AI: the new customer service champion

With artificial intelligence (AI) on the rise, reaching higher levels of sophistication and faster response rates, many companies are looking to deploy it within their customer service branches to primarily reduce costs and enhance customer experience. 

Currently, the tech is not fully able to take over the tasks carried out by human customer service agents. However, the majority of consumer requests are considered very mundane and simple which could pave the way for AI to replace human input. 

AI-powered applications have already started popping up in healthcare diagnostics, transportation, entertainment, and the education industry so far; thus, it is natural that the technology would be an ideal fit for the customer service industry seeing its potential in meeting the growing demand for better customer experience at lower costs. 

According to a survey conducted by India-based Tata Consultancy Service, almost 32 percent of major companies around the world are currently using AI customer service technologies, the second most common use of AI after IT. 

Investments in AI have skyrocketed due to its immense potential. 

According to a report by U.S.-based IDC, the two fields that were predicted to attract the most AI investment this year were automated AI-powered customer service agents, at $4.5 billion, and sales process recommendation and automation, at $2.7 billion.

“AI is the game changer in a highly competitive environment, especially across customer-facing industries such as retail and finance, where AI has the power to push customer experience to the next level with virtual assistants, product recommendations, or visual searches,” the report highlighted. 

This potential has caught the eye of forward-thinking companies that are likely to turn to AI-powered customer service solutions to optimize and streamline back office operations and cost efficiency. 

These solutions are able to conduct a plethora of tasks that make customer experience seamless and easy to maneuver, including:

Lightning fast replies

If there’s something the digital age has trained us to hate, its waiting; especially if the question or answer is simpler than one might expect. 

AI has the ability to instantly handle commonly asked questions through a 24/7 live chat experience, while presenting relevant self-service articles to customers to help solve issues that may arise.

Shorter research time

Customer services agents and support take a lot of time to research answers, which irritates both them – which lowers agent availability for other customers – and the client. 

AI offers rapid search results due to its integrated algorithm, which provides agents a list of answers to be directly inserted based on the inquiry made.

Enhancing customer engagement

As customer service has moved more overtly to the digital world, companies, businesses and brands are looking for ways to engage their customers on a deeper, lengthier, and more engaging manner. 

AI can take the wheel here, by leveraging information found on customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, the tech can seamlessly access and share key customer information with agents to develop more intricate conversations. 

Predictive insights

As data is quickly becoming electronic gold for corporations around the world, it comes as no surprise that companies are attempting to enhance customer relations using relevant data to increase transparency and communication. 

Using AI, organizations are attempting to use predictive insights to enhance their work, by quickly scanning previous products and inventory to recommend similar items a customer may like.

As technological advancements seem to be paving the way for a better and more sustainable way of life, AI is found at the heart of technological convergence across a multitude of sectors and industries, capitalizing on a seamless cooperation between customer-facing and behind-the-scenes AI-powered solutions.