AI can be the ‘blast shield’ that makes contact center associates heroes

“You dial the number, navigate the recorded instructions. And if you’re lucky, there’s a person — a real person — at the end of the line.”

That’s how “CBS News Sunday Morning” host Jane Pauley opened this week’s segment that covered how AI is impacting customer service in contact centers. Her introduction was designed to be relatable to the 5.2 million viewers tuned in to the No. 1 Sunday morning news show.

To set the hook and ensure viewers didn’t switch over to another channel, a series of videos from disgruntled consumers and podcasters brought to life just how frustrating it is to wait on hold, get transferred to another person, or the worst insult: “All lines are busy. Please call back at another time.”

Contact center associates featured on the show were empathetic. They accept that their interactions often involve agitated people seeking to vent frustration, subjecting them to treatment that borders on abuse. The associates believe they hold the power to pull a 180, to solve problems, and end a call with resolution that transforms a customer into a cheerful, grateful being.

What these four contact center associates don’t believe, however, is that AI can play a role in improving the customer experience.

Ouch.

While that was the opinion of just four contact center associates working in healthcare and nonprofits, the CBS program’s popularity, capturing a full 50% of Sunday morning TV eyeballs, means that viewers’ skepticism about AI just got reinforced.

AI the augmenter

How unfortunate. In reality, AI deployed with understanding of customer intents and the entire journey helps to enhance the experience.

“We’re definitely going to see AI augmenting capabilities, skills, what people can do, improve productivity, and reduce effort in the customer journey,” said James Bednar, vice president, head of product innovation, TTEC, during a recent LinkedIn webinar, “AI Mythbusters for CX.”

AI-enabled bots:

Are always available (no more extended hold time or “call back later”)
Reliably handle the customer identification verification step
Efficiently complete simple interactions such as password resets and bank balance inquiries
Free up live associates to handle more complex calls

And, perhaps most compelling, is the role AI plays when balanced with live contact center associates to bring humanity to the experience. AI can be “a bit of a blast shield,” Anthony Scodary, co-founder of AI voice bot company Gridspace, told CBS News.

He explained that AI bots can take a customer interaction to a certain point and smoothly hand off to a live associate who then comes in as the “hero” who resolves the issue. Automation and technology like AI “enables people to do the stuff that people are best at,” he said on the broadcast.

For team leads, there is a real opportunity here to educate — indeed demonstrate — to contact center associates how AI can make their jobs even better. Greater success translates to job satisfaction and improved retention.

This is not the time to wait

TTEC’s Bednar cautioned against a wait-and-see approach. The pace at which AI is moving obliges companies to start on the path of assessing their AI readiness and identifying use cases.

Knowledge-assist is a great use case in the contact center because AI can consume the total universe of knowledge in real time and make it easy for associates to access and use that knowledge. “That’s the holy grail of knowledge empowerment,” he said. “Associates love it and don’t want to stop using it.”

Analytics is another compelling use case because it’s more mature and low risk. AI-driven conversational analytics, speech analytics, and other analytics that provide insights to customer conversations are invaluable because they illuminate new ways to improve the experience.

“It all starts with data,” Bednar said. It’s essential to ensure that your library of knowledge is ready, that it is as easily consumable by AI as it is by a human being. Companies will discover there’s work to do on their foundational data to get it ready.

Uh oh. Please call back

Ironically, and perhaps amusingly, one of the employers of the contact center associates interviewed by CBS posted a website apology for long hold times Sunday and Monday, suggesting that the company may perhaps benefit from a little AI itself:

Warm holiday wishes with our World Peace Quilt

This year, in the spirit of peace, unity, and the joy of giving, we are excited to share with you the results of a global creative effort. 1to1 Media and TTEC employees from around the world have come together to create our World Peace Quilt — a symbol of our collective commitment to fostering harmony in our interconnected world.

Created by employee prompts and generated by AI, the quilt beautifully represents our shared values and aspirations for 2024 and beyond. Please take a moment to explore the diverse perspectives and sentiments expressed by our collaborative spirit and imagination.

May the holiday season bring you joy, peace, and the warmth of cherished moments with your loved ones.

AI research separates hype from reality. Where do you fit?

Most companies are eager to implement AI solutions to improve customer experiences, but few have the data or technology ready to go to make it happen.

Those are some of the insights gleaned from TTEC Digital’s State of AI in the Contact Center research report. The research was designed to define where the CX market is when it comes to AI adoption, and what’s holding them back.

