There’s one question popping up across the tech space, from boardrooms to water coolers, and everywhere in between — “How is AI going to change our daily work lives?”
The conversation around AI has moved from curiosity to its potential widespread impact — with bold predictions that the tech will increase global GDP by 7%. Brands want to utilize the technology for better business practices (and profits); employees want reassurance that companies will use AI to complement their abilities, not replace them. For call centers, we’re already seeing how AI for customer support agents can empower employees rather than shuffle them aside.
At Gladly Connect Live 2023, Bark CTO Nari Sitaraman shared a presentation on the rapid inclusion of AI in customer experience. Here’s a preview of how he used the technology to transform his own company, and the exciting new use cases ecommerce businesses have already applied.
The Promise of AI in Ecommerce
The inclusion of AI in ecommerce will be necessary to keep up with the accelerating pace of business. Whereas companies in previous decades could stay competitive while processing and applying data manually, it’s now impossible to maintain relevance without some form of automation in your tool belt.
Customer expectations are rising rapidly — particularly with young, digitally native shoppers. Our Customer Expectations Report shows that 40% of Gen Z and 37% of millennial shoppers “fall in love” with brands that provide great service, proving the power of going above and beyond to meet their needs. To keep up, brands will need to infuse AI into their experiences to make customer expectations a reality.
That’s where AI for customer support agents can make a fundamental difference. Already, we’ve seen examples of how this technology can process enormous amounts of data at once. Through AI, brands get real-time insights across channels, along with an environment where CX workers and leaders can apply those insights with ease. With a simple but comprehensive application of this technology, brands can quickly create impactful customer experiences that modern shoppers crave.
The Impact of AI for Customer Support Agents
AI can fundamentally transform a company’s approach to service — from the daily actions of customer service agents all the way to the high-level decisions made by CX leaders. Here are four immediate impacts AI can provide to agents, which only scratch the surface of the technology’s long-term potential applications.
1. Increase response speed and concurrency
AI can predict and even solve recurring issues using hyper-personalized customer data, leading to improved operational efficiencies that ensure a customer and an agent get to a solution faster than ever before.
Example: If a customer is recurring and has dealt with a similar issue repeatedly — for instance, difficulty completing a payment in certain channels — AI would suggest certain responses or solutions that point that shopper directly to a payment screen, thus cutting out excessive communication.
2. Proactively detect sentiment
The smarter AI gets, the more it can use natural language interpretation to identify if a customer is frustrated, delighted, or something else — even without them explicitly saying it.
Example: If an AI-powered self-service tool receives a first response from a customer that the tool identifies as more aggressive or hostile, the tech would recognize that the customer needs more specialized handling to ensure a positive experience. This would indicate to the AI to route that customer along to the most senior agent on that channel.