Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and automation are becoming an integral part of customer support. These technologies offer a great way to complement and assist human agents with the end goal of increasing customer satisfaction and boosting revenues.
The technologies are only useful if evaluated and integrated properly into the customer service environment. A recent Forbes article outlines how businesses can evaluate AI, chatbots and automation to make the best technology investments possible to meet their needs.
As technologies, networks and solutions become more complex, decisions about what to automate and how to go about it become more difficult. Businesses looking to make an investment in AI and automation with the goal of improving customer service should be on the lookout for the following tools and functionality.
- The ability to automate repeat tasks. Automation and robotic process automation (RPA) is extremely useful for taking on repetitive tasks, freeing up human agents to focus on more challenging jobs.
- Analytics, rules-based and statistics tools can be useful as an expansion of traditional business intelligence (BI) solutions.
- Machine learning tools can pinpoint patterns and anomalies by analyzing giant amounts of data. This can greatly help identify pain points as well as point out areas that could use improvement.
- Natural language processing (NLP) may be used to expand machine learning by analyzing content, intent and relevance.
- Aggregate "tribal knowledge" by analyzing large amounts of data to search for common customer sentiments and preferences.
"The key to a successful AI journey involves using knowledge and learning from humans, creating a feedback loop and incorporating it into learning," wrote Karpagam Narayanan, a member of Forbes Technology Council. "AI is good for complex systems and dimensions of data. Feedback procured from humans on prescriptive actions provided by the tool adds another dimension. When we include tribal knowledge from interactions, we've seen that the prescriptive actions are more optimal than just utilizing data."
When incorporated into a larger customer service solution, the abilities above can provide major insights as well as actionable intelligence about the direction of customer service. Beyond customer service, AI and automation can improve business outcomes and offer tremendous value in terms of shaping future business initiatives, product development and other endeavors.
To offer more insight about how AI and automation are becoming an integral part of customer support and overall business investments, TMC is hosting its Future of Work Expo from June 22-25, 2021, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The show will examine how AI and machine learning can improve customer service, the contact center, business applications and more.
