Customer support specialists are therefore more vital than ever in the current fast-changing business environment to ensure that customers are happy and kept as customers. In an effort to provide the best possible customer experience, many companies are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their support functions. These are not just robotic agents that do the work of the agents, but fairly useful assistants that can take over some of the routine work, give recommendations that can help in making the right decisions and support the human agents in order to increase the efficiency and productivity of the process. This change is not just a fad, it is a revolution that affects the way that customer support is provided in the B2B environment. However, as the AI tools become more available, even students can use free AI websites to acquire skills that are relevant for the future.
One of the most significant benefits of using AI agents in customer support is the ability to perform repetitive tasks. The sorting of emails, the resolution of some problems, the creation of ticket systems can all be done by a bot, thus allowing the human agents to address the more pressing concerns that require emotional intelligence and critical thinking. For instance, chatbots powered by AI technology are being used to handle client inquiries and offer instant responses during business and non-business hours.
For example, Zendesk, one of the leading customer service management systems, incorporates the use of chatbots to improve the interaction between the customer and the support team. These chatbots are capable of answering frequently asked questions, help with order status and even help with problem solving related to products without having a human intervene, which reduces the response time and increases customer satisfaction.
It is not just the menial work that AI agents perform to enhance decision making in customer support. It uses large data sets to give information that can be used in real time to support specialists. Thus, through the analysis of sentiments and prediction of probable customer dissonance, AI can sort tickets according to the priority or probability of the customer’s discontent, which may require the intervention of the support agents.
Take, for example, Einstein AI from Salesforce that provides customer profiles and suggests what to do next. Einstein looks at the history of interactions and customer information to help support teams customize responses and provide tailored solutions that enhance the customer’s experience.
Instead of replacing the human support specialists, the AI agents work along with them. Thus, the role of AI is to help the human agents in handling repetitive work and providing useful information, hence enabling them to concentrate on the process of interacting with the customers and addressing specific problems that require personal intervention. This collaboration focuses on the role of human intelligence in the resolution of problems and the development of effective solutions.
This collaboration is enhanced by AI tools such as IBM Watson Assistant that facilitates the coordination between the AI and human agents. It recommends solutions and information that may be relevant to a particular situation from the company’s knowledge base or from external sources and helps the human agents to make the right decisions quickly.
Many companies are already getting the benefits of using AI in the customer support area of their business. For example, the British telecommunications company Vodafone uses AI for the majority of its customer service requests. The company’s chatbot, TOBi, handles the basic queries by itself, and the human agents deal with the more demanding issues, which reduces the resolution time and increases the customer satisfaction score.
Another example is American Express, which uses AI to prevent fraud and personalize communication with customers. It analyzes the transaction data to identify unusual spending behavior and reports such activities to customer service representatives to follow up on potential cases of fraud.
The use of AI in customer support is still in the process of development and there is hope for even more improvements. With the growth of technology, it is possible that more AI agents will be able to handle more difficult issues, which will distinguish between AI-supported and traditional customer service.
NLP and ML technologies will be improved to provide more natural and contextual conversation for the AI, which will improve the customer interactions.
The role of AI in customer support is here to stay and this means that students and other future workers need to be digitally literate and know how to work with AI. Some applications like Google AI Experiments can be used to learn about AI tools and get some practical experience, which will help future customer support specialists to prepare for the jobs that will involve the use of AI.
This paper shows that AI agents are revamping the role of customer support specialists by performing repetitive tasks, making recommendations, and forming a partnership between humans and machines. As businesses and educational institutions implement this change, the future of customer support will be characterized by higher productivity, individual approach, and the coexistence of AI and people’s expertise. This change is not only a chance to enhance customer service, but also a chance to equip the new generation of professionals to work in an environment that is increasingly influenced by AI.
How does the use of AI agents improve customer support? AI agents perform routine tasks, provide decision-making information, and enable the human agents to work on challenging problems to enhance efficiency.
What is the AI tool that is used in customer support? Examples include the AI chatbots from Zendesk, the Einstein AI from Salesforce, and the Watson Assistant from IBM that help minimize time and increase communication with the customer.
Why is it necessary for the future customer support specialists to have knowledge of AI? As more and more enterprises implement AI strategies for customer support, it will be essential for the future specialists to have knowledge of AI technologies and digital skills to perform the functions of the new jobs.
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