AI In the Contact Center: 5 Starting Points

Intelligent call routing tools can analyze previous call histories, behavioral data, and even customer personalities, to determine the best strategy for handling calls. A powerful contact center built for Microsoft Teams should already give you access to a range of routing configuration tools and options. These routing tools ensure you can connect consumers rapidly with the agent best suited to address their concerns, improving satisfaction rates, and reducing call transfer and handling times.

The rise of AI doesn’t mean the end of call center jobs—it means those jobs are evolving. Rather than eliminating human agents, AI will likely change their roles, moving them toward more supervisory or quality assurance positions. Human agents will still be essential in overseeing AI systems, stepping in when needed, and providing the kind of nuanced, culturally aware, and emotionally intelligent service that AI can’t match. Del Taco, for example, introduced an AI-powered drive-through system that was supposed to streamline ordering. But it turned out that the AI wasn’t handling everything—human agents from a call center in the Philippines were managing the orders behind the scenes. Customer service also requires an understanding of cultural nuances and local contexts, which AI struggles to interpret.

Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more. CloudTalk’s AI call center software has specialized features for call monitoring, enabling supervisors to oversee agent performance and give timely support. The Smart Tasks solution even allows companies to develop valuable automated workflows, to streamline processes like data entry. Team members can use AI to automatically extract information from transcripts, fill out forms, and reduce the risk of human error. With real-time generative AI translations, contact centers can deliver culturally nuanced and consistent support to customers worldwide, without additional costs. With AI solutions handling more repetitive tasks and queries, agents have more time to focus on valuable, strategic, and empathetic interactions.

You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Understanding the upfront costs is imperative because it helps you make informed decisions about your AI call center software investment. The availability of free trial gives you the chance to explore the software for a limited amount of time, while a free version enables small businesses to use the tool without breaking the bank. We included Talkdesk on our list because of its real-time call transcriptions, instant answers, and smart recommendations to agents, which save valuable time and effort.

Singtel uses AI to improve its call center operations

He also said that Parakeet’s platform is designed to address staffing challenges by automating repetitive tasks like patient scheduling and answering frequently asked questions. AI technology is being widely adopted in different sectors, not just in the call center industry. Read our article on the top AI solutions to gain insights into the AI software solutions you can consider for your business.

This feature aids in handling high call volumes, lowering operational costs, and giving 24/7 customer support. By enabling customers to resolve queries independently, IVR elevates the customer experience. One of the big frustrations for consumers is when they engage with a contact center to conduct business online or through an automated system but discover they need help from a human.

Finally, adding voice AI solutions to your contact center shouldn’t be a set-and-forget process. Even if your AI bots have the capacity to improve automatically over time, with machine learning, you still need to ensure you’re actively reviewing their performance and looking for opportunities to improve. Additionally, make sure your agents know how to take full advantage of the AI solutions available to them. Show them how they can use AI tools to streamline processes, automate routine tasks, and achieve their professional goals. This will help to strike a better balance between the AI tools and human employees in your ecosystem. A large, publicly listed bank has recently built on its strategy for consistent customer experience innovation, by implementing AI-powered technologies into the heart of its customer experience strategy.

Automatic call insights with predictive analytics

AI-powered UC systems have a higher responsibility to prevent exploitation, manipulation, and misuse of sensitive data, which may impact individual customers or severely damage a business’ reputation and legal standing. AI-driven tools in UC can improve speed and efficiency but require it to capture and store large volumes of personal data – everything from financial details to private conversations. Across all technologies, it’s the hottest topic of the last two years – and as evolutions continue a pace, that won’t change anytime soon. AI is bringing exciting changes to UC, but there are some widespread concerns that are yet to be tackled. Here we dive into some of the primary risks with the technology and whether there’s alternatives for the enterprise looking to upskill and upscale UC without AI. Instead of throwing hundreds of millions of massive clusters of GPUs and competing with OpenAI, Google, Meta, etc., for the latest PhD graduates in AI from MIT, they’ve put humans in charge.

The result is a better experience for customers, and a more engaged workforce with less churn due to reduced burnout and stress. All of these features leave your agents more time for direct customer interaction and ensure those interactions are as successful as possible. While chatbots can handle simple issues like refund requests or FAQs, agents are still required to produce higher-value exchanges.

