One of the most effective ways businesses have leveraged advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) to drive value has been in the customer experience (CX) space by using technology to improve customer relations, identify potential customer service issues before they spiral out of control, and to ultimately form relationships that continue to live on and drive revenue for years to come.
More recently, especially given the rise of social media and use of mobile devices, the need for digital customer experience (DCX) solutions has taken off, and AI plays a key role in this ranging from the implementation of basic machine learning natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to much more robust deep learning models that can make better sense of millions of conversations taking place on a regular basis. And things are now moving more external rather than internal — relying on real-time insights from digital/social as opposed to data from CRM, ERP and other outdated systems.
To give you a feel for where things are headed, a study published by Gartner in April 2018 stated: “In the early years of AI, customer experience (CX) is the primary source of derived business value, as organizations see value in using AI techniques to improve every customer interaction, with the goal of increasing customer growth and retention. CX is followed closely by cost reduction, as organizations look for ways to use AI to increase process efficiency to improve decision making and automate more tasks,” said John-David Lovelock, Research Vice President at Gartner.
He went on to add: “One of the biggest aggregate sources for AI-enhanced products and services acquired by enterprises between 2017 and 2022 will be niche solutions that address one need very well. Business executives will drive investment in these products, sourced from thousands of narrowly focused, specialist suppliers with specific AI-enhanced applications.”
A key thing to note: The mention of niche solutions that address one need very well, which is where deep learning (a subset of AI) comes in handy by having the ability to continuously learn and quickly adapt to specific, ever-evolving customer behaviors and needs.
Our team at Soteria Intelligence sees things differently and envision a world where products aren’t sourced from specialty suppliers laser-focused on a sliver of the pie, but instead learning from the entire pie – all facets – and parsing out actionable insights by having a more broad, holistic view as opposed to creating silos from the beginning.