With new contact center AI platforms hitting the market each day, contact center AI tools are highly accessible to businesses of all sizes and industries. But are you approaching AI implementation in a way that truly impacts performance and profitability? The most critical component is understanding where AI fits in your operational strategy and how to ensure it adds value to your business. That’s why we promote the power of utilizing an Intentional Approach to contact center AI and the human component of call center operations.
Contact Center AI: Making Sense of All the Craze
In today’s call center and customer service operations world, contact center AI is the hottest topic of discussion. We consistently hear from our clients that they need to implement AI to stay on top of industry trends and remain competitive. However, they don’t know where to begin when creating a successful implementation and optimization strategy.
One of the biggest challenges in navigating the contact center AI world is making sense of data overload and misinformation communicated to business decision-makers.
Contact Center AI Should Amplify Human Potential — Not Replace It
Our contact center operations experts continuously see significant performance improvements when AI is approached and utilized as a tool to expand and enhance the capabilities of our live call center agents. We believe that contact center AI should be used to amplify human potential, not replace it. To achieve this, we take an Intentional Approach to contact center AI.
Check out our latest video as Chris Rozum, Insite’s Founder and CEO, advocates for an Intentional Approach to leveraging AI for customer journey optimization.
What is an Intentional Approach to Contact Center AI?
Insite CEO and Founder, Chris Rozum leads with the intentional approach to contact center AI implementation.
“Our approach is to enable more intentional human moments between live contact center agents and their customers. Part of how we do this is by really getting into all the different micro-steps of the customer journey. We follow the best practice of bringing customer journey data together with a thorough understanding of the employee journey to find the right tech at the right moment to create special human moments.” – Chris Rozum
Cultivating a phenomenal customer experience comes down to the special touches that humans alone have a superior ability to demonstrate: personalization, empathy, authenticity, and human connection. The true success of contact center AI lies in its ability to enhance these human faculties and strengths and support customer-facing employees in meeting the ever-growing expectations of today’s consumers. By focusing on how AI can bolster the human element, you can foster a customer experience that drives unbreakable customer loyalty and business success.
What are the limitations of Artificial Intelligence in Contact Centers?
- Contact Center AI doesn't have a pulse.
- Contact Center AI can't do what humans do.
- Contact center AI certainly doesn’t have the capacity to develop personal connections that
drive relationship building.
Here's a List of Limitations to AI in Contact Center Operations
Contact center technology vendors consistently promote the long list of features and potential benefits of their contact center AI tools. Still, they are rarely transparent about their product challenges and capability gaps. Here is a surface-scratching list of limitations to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in contact center operations. Consider these when building your AI implementation strategy.
1. AI is incapable of critical thinking and ethical decision-making
2. Contact Center AI lacks emotional intelligence, particularly empathy
46% of contact leaders believe that humans are better at understanding customer emotions than AI solutions.
3. It is unable to personalize solutions
41% of contact leaders feel that AI tools cannot independently replicate the human ability to personalize customer interactions.
4. AI has difficulty understanding complex, rhetorical, or nuanced language
5. Contact center AI cannot identify and pivot to accommodate different cultural or accessibility needs
6. It is incapable of creative thinking, imagination, and innovation
7. It cannot support customers who require or demand a live contact center agent
Over 70% of consumers reported becoming frustrated or angry when unable to speak to a live human agent.
8. Contact center AI has insufficient context to handle complex customer queries
9. AI is limited in its ability to handle unstructured data
10. System downtime leaves operations lacking SMEs to manage channels and conduct business
11. Contact center AI contains hidden biases based on limited available and fed data
How does contact center AI enable better customer service?
In response to these challenges, organizations are turning to agent support-focused AI tools to provide the real-time intelligence and guidance required to boost performance and create the “special human moments” that result in best-in-class customer service.
With access to relevant information and next-best-action guidance, call center agents can better focus on cultivating a more human-centric experience. They can focus on each individual customer’s distinct needs, personalizing the interaction and solution, and relationship building. Many of these same tools also provide leaders with valuable insights into emerging trends, enabling them to optimize performance and refine strategies for better customer service in real-time.
These tools foster collaborative intelligence, seamlessly combining the distinctive strengths of live contact center agents and AI tools. Each complements and enhances the capabilities of the other, resulting in remarkable improvements in customer experience, team performance, and overall business outcomes.
Start Implementing and Optimizing Your Contact Center AI Tools
At the end of the day, your organization's success and your customers' satisfaction come down to the irreplaceable impact of the human touch. So, to achieve high levels of success, the focus needs to be on how we can augment human talent with the right kind of contact center AI for your unique operating environment.
Wondering where to begin? A successful operational foundation is the most influential determinant of whether implementing contact center AI will truly benefit your business performance. To help our clients achieve their objectives, we leverage our technology capability assessment and our Intentional Approach to AI. By ensuring our clients’ preparedness for contact center AI implementation, we can successfully guide them through the optimal execution and utilization for their unique environment.
Ready to determine your current technology capabilities and start deploying contact center AI technology for performance improvement? Connect with one of our experts and start preparing for rapid success today.