Options are available for everything from business analysis to CRM enhancement, and chat bot creation. AudioCodes VoiceAI Connect service is an excellent example of a solution that can help companies overcome common mistakes. The unique solution facilitates the voice enablement of conversational AI solutions for a range of use cases, with comprehensive flexibility and support. Crescendo has AI all over its website but, importantly, it doesn’t inflict AI on its customers, as Urlocker told me in an interview.

However, some consumers will still want personalized, humanized interactions with live agents. Often, one of the most common ways companies implement voice AI into their contact center, is by creating a conversational IVR solution. Adding voice AI to your IVR technology is an excellent way to improve the customer experience. It can enable more intuitive self-service experience via voice channels, and reduce the number of customers routed to human agents for common queries.

AI call center software can help you with a wide range of tasks, but to be effective it must be able to meet five key needs to manage spikes in customer call volumes, handle call routing, and deliver consistent customer service. Dialpad and T-Mobile have partnered to launch AI Recaps, a feature that provides precise, actionable insights from conversational data. AI Recaps cuts down note-taking time and correctly identifies next steps from calls and meetings. This partnership also includes Dialpad joining T-Mobile’s 5G Network Slicing Beta for better video calling quality. This collaboration highlights Dialpad’s goal of making AI a tangible reality for businesses. Dialpad’s mobility feature lets employees make and receive business calls from anywhere, ensuring continuous communication and making the software suitable for remote teams.

RPA, for example, could allow agents to access customer profiles along with the details of previous engagements with the contact center so they can more quickly present callers with solutions to their individual problems. RPA can also play a role in data validation as chatbots begin to cross-reference information from multiple systems and databases to ensure accuracy. Dialpad Ai is an advanced customer intelligence platform with generative AI features specifically designed for contact centers.

Launched in November 2023, RingCX unifies voice, video, and digital channels into a single pane of glass to significantly increase customer satisfaction. Boasting a client base of more than 160 customers—including Fortune 1,000 companies—RingCX has demonstrated its market leadership. The release of its latest version in March 2024 further cements the company’s commitment to continuous innovation and customer-centric development. Rosenberg refers to call centers as “the industry that software forgot.” By that, he means it’s perhaps the first industry you think of that makes software disliked by everyone who uses it. Over the past two decades, the contact center industry has promised capabilities that will significantly improve customer experience.

But a lot of contact center functions are siloed or controlled by other departments with different priorities, according to Eric Buesing, partner at McKinsey & Company. NVIDIA NIM microservices, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, accelerate generative AI deployment and support various optimized AI models for seamless, scalable inference. NVIDIA NIM Agent Blueprints provide developers with packaged reference examples to build innovative solutions for customer service applications. With AI tools supporting network administrators, IT teams and customer service agents, telecom providers can more efficiently identify and resolve network issues.

We developed this guide to assist you in choosing the best call center software for your business. It is designed to walk you through the factors to consider, features to seek, and add meaningful insight into what reliable AI call center software should offer. When selecting the right software, consider the nature of your business, the size of your company, and your budget limitations. Take advantage of free trial and free software to understand how different solutions perform and determine what works well with your existing software and processes.

• Successful integration requires an in-depth assessment of the current infrastructure and strategic planning.
• “They can elevate and scale their [customers’] experiences while also saving money and eliminating friction,” CCW’s Cantor said.
• HubSpot Sales Hub combines AI-powered chatbots, predictive analytics, and an interactive voice response (IVR) system to streamline sales and marketing processes.
• Plus, companies can leverage the advanced features available within Microsoft Teams to save employees time on call wrap-up and follow-up processes.

AI can also assist human agents by providing them with real-time support, information and suggestions during customer interactions and analyzing their performance post-call. Good AI-powered tools can review and score 100% of a contact center’s calls while gaining new, actionable insights from the many conversations and interactions. At the same time, AI-powered tools can efficiently automate time-consuming tasks, giving agents the time and focus they need to properly help customers and provide a great service. Customers don’t look fondly upon the current capabilities of chatbots and other automated systems, according to Gartner. Businesses under immense pressure to maximize their large investments in AI could be walking a thin line between improving the contact center experience and force-feeding the technology to customers. More than half of 5,728 consumers surveyed by Gartner indicated they would consider switching to a competitor if a customer service organization planned to use AI during interactions.

