How Generative AI Is Poised to Enhance the Customer Experience
This is an AArete Digital & Technology insight
Over the past year, generative AI — which can recognize patterns in data and use them to create models for new content — has rapidly been adopted across business sectors as organizations recognize the technology’s usefulness for both customer-facing and internal tasks. Though the use of AI is still nascent, as it continues to evolve, businesses will need to examine how best to merge it into their existing frameworks.
Many of our clients at AArete share our excitement about the game-changing possibilities of generative AI, but have practical questions regarding its integration, as well as concerns about using the technology ethically.
Here are some of the ways organizations are beginning to tap into the power of generative AI to enhance the customer experience and streamline internal business processes.
Customer service management
Many large organizations face the challenge of managing an enormous volume of incoming calls from customers. When a person calls with a question or concern, call center agents often have to put them on hold so they can quickly try to retrieve and piece together information from multiple systems.
Generative AI offers the power to instantly draw together all of that data, no matter where it’s located. Using a generative AI agent embedded into the customer service CRM tool, a representative can instantly view a customer’s name and key details, as well any prior concerns addressed by their fellow team members, all of which are summarized and provided in order of priority. The agent can also get insights into the customer’s behavior, such as whether they’re more active on mobile or desktop, or their preferred channel of communication.
To help prioritize limited resources, AI can also analyze customers’ frequency of interactions with the organization and the extent of their purchasing history to help identify the most high-value callers.
Using this technology, agents can gain valuable context about a customer’s journey, which increases the agent’s speed and effectiveness. They no longer have to sound unprepared when a customer calls, and the customer doesn’t have to waste time repeating their concern to multiple people.
Another AI application in the customer service realm is voice AI, which can be used to simplify routine caller requests like an address change. As the customer speaks, AI can capture their words and put them up on the screen for the agent to review and approve, rather than having to type them in manually, which frequently leads to errors.
Enhancing decision-making
While customer service may be the most outward-looking use of generative AI, the technology can be equally useful for businesses behind the scenes.
With proper training, predictive analytics can be used in certain decision-making tasks. While leaders are sometimes uncomfortable with the unpredictability of probabilistic methods, this technology offers a high degree of accuracy and the ability to handle more complex patterns and scenarios.
In financial services, for instance, AI can protect customers and organizations by spotting unusual behaviors that have a higher probability of being connected with fraud, such as an ATM being operated with both hands (which could indicate the use of a device to crack a customer’s security code) or a package being shipped to an unfamiliar address that’s different from the billing address.
Process transformation
Organizations are constantly looking for ways to become more effective in serving their customers, but it can be difficult for individuals or teams to comprehend the business process from end to end, given that they might only be familiar with one particular area. However, using the cognitive power of AI models, it’s possible to look across an entire organization and uncover patterns and insights that might not be immediately apparent, driving the creation of new business models, products, and services.
AI can also increase productivity by easily accessing organizational information and making connections that simplify the business process. One practical example of this technology’s use could be by an executive headed to a meeting with a vendor. The executive might want to know the dollar amount of business that her organization did with the vendor last year or last month. Within seconds, generative AI could locate that information — summarizing and contextualizing it if necessary — making the executive better prepared and saving valuable time.
How AArete helps clients navigate AI
While there are an ever-growing number of AI-based tools that organizations can use, numerous practical factors might limit how extensively they take advantage of this technology, among them budget and personnel.
At AArete, we start by considering our clients’ specific challenges and examining the most practical ways to elevate their existing framework and meet the customer where they are. When we do recommend the use of AI, we focus on impactful, quantifiable solutions that tap into the technology’s potential to optimize human capital and ensure ongoing success.
Our FATE model (fair, accurate, transparent, and ethical) exemplifies our commitment to building AI that maintains the highest ethical standards and exists within a secure framework. As this pioneering technology becomes increasingly integrated into daily life, AArete is dedicated to helping our clients effectively utilize AI to improve the customer experience, enhance efficiency, boost revenue, and manage risks.
To learn more about how AArete’s AI consulting solutions can help your company, click here.
