AI is a chance for more customer contact, not less ??

INSIDE THE BLACK BOX

Breaking down the latest in AI, customer service, and technology — so you don’t have to.

FRONT-END DEVELOPMENTS

?? WE’RE LOVING: AI Agents are the future of CX, unless you’re a control freak

?? WE’LL SEE: SLMs over LLMs? We love an underdog story

?? SAY LESS: Customers still think AI chatbots suck — here’s why

BACK-END BREAKDOWN

Business leaders make the case for AI’s impact on productivity and jobs?

At this year’s Brainstorm Tech conference , leaders from across industries gave their two cents on AI. Despite concerns, many were steadfast in their optimism about AI’s potential. How’s that for reinforcements?

?? SEMANTICS

• Vijay Gopal, an exec at Lenovo described AI as the “single opportunity we have as mankind to achieve perfection”?
• Paul Daugherty, CTO of Accenture, insisted getting employees up-to-speed with new AI tools and processes is just as important as investing in the technology
• Mary Daly, CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, said that AI replaces tasks, not people , and Stanford University economist, Erik Brynjolfsson, urged companies to view AI as complementary to human labor

?? SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

While we obviously have a lot to say on the impact of AI on human labor and AI management , sometimes it’s nice to sit back and let some of the world’s most influential business leaders take the mic.?

A knowledge worker’s take: AI will save four hours a week

Knowledge workers are increasingly optimistic about AI’s potential to improve their work lives. Over three-quarters of professionals — across regions and industries — surveyed even considered AI a force for good. Say it louder for the people in the back.

?? SEMANTICS

• Knowledge workers expect AI will save them up to four hours a week in the next year, potentially increasing to 12 hours a week in five years
• 38% think AI will bring greater value to their work, 26% replied that it increased productivity, and 28% reported it freed-up time
• A survey found that 63% of knowledge workers already use generative AI for tasks, and only 10% were concerned about job losses

?? SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

We’ve seen a lot of apprehension lately, but again and again, we hear from the people actually using AI how it’s transforming the way they work. In the customer service biz, it’s a game-changer — and we stand by that. So do our customers .

VENN ZERO

Business leaders have high hopes for how AI can impact productivity (and they’re not wrong), but 52% of employees who use AI at work keep it a secret in fear that it makes them look replaceable. It’s time to squash the guilty pleasure and properly assess the gap between employees’ and managers’ perceptions of AI.

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DEEP LEARNING

AI is a chance for more customer contact, not less

It’s often assumed that AI will make relationships with customers worse — or even nonexistent. Businesses only want to offload customer service to AI so they can save money, one critic gripes . Those AI agents are putting more distance between brands and their customers, argues another.

As someone who works daily with the technology, I’ve seen the opposite. Used right, AI is putting the customer in the driver’s seat in a way consumers and businesses have been desperately seeking since the dawn of the helpline.

The irony is that both customers and companies want better customer service. But until now, the issue has been scale. In the early days, new companies relish customer contact. That feedback loop is the key to building a great product, retaining existing customers and finding new ones.

But once a company scales, something strange happens. Dealing with customer issues comes to be seen as a cost, not an opportunity. Even as marketing teams go out of their way to reach new customers, customer service does its best to deflect existing ones, hiding behind phone trees and long wait times. Why? Time, money and resources.?

AI has the potential to change that dynamic for the better.

Mike Murchison, CEO of Ada

READ ON

[AI] takes the toil out of our work so we can increase joy. It can create a massive amount of productivity for the individual.

– Lareina Yee, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

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