Experience Matters: The Role of AI for Customer and Employee Experiences

We are in the middle of a major technological transformation that promises to change how we work and collaborate. We’re already seeing the benefits that AI can bring, but in an AI-first world, human interactions – experiences – matter more than ever.

Experiences, connections, and interactions—these are at the heart of collaboration. Things like real-time discussions, sharing of ideas, and brainstorming are the moments when teams make progress and real work gets done. Your customers want to engage in different ways, too. The difference between satisfied and unsatisfied customers is your ability to connect with them. And the bar for using AI in customer experiences is high—it must make human interactions better.

That is why experience matters. Any tech—even AI—should serve the human component of work. It should work quietly and transparently in the background, making things easier, better, and faster. Our entire Collaboration portfolio is designed with that goal in mind: to deliver unrivaled experiences for customers and employees.

Customer Experiences

The bar has never been higher for what it takes to deliver a great customer experience. Customers expect a personalized experience that is accessible through their familiar channels of communication. That’s why we built a world-class contact center platform with support for a wide array of digital channels in addition to voice.

Webex Contact Center

Webex Contact Center is built on the same platform as the Webex Suite, which means we can scale innovations across workloads, including AI. We believe that AI will have a profound effect on customer experiences—the future of customer experience will be intelligent.

The AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center

The AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center is a key part of our self-learning contact center. We have brought industry-leading AI capabilities to all the places that matter, empowering agents and customers alike. Innovations like topic analytics and automatic customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, now available in beta, intelligently analyze large amounts of data to improve agent performance and maximize customer satisfaction.

The same audio and language intelligence capabilities powering meeting, message, and call summaries in Webex also enable virtual agent and dropped call conversation summaries, which will be available in beta later this year. AI-powered suggested responses, agent coaching highlights, and wrap-up summaries are also expected to be available in beta later this year.

New CRM Integrations

We are also introducing new workforce optimization quality management features to the Webex Contact Center that deliver fantastic value and help improve customer experiences. These quality management features, plus new CRM integrations for Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Dynamics 365, are expected to be included in the Webex Contact Center seat price by July 2024!

Webex Customer Experience Essentials

Not all organizations require large, dedicated teams of customer service agents, but they still need to deliver great customer experiences. For those organizations, we developed Webex Customer Experience Essentials. By combining essential CX tools with our industry-leading Webex Calling, we offer a powerful yet easy-to-use solution right within the Webex App. Webex Customer Experience Essentials is now generally available, enabling any employee to deliver delightful customer experiences.

Read Lorrissa Horton’s latest blog to learn more about our announcements and how the self-learning contact center transforms customer experience.

Employee Experiences

Even though employees and employers are ready for a return to the office, the office is not ready. Recent research shows that over 50% of office space is still dedicated to personal working spaces – which is not how people prefer to work today – they can do that at home!

Employees want a compelling reason to come to the office—whether to collaborate, ideate, or build community. A modern, hybrid office environment can deliver these experiences for employees if it reimagines the footprint by dedicating most of it to meeting rooms, huddle spaces, and hot desks.

Modern Technology for a Modern Workspace

These spaces must be video-enabled to extend the in-person collaboration experience to remote participants, creating what we call ‘distance zero.’ However, for remote participants to feel like they are there in person, workspaces need more than just a camera and a monitor. They need modern devices with audio and video intelligence powered by the latest AI advancements.

The new Cisco Board Pro G2 is a perfect device to bring modern experiences to any space. We have designed our Board Pro series to be the most versatile all-in-one video device in the industry. It has dramatically enhanced video thanks to an intelligent dual-lens camera system and a powerful new NVIDIA module. Combine that with new RoomOS innovations like virtual AI zoom and multi-stream layouts, and we are able to deliver Distance Zero to any meeting room or open space.

Of course, employees still need spaces for individual work, but dedicated spaces are a thing of the past. For open desks to make the office commute worthwhile, they need to offer a personalized experience. Our award-winning Cisco Desk Series devices – Desk Pro, Desk, and Mini – are ideal for creating a personalized and consistent experience in any workspace.

