AI: How the Rise of the Chatbot is Powering a Futuristic Present – UC Today

Its the much sought-after double whammy that packs a big punch improved customer service AND reduced cost.

Organisations obsess over it, and rightly so.

And, of all the components which enable organisations to do whatever it is they do, the communications tech stack presents one of the biggest opportunities to achieve big on both those fronts.

After all, it is the myriad of communication channels that directly connect an organisation to the people it serves.

Do that better, faster, and slicker, and the customer satisfaction scores begin to soar.

Do it more cost-effectively and, well, you get the point.

So, how?

In todays always-on world, its technology that is providing the answer.

Artificial Intelligence was, not that long ago, a futuristic concept yet to mature sufficiently to make a material impact.

Now, chatbots and super-clever data analytics software have the readily-accessible power to deliver that double whammy easily and affordably.

The market hasnt yet fully-embraced AI yet but it is getting smarter all the time and uptake is increasing rapidly, which means now is the right time to begin leveraging the opportunities it presents, says Dennis Menard, Application Design Specialist at global enterprise-class contact center and IVR provider ComputerTalk, whose insight and expertise is helping a fast-growing number of organisations do just that.

He breaks it down into three ways in which AI can deliver benefit: firstly, improved customer experience; secondly, enhanced internal efficiency; thirdly, post-call analytics capable of supporting the re-design of productivity-boosting processes.

Todays modern customer is completely at ease accessing information via an AI-powered chatbot using either the written or spoken word and a system which leverages Natural Language Understanding means it can be almost as intuitive as talking to a real person, says Menard.

Voice models can be tailored to suit different languages, regional dialects or accents and organisations can even use the voice of an employee if they wish. They simply record a set of key words, and the AI is able to use them to compose fully-coherent responses to customer questions.

The same functionality can be applied internally too; providing human agents with a chatbot almost like a personal assistant to help them find internal information or answer customer questions in real-time as a call is in progress.

And, when a call has been completed, AI is able to capture a recording and a transcription and analyse the content to determine customer sentiment.

Taken together, all of those benefits enable an organisation to reduce call handler headcount, and therefore cost; provide a faster, better customer experience; and help organisations understand the quality of their customer interactions and make improvements where they can

In addition, adding AI to the communication stack enables an organisation to be open 24/7 no need for a complex and expensive human rota of call handlers; simply a route into and through an organisation at whatever time of the day or night a customer prefers.

No surprises, then, that adoption is on the rise.

There is lots of noise in the AI space and a big push by many providers to grab market share as the pace of maturity picks up.

Microsoft, for example, has a whole framework for helping its users build their own bots of varying levels of sophistication.

However as is always the case choosing a truly expert partner is the most effective way of getting it right first time and fast.

In ComputerTalks case, it not only provides native AI-powered communication software but also a seamless gateway for organisations to integrate their own bot functionality directly into its slick and powerful ice contact center platform.

ice which cleverly bridges the gap between legacy infrastructure and the modern brilliance of the Microsoft stack uses Microsoft Teams Direct Routing to send calls to Teams-based human agents using a managed SBC network.

It enables agents to handle all interactions voice, chat, email, SMS, and social media all within a single interface.

When those agents are replaced by Natural Language Understanding chatbots, organisations digital transformations can really accelerate.

That kind of deployment is capable of diverting 80 per cent of the more routine interactions away from human agents and through a text-to-speech or voice-enabled chatbot instead, says Menard.

That leaves those agents free to deal with the more complex interactions which still require human input, such as providing highly technical information or completing a sales process. Their number can be significantly reduced and they become subject matter experts as opposed to processors of low-level enquiries and interactions.

Those agents feel more empowered and their morale is boosted; and organisations deliver a better customer experience at less cost.

Never mind doublethat sounds like a triple whammy.

To learn more about how ComputerTalk can help your business grow and succeed, visit http://www.computer-talk.com

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AI: How the Rise of the Chatbot is Powering a Futuristic Present - UC Today