A majority of respondents (56%) cited improving associate efficiency as their top goal of deploying AI, followed by improving customer satisfaction (48%), reducing costs (47%), and reducing customer effort (38%).

But current AI adoption is limited. No AI contact center activity topped a 35% adoption rate. Lack of integrated cloud technology, foundational customer data, and privacy/security issues were common roadblocks to further adoption. On the bright side, many respondents were optimistic about accelerating AI adoption over the next 12 months.

Other highlights of the study:

Brands hope AI-driven interactions can represent >60% of all conversations with their customers, but only 36% of customer conversationsare currently happening on digital channels.
58% of respondents cited data privacy and security as having a major impact on their ability to implement AI solutions.
Sentiment analysisis the most common AI activity in practice today in the contact center, but with only a 35% adoption rate.

Learn more about the study and what it all means by watching the TTEC Digital webinar, “2023 State of AI in the Contact Center Report,” or download the study.

A fast-evolving CX landscape reveals opportunities and challenges for brands

With so much change amid the customer experience (CX) landscape, brands are embracing great opportunities – and some challenges – as they navigate it all.

CX leaders are grappling with the rapid rise of AI tools, the need to embrace digital while maintaining a human touch, growing associate burnout, and continual pressure to cut costs and demonstrate ROI wherever they can.

These were just some of the topics discussed at Reuters Events’ Customer Service & Experience East 2023, a recent two-day event in Brooklyn, N.Y., where CX professionals heard from industry leaders (and each other) about what’s on the horizon.

‘Automate the easy, service the complex’

A prevailing theme that kept emerging was the need for companies to strike the right, careful balance between AI and the human touch, both of which are essential for great CX.

In a session about generative AI, Assurant President of U.S. Connected Living Jeff Unterreiner said brands need to start with their customer experience in mind and implement AI from there.

The company, which provides insurance for personal items, is using AI to make customer interactions as easy as possible, he said. If a customer needs to get a broken smartphone repaired, for instance, AI will tell an associate the closet brick-and-mortar location that is open at that time and has the rights parts in stock to fix the phone. With this information in hand, the associate can help the customer quickly.

Assurant’s also using AI to generate associate responses and post-call summaries, with great success. Unterreiner said AI-generated suggestions have an 80% usage rate by associates, and with AI the company has seen a 15% rise in CSAT as associate efficiency has doubled.

But as powerful as AI is, humans remain an important part of the CX equation. In a separate presentation, Keith Farley, senior vice president of individual benefits at Aflac, said a key to delivering great experiences is to “automate the easy, service the complex.”

Use automation and self-service options so customers can help themselves when it comes to simple inquiries, he said, and automate rudimentary tasks that take up associates’ time unnecessarily. But remember most customers still prefer to interact with an associate for more complex, urgent, or emotional matters.

“If you’re truly customer-centric, it’s not about being just digital-first,” he said. “It’s about giving customers what they want.”

And Casey Denby, vice president of sales at Zenarate, noted in another session that while 75% of consumers prefer digital and self-service options when possible, it’s still humans who achieve meaningful resolutions.

ROI begins to trump KPIs

Another hot topic at the event was how challenging it can be to demonstrate the ROI of investing in CX. In a roundtable discussion, CX leaders from various brands (in the retail, quick-service restaurant, automotive, media, and fashion industries, among others) said their C-suites want to know the ROI of CX efforts, but it’s hard to quantify.

While it’s easier to make the connection between CX investments and KPIs, likes improved NPS and CSAT, attendees said it’s often difficult to translate them into concrete financial impacts.

But it makes sense for brands to prioritize ROI over KPIs, said Denby, speaking as part of a panel. With many companies trying to cut expenses wherever they can, CX teams need to make their case by positioning CX investments as ones that will generate savings, efficiencies, or other ROI down the road, he said.

Associate wellness moves to the forefront

The frontlines of any contact center are still the associates, and companies should be focusing on them more – not just retaining them, but ensuring they’re happy in their jobs, experts said.

As more simple and repetitive tasks become automated it means many associates are exclusively handling emotional, nuanced, or complicated interactions, which can be draining. And their jobs increasingly require them to be empathetic, which can lead to “compassion fatigue,” according to Dr. Grant Brenner, a psychiatrist at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel in New York City.

Associates’ jobs are harder than ever, making them more prone to burnout, he said. Left unaddressed, burnout can lead to absenteeism, lost work, depression, substance abuse, and medical problems.

It’s important for associates feel like valued members of the team, he said. Ask for (and use) their input, take their feedback into account, and prioritize associate wellness, he advised.