We announced our latest personal workspace device, the Cisco Desk Phone 9800 series. Simply put, this is the best enterprise phone we’ve ever built because it’s so much more than a phone. It’s also a desk reservation device with built-in AI for things like native Background Noise Removal. It doubles as a hot desking and desk reservation device that you can book ahead of time using Cisco Spaces. You can also walk up to any phone with a green light and scan the QR code to check in and get your personalized, familiar Webex experience.

To learn more about the Cisco 9800 series and the rest of our device announcements check out Snorre Kjesbu’s blog.

Webex for Auto | New Ford and Lincoln Digital Experiences

We continue to offer flexibility and freedom of choice to work from anywhere with Webex by Cisco. We announced that the Webex app is now available in the all-new 福特 and Lincoln Digital Experience. Webex is the first to introduce immersive meetings and audio calling on select Ford and Lincoln vehicles, providing seamless connectivity without needing a smartphone or mobile device. Users can securely join calls and meetings directly from the in-car touchscreen. While driving, the audio-only mode works just like a regular Webex call to minimize distraction. When parked, fully immersive Webex meetings are available, including viewing shared content and videos, customizable layouts, and more. Together, we are transforming the car into an extension of the office; reinforcing that work is not where you go but what you do.

Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Suite

Delivering incredible employee experiences in the office, on the road, or at home requires AI-powered innovations that scale across many workloads. That’s why we made the Cisco AI Assistant for Webex available for the Webex Suite, the industry’s most comprehensive collaboration suite. By improving communications, productivity, and decision-making, the AI Assistant for Webex is a powerful tool that delivers great employee experiences. Our customers love the time they are saving with summaries for meetings and messages.

“The meeting summaries capability in AI Assistant in Webex is truly game-changing for us. We no longer require a note-taker in meetings, empowering all attendees to focus on meeting content and engagement, as opposed to taking notes.” - Paychex

Paychex Customers will also love other forthcoming AI features that we announced this week. For example, during a meeting, the AI Assistant can help you find answers to things like: “what was the final decision”, “are there action items for me?” Just ask the AI Assistant your question, and it will search the meeting discussion to find the information you need. Another recently announced AI Assistant capability is the ability to translate your composed message into over 100 different languages before sending it. We are also introducing that same translation capability to messages you have received.

AI-Powered Cloud Calling

Calling remains central to connecting customers, partners, and prospects. We are excited to announce that we have over 14 million Webex Calling users in 150+ markets globally. Our recently announced AI-powered Call Summaries will help ensure that important details of those conversations are captured and summarized for quick review. In addition, we announced our new, expandable Calling dock, which provides quick access to powerful calling features like the multi-call window, notifications, settings, and more. The Calling dock also works with Webex Calling for Microsoft Teams. Both features will be available for beta testing in the coming weeks. Learn more about Webex Calling comprehensive offerings here.

IT Experiences

Of course, our innovations even enable the important stakeholders that deploy and manage these tools, IT Leaders. Webex Control Hub is already the market’s best management environment thanks to its ability to manage applications, users, devices, and their contact center all in one place. It’s getting even better with ThousandEyes for Calling and Video Mesh, now generally available. This integration gives IT hop-by-hop network path visibility to quickly pinpoint and troubleshoot issues so they can provide a great experience to the end users.

Fostering Human Connections in an AI-driven World

There’s no question that a seismic shift is underway thanks to AI. Employee and customer needs are evolving, and we are here to help. Whether it’s delivering the feeling of Distance Zero in the workplace or personalized and convenient customer experiences, the AI powering these tools should work quietly and transparently in the background. In an AI-first world, the quality of human interactions matters more than ever. That’s why we’re empowering businesses to deliver unrivaled experiences for their most important interactions, creating places where technology meets humanity, and where work is an experience, not just a location.

See more from Webex at Enterprise Connect 2024:

• The new workplace: powered by AI and Collaboration Devices
• Introducing the Webex app for Ford and Lincoln’s new in-vehicle digital experience
• Global Hybrid Work Study | Employee Insights, In-Office Challenges, and the Role of AI
• The Webex Advantage: Navigating Customer Experience in the Age of AI
• How Webex customers leverage Cisco AI Assistant to transform hybrid work and CX