ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
BY JON ARNOLD, J ARNOLD & ASSOCIATES
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE STOCK
WILL AI SHRINK THE CONTACT CENTER?
WHAT WILL CENTERS LOOK LIKE WITH AI?
The operative word here is“ shrink”, as this implies that AI will lead to scaled-back contact centers. At face value, this means having fewer agents, which AI makes possible via automation that can replace human agents in a variety of ways.
This remains a touchy subject, since the optics of smaller contact centers being the rationale for AI are not good for vendors: and contact center leaders will quickly alienate their agents if they toe that line as well.
Complicating matters is the silver bullet view held by those in executive management that AI is mainly about cost
14 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE reduction. Since they make the investment decisions, this needs to be part of the calculus with AI, especially as their AI spend keeps rising and tangible forms of ROI are few and far between.
Here’ s why. Cost reduction is a tangible ROI metric to maintain executive management’ s support for AI. One that can be achieved quickly with workforce cuts.
The contact center has long been one of the best use cases for AI, so it’ s not surprising to connect the dots between deploying AI there and automating away agent jobs.
While the rationale is sound – especially to top management – the realities on the ground for contact center leaders are more challenging.
THE CONTACT CENTER HAS LONG BEEN ONE OF THE BEST USE CASES FOR AI, SO IT ' S NOT SURPRISING TO CONNECT THE DOTS...