The promise of AI technology that is often repeated is it can transform how CX teams scale their operations, make employees more productive and open up access to data on unprecedented levels.
It doesn’t always work out this way, according to Brian Cantor, managing director at CMP. The benefits vendors promised from their AI solutions can fall short in unexpected ways or require more investment than initially expected.
“AI's supposed to augment everything,” Cantor said during a panel at Customer Contact Week Las Vegas last week. “Well, it can, but only if we do it the right way. And, unfortunately, sometimes we're being steered in the wrong direction.”
Companies can protect themselves from disappointment with the proper due diligence, according to experts. Leaders need to keep themselves from trying to implement too many capabilities, understand the cost of new technology, and invest with customers in mind to find solutions and vendors that fit their needs.
CX Dive listened to leaders at CCW Las Vegas as they discussed the challenges of and strategies for cutting through AI hype. Here is a look at what four of them had to say.
Don’t get blinded by potential
AI technology is flexible, with applications that span seemingly every job at the contact center, according to Cantor. However, there can be too much of a good thing.
Cantor says CX teams can easily get caught up in the hype of individual capabilities without thinking about the long-term implications extra functions can create. At a certain point new tools can go from saving time to adding frustration.
“We have so many different things that functionally make sense as features, but ultimately, if adding a feature creates three more steps for everyone else or creates a new source of friction, that is something we have to start taking into account,” Cantor said. “I think we really need to understand the real ramifications of the real costs with each investment.”
The problem can be pronounced when AI tools fail to produce appreciable results, according to Cantor. The more time wasted on technology that doesn’t advance the CX team’s goals, the less flexibility the team may have in the future.
“You're not just going to be able to keep convincing your budget holders to keep trying a new AI platform until we find one that works,” Cantor said. “Each one puts your credibility on the line, you get your team's buy-in on the line. That's going to cause more inertia, more desire to stick with what you have, even if what you have ends up creating more friction.”
Scalability and cost
When a company rolls out a new technology, it can be easy to get excited by the initial wins — which can blind you to future scalability and cost concerns until it’s too late, according to Marius Maree, SVP of consumer operations at UnitedHealth Group.
A lot of companies don't ask about how well technology will scale beyond the initial pilot or how much it will cost to bring a project fully online before jumping into a new partnership, Maree says. However, it’s important for both parties to agree on what the long-term investment will look like.
“It's a tough conversation, but it's a partnership, so we try to meet each other in the middle,” Maree said during a panel. “I think that that's important. It's a commitment, so where do we draw the line?”
That conversation may be hard, but it can even be worse when teams move ahead without accounting for the full cost, according to Maree. In that case, both sides need to hold a meeting after the cost has already exploded beyond the initial agreement.
While it can be intimidating, getting ahead of the problem usually isn’t an issue, according to Maree. Every partner UnitedHeath Group has worked with has been open to finding a compromise on scale and cost that works for both sides after the question was raised.
Look beyond the demo to long-term considerations
It’s not hard to wow potential partners with a great initial pitch, according to Anant Singh, chief sales officer at Sanas, an AI real-time speech platform. The real work comes over the long term.
“Everyone does a great demo,” Singh said during a panel. “I don't think anyone has a bad demo or a bad meeting. What matters is longevity, repetition, consistency. You have to show up every time for months or years.”
The real work in a good relationship starts when a vendor earns its client’s trust, according to Singh. That’s not the time to celebrate — that’s the time to solidify the partnership by showing up every day and ensuring the client gets the quality service they were expecting.
This is especially true for large, complex companies where tech investments can take years to pay off, Singh says. There, finding a partner that will remain reliable for years and can support the company’s overarching vision is more important than having the hottest technology of the moment.
“It's not about what's the coolest today — tomorrow that’s going to be something else,” Singh said.
Investments start with the customer
The rapid advancement of AI has coincided with a rapid advancement of customer expectations, according to Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta, an AI solution provider. Solutions that don’t line up with their demands are doomed to failure.
“Customers are getting really smart, and they know what a good experience looks like, so they're demanding it,” Solis told CX Dive. “It's driving companies to have to relook, even if they have a solution, and say, ‘Okay, is this the right solution?’”
In some cases, an insufficiently advanced chatbot can be a problem, according to Solis. ChatGPT and other major players have primed customers to expect human-level conversations with AI, and if a solution fails to deliver on that capability some callers will immediately ask for a live agent — creating frustration for customer and business alike.
In other cases, companies need to slow roll their AI deployment and introduce it with care, according to Solis. For example, a business with an audience that’s largely 65 and older may find that its customers aren’t as ready to embrace AI agents as the general population.
Businesses should work with solution vendors to understand how businesses with similar customer bases meet their particular needs, including how to create an experience customers want to interact with that maintains the right level of human touch, according to Solis.
