The Hype Around Artificial Intelligence
There’s a lot of hype about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and trends indicate AI will power 33 million voice assistants by the end of 2017. AI also fuels chatbots, which were voted the top focus area for growth by global business executives on Dimension Data’s 2017 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report
The main reason for the growth of AI-fueled virtual assistants is that they are a win-win for both companies and customers… if executed correctly. Customers get what they need with little effort, and companies can offer a more consistent, cost-efficient, and automated experience.
Consumers are increasingly accepting of automated assistance, such as interactive voice response (IVR) phone systems. Customers of all ages are moving away from calling companies on the phone and looking to self-service channels for help. According to Forrester, there has been growth in every digital service channel, while phone volume has decreased 12%.
Unfortunately, many companies have rushed to implement their own chatbots and Alexa skills, and it’s frustrating consumers. Only 55% of those who have interacted with an intelligent assistant say the interactions were successful or accurate. In April, Facebook scaled back its chatbots after it revealed a 70 percent failure rate. There are still many usability issues with basic interactive assistants, and AI-based assistants take extra time to “learn” from users which can be challenging and frustrating for consumers.
When AI inevitably fails during an interaction, consumers not only expect that there will be a live person there to back it up, but 80% of them expect any channel to have the information they’ve already shared so that they don’t have to repeat themselves. Perhaps younger generations understand the technical difficulties with that type of service capability, so it’s actually Baby Boomers that have the highest expectation that this will be the case.
As I’ve said before, for better or worse, AI bots are the future, and judging by the numbers, companies are picking up the pace.
Originally published at www.kozlen.com on October 24, 2017.
