It may still feel like science fiction, but AI is here, and it’ll change work and life as we know it.
Those sceptical about the role of AI in business would do well to heed experts’ calls to action. Earlier this year, the UK’s outgoing chief scientist urged officials to consider AI “as transformative as the Industrial Revolution.”
This burgeoning technology is poised to revitalise the customer journey, energise employees, and boost daily business operations. Let’s take a closer look.
The rise of AI in CX
No matter their industry or business model, customer experience is a top priority for all organisations. This is where AI will be most potent, and had been the domain of more classic AI algorithms.
And now Generative AI will give businesses the means to completely overhaul the customer journey, transforming customer experiences to be more seamless, intuitive, personal, and resonate more positively overall.
Chatbots that are finally smart
One of the first ways we’ve seen AI step in to improve the customer journey is with conversational UI or chatbots.
In and of themselves, chatbots are nothing new. Customers have been using them for years to handle online returns and submit queries to airlines and other large organisations. But up until now, these experiences have been challenging at best for the customer – and nightmarish at worst. Today, however, sophisticated AI-powered chatbots are more than holding their own. In fact, an MIT Technology Review report reveals that, when using AI, 90% of surveyed businesses “recorded measurable improvements in the speed of complaint resolution,” and 80% experienced “enhanced call volume processing.” Customers, too, are welcoming AI chatbots with open arms – 75% of Internet users said they prefer chatbots to humans when it comes to answering simple questions, according to a PFSK survey cited by chatbot.com. And unlike human employees, who rightfully deserve breaks, holidays, weekends, and limited working hours, these intelligent bots can deliver support 24/7, improving customer experience and lightening the workload for employees and businesses.
Decoding customer desires and needs
But the advantages of AI in CX extend far beyond responding to customer support queries. The technology can now also predict customers’ future needs and wants, even before they do.
Inundated by options and hounded across channels, today’s customer faces an increasingly complex journey. But for businesses keen on delivering a truly frictionless customer experience, understanding highly nuanced customer behaviour across multiple channels is essential. By tapping into vast pools of customer data, AI can connect behaviours and preferences from a diverse body and use this information to build distinct consumer profiles. With predictive analytics, businesses can then strategically position relevant products and solutions to the right customer, at the right time, via the right channel. Done right, this will guide customers to the best products and services to suit their specific needs, before they even think about it themselves.
Tailor-made customer experiences
Using AI in CX certainly eases business operations, but it’s ultimately a win for the customer too.
As AI collects, analyses, and learns from large volumes of data, it delivers new worlds of actionable insights that empower businesses to get personal with their customer journeys. In the past years, businesses have tried their best to personalise the customer experience – but working with a handful of generic personas only gets you so far. Today’s AI, however, has the power to unlock next-level insights that help businesses discover customers’ expectations, wants, and needs so they can create individualised experiences on a 1-2-1 level.
It’s easy to underestimate the effect AI will have on the customer experience, as it will truly upend what’s considered the norm across industries. So, let’s consider the dining experience as an example. At the 134th Yale CEO Summit, Panera CEO Niren Chaudhury discussed the role of biometric analytics in the food industry and how the developing technology can help businesses determine who their customer is and how to tailor their services accordingly. The restaurant CEO even highlighted AI’s potential to impact the drive-through experience, explaining how voice-activated AI with intelligent voice recognition can anticipate a customer’s requirements and needs.
How AI will free employees from the mundane
Businesses are buzzing about the many ways AI will reinvigorate the customer journey with predictive analytics and more personalised experiences. Internally, the technology will also go a long way to improve workflows and energise employees.
Unfortunately, this is where fearmongering is at its best. Over half of 18-24-year-olds “are worried about the impact of the technology on their future employment prospects,” says new BMG Research for i. But the reality isn’t so simple for white-collar workers. AI excels at managing routine, repetitive tasks, while humans thrive in critical thinking and creativity. The future, then, is not one where AI is steering the ship. Instead, AI will take over the many repetitive, mundane, and routine tasks human employees begrudge, thus freeing their time and energy to tackle higher-value, more thoughtful work.
Again, this is where AI-powered chatbots really shine, stepping in to relieve employees of tedious customer support tasks. Businesses and employees are already feeling the benefits. For example, Steven Bandrowczak, CEO of Xerox, also spoke at the Yale CEO Summit, where he revealed that “AI ha[d] already reduced the number of times that technicians need to go out to customers for technological troubleshooting by over 40%.”
As AI-powered autonomous systems continue to develop, they’ll be able to take on management tasks in supply chains, customer service channels, and media campaigns, lightening workloads and removing the repetitive drudgery from employees’ daily to-do lists.
Intelligent support for recruitment and human resources
In human resources, AI further presents opportunities to help employees. For example, AI can elevate standard on-the-job training by creating personalised learning and development programmes for employees.
Meanwhile, AI can also help job hunters find opportunities they may have overlooked. For example, far too many jobseekers have valuable and transferable skills but lack the experience in the right business vertical to land a job. According to NIESR, 63% of UK graduates are mismatched in this way. AI can help these candidates by connecting them with the right jobs across different verticals, opening their minds to opportunities they may not have otherwise considered.
From the employer’s perspective, AI also offers a helping hand in recruiting. Today, major hospitals across the US have already begun using AI to gain access to valuable talent pools. Consider the example of recruiting a new surgeon. First, AI analyses data from past surveys and interviews with top-performing surgeons with long-standing careers. This information helps HR managers understand successful surgeons’ key personality traits to better identify strong candidates for future surgical positions.
Welcoming AI with open arms
There’s no stopping the expansion of AI in business. Used effectively, AI will improve employees’ workdays by relieving them of repetitive, monotonous tasks so they can focus on more meaningful, thoughtful and higher-value work. Meanwhile, businesses will be able to improve recruitment processes, optimise operations and, above all, elevate the customer journey with personalised experiences.
The verdict? Across the board, AI will be a key ingredient in revitalising both customer experience and employees’ workdays.
About the Author
John Cunningham is CTO at Valtech. We are the experience innovation company. In a digitally accelerated world, where ‘the best’ race toward ‘best practices’, we help brands break through and leap beyond the competition. At the intersection of crafts, categories and cultures, our global teams unlock value by leveraging the power of data, AI, creativity and technology to achieve true experience innovation. With a focus on delivering exceptional business results, we exist to unlock a better way to experience the world
