EVERY day billions of communications take place - human to human, human to machine or machine to machine - to relay intent, emotion and data. In the enterprise world, it happens in customer service, sales, human resource, education and many more.
CONVERSING BUSINESS
Communication in business includes customer service and most relies on contact centres to manage conversations, such as query and requests, in some industries such as banking, it takes place around the clock with agents servicing customers in different parts of the world.
During the pre-pandemic era, contact centres were often centralised where all customer interactions across various channels are managed.
This scenario has since transformed for the better. With the help of automation solutions, contact centres have radically enhanced the standards of customer service and many legacy systems of a contact centre have evolved.
Sharing his view, Uniphore's co-founder and president of Asia Pacific, Ravi Saraogi said that AI-powered platforms such as Conversational Automation has solved issues with contact centres management as well as adhering to the safety guidelines set by authorities. It also gives support for agents to operate remotely.
"Conversational Automation platform now combines Conversational AI, workflow automation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), low-code/no-code capabilities and a business friendly UX to transform and democratise customer experiences. This empowers contact centre agents to deliver highly effective, personalised and empathetic interactions," he said.
THE STUDY
A study done by Researchscape International, a market research consultancy through an online survey platform, Zoho, to more than 3,000 respondents from the US and Apac countries, found disconnections between the benefits of video conversations and the unintended challenges it creates.
"Majority of the respondents noted some clear benefits of having conversations on video including better engagement rates. Seventy-four per cent indicated they felt the participants ranged from somewhat, very or extremely engaged with them during video conversation," said Saraogi.
"The report also indicated a strong willingness amongst Malaysian consumers to adopt AI technology to drive improvements in their experiences," he said, adding that 68 per cent of respondents also said that video calls provide them with a more meaningful connection with others.
However, the survey, which was administered online and included representation across all age groups between 18 to above 65 years old also shared their dislikes when it comes to video calls.
"There are substantial amount of people who also said that they prefer to be able to multitask during video calls while almost the same percentage claim that getting 'camera-ready' was one of the key issues as either they don't like seeing themselves on camera or dislike having to "get ready" for video calls," he said.
Other challenges cited include 41 per cent claimed they couldn't tell if others on the call were engaged or not and that they couldn't get their point across (29 per cent).
WITH THE HELP OF AI
Through the use of AI and machine learning, companies can enhance communication by adding the ability to better understand engagement levels and emotions of participants, and ultimately drive better business results.
Earlier this year, Uniphore acquired Jacada, a software and services company that specialised in automating and simplifying customer service operations to further leverage video and emotion AI capabilities along with low code automation tools to improve customer experiences.
Uniphore's U-Self Serve, a conversational self-service solution is enhanced with the addition of Jacada's multimodal and visual IVR (Interactive Voice Response) capabilities.
"With the enhancement, customers are now able to seamlessly self-service routine interactions with minimal friction across all channels and leverage digital capabilities on IVR interactions," said Saraogi.
The integration of Jacada's business user-friendly UX drives both self-service and agent-assisted interactions with Uniphore's Conversational Automation platform bridges the gap between legacy systems of contact centre process automation and modern-day automation powered by AI.
The intuitive and simple-to-use UX allows business users to use the same business logic and call flows to rapidly develop and implement self-service and agent-assisted applications.
MERGING VIRTUAL WITH IN-PERSON
Since the start of the pandemic, there is a widespread adoption of video conversations across personal and professional engagements.
"As the survey results revealed, there is still work to do to make virtual interactions as seamless and effective as in-person conversations. There is a need for additional tools and capabilities to enhance higher degrees of people-to-people understanding.
"Through AI and automation technology, companies and business leaders can create better experiences for customers, pick up on nonverbal cues that they may have missed, and provide insights using data that is decipherable and actionable," said Saraogi.
"It is clear that technology can make these video conversations more effective and enjoyable as 80 per cent of Malaysian respondents said they would be open to using automation or AI tools to improve video conversations," he said.
Respondents also noted that they would like AI to provide them with tips on how to engage with others (48 per cent), develop deeper connections (40 per cent), and help them multitask more surreptitiously (37 per cent).
To realise the need for better conversation to take place, Uniphore has a programme called the Uniphore Unite partner programme where partners will receive support in a rapidly expanding market that is seeing the benefits of using AI and automation technology to significantly improve customer experience.
This robust programme includes essential resources to support the lifecycle end–to–end and leverage on Uniphore's best-of-breed, innovative technology to expand portfolio and profitability by combining improved CX along with a great return-on-investment, increasing customer satisfaction while driving cost savings.