Key Differentiators in AI Solutions for Contact Center in the New Normal Era of COVID

1. Key Differentiators in AI Solutions for Contact Center in the New Normal Era of COVID The arrival of Covid-19 has pushed contact centers worldwide across industries beyond their limits. Customers, as well as employees, are anxious and care staff are undoubtedly feeling the burden. In the airlines and hotel industry, the pandemic led to a spate of refund requests and cancellations. In other sectors, it led to a rush in demand. For instance, call centers in food retail are overwhelmed as people look for home delivery slots. While the workload is mounting, several contact center agents are being forced to work remotely. The combination of relocation, the move to a distributed workforce, and high demand have presented a huge challenge to agents. As economies gradually shift to a new normal while following safety measures, we are observing how digital and AI contact center solutions are keeping several firms afloat, allowing them to get ready for what lies ahead in a post-Covid-19 age. With the Covid-19 crisis dragging on, short-staffed grocery stores, financial services, and government agencies are all scrambling to set up an AI-based real-time speech analytics solution to handle the growing inflow of calls. Companies like IBM’s Watson Assistant and Google’s Rapid Response Virtual Agent have seen an increased demand from a large number of clients. Enhanced Customer Experiences through Agent Augmentation

2. Contact center agents today are under immense pressure to answer complex customers queries especially concerning Covid-19 within a matter of a few seconds. Customers are impatient and expect to have instant answers to their queries, without having to go over their questions to innumerable advisers. Luckily, AI can accelerate the solution for customers and agentson a real-time basis by developing appropriate information and support for an adviser before answering a call. Through agent augmentation strategies, AI can instantly deliver sales data to an agent about a customer so that they are ready with a more contextual chat. For instance, they may get a pop-up message from the AI before an agent answers a call that shows: ● Products or services that they have ●Agents that they’ve worked in the past ● Prior complaints ● Prior purchases made with the company ●The customer’s name and background Once an agent answers the call, the virtual agent can remain in the background and draw extra information when keywords are stated or offering helpful ideas. Some advanced agent augmentation strategies could even consist of things like natural language understanding to evaluate the sentiment of a chat. For example, if the AI finds that the customer is becoming upset, it will offer suggestions on how the agent can fix the discussion and cut the risk of further problems. A few agent augmentation programs can even analyze chats and determine when to speak to a supervisor on behalf of an agent. The Role of Conversational Analytics In the midst of the current emergency, several healthcare, insurance and government organizations are turning to conversational analytics tools to handle the surging customer calls about COVID-19. These solutions offer the potential for curated data that can be tailored to the needs of the individual. Responses to certain questions can be presented in a collaborative manner more quickly than conventional online search methods. The information can be adapted easily to local regulations and guidelines, based on the user’s location. In addition to all the benefits, there are a few shortcomings that need to be addressed. For instance, companies must ensure data privacy and security at the vanguard of adoption and usage guidelines to preserve the public's trust in the information the chatbots deliver. Voice Verification Another key strategy in the post-COVID era is the progress of voice channel security in contact centers. The complexity of cybercrime and social engineering attacks will improve over time, so the application of pioneering security steps to protect a voice channel is essential. For contact centers, voice verification is the only alternative to strengthen voice channel security. It uses

3. advanced voice biometrics tools to combine an additional layer of security to telephone communication with customers. Voice verification lets contact centers save 20 to 90 seconds on the Average Handling Time by reducing the Knowledge-Based Verification (KBV) stage of a call. This happens through real-time analysis of a caller’s voice, permitting a call center operator to verify a caller in a few seconds and identify fraudulent behavior. Voice verification encourages a smooth customer experience and improves the NPS. In the future we will see voicebots that will automate a substantial number of voice interactions, offer a unified customer experience supported by a secure voice channel and human operators complementing conversational AI to offer humanity with a wonderful voice-first experience.