Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging trend in the unified communications (UC) space, and the potential applications are tremendous. In a world that is increasingly focused on a seamless user experience, AI brings a lot to the table. PwC reports that 32% of customers will leave a brand after just one negative experience. Happy customers are a wonderful thing. So are happy employees. AI makes life easier on both.
Productivity Optimization
As AI continues to grow, it has the potential to be a major productivity booster for organizations and a win for the employee experience. Consider chatbots as just one example of how substantially an AI product can impact operations. Chatbots are a 24/7 on-demand tool that can virtually respond to any customer inquiry, automating a function that previously required call center manpower. And while chatbot programs still need to provide a mechanism for rerouting inquiries that cannot be resolved to a live agent, 69% of total chatbot inquiries are able to be answered without introducing the live agent.
Sentiment analysis
The ability to “read the room” is a critical skill in business, as anyone who has ever had to present a sales pitch to a new prospective client can attest to. Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining, achieves this in an AI capacity. By analyzing speech inflection on phone calls, brand monitoring on social media or scrutinizing product reviews, sentiment analysis models seek out polarizing statements, providing heightened customer insights to organizations.
Enhanced decision making
Taking a data-driven approach to decision making is nothing new. Machine learning algorithms have been helping out in the decision-making department for years. You use AI every day, even if you don’t realize it. Netflix uses AI to keep you watching with tailored recommendations. Amazon uses it to get you to spend more money. Now, you can use it for your business too.
While AI is obviously not able to fully replace the human factor in decision making, its potential applications in augmenting it cannot be ignored. AI can analyze staggering amounts of data in real time, providing a wide range of customer insights and behaviors to businesses. Kind of like a modern-day crystal ball.
The personal touch
Remember the Netflix example above? Ever notice how Amazon thoughtfully recommends products you may be interested in purchasing based on previous purchasing behaviors? This is the world we live in, and this level of personalization is something that customers have become accustomed to. In a Salesforce study of 8,000 consumers, 73% indicated that they expect companies to understand their needs. The days of sending out mass communications to subscriptions lists with the opening intro “Dear Sir/Madam” are behind us. Welcome to the standard customer experience in the digital age.
With AI in hand, there is no reason that your organization cannot compete in this tailor-made experience space. When done right, predictive personalization allows your company to feed customers offers and specials that are best aligned to their purchasing patterns, empowers your clients to dictate how often and in what manner they hear from you and connects with them after an abandoned purchase, ideally in the hopes of completing said purchase.
Interested in introducing AI into your UC strategy? Gregg Communications, a unified communications provider specializing in enhancing the customer interaction experience, is your one-stop shop. A leader in arming businesses with the collaboration and communication tools to help them succeed, Gregg Communications is well-positioned to help your organization incorporate AI into the unified communications mix. AI applications in UC are going to just continue to grow. Connect with Gregg Communications today and stay ahead of the competition, or risk being left behind.