In today’s consumer landscape, customer experience (CX) is everything. As CX innovation advances, customers likewise come to expect even better experiences when they engage with a brand.

Enter artificial intelligence (AI): one of the most promising innovations of the 21st century. From ChatGPT to Google Bard, AI tools are taking the world by storm and redefining how we think about everything from workplace collaboration to the customer journey.

But AI isn’t just a recent phenomenon. Forward-thinking businesses have been leveraging conversational AI tools for years—not only to enhance the customer experience, but also to empower contact center agents with the resources they need to do so.

Let’s take a look at how AI can be used to support a truly modern and connected customer experience.

Why is AI important to the customer journey?

The current state of customer experience reveals a somewhat harsh reality: Consumers are ready and willing to abandon ship if their needs and expectations aren’t satisfied. Recent studies show 71 percent of consumers have switched brands in the past year.

Slow, clunky resolution processes are often to blame for this customer attrition. In fact, research shows that 75 percent of customers would return to a company if an issue is resolved promptly. Other reasons customers leave include a lack of cross-channel consistency, poor agent performance, and few self-service options.

Traditional solutions typically don’t give contact center agents much power to overcome these obstacles. Many agents are dealing with outdated technologies, time-consuming and repetitive processes, and a lack of customer-centric information.

But here’s the good news: cloud contact center solutions that leverage the power of AI can help agents deliver smooth, contextual experiences across the entire customer journey.

Benefits of AI in the contact center

When it comes to customer experience management, AI features can provide real-time insights into customer interactions, as well as automation for a range of processes.

So, why should you implement AI-driven contact center solutions? Consider the advantages:

• Improved customer service: IDC research reveals that AI can help organizations reduce their average handling time by 21 percent
• Reduced agent turnover: The same research indicates that empowering human agents with AI tools can boost efficiency by 20 percent.
• Increased customer satisfaction: Companies experience a 37 percent increase in CSAT scores when using AI—not to mention a 30 percent revenue boost.

5 ways AI solutions can optimize the customer journey

It’s clear that AI has its benefits. But how exactly does it fit into the customer journey?
Let’s explore five areas where AI can help you enhance the customer experience:

1. Predictive analytics

Predictive analytics refers to the use of AI algorithms to analyze consumer data, identify patterns, and anticipate customer needs and expectations. This allows you to dig deeper into the customer experience, understand their buying behavior, and use this information to better serve consumers at an individual level.

The beauty of AI is that sophisticated models can process a variety of data points quickly and turn them into actionable insights. Likewise, these insights can inform your CX strategy, improve operations, and ultimately empower agents with a more granular context.

Altogether, these benefits can help you lower customer churn and convert casual customers into repeat customers—potentially even future ambassadors for your brand.

2. Personalization

People no longer want cookie-cutter messages and standardized experiences. Studies show that 71 percent of consumers expect personalized experiences, and even more (76 percent) get frustrated when they aren’t delivered.

AI offers ample opportunity to tailor CX to each consumer. For instance, recommendation engines use machine learning algorithms to analyze data and provide personalized product recommendations at various touchpoints in the customer journey.

Because these offers are tailored to the customer’s data, organizations can easily convert prospects, increase sales, and drive customer loyalty. In fact, faster-growing companies drive 40 percent more of their revenue from personalization than their slow-moving counterparts.

3. Omnichannel communication

The odds are strong that consumers are engaging with your company on multiple platforms. As a matter of fact, customers use an average of nine channels to communicate with brands. Whether it be on social media, your website, or over the phone, it’s crucial to deliver a connected and cohesive experience across all of them simultaneously.

With an AI-powered solution, customer data across every interaction is available to the agent instantly, in a single desktop view, so that customers don’t have to repeat themselves repeatedly. Repetition is a key pain point for the modern consumer: Studies show the elimination of repetition would get 92 percent of customers to spend more time with a company.

4. Sentiment analysis

It’s hard to glean much from a simple transcript. That’s why AI solutions bring speech analytics and sentiment analysis tools to a company’s CX infrastructure.

Combined with speech-to-text engines, sentiment analysis allows you to search keywords, index conversations, and understand every interaction. When consumers call a contact center, AI will automatically analyze speech patterns and tone to gauge whether or not they’re frustrated with the experience.

Organizations can use these insights to coach agents on how to approach customer inquiries better, strengthen their emotional intelligence, and use empathic language during the call.

5. Self-service

Conversational AI models (chatbots) are intuitive self-service tools that allow customers to resolve issues without human assistance. Generally, chatbots are a great way to improve first-contact resolution for smaller, simpler inquiries.

When matters are too complicated or require a human touch, leading chatbot tools can seamlessly elevate the inquiry to an agent. What’s also helpful is that agents can retain all contextual information the chatbot received, empowering them to deliver a consistent experience.

Likewise, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems give customers a natural conversational experience over the phone. Using natural language processing, IVRs automate certain tasks and can route callers to the most appropriate agent if questions aren’t answered right away.

Combined, chatbots and IVR systems reduce the burden on agents. By relieving simple and repetitive tasks, these tools allow agents to spend more time on requests that demand closer attention and resolve issues quickly and confidently.

The modernized customer journey

Companies are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what AI can do for the customer journey. As AI models continue to evolve, organizations, far and wide, must leverage their capabilities to meet the constantly changing demands of the modern consumer. By embracing the potential of AI, CX professionals can limit customer churn, drive better customer experiences, and, ultimately, improve business outcomes.