Growing Role of Speech and AI
July 11, 2018 • 3 minute read

The Impact of Speech and AI on Customer Care

As customer preferences continue to evolve and care channels such as chat become more widely used, there is sometimes a perception among companies that voice is becoming less important. This couldn’t be further from the truth, however, as studies have shown that voice is still king in customer care. And while this certainly refers to the fact that customers are still calling into customer care centers at overwhelming numbers, it also refers to the fact that voice and speech are becoming even more important in applications across other customer care channels as well.

What’s changing is that speech is no longer just about conversations and interactions between customers and a live agent. Through advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, automated systems are enabling conversational interactions where customers can get more done, in less time.

Voice is Making Automated Care More Human

The human voice is natural and conversational, and customers have an easier time relating to it than stunted robot speak or directed menus. When customers feel like they can engage in a natural conversation with an automated system — whether it’s through talking, texting or swiping — they are able to accomplish tasks faster and with less frustration. That’s why more companies are turning to automated care systems that feel more like human interactions — not to try and trick customers into thinking they’re talking to a human, but to make customers feel more comfortable with their system so that they can complete more interactions through self-service.

True Omnichannel is Becoming a Reality

Customers may be migrating from just traditional phone calls to other channels such as chat, text and even home devices, but that doesn’t mean their standards for customer care have changed. They expect to get the same level of service regardless of the channel they’re using, and it should be easy.

That’s why companies are leveraging AI and machine learning to perfect true omnichannel customer service. With advances in machine learning, we can now take huge sets of data and find patterns that could not otherwise be found through just rule-based reasoning. This is used to improve AI and offer more personalized customer service — letting customers take conversations from the phone to a text message to their home device, without ever having to repeat themselves.

Watch our webinar to learn more about the growing role of speech and AI in customer care.

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