The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Future of Customer Experience

Three aspects drive the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the future of customer experience (CX):

• Clients increasingly digital.
• Find, hire and retain loyal and committed employees.
• Macroeconomics: Global economic uncertainty is fueling a drive toward operational efficiency.

How to Apply AI to Offer Intelligent Solutions to Business Problems?

1) Understanding Customer Behavior

Organizations need to observe consumer behavior to proactively reach customers in ways that satisfy their needs. User demand for self-service has increased over time, especially as people have become increasingly digitally savvy in all aspects of their lives. The use of AI-powered insights to better understand consumer behavior enables the creation of personalized customer experiences (CX), becoming a key differentiator for users.

But Artificial Intelligence cannot do this alone. To power the future and be successful, AI needs to work in tandem with humans. Technology provides the necessary tools, but requires committed employees who know how to use them. This is crucial in a customer experience environment, where there are still many situations where AI alone cannot carry out the entire interaction. The human touch is necessary to help the AI decipher the most complex emotions and behavior patterns of users.

2) Evolution of Customer Needs

As customer needs evolve, so must the way companies interact with them. When customer demand increases, it’s time for AI to step in and show how it can help real-time agents quickly (and accurately) solve customer needs and overcome any obstacles that stand in their way.

Agents want to have a summary of previous customer self-service conversations throughout the customer journey before they get to the human-assisted interaction. Additionally, having specific AI-powered insights into customer need and potential next steps can help shape an empowered and well-informed agent, which translates to more seamless and optimized customer experiences.

3) Competitive Advantage in Customer Service

AI should also be positioned not only as an advantage for companies’ customer service, but also as a way to impact the internal development of agents. It can be used to reduce the burden of repetitive tasks on staff and allow them to feel more engaged, with personalized training and AI-powered gamification. Making the role of customer service agents more rewarding through gamification and allowing staff to use their valuable human skills to solve more complex situations will create authentic connections and should be the foundation of any organization.