Human Experience in the Age of AI

Human Experience in the Age of AI?

I am always long on ‘and’, and short on ‘or’. That is, I’m convinced, with high conviction, that there are infinite possibilities and a brighter future when Humanity and AI coexist - this opposed to the other more precarious scenario where we are subservient to our synthesised sentients. These alternate futures are discussed in Kaifu-Lee's AI2041 (a great book) - I choose abundance vs scarcity.

Since the early 2000s, leading companies across all sectors and industries? are putting personalisation at the centre of their HX strategies - they didn’t know it yet (then), but their leadership instincts, their Purpose,? evoked in them a need to accrue what we now call Experience Equity (ROX). The illustrious list is long, e.g. (besides the FAANG or now AAA companies), Ikea, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Nike have publicly announced that personalised and seamless omnichannel experiences - it’s so ingrained, it’s second nature - or more precisely, a nested manifestation then activation of their Purpose. We are now well into the Exponential Age (as I've said - we are living 10 years out in the future, today!) and at at the cusp of, at an inflection point (and it's not a local maxima) where competitive advantage will be based on the ability to capture, analyse, and utilise personalised customer/employee (humans..) data at scale and on how a company uses AI to understand, shape, customise, and optimise the customer journey (or if we include all the multiverses - Infinite Journeys). The obvious winners have been BigTech (with abundance of cheap capital, fed rate hikes, crypto 'safe havens' and alternative to gold), which have embedded these capabilities in their business models - making them IMO nearly unassailable in the foreseeable Post Corona future. Much like what crypto stands for, 1stand on the side of the freedom fighters and billions across the world (who took the Orange Pill) wanting the democratisation of the Human Experience (incl property rights etc) Experience Equity ROX.

There’s (as usual) an entire jargon minefield for us to navigate - bleeding edge stuff tends to be rife with coalescing, converging, sometimes convulsing thought ‘leadership’ (more opinions really) jostling for supremacy - to be ‘heard’. I attempt to explore? how these cutting-edge companies use what they call experience decisioning engines to catalyse high-quality Human Experiences. Although building one can be time-consuming, expensive, and technologically complex, the result allows companies to deliver personalisation at a scale that could only have been imagined a decade ago.

In the next section I'd like to explore some (more) progressive use cases - ones with timelines that extrapolate logically to the alternate AI2041 scenarios.

1. Affective Computing - Identifying emotions with AI

The market is expected to grow significantly over the next decade, with smarter AI solutions for enterprises soon becoming a real possibility. Conversational AI will continue to evolve into an even more powerful and integrated offering – a blend of voice with video and emotion AI. Remote work and video conversations are becoming the norm for how businesses operate. This increases the essentiality of video and emotion AI to enhance communication, adding the ability to better understand the engagement levels and emotions of video call participants.?

According to a recent consumer survey on video conversations, Singaporeans are self-conscious when it comes to video calls, with one in three respondents cited being misinterpreted for their facial expressions. The survey also revealed that Singaporeans disliked not being able to tell if others on the call were engaged. Addressing these challenges with AI will help businesses forge stronger relationships built on empathy and trust with employees and customers.

Accelerating digital transformation (DT) with low code/no code?

The pandemic has also accelerated the need for businesses—big or small—to digitally transform and automate business operations to stay nimble and keep up with changing consumer habits.?

This is where low code/no code comes in. Simply put, low code/no code revolves around the concept of connecting pieces of a puzzle together. Gone are the days of lengthy processes around traditional coding, as businesses welcome user-friendly drag and drop application components to create mobile or web apps in a matter of hours or days.?

Over the last decade, we have witnessed an evolution in software development. Specialised coding knowledge is no longer a prerequisite, and businesses can enjoy improved agility, decreased costs, higher productivity, and an overall better human? experience (HX) through low code/no code platforms. It has set a new benchmark in the advancement of DT, and is a development area to watch in the coming year.?

AI architecture for enterprises

The role of AI has no doubt changed the playing field, making it a crucial component to help businesses grow and innovate. The next phase for businesses is to build a solid foundation of AI architecture that integrates industry knowledge with cutting-edge technologies—such as low code/no code capabilities—across multiple business functions.

AI can facilitate effective problem solving, automate tasks and enhance communication across an entire enterprise. This allows for better workflows and synergy of various functions such as sales and marketing, customer service, operations, finance, human resources, and more. Ultimately helping businesses drive better and more cohesive results. This leaves more time to focus on intelligent, strategic tasks to build stronger connections, steadily shaping the way businesses of the future operate.?

The business of promise-keeping

This one's rather interesting - with a solid foundation in AI, organisations can tap into a new area of automation (a more advanced RPA or Intelligent Automation use case if you will) —promises management—which allows brands to rely on technology to fulfil their commitments to customers.?

Promise management tracks commitments made by agents in real-time during the call and manages fulfilment with customers immediately after the call, essentially integrating the front and back office. Unkept promises can quickly negate the positive effects of good conversations between businesses and customers—promise management can track them to completion. This will continue to be an important component in the HX journey that directly impacts call handling times, wait times, and overall customer satisfaction.

A new era in the Future Of Work

As man and machine continue to carve a better future of work, the Asia Pacific region still has some way to go in the implementation of AI and automation technologies. According to a report by Deloitte, countries such as Singapore, Australia, and Japan are the most prepared, whilst the rest of the region needs to proactively work on improving access, skills, and changing mindsets of the workforce.?

We foresee industries such as education, healthcare, and retail becoming more receptive to new technologies such as video and emotion AI and low code/no code capabilities. As the education sector enters a new era, there is an increasing need for innovative solutions such as video and emotion AI to facilitate better collaboration, connection, and continuity between teachers and students undergoing home-based learning. Due to the pandemic, other key sectors such as e-commerce and small businesses across the region are also primed for change due to the pandemic. The demand for low code/no code platforms is surging amongst this group as it helped accelerate their DX and CX journey without compromising on day-to-day operations.

We acknowledge that the road ahead may look uncertain as economies across the region continue to recover from the pandemic slowly. It is, however, crucial for businesses across all industries to keep an open mind to emerging and unfamiliar technologies as these smart solutions are here to stay to help create a better, faster, and more efficient workforce in 2022 and beyond.

AI needs to be embedded invisibly - non intrusive, authentic if you will-, sprinkled generously throughout the customer journeys. It’s sub-optimal to have AI powered insights concentrated on any sub part of the journey; it will inexorably be perceived as a ‘gap’ - this time not because internal capabilities are lacking per se, rather because there’s a difference between what’s functional, good and what’s great.?

Much of humanity, and the experiences we create will be AI driven. There are two outcomes, dystopian and utopian. The former one, protagonists see a singularity where machines become self aware and pretty much take over the world. The other more positive outcome, which I share, is where we ascend from a? world of scarcity to one of abundance.