It is no longer news that increasingly more customer service solutions (Customer Experience, or CX, in English) are integrated with Artificial Intelligence. But this does not necessarily mean that we will no longer have human assistance in the call center soon. On the contrary: the closer the CX area gets to AI, the more human customer service will be the main driver of quality 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 its work routine – and it is easy to understand that this movement did not happen 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 the most repetitive tasks and can be easily automated. Furthermore, the large volume of interactions allows small improvements provided by AI to become a significant differentiator. 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 out screens in the system, for example.
Regarding consumer behavior, the pandemic accelerated the integration of AI – remote agents and a huge volume of interactions, driven by the drastic change in habits at the time, caused contact centers worldwide to experience a 48% increase in interaction volume, according to Google data, including phone, chat, email, social media, and SMS. The outcome was to incorporate more technology – not only in customer service but also in several other areas. Furthermore, the use of AI in customer service resulted in a 30% reduction in costs, which is extremely relevant in such a competitive market.
And today, AI has an invaluable value for CX that goes beyond customer service: the technology enables the massive processing of data, to discover insights for the business that until just a few years ago would not have been so easily visible.
Data is key
Beyond the automation issue, there is another factor in a call center that creates fertile ground for the use of Artificial Intelligence: the data. Imagine that, in addition to your interaction history and purchase information, a call center may have various other data, such as your place of residence, identification numbers, your age, gender, among other more common aspects.
It is also not uncommon for call center companies to use systems that capture the customer's sentiment over the phone or through the tone of written messages. Technology, in reality, has existed for years – and the problem has always been how to cross this information in a way that allows for insights that make a difference to the business.
And one of the great advances of AI in CX has been predictive analysis based on data collection, which allows proactive support by anticipating future consumer needs.
By examining historical data, behavior patterns, and customer feedback, AI can predict future demands, enabling companies to provide proactive service. It is technology that anticipates problems and offers solutions even before the customer expresses a need.
This database management, carried out by AI during the service, provides a smoother customer journey and generates data that will guide marketing strategies.And here, once again, we are talking about a communication that will be created by people, for people.
AI vs. Human Service
If the integration of AI into the call center is a path of no return, there is also a consensus in the market that the technology will continue to be used, but without eliminating human interaction.
A survey by consulting firm Gartner, conducted at the end of 2023 with 5,700 people, shows that 64% of consumers prefer human service and 53% would switch to a competitor if they knew about the use of AI in customer service. Of the interviewees, 60% cited difficulty being attended 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 AI efficiency and human contact. Humanized interactions continue to be essential for building trusting relationships with clients, an aspect that AI still cannot imitate.
In summary, AI adds speed, efficiency, and the ability to bring to light information that enhances customer service strategies, but is still far from fully replacing humans in this journey. No matter how much the machine has learned to imitate humans, it lacks an essential component: awareness of its own actions and the ability to make decisions not only based on data but also on emotions.
