One of AI’s strongest capabilities lies in its ability to identify patterns in large and unstructured datasets. Tasks that are core to the delivery of great customer service, but also tasks that are incredibly difficult for humans.
In the context of contact centers, AI is commonly thought of as chatbots. Yet innovative new use cases are emerging where human agents can remain at the heart of operations and be assisted by using specific AI capabilities.
Creating the Super Agent
Using AI for agent assistance is getting more and more visibility as the weaknesses of direct-to-consumer chatbots start to show up, specifically related to programming errors, hallucinations, and a lack of consumer acceptance. This leads to the increased risk of customers receiving inaccurate information.
While voice remains the primary communication medium used to interface with contact centers, agents utilizing it and the other channels need the consistent ability to accurately find the right information. Data quality becomes important, and if an agent is handling an interaction and searching through a knowledge base, they may encounter multiple articles on the same topic.
Multiple revisions or evolving procedures are a common issue with any business. But a properly trained AI tool can sift through these articles instantly, providing the agents with the most accurate and up-to-date information to resolve customers’ issues swiftly. It could even be used to flag obsolete information for future deletion.
Yet innovative new [AI] use cases are emerging where human agents can remain at the heart of operations...
By equipping agents with AI-based tools, enabling them to become “Super Agents,” they can quickly find the right information across all available channels, thus lowering error rates and reducing time to competency.
There are many great tools that can complement a contact center desktop. The average contact center still uses six or seven to handle a single interaction.
Using AI to help navigate through these applications using robotic process automation (RPA) helps simplify the agents’ learning curves and again reduces time to resolution and error rates. Thus, reinforcing their Super Agent abilities.
Enabling Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis is another area where AI can provide assistance: not specifically to the agents, but to the contact centers.
Humans generally have natural emotional intelligence, enabling us to gauge whether a customer is happy or upset.
AI hasn’t been shown to perform much better at this task. However, AI sentiment analysis can be used to automatically flag dissatisfaction over time or to alert a supervisor automatically when a call is going off the rails. These scenarios both allow for more proactive, data-driven responses.
AI Risks
The rise of AI usage does bring with it significant legal and security concerns. Companies like Air Canada and Patagonia have faced legal action over their AI usage.
- Air Canada was found liable when its chatbot provided incorrect information about bereavement fare policies (CBC News).
- A Patagonia customer filed a lawsuit after discovering that their conversation with the company’s contact center was recorded and their data was processed by a third-party AI tool, allegedly violating California’s privacy laws (CX Today).
This backlash highlights the importance of lowering overall risk and using AI behind the scenes, supporting human agents rather than directly interacting with customers.
Security is a critical issue, particularly with Generative AI. A recent study by Pillar Security found that 20% of Generative AI applications, such as chatbots, could be successfully hacked in under 45 seconds, with 90% of those hacks exposing personal data.
Finally, the unpredictability of Generative AI—its tendency to “hallucinate” or produce incorrect information—also creates significant risks. Addressing these guardrail issues can often feel like a game of whack-a-mole, with root causes being poorly understood, leading to one-off corrections.
Keeping Humans in the Loop
The most effective and low-risk use of AI in a contact center is when humans remain in the loop, keeping customers shielded from direct AI responses.
By using AI to assist the Super Agents in real time, these agents can quickly filter and correct any AI mistakes, ensuring that customers receive accurate and timely resolutions. This human-centered approach significantly reduces risk, allowing agents to resolve inquiries faster and more efficiently.
Providing agents with powerful, new tools not only boosts morale but also enhances customer service. In an industry plagued with massive turnover rates, improving overall job satisfaction and lowering attrition is a massive efficiency improvement.
And informed Super Agents who can provide swift solutions lead to reduced wait times, enabling the contact center to handle more interactions and improve overall throughput.
The AI-Enabled Agent Desktop
To maximize AI’s potential, the contact center Super Agents need a unified desktop that integrates all channels: whether it is voice, messaging, email, or video.
While AI enhances the experience by delivering information, it does not replace the ability of a contact center to accurately deliver interactions to the right agent with the right tools at the right time. But a properly integrated AI layer, on top of a channel-integrated and unified agent desktop, can enhance the agent’s capabilities and improve first contact resolution (FCR).
...AI sentiment analysis can be used...to alert a supervisor automatically when a call is going off the rails.
Maintaining simplicity and consistency for the agents is still essential, even if AI is used. Agents, as noted, often use six or seven applications to solve customer issues. For AI, if not implemented properly, can easily become applications eight, nine, or 10.
If AI adds unnecessary complexity to the agent’s interface, it will undermine the efficiency it is meant to create. But, when done right, AI enables agents to focus on their core tasks, streamlining their workflows and improving overall customer experience (CX).
Conclusion
AI has immense potential to transform the contact center by empowering agents and improving service. By keeping humans in the loop and leveraging AI to streamline tasks and enhance workflows, we can create Super Agents who are better equipped to handle customer inquiries efficiently.
Reducing complexity, training time, and operational risks while providing agents with the right tools will ultimately lead to higher employee satisfaction and better business outcomes.