AiThority Interview with Gijs van de Nieuwegiessen, VP of Automation at Khoros

In our ongoing AiThority interview series with the leading experts in the CS space, we are exploring the role of AI in the modern cloud contact centers. We found out that there are countless possibilities of generating a strong ROI from your modern cloud contact center operations with Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. AI has not only transformed customer experience (CX) journeys but also improved the overall efficiency of cloud contact centers with powerful data analytics based on predictive intelligence, agent performance, and process automation. As per our analysis of the AI software market catering to the cloud contact centers, this is just the start. According to a report, 54% (only!) of respondents from the customer support and service industry use a chatbot, virtual customer assistants (VCA), or Conversational AI solution to manage the digital customer interactions. It clearly shows that the AI software market can grow significantly in this space, bringing limitless revenue opportunities to brands and customer service organizations.

Today’s AiThority Interview guest is: Gijs van de Nieuwegiessen, VP of Automation at Khoros.

This is what Gijs had to say about the role of AI in contact centers adopted across the CS industry.

How do cloud contact centers benefit from using AI-powered voice recognition solutions?

Gijs: By integrating AI into contact centres, businesses are equipped with advanced routing systems that assign interactions to agents based on their unique skill sets. This is done through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system – a form of automation that specifically helps with voice interactions as it determines which agent will have a customer call routed to them based on their expertise.

The development of natural language processing in this space aids contact centers as they enable callers to verbalize their needs on the phone. IVR can then utilize speech recognition to understand customers’ pain points and provide solutions in real time.

Through this advanced AI, conversations on digital and social platforms are also automatically categorized and prioritized before being routed into a queue for an agent’s response. Similar to skill-based routing in voice interactions, queues generated on digital platforms are based on agents priorities and skills that match their tags. This ensures they are the best person to handle the conversation, improving the odds that customers are satisfied with the service they receive.

When queue wait times are high, businesses can also use the IVR system to provide deflection options; allowing callers to deflect to a digital channel, a bot, or even a community knowledge and support center to get responses faster.

As such, customer contact centers tapping into these AI-powered solutions can improve their call flow, reduce wait times and enhance the overall customer satisfaction.

What are the major trends in AI and machine learning development that are specifically creating differentiation for the chatbots and call trackers used in customer service?

Gijs: The advancement of Generative AI has spurred the creation of a long-stretching family of chatbots that address various pain points in the customer service journey. By integrating generative AI into chatbots, agents are supercharged with the ability to collect insights at the tip of their fingers and act upon it.

These chatbots go beyond basic welcome messages and offer sophisticated capabilities that enhance conversation management, automate tasks such as payment processing or order tracking, and greatly improve agent workflows. Since customer contact agents act as brand ambassadors everyday, AI gives them the space to continue uplifting brands.

By automating predictable parts of the customer conversation, chatbots using generative AI are shortening the response time to initial queries, delivering better customer experiences, and freeing agents to focus on resolving more complicated issues.

Recommended: NovelVox Introduces Intuitive Visual IVR for Cisco, Avaya, and Genesys Contact Centers

With eight-in-ten customers citing good customer service as the number one factor in deciding what to buy, we can see how AI-powered chatbots will only uplift the customer service sector considerably.

Thank you, Gijs! That was fun and we hope to see you back on AiThority.com soon.

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]