Hello, HAL! Artificial Intelligence In The Contact Center

Still, there is no doubt that machine learning will have an impact on the contact center in the years to come. Forward- thinking companies like Cisco are already making moves to firmly plant their corporate feet in the world of machine learning and AI in the future.

“We believe that AI will change the way all software is developed. We are moving quickly to harness the power of cognitive software to make our collaboration and customer care software deliver more value with less effort,” stated Tod Famous, senior director of product management, Cisco Customer Care.

While HAL was able to converse naturally with people on any imaginable topic, the conversational user experience with AI still isn’t there and probably won’t be anytime soon. Instead, companies like MindMeld, acquired by Cisco this past May, are focusing their efforts on AI-based conversational platforms that enable people to communicate naturally within one domain to complete a specific task. Still, the day when someone contacts customer service and reaches a bot that says, “How can I help you?” is still too far away to even predict.

“The most successful natural language dialog technology deployments we see in the market today are designed to support a narrow set of customer care use cases,” Cisco’s Famous continued. “The range and depth of the automation will expand quickly in the future.”

In the “2001” movie, Hal states that he is “foolproof and incapable of error.” Unfortunately, that won’t be the case with AI in the contact center. According to Cisco’s Famous, “We also believe that even the best automation solutions will need customer care teams to handle the exceptions. It’s like the ‘zero-out’ option on an IVR solution. We strongly believe that the best way to support customer success with automation is to offer a smooth escalation experience when the bot isn’t capable of responding to their request.”

Given the allure and mystery of AI, it’s easy to see why the industry has been captivated by it. It’s important, however, to maintain a realistic perspective regarding the potential of AI in a customer service role. The contact center industry has a history of getting ahead of itself, and sometimes ahead of its customers. Granted, the next generation of customers—you know, the ones who look at their phone for the answer to everything—may be comfortable interacting with a robotic customer service agent via text, but there is still a large market who prefers human interaction today and likely will for many years to come.

The development of AI for customer service is in its earliest iteration and while it has enormous potential, there are still a lot of great customer service solutions available today. These proven solutions are not obsolete and won’t be for many years to come. While it’s fun to watch and talk about AI in the contact center, follow Cisco’s outlook and keep it real. Don’t let your head get too far into the clouds. I’m sure HAL would tell you the same thing.

Paul Stockford is Chief Analyst at Saddletree Research, which specializes in contact centers & customer service.

– Reprinted with permission from Contact Center Pipeline, http://www.contactcenterpipeline.com