CX keeps evolving

Other topics on CX leaders’ minds included prioritizing CX throughout the customer journey, using technology to stay cost effective, breaking down organizational silos, and making the most of data, among others.

Here are few snippets of what people had to say:

“CX is about getting your customers to convenience.” – Casey Denby, vice president of sales at Zenarate

“If you don’t have good data, there’s no AI.” – Chandu Nair, senior vice president of data, analytics and computational intelligence and marketing technology at Lowe’s

“You can’t forget that the A in AI stands for ‘artificial.’ Sometimes you want it to stand for ‘authentic.’” – Keith Farley, senior vice president of individual benefits at Aflac

“Generative AI doesn’t automate jobs…it automates tasks.” – Chandu Nair

“Companies do not disrupt one another. They are disrupted by customers who choose to go somewhere else.” – Guilherme Cerqueira, CEO of Worthix

A scary CX trend: Employee compassion fatigue and burnout

Woman working late — One woman, beautiful young woman in office late at night, she is using a smart phone.

Customer experience leaders look for employees with emotional intelligence and empathy, traits that work great for helping customers and resolving issues. And in today’s AI-obsessed environment, empathetic human connection is a welcome differentiator for many people who don’t want to navigate an IVR or converse with a chatbot.

But be warned — the more that AI and automation is used within the customer experience, the more likely your human customer-facing employees will feel stressed and experience burnout and compassion fatigue.

With simpler interactions defaulting to automation, human employees will handle mostly escalations or issues that are too complex for automation. They will be the first ones frustrated customers talk to when they can’t resolve their issue or don’t know how to navigate an automated system. Associates who work industries like healthcare, financial services, or insurance are even more vulnerable because the topics they deal with are emotionally charged, such as declining a medical procedure or missed credit card payments.

It’s bound to take a toll on associates, especially those with high levels of compassion and empathy. The traits that make a great customer experience employee – compassion, empathy, problem solving skills – will kick into overdrive with more complex calls.

Stamp out burnout

People are not robots. They have feelings—and can sometimes get overwhelmed by them. And right now, 59% of customer service reps are at risk of burnout, including 28% who are at risk of severe burnout, according to Jeff Toister, author of the Service Culture Handbook. Expect that number to grow in tandem with more automation and AI.

Support your employees by making mental health tools available as part of your company’s employee experience program. Be mindful about providing employees with wellness resources, activities, and time off. And even AI can be helpful to monitor negative sentiment and trigger breaks and other actions when employees get stressed.

The result is a CX future a little less scary—and full of humanity.

Where do humans fit in AI’s long tail?

Girl making a heart-shape symbol for her favorite band.

What do music festivals, real estate developers, and the Caribbean island of Anguilla have in common? They all have been greatly impacted by the explosion of generative AI, with no signs of slowing down.

They are part of the AI long tail, where the technology’s explosive growth reverberates and ripples in unexpected ways. And they are just some examples shared by AI experts and practitioners at the recent GAI World conference in Boston.

“AI helps people expand the practical imagination space,” said Dr. John Sviokla, founder of GAI Insights, which hosted the conference.

AI winners and losers

The biggest AI use cases right now are for customer service and document summaries, UBS Stock Analyst Lloyd Walmsley told the audience. And companies have many different experiments going on showing real promise in several areas, he added. Tech stacks and cloud computing need upgrades. There is new demand for networking across the enterprise to transmit data. Customer data foundations must be in place. And then there are the ripples beyond the IT world.

Which brings us back to Anguilla, a tiny island of only 35 square miles in the Eastern Caribbean with a population of about 15,000. I learned at the event that the island nation owns the country domain “.ai” and is poised to generate more than $35 million in domain name registry revenue in 2023, according to Bloomberg. That’s a 5x boost in revenue since 2021, thanks to so many new AI startups launching this year.

Another unique player in the AI boom is the real estate industry. Nadia Lovell, senior U.S. equity strategist at UBS, said at the event that more than 30% of company earnings calls this year referenced AI. Tech companies led the way, followed surprisingly by real estate firms, she said. As AI needs grow, companies need more data centers and cooling facilities, which requires larger real estate investment.

The butterfly effect on human development

The ripples extend to humans as well. Boston University Associate Professor Gordon Burch explained that Large Language Models will be used in the short term to support information-based tasks like debugging code, researching topics, or explaining how to do something. This removes the need for employees—particularly junior employees—to collaborate with others in their workplace community to gain knowledge and expertise.

