There is no shortage of philosophers, celebrities and business leaders who can quip and quote about success being a fragile prize at the end of a hard-run race. Artificial intelligence (AI) was subjected to these rules. It struggled to find its place in government and business agendas.
Some analytics and predictive reasoning were used here, and finally, the GCC region discussed its power as a matter of strategy and competitive necessity.
AI has every right to feel aggrieved at its upstart cousin who skated effortlessly into the limelight and stole everyone’s imagination. We were all astonished at what generative AI (GenAI) could do with text, images, and video. This was unprecedented, and unprecedented things set innovators innovating.
The Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) has already released a guide on generative AI, the market for which is expected to top US$1.2 trillion in the kingdom by 2032. In the neighbouring United Arab Emirates (UAE), the country’s AI ministry has made a similar move, hoping to inspire people with the “100 Practical Applications and Use Cases of Generative AI” whitepaper”.
Private companies are responding, broadcasting their GenAI plans from the rooftops and proclaiming brave new dawns for employees, suppliers, and customers. For example, Qatar Airways has announced its intention to use GenAI to help customers book flights. This illustrates one of GenAI’s central use cases: enhancement of the customer experience (CX).
Support and service delivery have always been major business expenses and even more expensive to get right. To be competitive, one needs the most expensive tools and the most dedicated and experienced workers. One answer to this would appear to be GenAI. Because the technology is considerably less costly than overhauling a call centre or hiring more agents, it fulfils the major wants. It is fast, accurate, and easy to implement.
It is open to automation but does not have to behave that way if organizations prefer to maintain the human touch (which recent research from ServiceNow suggests that UAE consumers want)
However, if you are a GCC business leader, you must pause to ask questions about regulatory compliance, responsible AI, and the employee experience. Tackling customer experience (CX) with GenAI may tick some boxes while opening up risk in other areas. Moving prudently demands examining how GenAI can reinvent the entire CX strategy while empowering employees and staying true to brand promises and regulatory obligations vis-à-vis data privacy. Here are three ways to apply the technology to keep the GenAI train on track.
1. Reinvent customer service
We can see chat, messaging, and social media channels becoming overwhelmed because they are customers’ preferred channels. CX leaders can integrate GenAI with these channels. Many leaders would argue that they should invest in seamless omnichannel experiences anyway, so why not let GenAI run with the ball? Assuming the role of virtual agent, the tech can unburden contact centre teams. If implemented properly, customers will get the same level of service but with a reduced mean time to resolution. While most customers will be satisfied, the option is always to bring in a human agent who can act as a go-between if the customer prefers it.
It should be observed that the human agent is a critical part of the call centre experience but that AI acts as a welcoming maître d’ in the first instance and a real-time research assistant to a human agent in the case of self-service escalation. This way, a significant proportion of cases are resolved automatically by AI and those left to human employees are handled with greater ease. From the customer’s perspective, this is as slick a service operation as they will have ever seen.
Enhance agent performance
It might seem trite to talk of service with a smile and the fact that happy employees lead to happy customers. But there is a reason why cliches become cliches. If your workforce is overburdened, CX will suffer, and so will MTR, CSAT ratings, NPS, and all the metrics you care about. This is why it has always made good business sense to care about the employee experience.
According to ServiceNow research from December 2023, 74 per cent of UAE employees — 26 percentage points higher than the EMEA average — saw AI as the biggest opportunity for the future of the workforce, especially due to its capacity to boost productivity. Improvements can start with making the employee more confident in every engagement by making them more knowledgeable about the customer. GenAI, in its virtual assistant role, can produce succinct case summaries so employees do not have to.
The tech is adept at distilling complex issues into succinct points. It is also good at responding to search queries and bringing back actionable insights from various content sources. So, the virtual assistant takes mundane tasks off the agent’s plate and returns with a generous desert spoonful of useful knowledge.
Personalise customer interaction
Nobody is thrilled at the prospect of being treated like a number. By now, the region’s consumers have either personally encountered or read about shopping experiences so individualized you’d think they have been provided by friends and family. That is the feeling modern experience leaders are trying to deliver.
Big data has let us down in this pursuit. But GenAI is the ideal candidate to revive the race. And remember, the one thing a virtual assistant can do that its human colleagues cannot is to make copies of itself. Instantiated at scale, multiple customers can question the AI at once and understand their intent, emotions, and context. Handoffs, when necessary, are smoother; useful recommendations become standard; troubleshooting is child’s play.
The race
So here we are in the age of GenAI. As you read this, your competitors are experiencing its many use cases. The race is on to empower talent to enhance engagement sessions and leave customers breathless with admiration. Are you a spectator? Are you flexing on the starting block? Or are you out in front, clearing hurdles on your way to the finish line?
