Customer-Centric AI Strategy: The Favorite
The previous installment in our blog series examined the demographics and experiences of the business decision makers (BDMs) who were surveyed in the recently-published AI Adoption Index. This groundbreaking dataset has provided us an introspective look into the attitudes, hopes, and fears surrounding the implementation of AI in the workplace–but there is one AI objective that seems to be the most favored among current and prospective use cases: improved customer experience.
According to the AI Adoption Index, customer service and customer process automation currently rank among the top use cases of AI in today’s organizations. This comes as no surprise given that 3 out of 5 surveyed BDMs believe that AI will enhance personal capabilities and allow individuals to perform their roles with added efficiency; still, what other use cases rank high, and what gives customer service the edge over the competition? First, let’s explore other top use cases of AI in organizations.
Drawing from additional AI Adoption Index data, the largest remaining use cases of organizational AI include marketing (39%), QA and testing (36%), business intelligence and strategic planning (35%), and predictive analytics (34%). It’s worth noting that these results were also gathered from BDMs that span a multitude of industries, from cybersecurity to enterprise. This suggests that AI not only has a multitude of use cases that are already being adopted by today’s businesses, but that it has the potential to touch nearly every industry and function.
But what does this mean in relation to AI-powered customer service and its mass popularity? A simple answer would be that its use cases are multipronged, able to address multiple business needs at once. For example, here are just a few advantageous customer-related uses of AI:
- Personalized customer experience
- Recommendation engines for upselling
- Real-time customer assistance
- Predictive analytics for behavior forecasting
From curated recommendations to immediate answers, customer service AI offers benefits that can be tailored to an individual’s unique needs. At a time when customer service is valued more than ever, it is imperative to gain loyalty–and what better way than to have a fast, personalized experience that supports your customers from front- to back-end processes of engagement, interest, and purchasing?
As AI continues to evolve rapidly, so too will its use cases expand more over time. This principle isn’t limited to customer service AI, but it does pose a rather thrilling question of how much further we can improve customer experience and build brand loyalty–all while accelerating internal processes. In time, customer service AI may fall behind other use cases, but for now, it’s easy to understand why today’s BDMs look to it with unbridled enthusiasm.