In a world that is becoming ever more virtual, unreal, social, and artificially intelligent, we thought it prudent to look at how customer service and customer experience will be affected by these advancing technologies. While Anthony Ha for Techcrunch reports on new AI customer service changes for Twitter, Netimperative.com report on a recent study that four in five customers prefer humans to bots. We look at what influencers, experts and CX Buzz favourites Brian Solis [Lifelanes] and Vala Afshar [Huffingtonpost] have to say about AI and CX. Enjoy!
Twitter Unveils New Options For Customer Service [Techcrunch.Com]
In a move to solidify its identity, Twitter has once again released some new features for extended customer service, reports Anthony Ha. Included in these new features are automated welcome messages and quick replies. These features are powered by AI technology and have been long awaited. What remains to be seen, is whether these new features will go a long way towards allowing businesses to give better social customer service and also give Twitter the identity that it has been desperately trying to seek.
Four in five prefer humans to bots for customer service [Netimperative.com]
While over on Netimperative they are reporting on an Opinium Research and IDC Research study that found that four in five customers prefer humans to bots for customer service. Makes you wonder why such serious and big organisations such as FB, Microsoft and now also Twitter (as mentioned above) are jumping so quickly on the AI bandwagon. While Netimperative just report on the facts of this recent study and don't postulate on the reasoning behind it, it is our opinion that it is still too soon to tell and that this is definitely a space worth watching, opinions may yet change.
The future of AI in customer experience: iteration vs. innovation [Lifelanes.Progressive.com]
The previous two articles on AI may have shown polar opposite opinions and trends, so it is important to see what influencers and experts are also saying about the future of AI when it comes to customer service and customer experience. Who better than, Brian Solis. In this piece Solis says, "Whether you’re a CIO, CCO (Chief Customer Officer), CEO (Chief Experience Officer), or CMO in IT, marketing or service, AI represents a blank slate for improving and innovating customer experiences. And with the right vision and intent, intelligent CX can thrust businesses on an accelerated maturity path to that helps digitally transform the organization with purpose and customer centricity." Well worth reading this if you want to stay ahead of the trends and step into the Artificial Intelligence world.
The Next Generation of Customer Experience Will Be Powered by AI [Huffingtonpost.com]
Vala Afshar, also weighs-in on AI saying, "relevance is the currency of the digital economy, so it’s no longer just enough to deliver personalized customer experiences — those experiences need to be smarter, faster and in the right context. Artificial intelligence (AI) will be crucial in delivering these next-gen personalized experiences for customers, and as the conductor of the customer experience, marketers need to embrace it in order to succeed." If they are all saying it, it must be true.
Are You 'Deep Learning' About Your Customers? [Forbes.com]
If you want to know what NICE thinks of these new technologies, check out this blog post our Solution Marketing Manager for Interaction Analytics, WFO, Yohai West wrote for Forbes.com. West says, “It turns out that customers really like those programs, apps and interactive systems that understand their needs, or that at least can quickly learn to do so. Identifying and meeting those needs is the purview of interaction analytics, defined as gaining actionable customer insights from wide-ranging interaction data.”
CX TWEET OF THE WEEK – comes from Natalie Schneider @nataliehealthcx tweeting about @ValaAfshar’s @Huffingtonpost article, “The Next Generation of #CX will be Powered by #AI”
The Next Generation of Customer Experience Will Be Powered by AI https://t.co/jd1T74D8gc # via @HuffPostTech #CX #custexp #innovation
— Natalie Schneider (@nataliehealthcx) November 1, 2016
We hope you enjoyed this week’s CX Buzz, be sure to respond in the comments or tweet us @NICE_CX or follow us on LinkedIn.