How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Contact Centers

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, but in recent years, its use in business has exploded. It’s now used in everything from self-driving cars to smart speakers. But while many people think of AI as something that only computers use, there are also many applications for humans. One of these is in the contact center industry. Contact centers are businesses that provide customer service by phone, email, chat, or other means. They are often used by companies that sell products or services online. The contact center industry is expected to grow by $2 billion over the next five years.

Chatbots.

Many contact centers are using artificial intelligence to improve the quality of customer interactions. This includes things like automated call routing, speech recognition, and natural language processing. These technologies allow agents to focus more on customers who need help rather than answering questions that aren't relevant to them.

Customer Experience Management (CEM).

CEM is an umbrella term used to describe how companies manage the entire customer lifecycle. It's often used interchangeably with CRM, which stands for customer relationship management. However, CRM focuses on managing the sales process while CEM covers everything else.

Automated Workflows.

A lot of contact centers use automated workflows to handle routine tasks such as routing calls, screening out spam, and handling abandoned calls. These workflows are typically triggered by events such as when a call comes into the system, when a certain number of unanswered calls has been reached, or when a particular agent reaches a certain level of productivity.

Voice Recognition.

One of the biggest challenges with using automation in the contact center is that humans still need to monitor what's happening. This means that agents must spend a significant portion of their day listening to recordings and monitoring data streams. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that agents will need to dedicate more time to their jobs than before.

Natural Language Processing.

Natural language processing (NLP) is one of the key technologies behind chatbots and other forms of artificial intelligence. NLP allows computers to understand human speech and translate it into text. It also helps machines learn how to communicate with people.