Brands are looking at adopting AI as a means to an end – anything to help make sense of data, shift customer conversations to more digital channels, or automate disconnected manual processes in customer service. And technology partners are responding with plug-and-play solutions.
It’s not about AI maturity. It’s about getting the work done.
In March this year, VOXI by Vodafone became the ‘first’ UK telecommunications company to launch a generative AI (GenAI) chatbot.
Powered by ChatGPT, the new chatbot was built by Accenture and uses an AI safety framework to ensure a responsible and ethical deployment. The news came in the quick run up to the announcement of Vodafone Group’s ten-year strategic partnership with Microsoft. Part of the deal is for the telco to strengthen customer experiences by implementing Microsoft’s AI.
Is it a big deal? Yes. According to the findings from the 2023 State of Conversational AI in the Contact Center report, contact centre and IT leaders believe conversational artificial intelligence (AI) is the future. Some 80% say these capabilities will be a must have in the near future, and 41% agree that if companies don’t adopt these capabilities, they will fall behind.
It’s positive news. Business leaders are keen to share that conversational AI compliments the human touch – and does not replace it. In fact, businesses are leveraging it to improve customer service capabilities (62%), streamline internal workflows (42%), improve customer satisfaction and reduce customer wait times (36%).
Conversational AI is at an inflection point. Thanks to generative AI’s recent developments, it is being seen as a way to deliver crucial CX priorities – like personalisation in a meaningful way and at scale.
“The integration of Generative AI along with the emergence of vector databases as the new standard for providing persistent memory to large language models and the pivotal role of personalisation are driving exceptional customer experiences, in the Intelligent Contact Center,” said Craig Kennedy, Senior Director of Research at Aragon Research.
Technology partners add capabilities
Last year, Oracle was one of the first to add new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to its Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX). The new features promise to liberate marketers, sellers, and service agents from time-consuming, manual tasks by unlocking relevant content, recommendations, and insights with automation and conversational interfaces.
“Pre-trained large language models (LLMs) are changing the way we interact with people, content, and critical knowledge in our enterprises. We can now unlock insights and communicate with clarity like never before,” said Rob Tarkoff, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Cloud CX.
Earlier this year, LivePerson and call analytics platform Infinity announced a partnership to help brands better personalise digital experiences through the power of conversational data and intelligence. Together, they promise to drive enhanced personalisation and measurable ROI by making it easy to connect attribution data across voice calls and digital messaging conversations. This bi-directional attribution — inclusive of conversations handled with AI and automation — makes it easier to understand a customer’s end-to-end, omnichannel journey with a brand.
Warren Newbert, CEO of Infinity said, “We’re already making it possible to attribute calls and ROI to digital conversations, and we’re excited to offer even more valuable insights to marketers, sales teams, CX professionals, and contact centres as our partnership progresses.”
Real-time revenue execution platform Acqueon and Cresta, a provider of generative AI for intelligent contact centres have joined forces to help B2C enterprises better engage their customers and optimise the effectiveness of every customer interaction.
This partnership will help businesses deliver meaningful revenue generation and recovery outcomes through omnichannel outbound engagement and enhanced customer service and retention. Brands will be able to proactively connect with customers at the right time and on their preferred channels, in a fully compliant manner.
“Customers are holding businesses to higher standards than ever before, and it’s essential that we ensure that every customer touchpoint is productive and positive,” said Ping Wu, CEO of Cresta
Custom models as a competitive advantage
Invoca made enhancements to its Signal AI suite, and introduced Signal AI Studio, a new solution that empowers businesses to quickly create custom AI models that automatically unlock breakthrough insights from phone conversations. For businesses that acquire customers, members, or patients over the phone, Invoca AI enables digital marketing and contact centre teams to collaborate in driving revenue growth. With Signal AI Studio, businesses can train custom AI models to detect meaningful insights from every customer conversation. Revenue teams can optimise marketing spend and agent performance by surfacing previously unknown insights.
“With Signal AI, you don’t need to be a data scientist to unlock the power of AI. Now, any user can drive revenue by unlocking breakthrough insights from the buying journey, especially the ‘moment of truth’ where consumers make critical purchase decisions. AI models custom-trained for your business deliver the most accurate insights, and now with Signal AI Studio, marketing and contact centre teams can create them faster than ever.”
Also Read: How Did Intel’s denstu-led Personalised Audio AI Campaign Boost Brand Metrics?
Not just the UK, Europe is encouraging too
HiJiffy, a Portuguese company specialising in conversational Artificial Intelligence for hotels, raised €3.8 million in funding. Further goals for the business include enhancing and strengthening its presence in the UK and France and expanding into the DACH region (German, Austrian, and Swiss markets).
DRUID, a Romanian no-code conversational AI platform, announced the successful closure of a $30 million Series B funding round.
Vonage is a global contact centre management solution provider, headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey, providing businesses a 360-degree view of their customer journey. It offers Vonage Cadence, a contact center automation tool, helping sales representatives within an organisation to maximise productivity and customer service levels. Vonage’s core system components include automatic call distributor (ACD), computer telephony integration (CTI), interactive voice response (IVR), etc.
