Moving Beyond Traditional Automation
Standard automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) go hand in hand. However, what makes AI a powerful, future-proof option is its core ability to perform omnichannel intent recognition. This technology can accurately determine customer intent across every touchpoint and answer questions or respond to comments that were not explicitly programmed into a rigid workflow.
The power of AI: reading between the lines
Machines are not good at reading between the lines, but AI can help you decide if a customer’s comment truly means what you think it means, regardless of the channel. For example, does a customer saying, “That’s six-seven,” on a chat channel mean they are genuinely excited, or are they expressing sarcasm? This ability to detect sentiment and nuance is critical across all communication channels.
Cross-channel consistency: the advantage of AI agents
Some organizations have concerns about deploying a unified AI agent across all their customer communication channels. While TCN’s contact center software platform offers the flexibility to choose, using the same core AI model across all channels provides a distinct competitive advantage for superior omnichannel intent recognition in the following three ways:
1. Enhanced intent recognition in unstructured text
Standard automation flows lack the ability to accurately determine customer intent in channels such as email and texting because the comment fields are open. This not only results in a wide range of responses, but also increases the potential for errors such as typos.
The good news is that AI excels in identifying customer intent in email and all forms of text messaging, including Short Message Service (SMS), Rich Communication Services (RCS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). These sophisticated AI chatbots can do so because they can see through errors, understand context and even interpret slang or other common typing phrases, such as “Yesss.”
2. Ensuring consistent customer messaging and journey
Using a single AI chatbot across all your channels ensures you’re providing consistent messaging and a unified experience to your users. Customers frequently contact your organization through a variety of channels (e.g., chat, then phone). With AI responding, you can guarantee that a consistent message and resolution path are sent each time a customer reaches out, regardless of the last channel they used.
3. Simple management with large language models (LLMs)
Telling your AI chatbot what to do is incredibly easy. In fact, programming a robust LLM-driven system is often as simple as typing a sentence, making management and updates across all channels efficient.
The role of AI in voice communication (as part of the omnichannel experience)
For traditional phone calls, AI voice agents can analyze the conversation, providing in-depth analytics such as grading and reports as well as highlighting critical sections that a human agent may have missed.
AI dramatically improves the customer experience by helping customers navigate to where they need to go, whether they started via chat or voice call. Whether they need a billing specialist or technical support, AI helps precisely determine customer intent, ensuring the customer is directed to the correct person the first time. This smart routing, even within departments (to agents with specific training), sets both your agents and customers up for success within the unified omnichannel system because it reduces burnout and keeps your agents happier as they interact with less frustrated customers. Learn more about TCN’s AI-powered contact center solutions.