Whilst AI will play a huge role in customer experience in the future, the best brands will find ways to balance technology with human emotion.
“We shouldn’t get so caught up in AI that we forget the basics of customer experience,” says Blake Morgan, Customer Experience Futurist. “Human connections are still important. Customers want to feel an emotional connection with a brand instead of having everything as a sterile transaction. My view of the future is that AI will play a huge role in customer experience, but the best brands will find ways to balance technology with human emotion.”
AI’s capabilities within CX are becoming increasingly known, therefore businesses are starting to produce the same offerings across all sectors. “Companies must get the balance right between AI and human touch investment,” says Michael Killeen, Chairman, The CX Company.
“Too many companies are [investing] too much resources behind AI. While there is no going back - AI is here to stay, consumers still want access to a human being when they need it. If you don’t, you won’t differentiate your business against your competitors’ offerings. Everyone is on the AI track and soon enough AI offerings will all be pretty much the same, causing more sameness across all sectors”
We’ve all had some early bad experiences with voice recognition and other AI applications from trying to book movie tickets where the assistant can't understand what you’re saying to the endless loops that take you nowhere. It's not just the investment levels that need to be factored in...
If the AI solution is inappropriately selected, or poorly applied, it can lead your customer to believe that it has been implemented to save money rather than to add value and support the customer which can ultimately do more harm than good.
The reality is that today there are no real guru’s when it comes to utilising AI in your CX masterpiece. Rather, it comes down to prodigious collective knowledge and the coming together of other people’s experiences and findings. It may feel like you’ve won the battle by investing in AI already, but how do you win the war? If you are the individual driving CX, wherever you stand, one thing you can’t do, is stand alone.
Organisationally, you have to bring others with you.
Especially from a technology perspective, otherwise you’ll face a career lifetime of justification and battles between the champions of either, ‘the future goes to innovators and disruptors’ or ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
You need to recruit advocates and bring others onboard within your organisation. Successful implementation relies heavily on interdependence - but how do you do this?
Adopting AI and emerging technologies to amplify the CX journey is important. Read on.