This equates to a lower cost of doing business, but also a need for more—not less—agents. The rise of AI has, however, unlocked capabilities that were simply not possible five years ago. From real-time translation services to voice-augmenting technology, there’s a shift happening from a human capital perspective. Speaking to the Financial Times, Krithivasan discussed the proliferation of generative AI (Gen AI) within the contact center sector and how this will impact human agents. “Many remote people in contact centers have a number of responsibilities, including help desk functions,” said Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects. “So, after an agent spends time solving a technical problem, they are going to launch into a sales pitch? Well, an agent customarily is not looking for that, in fact they could get a little pissed off about that.”

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This collaborative approach between AI and human agents ensures that customer engagement is efficient and empathetic. According to McKinsey, over 80% of customer care executives are already investing in AI or planning to do so soon. With the right Microsoft Teams contact center solution, embedding the power of AI into your customer service operations is easier than you’d think. With AI innovations, companies can unlock new levels of efficiency and productivity and deliver powerful experiences to their audiences across numerous channels.

The Series C round was led by Adams Street Partners, with Cross Creek Advisors, Brightloop Capital Inc. and existing investors Battery Ventures LP and Eniac Ventures LP also participating in the round. The new funding will be used to fuel Level AI’s strategic growth and innovation initiatives in critical areas, including advancing product development, engineering enhancements and research and development efforts. Level AI has seen solid growth and counts among its customers Quinstreet Inc., Bakkt Holdings Inc., Globalface Direct Ltd., Carta Inc., Affirm Holdings Inc. and Penske Corp.

With the advent of AI-backed IVR, however, these automated voice systems are lowering call center wait times, assisting with unique caller problems, and improving overall customer call center and contact center efficiency rates. AI analyzes past customer interactions and uses extrapolative analysis to predict the wants and desires of a customer. Additionally, AI integrated into an IVR system can tap into contact center agent training data to learn how to handle routine tasks and typical customer inquiries. AI can then direct callers to the information they require or the customer agent that can best handle their needs. Over the next two decades, multidimensional contact centers were propelled by advanced technologies. “They can elevate and scale their [customers’] experiences while also saving money and eliminating friction,” CCW’s Cantor said.

Through facilitating AI-powered self-service options, giving agents instant access to relevant information, and enabling round-the-clock support, generative AI provides customers with quick answers to their questions. This shortens wait times and increases the likelihood of first-contact resolution, which is a key differentiator for businesses in any industry. Real-time insights and analytics from GenAI systems help organizations fine-tune operations through consistent monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs). By having immediate data access, managers can spot issues as they arise, such as service levels declining due to low staffing, and take corrective actions promptly.

AI tools integrated into a comprehensive contact center solution can improve user authentication processes, using biometrics to identify callers in an instant. Studies have shown that generative AI and conversational AI tools like ChatGPT can improve productivity by up to 87%. These tools can rapidly analyze data and surface insights for agents throughout the customer journey.

But as the specific algorithms that govern machine learning continue to improve, we are likely to see real-time translation tech at work in the contact center field within the decade. Real-time speech analytics make this possible, working hand-in-hand with automatic speech recognition features to highlight keywords or phrases that alert you to a possible misstep by an agent. This way, you’re more likely to catch any compliance or quality assurance issues that result from a team member going off-script or ai call center companies sharing incorrect information. The new tool also promises to reduce the pressure on agents sometimes hired, fired, or promoted based on their accents. We’re unlocking AI’s promise to improve operations and productivity, creating a personalized experience for the customer, and solving problems with data-driven insights – all while driving innovation. Generative AI-powered communication solutions have successfully broken down conversational barriers, enabling organizations to hire more offshore talent.

The first category of AI typically integrated into contact centers is conversational AI, which uses large language model (LLM) algorithms. This technology lets customers converse with voice- and text-based interactive voice response (IVR) systems, chatbots and virtual assistants. GenAI systems customize responses to each customer’s needs and preferences with the help of advanced analytics. Combined with sentiment analysis and faster response times, this takes the customer experience to the next level.

