The wave of GenAI-based innovations from contact center vendors is impressive, but these innovations will only succeed if customers adopt them. To achieve this, practical issues must be resolved — and the onus is on vendors to address them.
Clear communication about what GenAI entails and how it links to business outcomes is crucial, but this requires overcoming both hard and soft challenges. There is a gap in the market between vendors and the partner community, including service providers, telcos, and all those involved in taking solutions to end users. Many practical requirements can be addressed by partners.
Often, the focus is on deploying partners to sell solutions rather than helping with the foundational layer needed for the success of new technology — in this case, GenAI. Partners, with their long-standing relationships with customers, are well positioned to understand where customers are in their journey and what they need to implement GenAI successfully.
The following are several ways partners can help fill the gaps to make GenAI use a success.
Communicate What Implementing GenAI Entails
Last year, the hype around GenAI made it a priority for business leaders who were often driven by a fear of missing out. This created both a sense of urgency and of desperation. Insufficient time was given to understand the complexity of implementing GenAI, making it prone to failure.
GenAI’s scope is extensive and diverse, and it is a transformative force. It can drive efficiency in contact centers by automating complex functions that traditionally require human intervention.
GenAI-based virtual agents can deliver human-like experiences previously not possible with basic bots or even conversational AI. They can augment human agents by guiding them through their tasks.
Supervisor work can be simplified by automating forecasting, scheduling, and easing performance and quality management processes. Contact center leaders can gain data-based insights for strategic directions.
However, many ifs and buts must be addressed for GenAI to work — and it’s important for customers to understand this before jumping on the bandwagon.
Identify and Overcome Infrastructural/System Challenges
The efficacy of GenAI depends on the existing infrastructure/system, and partners can help identify specific use cases based on the supporting system. For example, some GenAI functions require an organized knowledge base, which is often not available. Therefore, initial use cases should be straightforward.
Some capabilities, such as summarization, do not need extensive data sources or a knowledge base and can be implemented easily, with benefits quickly visible, such as helping agents save time by automating post-call administrative tasks.
Finally, partners can play a crucial role in structuring and consolidating data sources. Where there are infrastructural/system gaps, partners can help fill these gaps as the first step by implementing the right solutions before exploring GenAI use cases.
Fill Skills Gaps
Apart from data sources and supporting infrastructure, having the right skills to drive GenAI is very important. Agents need to be comfortable using GenAI and should be supported with training.
A group of agents could be deployed as champions of GenAI to help colleagues make the best use of the tools and accelerate adoption. Human expertise is also needed to update and maintain the knowledge base, place security guardrails, and monitor results.
Partners can work with customers to identify skills gaps and develop a clear plan to fill them.
Address Human Concerns About GenAI
Use of GenAI does not depend solely on technical aspects. Human concerns about GenAI need to be addressed when contact centers consider such solutions. Partners can help manage this process.
There is persistent fear that GenAI will replace human workloads and agents will lose their jobs. This may lead to resistance and reluctance, which will impact adoption. GenAI is still in its infancy as a transformative technology to handle all customer engagements due to system limitations that pose many risks (e.g., leakage of confidential data or providing incorrect information).
There thus needs to be a clear classification of interactions that can be shifted to virtual agents and those that still need human intervention.
The next question is how will shifting calls to virtual agents impact human agents: Are they at risk of losing their jobs?
If so, these individuals could be placed in different roles. GenAI is creating new roles involving the development and management of AI-based interactions. Human agents can be trained to transition to these new roles, creating new opportunities for career growth and making the job more exciting.
The negative energy around GenAI could become positive.
Develop the Right ROI Accounting for Transformative Changes
ROI is the single most important consideration driving investment in new technologies, including GenAI. However, given GenAI’s transformative power and wide-reaching impact, ROI cannot be viewed conventionally.
There are many intricacies in measuring ROI, and partners can help redefine it for customers. ROI has traditionally focused on monetary benefits: higher revenue and lower costs for a better operating margin.
GenAI can help reduce costs by shifting some traffic to virtual agents, allowing contact centers to save by reducing the number of agents. However, this can be a short-sighted approach for something as transformative as GenAI.
It should not be seen as a tool to reduce overhead costs but to create more opportunities within contact centers. Transferring transactional calls to virtual agents means human agents can focus on calls that require critical thinking, making their jobs more interesting.
GenAI support will help human agents perform better, reducing stress and burnout, meaning they can stay in the role and enjoy it. Customers who receive quick resolutions through virtual agents and do not have to wait in long call queues are more likely to be happy and refer the brand for good customer support.
Customers served by happy agents and who receive personalized service will have an exceptional experience and may share it on social media. The ROI equation should extend to good/exceptional experiences for customers and employees instead of just monetary value.
Service that delivers a good experience will eventually lead to good results.
Change Management and Support with Culture Shift
Contact centers have reached a crossroads where they must shift from old to new ways of working due to changing demands. Partners can help communicate this message clearly, explain why it is important, and put together a concrete change management plan with guidelines.
Today’s customers have heightened expectations for exceptional service. They want personalized, quick, and convenient services, accessible through various channels — text, messaging, websites, social media, email, conventional voice calls—from any device (mobiles, PCs, laptops). Cloud platforms make it possible to consolidate customer data and unify front and back offices to provide integrated and coherent service.
However, none of this will work if contact centers do not prioritize customer experience and appreciate that employees are the driving force. This involves a massive culture shift.
The metrics used to evaluate contact center performance, particularly agents, need to evolve alongside a changing landscape. It is not just about the number of calls answered and their duration, but whether customers felt connected with the agents and had their issues resolved satisfactorily.
To achieve this, agents need to be supported with the right tools, including GenAI-based tools, incentivized through appropriate compensation packages and career growth opportunities, and managed flexibly.
Using GenAI should be part of this equation and driven as part of a culture that prioritizes happy customers.
Conclusion
GenAI is a disruptive force capable of transforming contact centers for the better — but its implementation is complex and needs to be well thought out, covering every aspect of operations. It is not something that can be rushed.
The starting point is realizing that there is a new wave, and the old ways are becoming obsolete. However, this transformation is not easy. Vendors need to explore the opportunity at the pace of their customers, but this may not be the best use of their time — they should focus on innovation. They can collaborate with partners to drive the transformation and lay the foundation, creating a win-win situation for all.
IDC’s contact center research — with its in-depth coverage of the market, including detailed regional views — supports both vendors and the partner community to help drive the adoption of GenAI-based solutions.
