Artificial intelligence (AI) helps businesses meet the digitally-inclined customer on their channel of choice. From ticket deflection to smart automation, the impact of AI on customer service is announcing itself in surprising ways. A customer can now start a conversation over chat, continue it via phone, and pick it up later over email within the same conversation thread.
Conversational AI technology is going to be transformational as the possibilities seem to be growing with the spurt in the reach of digital devices, soon augmented with AI-enabled conversational interfaces. From fetching data to answering questions, conversational AI can mimic all that a human agent does but in quicker time, giving users immediate access to information or providing immediate responses.
AI was once a concept that belonged in the realm of science fiction. There was even a major Hollywood film with that exact two-letter title. It may have been novel then, but as we move into the 2020s, things are very different indeed. Artificial intelligence – a term used to describe a group of technologies – is having an immense impact on everyday life. AI is reshaping processes and activities in a wide range of settings.
In the past two months, companies everywhere have shifted their workforces from office cubicles and conference rooms to home offices and dining room tables. The coronavirus pandemic’s thunderous impact – bolstered by government mandates to maintain social distancing protocols and shut down non-essential workplaces – has forced companies to pivot hard and fast to a new reality, whether they’re ready for it or not.
For companies in competitive markets, customer support is a key differentiator. In fact, it can be one of the key reasons a customer decides to renew or churn. But with customer expectations higher than ever, and modern support no longer involving only simple, repeated questions, your front line is often dealing with a high volume of tickets across multiple channels that involve product and process complexity.
Research is clear: customer service is one of the biggest drivers of customer loyalty. In fact, 78 percent of U.S. consumers say customer service is important to loyalty, according to Netomi’s State of Customer Service 2020 report. Increasingly, customers expect support that is fast, personal, and effective. To deliver the experience that customers expect, companies are adopting AI to provide immediate resolutions that bring customer delight and business value.
In the past 3 years, the AI space has become so noisy that even seasoned executives struggle to cut through the jargon, making it challenging to deliver against an AI strategy. Support leaders face a series of roadblocks. The AI space overall isn’t accessible to the business stakeholders who want to leverage it for improved customer experience.
Understanding the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) can seem overwhelming, but if it’s learning the basics that you’re interested in, you can boil many AI innovations down to two concepts: machine learning and deep learning. These terms often seem like they’re interchangeable buzzwords, hence why it’s important to know the differences.
Artificial Intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, computer systems to be precise. These processes primarily include learning, reasoning, and self-correction. Machine learning is a term that is synonymous with AI. As the name suggests, machine learning refers to empowering machines to learn by themselves using the data provided and predict the best possible outcome of a complex problem.
Unless you build or program computers for a living, you could be forgiven for never having wondered what actually happens under the hood. How do computers make decisions? What do their instructions look like? Can they, y’know… think?
