IMPLEMENTATION AND THE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
But AI projects often do not deliver on their expectations. This is typically because companies take a piecemeal approach, and do not think of the whole.
The first step any company could take in implementing AI in its processes is to establish an AI Center of Excellence( CoE), which we did in 2023.
A CoE is an organizational unit, created at a global level, which brings together experts to promote best practices, innovation, and the development of these skills.
CoEs provide leadership, support, and resources to drive AI development, quality, and efficiency in processes and / or technology within a company, with the goal of improving their performance and competitiveness.
Our AI CoE brought together a wide variety of business and technical experts. These include data scientists, computational linguists, AI engineers, full-stack developers, business champions, prompt engineers, and scrum masters, among others, to make the development of holistic AI projects across the enterprise possible.
The CoE allowed us to define new solutions, accelerate development of our current AI portfolio, and expand knowledge and best practices around AI in a holistic and transformative way across our regions and customers. For example, we integrated AI into our CRM process; more later about that.
The CoE was established alongside setting up a new Global AI Committee. We implemented several new company policies to ensure that all AI applications and uses comply with applicable laws and regulations, including data protection and intellectual property.
[ CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE ] PROVIDE LEADERSHIP, SUPPORT, AND RESOURCES TO DRIVE AI DEVELOPMENT, QUALITY, AND EFFICIENCY...
The CoE ultimately allows us to build more agile business solutions for our customers, boosting innovation in a very agile way. It collects ideas bottom-up, driving the construction of minimum viable products( MVPs) to evaluate impacts and evolve our roadmap and portfolio using all these inputs.
AI IN THE CONTACT CENTER
Once everyone is on board through the CoE, plans for implementing AI in the contact center can move forward.
For example, many companies have implemented customer service bots that enable everything from the automatic distribution of processes to identifying the most appropriate response during any negotiation.
Throughout the interactions, these AI bots also manage all the steps of system formalization and status updates, seamlessly integrating with the communication channels chosen by the customers.
Data security, privacy, and compliance are key components in the development of AI-based CX tools. We set dedicated environments for each client or line of business( LOB), securing customer data and ensuring information reliability, thus adhering to all confidentiality standards.
Overall, the integration of AI into our CRM process has proven to be very successful. For instance, we have a case study in the real estate industry that, with the help of this technology, produced excellent outcomes such as:
• Resolution times halved from 11 to five days.
• Operating costs reduced by 13 %, with future automation prospects via WhatsApp promising further savings down the road.
• The customer satisfaction index( CSAT) improved by 22 %.
• A 30 % surge in team productivity.
• Operational errors decreased by over 19 %.
• Search times for client system content dropped from 244 to 86 seconds, boosting response times and agent productivity.
• Backlog volumes were reduced by 36 %.
BEYOND CUSTOMER SERVICE
The customer journey is ultimately about people, and that also means the agents who are engaging with the customers.
Generative AI can also bring significant value to the CX sector when it comes to the recruitment process, enhancing agent selection, hiring, and training.
The technology is capable of identifying candidates who best align with the company ' s ethos and demands through a sophisticated analysis of aptitude and compatibility.
For example, through using Generative AI-powered tools, prospective agents can engage with the recruiting platform in realistic service simulations during the interview / training phases. This allows them to demonstrate their problem-solving and empathetic skills in real-world scenarios.
38 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE