It is not new that more and more solutions focused on customer service (Customer Experience, or CX) are integrated with Artificial Intelligence. But this does not necessarily mean that we will soon no longer have human customer service in the call center. On the contrary: the closer the CX area gets to AI, the more human service will be the main quality vector for the customer.
The idea that AI will replace human service probably comes from the fact that CX was one of the first industries to incorporate technology into the work routine – and it is easy to understand that this movement did not occur with the aim of replacing human service with AI.
The implementation of AI in CX happened because this is one of the areas that involve more repetitive tasks and can be easily automated. In addition, the high volume of interactions allows small improvements provided by AI to become a significant differential. In a call center, simple automations can save precious minutes, allowing agents to focus on what really matters: listening to the customer instead of wasting time filling screens in the system, for example.
Regarding consumer behavior, the pandemic accelerated the integration of AI – remote agents and a huge volume of interactions, triggered by the drastic change in habits at the time, caused contact centers worldwide to have a 48% increase in interactions, according to Google data, including phone, chat, email, social media, and SMS. The solution was to add more technology – not only in customer service, but in various other areas. Furthermore, the use of AI in customer service resulted in a 30% cost reduction, which is extremely relevant in such a competitive market.
Today, AI has an invaluable value for CX that goes beyond customer service: the technology enables massive data processing, to discover insights for the business that until a few years ago would not be visible so easily.
Data is the key
In addition to the automation issue, there is another factor in a call center that makes it a fertile ground for the use of Artificial Intelligence: data. Imagine that, in addition to your interaction history, information about purchases, a call center can have several other data, such as where you live, document numbers, your age, gender, among other more common aspects.
It is also not uncommon for call center companies to use systems that capture customer sentiment over the phone, or by the tone of written messages. The technology actually has been around for years – and the problem has always been to cross-reference this information in a way that would make a difference to the business.
And one of the great advances in AI in CX has been predictive analysis based on data collection, which allows proactive support by anticipating future consumer needs.
By examining historical data, patterns of behavior, and customer feedback, AI can predict their future demands, enabling companies to provide proactive service. This is about technology anticipating issues and offering solutions even before the customer expresses a need.
This database management, done by AI during customer service, provides a smoother customer journey, as well as generating data that will guide marketing strategies. And here, once again, we are talking about communication that will be created by people, for people.
AI versus human assistance
If the integration of AI into the call center is a path of no return, it is also a consensus in the market that technology will continue to be used, but without eliminating human interaction.
A survey by the consulting firm Gartner, conducted at the end of 2023 with 5.7 thousand people, shows that 64% of consumers prefer human assistance, and 53% would switch companies if they knew about the use of AI in customer service. Of those surveyed, 60% stated difficulty in being assisted by a human as the main reason for rejecting AI, followed by unemployment (46%), incorrect responses (42%), data security (34%), and discrimination in treatment among different consumers (25%).
Despite the advancement of AI, certain human skills are still considered irreplaceable, such as empathy and communication. The best companies in the world are using AI for repetitive tasks and leaving more complex and emotional interactions to humans, resulting in satisfied customers and fulfilled employees when this process is done correctly.
The great competitive advantage lies in collaborative responsibility, that is, in the balance between the efficiency of AI and human contact. Humanized interactions continue to be essential for building relationships of trust with customers, an aspect that AI still cannot imitate.
In summary, AI adds speed, efficiency, and the ability to bring forth information that adds to customer service strategies, but it is far from being able to fully replace humans in this journey. Even though the machine has learned to imitate humans, it lacks an essential component: awareness of its own actions, and the ability to make decisions based not only on data but also on emotions.