“Forming employee connections is important, especially for younger employees,” he said. “When using AI, be careful to manufacture opportunities for peers to engage and interact.” It will be up to companies to intentionally foster employee engagement and community that will otherwise disappear because of AI.

On the flip side, the breadth of digitization has pushed people to seek out more human experiences. Sviokla pointed to the growth in music festival attendance as a good example. “There’s a natural tension between the digital and human worlds,” he said. It’s important to strike a balance with human-centered experiences, supported by digital tools, to give people an analog outlet to counteract expanding virtual experiences.

And with the rise of AI, it’s essential to bring current employees along with the right tools and reskilling, said Joe Atkinson, vice chair, U.S. chief products and technology officer at PwC. Atkinson helps lead PwC’s $1 billion investment in GenAI and digital transformation, with a large portion allocated to developing the “next generation of workers.”

“We need to prepare our people to use GenAI or else we are leaving them in harm’s way,” he said.

Sources: GAI Insights, StackAware

Will generative AI solve the CX industry’s omnichannel problem?

For decades, contact center and CX organizations have strived to become “omnichannel.” Rather than force customers into interactions dictated by the company, an omnichannel system enables customers to engage with a brand on their channel of choice when, where, and how they prefer.

It’s a great idea, but implementation has proven very difficult, especially for large enterprise organizations working with legacy data and siloed systems. True omnichannel implementation requires integrated contact center software, skilled associates, and customer analytics to connect and orchestrate the customer journey. And that’s much easier said than done.

Separate buzzwords from reality
One obstacle to achieving omnichannel experiences involves how the term, “omnichannel,” is defined. Companies often mistake it for multichannel operations, where customer interactions occur on multiple channels – voice, SMS, chat, social media, etc.

A company is not “omnichannel” just because it is capable of interacting with customers across all channels. If “omnichannel” is to mean anything at all, it must facilitate a customer experience that is seamlessly integrated across all the different channels any particular customer chooses.

A company can only be considered to have “omnichannel” capabilities if the history and context of each customer’s interactions in one channel are flawlessly carried over into the next channel, and the next, and the next.

Though the concept has been discussed for over a decade, more than half of companies still struggle to meet this omnichannel imperative. According to 2023 Omdia research:

62% of companies can’t engage across channels in a personalized way
55% can’t predict customer needs
42% are challenged with using data to obtain customer insights

Gen AI to the rescue?
Generative AI is changing this landscape, said Omdia Principal Analyst Mila D’Antonio at a recent conference. Generative AI bypasses the rules-based functions that hindered previous omnichannel efforts to get closer to an omnichannel reality with personalized responses, content, and product decisions. If the underlying Large Language Model (LLM) contains comprehensive data and integration from multiple sources, you can apply AI across channels to give information context and customers more control in whatever channel they use.

It could be a key to unlocking the promise of omnichannel in the CX world.

Customer experience is more than meets the AI

AI is having a moment.

The technology’s move out of the IT lab to the devices of non-techies has opened up a world of promise and possibility. It has the potential to be the dominant technology for the next decade or longer across industries.

The newest issue of the Customer Strategist Journal explores what the rise of the machines means in the customer experience context. The cover image, “CX blossoms in the age of AI,” was generated by AI tool Midjourney, prompted by our talented designer Joey Haas. She replaced the typical robotic AI imagery with a more abstract and hauntingly beautiful concept, which we hope illustrates to our readers the promise and possibilities that grow from what could be a scary and uncertain technology.

We noticed something interesting in the exercise — a single text prompt generated multiple variations of an image, even when using the same AI image generator. When we tried it with different AI generators, we got a wider variety of visual alternatives.

Below are some of the results returned by the text prompt, “small bright flower with industrial pipes and wires underground instead of roots, hyper-realistic, moody, high resolution.” We used three AI generators: Midjourney, Microsoft Designer, and Fotor. It’s very interesting to see the different directions each tool took, and how different the resulting images are.

It shows that with generative AI, the “truth” is always evolving. The right prompts, context, data input, and human involvement are all needed to work holistically to turn something mediocre into art that evokes emotion. And the technology learns more as it goes, working toward a more perfect outcome. It’s never finished. Kind of like customer experience strategy.

How AI generators interpreted the same prompt for the article cover.

The articles in this issue of the Customer Strategist delve into some of what is needed to make AI work in a customer experience context – from preventing data poisoning to setting a strong CX foundation. Business leaders share their thoughts and actions around AI, and we look at how industries like healthcare are using it to enable welcoming and inclusive spaces.

