Artificial intelligence is now considered the gold standard in advanced technology for call centers. Its benefits include better service, stronger brand loyalty, and greater revenue. It’s also changing the way customer service agents perform their jobs.
Will AI Customer Service Replace Call Center Agents?
No one has a customer service crystal ball, but it seems safe to say the growth of AI automated customer service does not mean an end to live customer service agents. AI is human-like, not human, and so far lacks critical skills needed for human interaction.
- AI may be intelligent, but it hasn’t mastered the art of empathy. This inability to commiserate with unhappy customers could quickly become counter-productive and make a customer feel even less satisfied than when they first called.
- While a third of consumers say they interact with a chatbot or virtual assistant at least once a week, most say they still prefer to talk to a human agent. While AI solutions are improving, it still hasn’t evolved enough to where it fully understands a caller’s needs.
- Many a tense interaction has been defused with a bit of humor, not one of AI’s strong points—yet.
Most of all, at this point, AI just isn’t advanced enough to work without human assistance. Setting up AI-powered systems and implementing them is still a human skill. Instead of threatening to replace customer service agents’ lives, AI actually boosts agent efficiency and makes their lives better.
How Customer Service Agents Benefit From AI Customer Support
AI is indispensable to call center agents for many reasons:
- Much of the time agents used to spend accessing and analyzing data, calls, and queries is now improved by AI’s real-time data access and analysis features.
- AI allows callers to access and share information across multiple platforms like mobile apps, phone calls, social media, and text messaging. It can then pass on all that collected information to a live agent, and the caller doesn’t have to repeat it.
- Routine, repetitive tasks that once took up an inordinate amount of an agent’s time can now be done with AI-assisted systems. And when a customer needs to talk to a human, AI call routing handles it.
AI Knowledge Management
On any given day, a customer service agent might handle hundreds of customer requests. Many of them are about the same topics, such as return policies, shipping costs, and delivery timelines. Others are more complex and require more in-depth knowledge. Before AI, different agents might give different answers to the same questions. Knowledge-based AI provides agents with a single point of truth that enables them to speed up calls and avoid sharing outdated information.
Annette Franz, founder and CEO of CX Journey, believes a complete reliance on customer support agents without any alternatives can “make way for a negative experience when things go wrong.” A knowledge base, she says, helps people get instant, accurate solutions that leave them feeling understood and cared for.
Over time, AI-based knowledge systems learn which answers have proven most helpful and suggest those responses to agents. Newer AI technologies are also learning to interpret human emotions and behaviors. For instance, AI might sense when an interaction is escalating and suggest an agent stop talking as much or change their approach.
KMS Lighthouse is an AI-driven solution that’s helping to change the face of customer service. It helps agents focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences and eliminates mundane tasks, all while increasing first-call resolutions and improving the employee experience.
