AI and Customer Service in 2018
The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated across the enterprise giving hopes of amping up automation, enriching insights, streamlining processes and augmenting workers. In many ways making our lives as consumers, employees, and customers a whole lot better.
According to a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the biggest area of focus in AI globally. Moreover, Amazon, Samsung and Google are training the voice assistants on their devices to get better at speaking in and understanding Indian English accents, saving us the effort of repeating our questions.
Given India’s multilingual nature — there are 22 major languages at last count and tens of other languages and variants — AI will make non-English speakers’ experience with gadgets less cumbersome. Banks and other financial services firms are increasingly relying on AI to better serve their customers and reduce costs. HDFC Bank and State Bank of India are among those which have launched chatbots to handle customer queries.
But what is in-store for 2018 and the age of AI? Here Forrester predicts:
- Customer satisfaction levels will drop as companies drive more traffic to chatbots, self-service, and chat that are not fully optimized to engage customers effectively. As companies look to increase customer engagement on digital lofty goals are being set particularly in the area of call deflection. Some companies have goals of decreasing call volumes by more than 50% in just under two years.
- More major brands will phase out email in favor of real-time customer-agent communications like chatbots and chat. Companies like Nike, Apple, Uber, Toys“R”Us, and Target have moved away from actively supporting email as a customer service contact channel.
- Having a successful AI-driven customer service or sales program will depend on the processes that support a blended AI approach. Humans will play a critical role in the ongoing optimization of AI.
It might be a while before driverless vehicles are seen on Indian roads, but India is taking to AI at a rapid clip. A recent study by Capgemini found more than half the Indian companies using AI to have taken it beyond just pilot projects, a higher proportion than any of the other eight countries surveyed.
Most of us will hardly stop to think about it, but AI will play a much larger role in our lives in 2018 than ever before. How will you make and meet your 2018 customer service goals?
BARE International was born from the need for mystery customer research. Today, we set the industry standard as the largest independent provider of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. Let us take care of your customer research solutions (AI inspired or not) to drive a meaningful change in your business next year. Contact us today for a complimentary evaluation.
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