Will BOTs Take Over the Customer Experience?

Have you noticed that more and more automation is finding its way into our daily lives? Think of all the new (or near-new) conveniences we have available to us. Home appliances, self-checkout, consumer electronics, entertainment, medical devices and smart buildings help us every day. In a recent blog post, I talked about IVAs (Intelligent Virtual Agents), which are deployed widely to enhance the customer experience by streamlining and handling the customer need immediately, with little to no human intervention.

This article originally appeared in VentureBeat.

According to recent Gartner reports, an estimated 85% of artificial intelligence (AI) projects will fail through the year 2022. This estimation is likely to cast some doubt on the realm of artificial intelligence and its ability to deliver value. However, the reason that so many AI projects fail is not due to the AI processes themselves, but rather the lack of strong data governance, collaboration, and problem definition. Organizations that successfully leverage AI typically start their design with the goal of AI in mind. This approach allows organizations to work backwards, guiding them through the foundational components that help contribute to the end goal.

When you hear the term “machine learning,” do you think to yourself, “How does machine learning really work?” Well, machine learning uses historical data, and what I mean by this is past data. This data could be from databases, Hadoop systems, CSV format, or streaming data from a social media website.

Machine learning is changing the way the world thinks and operates. Let’s face it, when the words “Machine Learning Algorithm” present themselves in a room full of peers, everyone takes a deep breath. Some are confused by the thought of math; others are thinking, “Oh no, which algorithm do we use for this problem?”

In the first part of this blog series, we explored the reasons why many companies are slow to adopt artificial intelligence. We also discussed how the contact center can be a natural place to consider an augmented intelligence/augmented experience deployment, which can serve as a precursor to artificial intelligence or stand on its own. In this post, we will look at AI in action to discover how it can help transform enterprises.

If you use Siri on your mobile device or Alexa or Google at home, you know that artificial intelligence (AI) is a fast-growing component of the consumer world. Six billion devices are going to begin proactively asking for support in the near future, according to Gartner. Voice-enabled AI applications like these and others are making life more convenient for millions of people around the world.