One thing was clear at this year’s Customer Contact Week event in Las Vegas: AI has moved from the hypothetical to something that’s firmly rooted in contact center operations. Conversations revolved around balancing the human and tech elements now that AI is a coworker, not a concept.
Strong AI needs strong data
Agentic AI was everywhere, as companies shared their latest virtual agent solutions and discussed ways to incorporate action-based AI tools into the contact center. The common denominator was a solid data foundation. “Everyone has AI, and people want to do it now,” said Scott Rohrer of Hexaware Technologies. “But it depends on if the data is ready.”
“Everything starts with data,” added Dexter Brown, vice president of global customer delivery at Dell Technologies. “The more we can curate it, the better our agents will be.”
There’s more to AI than just tech
In these uncertain economic times, some brands are looking at AI solely to drive down costs. But that’s the wrong way to think of it, said Matthew Clare of Google AI.
“Cost cutting isn’t the best value proposition for AI,” he said. “The real business value is driving retention, loyalty, and improving CSAT.”
Korissa Singh of Ujet agreed. “Deflection and cost savings are still important but shouldn’t be the goal of AI investment.”
James Bednar, head of innovation at TTEC, encouraged CX leaders to rethink how they approach AI. “Manage your AI agents like your human agents, not an IT project,” he said.
Read more about CCW in our upcoming issue of the full Customer Strategist Journal, out next month.
CCW show report: Are you ready for your AI coworker?
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