AI is a technology that is constantly changing and giving users different perspectives from which to build great experiences.

We invite you try to create your own image using the prompt above and share it on our social media page. I’m really curious to see how the concept—AI’s use in CX—evolves.

Show report: A NICE take on AI

With thick wildfire-smoke clouds obscuring the New York skyline outside, NICE CEO Barak Eilam shared some cloud wisdom of his own at the recent NICE Interactions conference.

“Migration to the cloud is an imperative if you want to leverage AI in your contact center,” he told the crowd of nearly 2,000 CX leaders at the Jacob Javits Center. AI was the hot topic, with sessions and panelists about where to start and what building blocks need to be in place to create a successful AI initiative.

“AI is the long-awaited CX alchemist, conjuring up completely new ways that customer service and technology can be welded together,” Eilam told the conference audience.

He shared three steps to “surf the AI super wave” in the realm of customer experience:

1. Complete the move to the cloud, but do it right

The reason for a cloud migration is to create more nimble, agile, integrated contact center systems for customer and associate augmentation. Those attributes are more critical than ever, since customer interactions have increased by 100x and have become more complex in the last decade, Eilam stated. Meanwhile, he said, only 20% of CX organizations are on cloud native platforms.

2. Start over your digital transformation

This might be hard for CX leaders to hear, but Eilam made a compelling case about AI being an integral part of any digital transformation. Adding AI as a stand-alone component bolted on to any current transformations won’t have the same results as including AI as part of the entire transformation. “It’s hard to restart, but AI will turbocharge” any efforts to become more digitally driven, he said.

3. Think big and avoid separate point solutions

Learn from past mistakes and avoid an AI “Frankenstack,” Eilam said. Omnichannel efforts never met their full potential because point solutions were never fully integrated. Take these lessons to heart when incorporating AI solutions into your business for customers and employees.

AI accelerates personalization and generates better experiences

The conference featured sessions and discussions around incorporating AI-enabled tools to improve both the customer and employee experience. Omdia Principal Analyst Mila D’Antonio framed much of the AI discussions as a way to get to more personalized interactions, something that has been only aspirational for most companies. According to 2023 Omdia research:

62% of companies can’t engage across channels in a personalized way
55% can’t predict customer needs
42% are challenged with using data to obtain customer insights

Generative AI is changing this landscape, D’Antonio said, by enabling personalized responses, content, and product decisions. Companies are deploying AI in its first act for agent assist, conversational AI, and dynamic knowledgebases to support associates as they help customers.

According to Omdia, positive outcomes of AI-powered technology include:

59% of companies can better understand customer needs
57% see increased CSAT
57% see higher revenue
50% increase their operational efficiency

AI won’t succeed without human employees

Throughout the conference, speakers emphasized the importance of humans in the AI ecosystem. Barry Cooper, president of NICE CX Division, outlined three associate augmentation AI strategies: behavioral guidance to encourage efficiency and the best interactions based on data; giving them context about specific knowledge to create a more holistic interaction; and automation that acts on an associate’s behalf.

“More complex interactions are being done virtually,” he said. “Without AI and automation, companies would need 3x the agents to manage it.” The software is doing things that humans used to do, so humans can do more complex work.

“Don’t displace agents, they will have more meaningful work to do,” D’Antonio said. They may be nervous about what the AI future brings, so talk to them about how you intend to use it, and how it will help them work better and with less hassle. Share opportunities for new human roles emerging from AI, including bot tuners and data scientists, she said.

People will have anger and fear about an AI future, added Sinead Aylward, senior director of IT at Johnson Controls. “Find their crying baby,” to help encourage adoption and show how AI will solve the problems that resonate with employees.

Show report: The ABCs of AI in CX

Last week was one of the CX industry’s biggest events — Customer Contact Week. Of course, the hot topic of the show was AI and how it can be used in the contact center and throughout the customer journey.

I spoke with show attendees and exhibitors to get their take on what AI means for CX and the contact center.

Logitech’s Adriana Vazquez remarked on the benefit of getting so many points of view together at the show to discuss how to move forward with AI.

Ginger Conlon from Genesys emphasized the importance of making sure AI is done with the customer experience top of mind.

The scale and speed of AI can be put to work to find insights across millions of unstructured data points, said Fabrice Martin of Qualtrics.

Level AI’s Ashish Nagar shared three AI improvements contact center leaders are looking for from tech partners.

Hear more from them in their own words in the video below. And learn more about the intersection of AI and CX in the latest issue of the Customer Strategist Journal.

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