New developments in how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used for CX make headlines on a near weekly basis. With so much development, however, CX practitioners need to be ahead on the capabilities that exist – and which capabilities their organization needs.
In this interview with CX Network, EJ Cay, vice president for Genesys UK and Ireland, talks about the outlook for how AI in CX is set to evolve the customer and employee’s experiences, the benefits and drawbacks of custom GPTs, and why the chief AI officer is just one stakeholder CX practitioners need to get on side.
CX Network: Last year saw a number of developments around AI and automation, paving the way for more advanced virtual agents. What are the key things CX practitioners need to keep in mind when deploying advanced chat assistance?
EJ Cay: More and more customers are turning to virtual agents when reaching out to businesses – in fact, it is predicted that 37 percent of customers will turn to digital assistants to interact with customer services by 2025.
For businesses, they offer the opportunity to alleviate staff workloads by automating the early stages of customer engagement, while also helping to manage resourcing issues. At the same time, virtual agents support an improved level of customer service overall, from providing information, to solving simple issues, to connecting the customer with a human agent best equipped to handle their needs, ensuring a consistent, seamless and personalized experience.
However, despite the benefits of the technology, to realise its true impact and potential there are a number of factors business leaders need to consider to ensure these investments deliver the right value.
As the technology has advanced, so have concerns about its potential risks. A crisis of confidence is unfolding because of perceived threats to employee’s jobs and businesses worried about misusing generative AI’s complex capabilities, which threaten to derail customer trust and loyalty.
Organizations must therefore balance maximising the full potential of generative AI, while doing so responsibly and safely. As such, AI strategies need to:
- Prioritise the ethical use of the technology
- Establish transparency of outcomes
- Maintain ongoing quality assurance.
Key to this is ensuring that the AI-models powering virtual assistants are trained on relevant and ethical data, supported by human supervision. This ensures businesses always approach AI from a customer-first perspective as virtual assistants are trained on specific scenarios relevant to the business, supporting transparency and consistency of outcomes.
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CX Network: The launch of custom GPTs at the end of 2023 put generative AI technology in the hands of customers, as well as organizations. What impact could this have on service and CX?
EJ Cay: AI-driven solutions offer organizations a powerful way to personalize experiences, with custom GPTs meaning they can be tailored to their specific business needs that result in meaningful and appropriate outcomes for the customer. Even more so, they have the potential to automate processes for employees, meaning they are freed of repetitive tasks, such as data input and report generation, and able to focus higher value work that leads to better experiences for the employee and customer alike.
However, despite these benefits, the wide availability of custom GPTs is not without its risks. With the technology in the hands of just about anyone, there are security concerns too as bad actors can use it in ways that threaten the customer experience, loyalty and trust. For example, a standard practice now for many businesses is the use of identity verification to ensure they prevent any confidential information being shared with the wrong person. Measures such as these are central to helping customers feel safe and secure when using a business’ service – a now critical element as the customer experience has become increasingly digital.
With the rise of deepfakes, supported by the availability of customer GPTs, bad actors can override security and potentially impersonate a customer.
So, while businesses stand to benefit from custom GPTs in providing enhanced experiences for both customer and employee, they need to act with caution and consider the potential risks. Fortunately, AI solutions are also becoming available to identify and counteract deepfakes.
Additionally, research shows that organizations that move their on-premise workloads to the cloud can potentially decrease their carbon footprint by up to 80 percent. This is due to a number of factors, including the enhanced energy efficiency that can be achieved by centralizing computing power and how the cloud provider powers its IT infrastructure.
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CX Network: Genesys believes there is a need for a chief AI officer and chief experience officer in the C-suites of major organizations. What should their responsibilities include and where in the organization should they sit?
EJ Cay: Given the rise in AI across all industries and technologies, the need for a chief AI officer (CAIO) becomes increasingly urgent to help companies properly leverage the latest AI technology across every aspect of the business, from product development to sales to legal and more.
Working under the CEO or CTO, the CAIO will be responsible for ensuring data is connected across departments and AI models use the same knowledge base throughout the organization so that systems work together in sync, resulting in better efficiency and more optimized resources.
The makeup of the C-suite will also be impacted as more, companies realize the customer and employee experience are not a “back office” function or a “cost center” but are instrumental in driving company revenue.
It is no secret that a customer or employee needs just ONE bad experience to start looking elsewhere. This means a chief experience officer (CXO) is crucial in an era where bad experiences threaten brand loyalty for customers and employees alike.
The CXO will become the CEO’s right-hand, focused on bridging the gap between any department that plays a role in the customer and employee experience. For example, the chief technology officer and head of HR might collectively consult the CXO to influence which systems and technology are most important for a positive end-to-end employee experience—from the time they are a candidate to being placed in a position, until after they leave the company.
By creating a position with visibility into the intersection of employee happiness, customer success and technology, organizations will be more set up for positive experiences across the board.
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CX Network: With new CX technology and new job roles coming into play, how would you advise CX practitioners to facilitate successful collaboration between different stakeholders, departments and leaders?
EJ Cay: It can be intimidating to have new technology come into the forefront, especially when you are not sure if it will change the way a person works.
While it is initially a bit daunting, jobs throughout time have always adjusted and transformed based on the new technology created.
Think about inventions like the telephone or the computer. Engineers who worked on those original prototypes had a vastly different job description and way of working than an engineer working now. It is important as new job roles and technology come into play, for CX practitioners to be open and agile during the transition.
Ask employees for feedback so that everyone from different teams and departments feels seen and heard. Then implement any action based off that feedback to ensure that you are navigating through these changes together as one team.
It is also important to think of the potential and positive impact that new technologies can bring. It is easy to be fearful, but there is a possibility for new technologies like AI to provide accessibility that may not have been there before.
For example, for many people who are neurodiverse they have skills in memory, mathematics and pattern recognition, but could have sensitivities to light or noise which can cause challenges within the workplace.
AI has the potential to provide personalization so people who are neurodiverse will have an individual learning environment that accommodates different learning styles or preferences.