Although 2022 seems to be ushering in similar uncertainties as 2021, we know one thing for sure. AI continues to become more prevalent in many areas of our everyday lives–directly and indirectly.
Just last month on our podcast, The ConversAItion, Dr. Andrew Giessel, Moderna’s Director of AI and Data Science discussed how AI is at the heart of Moderna’s drug discovery and manufacturing processes. Because of their inherently digital, AI-powered infrastructure, Moderna was able to accelerate the research process to quickly produce its COVID-19 vaccine. We have also featured guests who have talked about how AI is helping to match people with their true love, find a parking space, and even to prevent suicide.
There is also no doubt that AI continues to evolve quickly with new innovations and applications all the time. At Interactions, we have been working in AI in CX for nearly two decades and have witnessed this firsthand as business goals and consumer habits change.
And now, the current conditions of the world have created the perfect storm for AI to continue to be a key player in CX in 2022 and beyond.
So, what is in store for AI in CX in 2022 and beyond? We asked our Interactions experts to share their predictions.
A consistent experience trumps channel choice
“With the on-going impact of the pandemic, customers and businesses are increasingly turning to AI technology for independent reasons. Customers, particularly the newer generation, prefer to interact with technology that can solve their issues, and not remain on hold or be transferred between agents endlessly, only to add to their pandemic-driven frustrations. Consequently, technologies that seamlessly converse with customers in a channel agnostic manner and provide higher task fulfillment rate through a delightful user experience will be a key focus in 2022.” –Srinivas Bangalore, VP AI Research
Learn more: Truly effortless and consistent customer experience is more than just channel choice, but rather channel optimization. Read our white paper to learn more.
Front office functions will meet back office technologies to create superior CX
“As the market continues to focus on an end to end, integrated digital transformation effort across the enterprise, integral to this initiative will be connecting front office functions comprising an industry-leading conversational AI technology when engaging with customers, with back office technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA). Doing so will serve to accelerate automation capabilities, provide greater depth of data and insights to customers, and make the contact center agent far more efficient, effective, and productive. The foundational impact of such initiatives will be to add significant value to an organization’s ROI and business case, to enhance the experience they provide to their customers for creating greater loyalty and
customer satisfaction, and to progress on the digital transformation journey.” – Sri Chawla, EVP of Sales
Learn more: Find out how RPA can collaborate with IVAs and improve agent and customer experience in the contact center in our blog.
DIY and managed service will have an offspring
“DIY platforms will continue to spring up and create excitement, but at the same time cause frustration because of the lack of ability to move to production. This will create an opportunity for managed service providers to take a bigger share in the market through a collaborative PaaS approach.” – Anoop Tripathi, CTO
Learn more: Whether you choose a fully managed service or go the collaborative PaaS route, to deliver truly transformational customer experience, it’s essential that you choose the right partner. However, even before that step, it’s essential to understand common roadblocks
that business leaders often experience when planning a Conversational AI implementation. Read about best practices for overcoming these barriers in our eBook.
AI alone is not a silver bullet
“Consumers will continue to evolve their expectations for customer care. They will expect low-effort solutions and will increasingly look to digital channels as an alternative to waiting on hold for a call center agent. Businesses will step up their efforts to offer AI solutions that fully automate or assist agents’ performance. Systems that combine AI with true human intelligence will gain traction as businesses realize AI alone is not a silver bullet for complete automation at scale.” – Phil Gray, Chief Innovation Officer
Learn more: Humans and AI can be combined in many ways to achieve optimal performance results, depending on the unique needs of the industry and the company. Read our blog to see how.
Read more predictions from our Interactions experts as well as Mark Beccue, Principal Analyst, AI & NLP at Omdia in our 2022 Predictions eBook!
