To AI or not to AI

AI – Artificial Intelligence – it’s ALL the buzz these days, and it’s not going to fizzle out. It’s only going to get louder and louder.

The biggest question (or debate) is just how much is AI going to “take over.” Is it going to totally replace people? Is it going to override people? Are we (humans) going to become AI’s pets? While we don’t have all the answers, we can say that while AI has come a long way, it is still a “work in progress”.

When it comes to AI and contact centers there is a lot of chatter out there about moving from a traditional contact center, where actual “live” humans answer the phones and help customers, to a more AI model/approach. We’ve heard “a chatbot can handle that.” Of course, we have opinions on chatbots, and we won’t argue that they serve their purpose - to get quick questions answered without waiting, any time of the day. BUT we urge our customers to be cautious with implementing and thinking that they are going to be:

• The end all be all: Chatbots should not replace human interaction. Sure, they can help to begin the interaction, but they should not be the only means your customers have to communicate with you. The reason? While there have been advances made in machine learning and natural language processing, there is still much more work to be done in order for a chatbot to do everything. We have all been there with the automated bank or prescription refill automated systems. Sometimes we just want to talk to a real live human.
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• A “cost saver”: You might save money by moving from a traditional contact center, but what will it truly cost you in the end? When your new shiny chatbot doesn’t answer your customers' questions, or replies with an answer that has nothing to do with the question asked, they are going to hang up or leave your website and go to someone that will give them the right answers. In this case, you’ll be losing valued customers and therefore your “cost savings” will turn into “losing business.”
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• Good (accurate), fast (to implement) AND cheap (save you millions): There are a lot of chatbots out there that are called “plug and play.” So not only are you going to save money by moving this direction, but you can implement it quickly without skipping a beat. BUT did you do your due diligence? Jumping into a solution that is (a) cheap and (b) quick will NOT be (c) good. You’ve heard the old saying “You can have it fast, you can have it good, you can have it cheap: pick two” – referred to as the “iron triangle” or the “triple constraint triangle.”

You can have it cheap and fast, but it’s not going to be good. We feel that the best choice is good and fast (it won’t be cheap). Why? Because when something is good, this ultimately leads to profitability. And who doesn’t want to make a profit.

Now we’re not saying don’t do anything with AI in your business because there are definitely good uses for AI in organizations (and we’ll go into what these uses are in future articles). But what we are saying is do your homework, take it slow when implementing AI, and don’t do anything that is going to alienate customers and make them go somewhere else.

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