As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the customer experience (CX) landscape, many organizations recognize its transformative potential within the the Age of AI contact center. For most CX leaders, AI is a welcome addition to their toolkits as they evolve contact center operations to better meet the complex demands of today’s multigenerational, distributed mobile database workforce. Two-thirds of CX leaders surveyed for the report “Customer experience in the age of AI” say greater AI adoption will make employees in their CX organization more engaged.
Many organizations are also shifting from
A company-centric focus on workforce optimization and management to an employee-centric workforce engagement management (WEM) approach. This shift is not merely about streamlined processes and improved scheduling, but it also represents a comprehensive approach to enabling and supporting employees.
For forward-thinking organizations, AI can also play a central role in this shift. For example, about two-thirds of the nearly 20% of organizations that use forecasting and scheduling tools are using AI-powered versions of those solutions, the AI with the help of strategy report found. Similarly, about one-fifth of CX leaders surveyed say they use automated coaching and training tools; of those 44% use AI-powered versions.
The Journey to Engagement
Traditional workforce management focuses on operational efficiency — most often, activities such as scheduling, capacity planning, and basic forecasting. While effective, these approaches can fail to address the nuanced needs of a workforce that’s the Age of AI increasingly diverse and digitally distributed.
Today, organizations are embracing WEM to provide a holistic framework for workforce support. For some, this includes up-leveling to AI-powered facebook users versions of more traditional solutions. For others, it also considers how the integration of chatbots and voicebots into customer service journeys impacts the agent experience.
In a recent interview on CX trends, Robin Gareiss, CEO and Principal Analyst at Metrigy, highlights the growing complexity of having to manage human agents and AI-powered bots in tandem. “More than 60% of companies view their workforce as both human agents and AI agents when it comes to scheduling,” said Gareiss.
This complexity demands new tools and strategies for everything from capacity planning to agent support. AI’s role in this transformation is pivotal. It automates time-intensive tasks like forecasting and scheduling, which has the potential to save planners and supervisors hours weekly, as well as help them balance human agents’ schedules with AI agents’ capacity for handling basic tasks 24/7 — and customers’ likelihood to select one versus the other.
It can also enhance operational efficiency
Which could free up agents from performing repetitive, rote tasks — and give them more time to resolve complex customer issues.
AI also plays a critical role in knowledge management, the Age of AI providing agents with real-time assistance through predictive suggestions and content curation. This capability can not only enhance efficiency, it can also bolster agents’ confidence in their roles.
More than half of CX leaders surveyed for the AI report are using or piloting the technology to help agents find answers faster in their knowledge base. And that complements their use of WEM solutions.