AI bringing more power to the agent - Chief Technology Officer, Peter Edwards.

Our partners Zendesk published this excellent blog recently reviewing the thoughts of 600 CX leaders and agents who were asked to predict the future of AI in our industry.

Anyone interested in CX and AI will have read much on this subject over the last 18 months. The narrative often drifts towards the seismic impact on jobs in the sector, with AI reducing the need for a large slice of the workforce.

I’ve never truly believed that was true and this piece gives a very measured response that underlines how a partnership between Agent and AI will be increasingly potent. As it beautifully concludes, we are “Keeping the heart in customer service” and the commitment to the agent as the key contact with the customer is unwavering.

AI is an incredible tool. We recently launched Ventrica AI and the positive impact it has had in developing the relationship between our clients and their customers is outstanding.

But AI doesn’t only bring increased automation, it also improves the classification of contacts and summarisation of tickets which helps agents reduce handling time and help with a customer issue far more efficiently.

Yes, AI helps agents do their job more effectively and resolve customer queries more quickly, but you still need both parties to be engaged and involved.

I love the evolving relationship described in this blog post.

• Year 1: Agent as a troubleshooter, AI as a traffic cop.

• Year 3: Agent as expert, AI as co-pilot.

• Year 5: Agent as conductor, AI as driver.

Agents will always be required to be the “human touchpoint” as AI carries a heavier load in terms of early engagement and the agent will always have the authority to override AI having spoken directly to the customer.

Change is inevitable, but it is a change that will improve the relationship between AI and the customer, AI, and the organisation as a reporting tool, and, crucially, AI and the agent.