The strategic value of artificial intelligence (AI) is widely recognised by customer experience (CX) leaders worldwide. However, AI implementation in the contact centre appears to have slowed over the last year. Why the disconnect?
Recent Talkdesk research explores why CX leaders find it challenging to realise the full potential of AI technology in the contact centre. Let’s consider the findings.
The need for AI is clear
CX leaders understand the value of AI and automation, viewing this technology as critical to accelerate success. When asked about the need to leverage AI and automation:
- 85% of CX professionals believe it is important now.
- 79% of companies plan to increase total spending on AI and automation this year.
- 52% expect lower customer satisfaction should they delay the implementation.
- 48% anticipate a loss of productivity across the business without AI or automated technology.
- 89% believe AI will still be important four years from now.
The core benefits of AI technology deployment in the contact centre are not contested. When AI-powered tools are implemented to manage routine and repetitive tasks, human agents have more time to better manage complex issues and interactions. The combination of AI and human-agent interaction can lead to faster issue resolution and deeper customer satisfaction (CSAT).
CSAT is generally the cornerstone KPI used to evaluate contact centre performance. In fact, more than half (52%) of CX professionals cited lower customer satisfaction as the top perceived risk associated with not using AI. As contact centres continue evolving into drivers for business growth, falling short on this metric could have a more pronounced impact on revenue and lifetime customer value (LCV) – further underscoring the importance of AI as part of an effective CX strategy.
Addressing the implementation barriers
Implementing new technology always comes with challenges. With AI implementation, there is not only a lack of familiarity but also concerns about its broader implications on existing workflows and processes.
Contact centre leaders cite the top three barriers to AI implementation as:
- Security and confidentiality risks.
- IT infrastructure issues.
- Resistance to change.
Most contact centres will likely slow their AI ambitions in the short-term to address and overcome these barriers. While 79% of companies represented in the research do plan to increase their AI spending over the next year, those increases are likely to be more cautious and paced, with most predicting less than 25% increase in their AI spending.
The struggle to keep up
The rapid development and evolution of AI-powered technologies over the last several years may have left CX professionals feeling like they are struggling to keep up with the change:
- 87% of CX professionals feel moderately to extremely familiar with AI in the contact centre compared to 93% a year ago.
- 35% of CX professionals say their organisations are advanced in their application of AI, compared to 41% a year ago.
CX professionals could certainly benefit from additional support in navigating the ever-changing landscape of AI features and functionality for the contact centre. When asked where they typically learn about AI solutions, the majority of contact centre and CX leaders cited professional networks and peers (69%), and online research (65%) as their key sources for bridging the knowledge gap around AI.
AI developers and vendors have an incredible opportunity here to position themselves as trusted advisors in the changing AI landscape.
The security paradox
The topic of AI security can present CX leaders with a catch-22 situation.
AI is recognised as a way to improve contact centre security by CX professionals:
- 75% agree that AI technology will allow customer data to be more secure than a live agent.
- 80% agree that AI will significantly help companies improve identity and authentication security in the next two years.
However, security and confidentiality is cited as the number one barrier to AI implementation by these same CX professionals. That paradox seems difficult to reconcile but starts to make sense when existing contact centre architecture is considered – particularly when legacy systems are part of that architecture. According to the cohort of CX professionals:
- 50% agree their company is limited to less effective native AI solutions in their current contact centre architecture.
- 47% agree their company is unable to capitalise on advanced AI by third-party vendors due to constraints of their current contact centre architecture.
In order to leverage AI benefits in the most secure way, businesses must consider a move to the cloud or an upgrade to a modern cloud contact centre platform. These platforms are built with strong security features and typically satisfy the myriad legal, ethical, and compliance concerns over data security.
Involving the agents
A lack of advanced AI skills within the workforce should not stop contact centres from adopting AI technology sooner than later. As the AI technology on offer continues to advance – especially with low- or no-code functionalities – companies will become less dependent on data scientists and AI-trained specialists.
At the same time, contact centre agents are growing more comfortable with the AI tools they use in their work, inspiring greater confidence among contact centre leaders in their capabilities:
- 44% of CX professionals in 2022 agreed that their agents had the skills needed to leverage AI technology, compared to 37% who felt the same in 2021.
Involving contact centre agents in AI management can help fill talent gaps. Democratising AI maintenance in this way can tangibly lower the cost of AI investment and reduce staffing dependency on harder to find specialists.
The groundwork for success
Given all that AI has to offer, businesses need to ensure they have their house in order before looking to implement new AI-powered technology. CX leaders wishing to make smart advances towards AI optimisation in their contact centres should critically consider the following questions:
- Do their agents have the right training and resources to leverage AI technology effectively?
- Does their contact centre have the internal resources to make AI operations accessible?
- Does their contact centre have an architecture that can support safe integration of advanced AI technology?
As AI technology continues to evolve and adapt to new business needs, stronger use cases and success stories will be available for CX leaders to learn from – putting to rest lingering concerns around the challenges related to AI adoption in the contact centre.