In this digital age where customer expectations are rapidly on the rise, it’s no surprise that the contact centre is undergoing an AI-powered transformation. But how are businesses implementing AI in their contact centres? What do contact centres need to have in place to make the most of AI? Where can AI have the most impact?
Zoom partnered with Frost & Sullivan on their latest visual white paper that dives into the state of AI in the contact centre, explores its transformative potential, and stresses the urgency for businesses to adapt—and adapt quickly—to the changing landscape. The report’s useful findings can help companies strategise how to best navigate unchartered territory by examining what’s required to get the most out of AI.
Investment in contact centre AI is set to double in the next two years
Frost & Sullivan provides valuable insight into how customer experience will evolve now that AI has taken centre stage. While most companies are in the early stages of AI deployment, investment is expected to increase to over 70% across all AI areas in the next two years. Speech analytics, voice authentication, and process automation will be the biggest focus areas, but AI technologies across the board will see a significant surge in investment.
Having one platform for all communications optimises AI in customer experience
A close look at companies’ customer experience (CX) priorities shows that the future of customer service demands an always-on, personalised experience. A sturdy foundation is crucial to answer such demands as leveraging CX information across departments, integrating digital channels, and managing the entire customer journey.
Frost & Sullivan’s visual white paper outlines how a simplified, integrated approach using a single communications platform can help lay the groundwork for AI. This approach brings your entire organisation together and helps not only create a seamless omnichannel experience but also supports a hybrid workplace, empowers agents and employees, enhances operational efficiency, and reduces costs. When agents feel connected to the organisation no matter where they are working and can easily access back-office experts, they can do more efficient and meaningful work.
An AI strategy can be more streamlined and impactful when implemented on one fully consolidated communications platform that combines customer and employee experience.
The value of an omnichannel experience: Meet your customers where they are
Frost & Sullivan also highlights that your customers and clients want to interact with you on their channel of choice at a time that works for them. An omnichannel contact centre, enabled through a single platform, allows organisations to view, manage, and respond to interactions in one pane of glass—anytime, anywhere, and on any device. While there are many benefits, it’s crucial to tread carefully and be mindful of the challenges that come with moving to an omnichannel solution, such as channel integration and agent training.
Using this omnichannel approach, Caring for You, a nursing agency in Australia, has benefited from the Zoom Contact Centre platform, reducing call wait times by 50%.
Virtual agents and AI: The ability to resolve customer pain points
One channel where AI plays a key role is in your virtual agent or chatbot. The Frost and Sullivan visual white paper captures interesting data regarding virtual agents and the contact centre. With top customer pain points being slow resolution time (33%) and inadequately trained virtual agents (33%), AI can step in and vastly improve the experience. Features like AI-generated flow builders and advanced intent recognition can enable more human-like responses, leading to faster resolutions and more satisfied customers. Now, businesses can feel confident directing simple queries to virtual agents while their live agents deal with more complex interactions.
Video-enabled contact centres: A new key differentiator
Sometimes, a call or chat just won’t cut it. The paper highlights the emergence of video as a powerful tool for creating immersive and more personalised customer experiences. With 50% of companies using video chat in the contact centre today, it’s a channel of choice for many customers. Video-enabled contact centres facilitate more meaningful connections, improve agent morale, and contribute to a customer-first organisation.
What’s the best application of AI in the contact centre?
It’s a common misconception that AI in contact centres is just about automated bots. With the dramatic entrance of generative AI (GenAI), innovative companies are leveraging AI to optimise performance, empower agents, and increase productivity.
AI’s impact on agent productivity and effectiveness
AI-powered knowledge bases can pull up relevant information for agents in real-time, empowering them to provide more accurate information to customers. Automatically generated call summaries can remove the manual, time-consuming processes for agents, giving them time back to work on more interesting tasks. Integrating AI tools also allows businesses to capture data that helps supervisors provide real-time feedback and skill-building opportunities, reducing churn and increasing morale.
AI boosts operational efficiency
The less-understood, and likely lesser-known, advantage of AI lies in workforce management. Intelligent routing systems, powered by AI, can analyse incoming requests, directing each query to the most suitable agent based on skills and experience. AI can also improve adaptive training programs for agents and managers alike, enhancing performance and providing targeted support.
Future-proof your contact centre AI strategy
As the contact centre landscape evolves, implementing AI as part of an integrated, omnichannel platform can empower your team to deliver exceptional customer and employee experiences. The revolution is here—are you ready to lead the charge?
Check out the full Frost & Sullivan visual white paper: Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the Contact Centre.
Zoom would love to help you on your customer experience AI journey. Zoom Contact Centre, Zoom Virtual Agent, and Zoom Workforce Engagement Management have been built on our tried, tested, and loved Zoom platform.
Reach out today and they’ll show you how a simplified AI-powered EX and CX experience can set your contact centre up for success.