don’t know why customers are calling, why certain calls are so long, the AHT by call type, and root causes for frustration.

Some agent assist deployments are poorly designed where agents—particularly the experienced ones—tend to discontinue the use of agent assist. Having AI point out the obvious with “frustration detected, show empathy” or “slow down you’re speaking too fast” behavioral prompts (without adding more value to help the agent) will be met with eye rolls and a disgruntled employee. We’ve seen several of these that have since been shut off.

Contact centers should conduct a discovery to obtain a baseline of customer intents and problem areas. From there design the right collaborative AI experience by layering in LLMs, workflows, and agent assist designed to improve the problem areas defined. This will ensure the right metrics are being used to measure success for the agent assist solution.

Companies will get away from dependence on survey feedback. 

A Qualtrics survey of over 28,000 consumers in 26 countries about their expectations and what companies should do to win and keep their business and they found that customers are not filling out surveys.

Companies don’t have to rely on direct feedback, although that can be very valuable. In addition to senior level team members talking directly to customers frequently, companies also must gather data and insights – and glean actionable information from it.

Customer experience professionals must listen to contact center conversations, read online chats, product reviews and social media to gain real answers into what is actually happening with their customer experience. This year will bring a laser focus on more useful and accurate data insights efforts.

Human-led channels will continue to be priority for companies and many will double down on digital-first NTT Data’s 2023 Global CX Report provides a great snapshot of preferences for contact channels by age group. Not surprisingly, younger generations embraced digital more while those 40+ have stronger preferences for analog (in-person and telephone). Regardless of digital or analog, 75% of respondents preferred human-led channels when it comes to customer service. In 2024, preference for human-led channels will continue with digital channels growing in more popularity as companies improve their digital touch points and experiences with better integrations, AI, and UX. Brands cannot ignore the need to effectively support digital and omnichannel to better serve the younger generations of customers who engage them on multiple digital channels.

Foto de Shubham Dhage en Unsplash