Cloud adoption and the fact that contact centers are a rich source of data make them ideal candidates to benefit from AI, suggests Five9 CEO Rowan Trollope.
“The shift to the cloud is opening the door to the next technology-enabled transformation for the contact center: Artificial Intelligence,” Trollope writes in a recent LinkedIn posting. “AI is transforming the technology landscape, and the gateway to AI is access to vast quantities of data.”
That data includes call detail records and call recordings, he notes. Of course, contact centers today also have access to customer data via CRM, real-time interactions, and other data from various channels including chat, email, and more.
All that – and the fact that businesses are always looking to find new efficiencies to control their costs and sometimes even improve the customer experience – is driving many organizations to consider AI-based solutions.
“AI will transform every part of the contact center,” says Trollope, the former senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Applications Business Group.
Indeed. As Trollope writes, and as we’ve reported, AI solutions can assist agents in getting the information they need for faster service and higher productivity. AI also can serve to match customers with the best agents to address their particular needs. It can provide businesses with insights about their customers, employees, products, and processes, so they can work to improve. And AI-based virtual agents can replace IVRs as the front line of customer service.
Trollope notes that while the AI discussion tends to focus heavily on replacing humans by automating workflows, Five9’s focus is on agent augmentation – not replacement.
“Virtual Agents and Agent Assistance both are ways to augment a live agent,” he says. “Virtual agents will deliver a human-like, voice-enabled conversational interface, which will replace IVR systems. Virtual agents could work standalone completely servicing a customer, or could be guided and directed by a live agent. Agent Assistance is AI guiding human agents to the best answers as fast as possible.”
At the upcoming Future of Work Expo you can learn more about how AI, machine learning, and natural language processing solutions are impacting call centers and contact centers – as well as other business communications (like meetings and collaboration), marketing and sales efforts, and even HR activities. This TMC event will take place Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. For more information visit www.futureofworkexpo.com.