Using AI-powered analytics and optimization features, managers and supervisors can proactively identify issues with customer experiences, agent performance, and operations in the contact center. This empowers businesses to make intelligent decisions about everything from which customer service channels to use, to how to manage their workforce, and deliver training. Founded in 2019, Level AI specializes in enhancing customer experiences in contact centers through AI that integrates human and machine intelligence to provide real-time insights.

AI Will Make Call Centers Obsolete, Predicts Tata Consultancy Services Head

Despite predicting the possible death of the contact center as we know it, when discussing his company’s pipeline for GenAI projects, the tech CEO appears to contradict himself. Most notably, tech research specialist Gartner recently released a report suggesting that organizations that pursue digital-only ChatGPT App solutions may actually end up in trouble with the law. We are in a situation where the technology should be able to predict a call coming and then proactively address the customer’s pain point. A call center agent at the [24]7.ai, Inc., in Manila’s Bonifacio Global City tech hub, in April.

• We included Talkdesk on our list because of its real-time call transcriptions, instant answers, and smart recommendations to agents, which save valuable time and effort.
• Some platforms — Customers.ai included — provide a free version to give you a taste of what’s out there.
• For the past decade, the vendor community has rolled out new feature after new feature, giving brands a wide range of ways to interact with their customers.
• With automation tools, agents can rapidly leverage information about a customer from databases and previous conversations to personalize each interaction.
• In fact, many businesses are discovering that a combination of on premises and as a service is producing more than satisfactory results.
• Through facilitating AI-powered self-service options, giving agents instant access to relevant information, and enabling round-the-clock support, generative AI provides customers with quick answers to their questions.

Companies including Affirm, Penske and Carta are signed up for Level AI, according to Nagar, which makes money through annual contracts calculated in part by the number of agents using Level AI’s platform. Nagar wouldn’t disclose revenue figures, but he said that he thinks the company could eclipse $50 million in annual recurring revenue in the next two or so years. “People have little or no knowledge of IoT and other connected devices and the data they’re sending and receiving over the network,” Gold said. “This is where distributed contact center agent support comes in and lends a hand with all that. It would be nice to have hold of data in the on-premises facility telling you when you need to update or replace remote devices.” Businesses chasing the elusive goal of turning contact centers into profit centers have renewed hope with the arrival of artificial intelligence.

Urlocker is a bit of a billion-dollar man, with a knack for turning dull industries into cool cash. He’s the guy top Silicon Venture firms call when a hot portfolio company is about to make a major move. He served as COO of Zendesk ($10 billion exit in 2022), COO of Duo Security (acquired by Cisco for $2.35 billion), and executive VP of product at MySQL (acquired by Sun Microsystems for $1 billion). The episode concludes with McAllister’s advice ChatGPT on actions that contact center leaders should take and tech investments that they should make now to ready their organizations for success with genAI in the future. Understanding agents’ workflows and where their sticking points are, she says, could surface near-term opportunities for improvement. In addition, Jack extensively covers business technology and privacy issues, as well as developments in e-commerce and consumer electronics.

Ron Karjian is an industry editor and writer at TechTarget covering business analytics, artificial intelligence, data management, security and enterprise applications. Personalization starts with gathering and analyzing relevant customer data to establish complete profiles of customer needs and preferences. Contact center agents need to have access to this information so they can better understand the customer’s wants and needs, empathize with the customer’s situation and bring a personal touch to the conversation.

Talkdesk recently introduced Navigator, a new generative AI (GenAI) tool for boosting the customer experience by addressing the limitations of traditional IVR systems. Navigator uses GenAI for context-aware interactions across digital and voice channels for a continuous conversational experience. It simplifies the management of customer inquiries, understands requests in natural language, and delivers personalized responses, preventing call abandonment. Talkdesk is AI call center software with AI-powered self-service, intelligent routing, and real-time analytics. Its advanced IVR with natural language understanding allows you to navigate services without a hitch, while AI chatbots handle inquiries with accuracy, minimizing the need for live agent intervention.