Beware of creating artificial CX havoc with AI

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) comes with many promises. It’s viewed as a shortcut to efficiency gains and increased revenues — a panacea for every business problem. But that’s not the case. And customer service leaders and their teams must be mindful of how they implement AI. Here’s why.

Too often, customer service teams invest in AI, integrate solutions and then move on, only to return to disappointing results. AI needs a clear plan and high-quality data for it to deliver outstanding results. AI needs guiding and to learn, to understand and respond to complex problems. The old mantra of ‘computer says no’ remains firmly entrenched in the minds of consumers, even as most businesses adopt AI.

Ventrica surveyed over 2,000 consumers, seeing that only 4% of positive experiences were delivered by AI alone. AI chatbots were successful only half of the time (53%) in resolving queries. 

AI is not the problem, but rather how customer experience teams implement AI into customer service. 

What is a plane without a flight crew? Grounded

Consider AI as a plane. No matter how intricate and impressive, a plane can only reach its destination with a pilot and flight crew, both for the comfort of passengers and to deal with unexpected in-flight problems. Similarly, AI needs active management to reach its full potential. 

AI systems are meant to grow and improve alongside their teams. This means engaging with AI strategically, providing continuous oversight of its uses, and flying that plane until the flight path is so well-trodden that you can engage autopilot.

For example, a British luxury beauty brand succeeded in modernising its legacy processes to gain insight from the customer journey by using AI to analyse interactions from the entire customer lifecycle. This effort was underpinned by strong leadership. 

The brand’s general manager took charge of the project, allocated resources to train agents to work alongside AI, and developed processes for teams to action AI insights. Ultimately, they could find the ideal mix of where AI was used to drive customer experience and where humans stepped in. 

Relying solely on AI will leave customers dissatisfied, just as relying only on human-based service will fail to meet modern expectations. Striking the right balance between humans and AI is achievable through constant evaluation of performance and scrutinising outcomes. It is all about finding how AI can become a copilot to complement agents rather than replace them. 

Amplify the customer experience: Tips to implement AI

1- Train your AI before it can fly: Part of owning the AI strategy as a business leader means actively training AI.

The best starting points we’ve seen are simple, repetitive customer interactions, where answers are usually easily found in your support centre, such as those hosted on Zendesk. Feed it this information and use it to help your customer service agents answer queries quickly. Position it as a co-pilot for your team, one that is supporting them to help bring joy to more customers more quickly.

2 – Continuously refine AI outcomes: The AI journey never really ends. Continuous refinement will push AI to better understand your customers and your environment.

The whole point of AI is that it learns. So, make sure you are feeding it the outcomes of each query. You’ll eventually get to a point where your customer experience team wants to let go of the reins to focus on more complex queries—no one likes dealing with the mundane.

3 – Use it to boost emotional intelligence No matter how advanced AI becomes, it cannot replace emotional intelligence. At some point in a customer’s journey, a human is needed on the other end of the line. Using AI can help deliver a cohesive, emotionally intelligent experience across channels.

AI can summarise all of a customer’s interactions and touchpoints, helping agents understand previous conversations. 

Don’t sit idly by your AI

Customer experience business leaders can’t afford to coast, letting AI do the work, and hope their AI projects help them gain a competitive edge. They need to take charge and shift the narrative from focusing on cost-saving to building experiences. 

In a sea of AI chatbots, the brands that can deliver enhanced human connections will be long-term winners. The reality is that most customer experience business leaders — and their vendors — have missed the mark in implementing AI for customer service. But it is not too late to buck the trend and use AI to its full potential.