CCW Digital wrapped its annual Future of the Contact Center seminar series, covering end of year discussions on highlights, trends and technology critical for 2024 and beyond. In an effort to better understand customer needs and plan for the future, our analyst team shared their latest research on the state of experiences today and guidance on achieving CX success in the new year.
As a part of the Future of the Contact Center series, Amy Payne, Global VP of Customer, Partner and Events Marketing at Talkdesk and Tom Grosso, Executive Director, Service Desk at CAI, joined to discuss contact center efficiency with generative AI.
As generative AI took the forefront this year it became clear that it would transform the way we work, how we engage with customers and how we deliver experiences. Talkdesk has produced game changing outcomes for organizations with powerful generative AI technology.
As a global AI powered cloud contact center leader, Talkdesk is working to lead with courageous innovation and customer obsession. The organization has been a pioneer in the contact center AI space since 2018 and is designing technology to help customers achieve outcomes that matter most to them.
Years before ChatGPT came to fruition, Talkdesk has been working to empower customers to resolve issues correctly, extract powerful insights across every conversation and touchpoint and automate more customer interactions through self-service.
In alignment with this continued focus on innovation, Talkdesk has just announced their new Generative AI features for more responsible, accurate and accessible AI in the contact center. The latest GenAI technology demonstrates the company’s commitment to simplifying AI and optimizing CX outcomes.
Tom Grosso of CAI shared his experience partnering with Talkdesk and leveraging their AI tools. As a brand that is looking to stay ahead of the curve and position themselves to be fully consultative, CAI is leveraging AI to innovate and improve. Grosso shares that his team wants to be at the forefront of innovation, moving fast while keeping customer experience at the center of everything they do.
Talkdesk’s out of the box functionality has empowered CAI to move quickly, rather than having to spend weeks to months getting new technology up and running. However, Grosso states, AI is not a project to him and his team — it represents an ongoing journey that requires cross functional work and focus.
Workforce Management for the Modern Agent
CAI has also shared its successes with Talkdesk’s WFM features. By entering a more predictive state with AI, his team no longer has to manually predict staffing and volume. The outputs allow his organization to make real time decisions and pinpoint friction in the moment. WFM technology has, ultimately, enabled CAI more stability.
When it comes to the employee experience, CAI has been able to reduce the amount of wrap up work their team engages in. “The feedback has been very positive from the analysts within my organization. They love the fact that they are able to augment some of their work with this technology,” Grosso states.
The technology is making their agents' lives easier, improving efficiency in between contacts and offering knowledge recommendations during a call.
Grosso and the CAI team are aware, however, of the different personas in the workforce and they are curating an experience to meet all of them. The ultimate goal is to meet customers where they are at while providing augmentation to make their lives easier and see efficiency gains. But, he recognizes, change can be difficult for everyone.
Humans Who Use AI will Replace Humans who Don’t use AI
Payne and Grosso also touched on the idea of AI and human collaboration. Coming from a consultative background, Grosso shared that there will always be a balance between technology and the human experience.
“People more times than not immediately think that AI is going to take their job and that is not the case. There will always be, at least in my space, a place for that human element,” he states.
Payne shares that it is not humans who will be replaced, but individuals who do not leverage these powerful tools to enhance their workflow. AI can be such an asset to the customer service space, so the agents who are utilizing it to its full potential will certainly thrive.
Further, AI can truly make experiences more human. Grosso shares that his CAI team has been able to leverage AI to be more proactive. They can see how calls are flowing in real time, understand sentiment and proactively address concerns in the moment instead of waiting for survey results to come through.
Next Steps in GenAI
When discussing advice on getting started with Generative AI, Grosso reiterated the fact that leaders must treat AI as a journey. Understanding that when you start you are going to continually progress and ramp up as different use cases come to the table is critical for long-term success.
Grosso also recommends having foundational elements firmly in place before beginning implementation. Defining clear objectives, building the right team and prioritizing ethics and privacy are all necessary steps.
Lastly, Grosso shares the importance of education in the AI space. Staying up to date and learning more about technology is so important to continuous innovation. Being able to recognize and understand new features and how they can support your organization will place leaders in the position to continuously grow and enhance operations.
To check out their conversation, watch here.