AI in Customer Service: Why You Should be Using It Today
In the past, implementing artificial intelligence was risky – as with any new technology, it was difficult to predict future implications. We still have a lot to learn, and there are often more questions than answers. But it’s clear that the benefits of AI in customer service cannot be ignored. And deploying it in your contact center enables a better customer experience.
Why use AI in customer service?
If you’re not already using AI or you aren’t planning on implementing it, you’re going to fall behind (and quickly). No matter what stage you’re at, AI implementation will impact every aspect of your contact center.
AI can be implemented to improve agent efficiency and QA effectiveness in numerous ways. One way that stands out is semantic intelligence, where recent developmentshave made it possible for AI to find answers to specific questions about products that customers bring up frequently. And it’s only getting better: AI-powered customer service is here to stay.
How do I implement AI in my contact center?
Luckily, you don’t need to know everything there is to know about AI in Customer Service to implement it effectively. But handing the reins of your company to a third-party AI expert like Level AI may seem just as frightening as jumping in blindly.
Fear no more: Now is the time to augment your workforce with a toolkit of artificial intelligence superpowers. Although AI is in no position to replace human agents any time soon, it is in the perfect place to act as a virtual assistant at every level of your contact center. Agents, QA teams, and coaches can all reap the benefits of AI collaboration.
The foundation of AI implementation is a robust data strategy – all AI applications need high-quality data to show results. If your contact center is not set up to collect, curate, and share data from every aspect of its business processes, you will be left playing catch-up. Luckily, a third-party can also help you organize your data to make sure you’re getting the most out of it.
What are the experts saying about AI?
Let’s take a step back and look at what field experts have said about the state of AI in general. While not specific to the modern contact center, these opinions are key to understanding the potential impact of AI in contact center transformation.
According to Google AI’s Chief Scientist, Fei-Fei Li, “AI is empowerment, and we want to democratize that power for everyone and every business—from retail to agriculture, education to healthcare. AI is no longer a niche in the tech world — it’s the differentiator for businesses in every industry.”
“You’ll need to “curate, rather than create content” from experts, says Andrew Ng of Landing AI. You’ll learn alongside your team, and everyone has access to the information they need for implementation to be most effective.
The key to AI in Customer Service implementation is understanding that implementation will (and should!) look different in every company. For the customer support industry, it’s best to look at AI as a people problem. Instead of the use cases within the center, focus on how your people will use AI and what they need to know about it in order to capitalize on its use.
What does democratizing AI technology look like in the contact center?
The biggest mistake in any AI implementation is assuming that only one department will use the technology.
You may not have software engineers on your marketing team, AI experts in your C-suite, or developers on your sales team, but that does not mean that your team shouldn’t have some knowledge about the technology and how they can use it most effectively.
In fact, the members of your team involved in business operations are precisely the people who should understand the scope of the technology. This means reaching across departments to ensure everyone is on the same page. Agents, coaches, and QA Teams all need to understand what they can do with their AI tools even if they don’t understand the models behind them.
Implementation might seem uncomfortable, especially if you’re not an AI expert. Lack of in-depth knowledge at the leadership level could make training your team particularly difficult. However, remember that you control and direct how this technology is used. Whether the solution you’re looking at is an AI chatbot or an analytical trend seeker, your first concern should be making sure your people know how to use the technology. You can safely leave the implementation and training to the experts and still reap the benefits of AI in customer service.
Next Steps
Understand how those around you are using AI and how you can integrate (not just implement) AI into your company mission. We ’re only scraping the surface of what artificial intelligence can do to benefit the customer experience, and we’re already seeing massive gains in actionable insights and enhanced customer interactions. AI will only become more useful to the modern contact center as it develops — the sooner you begin using it, the better.
And remember that AI advancements result in human advancements, too. Your agents aren’t going to be replaced, they’re going to be supported. According to Fei-Fei Li, “No technology is more reflective of its creators than AI. It has been said that there are no ‘machine’ values at all, in fact; machine values are human values.” That means you can expect that AI in customer service will continue to focus on the human element and the customer journey. Learn more about the benefits of implementing AI in customer service by reading more about Level AI and scheduling a demo!
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