Virtual agents: why businesses are embracing AI assistants in the contact centre.

About the webinar

As we inch out of lockdown, organisations in every sector are faced with the challenge of predicting what the workplace of the future will look like. How soon can staff return to offices and will they all want to? Will consumer habits developed during the pandemic – notably, an increased reliance on digital channels – endure?

For those responsible for the customer experience, this creates a dilemma around resourcing, and getting the optimal level of staff for unpredictable levels of demand. One option is to build a more flexible workforce – but this incurs higher costs.

In our view, an increasingly viable alternative is to use virtual agents, powered by artificial intelligence to work with and complement your staff.

Today’s virtual agents are far more effective than previous generations. They feature advanced voice recognition and natural language processing, meaning they are better at understanding and responding to customer needs.

Think Alexa and Siri, rather than the clunky voice menus of a few years back.

Crucially too, customer expectations have evolved. A growing majority of customers will seek self-service channels first – and are willing to use AI in the contact centre to help them complete their task.

For businesses, using AI in this way leads to:

• Reduced costs – straightforward interactions are fulfilled via low-cost channels
• Improved service and higher customer satisfaction – there’s no waiting for AI-supported self-service, while contact centre advisors are freed up to manage complex interactions
• Better 24×7 coverage – virtual agents provide a low-cost and reliable workforce for the shifts humans don’t want
• Simplified compliance – sensitive customer data can be collected by the virtual agents
• Increased flexibility – at peak times, your virtual workforce scales up effortlessly

To see how effective today’s virtual agents can be, join Connect’s forthcoming webinar on AI for CX. As well as setting out the business case, we’ll provide a live demo of the Five9 Intelligent Virtual Agent – in our view, one of the best CX AI tools on the market today.