contact centers: beginning of the end?
McKinsey's research indicates that by 2030, automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), could automate tasks accounting for up to 30% of hours currently worked across the U.S. economy.
Customer Service Automation: McKinsey's analysis suggests that implementing AI agents in contact centers has led to a 50% reduction in cost per call and increased customer satisfaction scores. McKinsey & Company
Future Projections: Some organizations anticipate that 100% of customer interactions will be AI-enabled in the coming years, utilizing technologies such as virtual assistants and AI-powered voice analytics. McKinsey & Company
This research underscores a substantial move towards a more AI driven solution in customer service and customer care, indicating that voice assistants and call center automation will play a pivotal role in the broader landscape of work automation between 2025 and 2030.
Call volumes will also not decrease. As customer needs and expectations continue to increase, the overall volume of customer interactions is continuing to rise along with them and 57 percent of customer care leaders told McKinsey they expect call volumes to increase over the next one or two years.
How will this impact you as a business owner?
Call centers will become central to proactive, hyper-personalized customer engagement.
Happy customers are the key here. Customer needs should be taken into account with the goal to improve the experience for the customer through hyper-personalization.
This personalization can only happen if companies can overcome the normal issues around integrating their disparate systems and data, allowing AI to have access to this data, which it can use effectively to provide real value and customer service to the customer.
Call volumes to contact centers will also increase as AI assistants are becoming more and more mainstream and this could significantly alter the dynamics of customer service interaction, and many organizations are not fully prepared for this shift.
This will create a surge in conversation volume as AI Assistants start automating individuals mundane tasks and this surge can’t be handled just by humans alone. Companies that can’t deploy AI agents will fall behind rapidly.
Over the next two to three years, estimations are that AI driven automation will allow companies to have 40 to 50 percent fewer agents and handling 30% or more calls than they are today while seeing a 50 percent reduction in cost per call. All of this while simultaneously increasing customer satisfaction scores.
What will become of your current workforce of call center agents?
The truth is that call center agents will be decreasing as AI agents start to take over the more general or mundane tasks and interactions.
Gone are the days where the After Call Work takes time and effort as this can now be done instantly by AI, providing sentiment analysis, call analytics, summaries and reports automatically, meaning less work for their human counterparts.
Your human agents may need to be hired or upskilled correctly to be or become “advisers.” These employees will need to be empathetic, as well as proficient at using new AI solutions, solving complex queries that AI cannot easily answer.
We must also not underestimate the unique value of human connections, which are vital for loyalty and a premium brand experience.
Conclusion
Customer care and contact centers are set to undergo a major transformation in the next couple of years. Predicting whether this will be a slower process or rapid progression is difficult to say and still unclear. What is clear, however, is that companies should prepare for a world in which AI and human assistants work side by side.
The path ahead, may lie in embracing a balanced, hybrid approach that leverages the strengths of both AI and human agents,allowing contact centers with strategic growth and increased customer satisfaction.
Want to implement your own Voice assistants or agents for your business or contact center? Contact us at Flairr.pro/contact and lets discuss your specific needs
Marius visser
