Most popular types of AI that support customer service teams

The use of artificial intelligence in customer service is a key support for teams looking to be more agile, provide round-the-clock support and meet the requirement of handling 95% of calls, chats, SMS and emails in under three minutes, as established by the Customer Service Act.

In practice, AI Agents are not limited to automating responses; they also enhance the customer experience and make the day-to-day work of agents and supervisors easier.

Today, there are various AI-powered solutions designed to perform very specific tasks within customer service. Below, we look at the most common ones and the role they play in both a customer service department and a contact centre.

5 TYPES OF AI FOR CUSTOMER-FACING TEAMS

1. CHAT AI AGENTS

Chat AI Agents or chatbots interact directly with customers through digital instant messaging channels such as website or in-app chat, WhatsApp and social media. Their main role is to resolve frequently asked questions and guide users through simple processes.

In addition to providing immediate answers, they help filter requests and gather customer information before passing them on to a human agent, who receives the full context of the conversation.

2. VOICE AI AGENTS

Voice AI Agents or voicebots operate on the same logic as chatbots, with the key difference that they work exclusively on voice channels: telephony, WhatsApp voice, click&talk, and more. Their main functions include handling traditional and WhatsApp calls, identifying customer intent, resolving common queries and guiding users through straightforward processes.

Advances in this technology already allow them to hold almost human-like conversations thanks to neural voices.

Their use enables teams to split incoming call traffic and resolve queries without the need for agent intervention. Their effectiveness depends on being connected to the team’s information sources, such as knowledge base articles, CRM and ERP systems, among others.

3. AGENT COPILOTS

Agent copilots act as real-time support for agents. While the conversation is taking place, they suggest responses, display relevant information or recommend the next best action, as well as instantly answering questions from human agents.

This helps reduce errors, shorten handling times and deliver a more efficient service.

4. SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

Sentiment analysis or speech analytics is a more advanced tool that, through conversation transcription, generates a title and summary of the interaction, assigns a category, extracts the customer’s satisfaction level from their language (written or spoken) and evaluates agent performance.

All this data is collected in a business intelligence platform (such as Power BI) to monitor service quality levels in real time.

5. REAL-TIME TRANSLATION

Real-time translation enables teams to support customers in different languages without the need for multilingual agents. The system translates messages or voice conversations almost instantly.

This makes it easier to provide support in co-official languages, as required by the Customer Service Act, as well as in foreign languages.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

Artificial intelligence is a tool that all teams can use to comply with the 95/3 requirement of the current Customer Service Act, particularly when dealing with frequent and straightforward enquiries which, while quick for agents to resolve, free them up to focus on more complex issues.

Never before has the sector had access to a technology capable of taking care of both the customer experience and the agent experience to such an extent. AI capabilities are evolving at lightning speed, making it a powerful ally in delivering the faster, more personalised experiences today’s consumers expect.