PODCAST OVERVIEW
Undefined space: How Alvaria is using AI-generated content as an opportunity
Explore collaborative ways to use AI in the customer service experience and beyond
Paige Peterson
November 09, 2023 • 6 minutes
There is a distinct fear in creative circles that AI is out to replace human artistry, but the fact is, AI is still very far off from creating a masterpiece in any medium.
Jeff Cotten, Chief Executive Officer at Alvaria, and Darryl Kelly, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, share their extensive expertise and unique perspectives on leveraging emerging technology to improve both human and organizational performance. They offer a look into the unexpected possibilities of AI-generated content, and how AI and humans collaborating together can transform customer service with more personalized, more engaging experiences for both employees and customers.
Balancing the AI-human partnership for explosive creative expansion
When AI and human experience come together, the results can be impressive and completely personalized — a stark difference from the generic chatbots that come to mind when considering early AI applications. According to Jeff and Darryl, this promising partnership should be embraced, both on the employee and customer side, rather than feared.
“Human and machine can really be in the loop to make experiences more personalized,” Darryl says. “The more we can make tangible and applicable to our lives, the more we will adopt. I think it’s beautiful.”
Breaking into the undefined space of customer service-AI intersection
With endless potential applications, AI is a broad technology existing in a largely undefined space. Each application and system is full of untapped potential, and enterprises, customer service teams, other professionals, and consumers are the pioneers gearing up to explore the new landscape.
“We get to define it, we get to harness it, we get to shape it,” Darryl says. “It’s beautiful and encouraging, but there’s also a lot of responsibility to do it right.”
Using AI to build personalized content and improve agent and customer experiences
Many of AI’s current applications aren’t necessarily intuitive or easy to utilize. However, we may see an improvement in agent productivity and customer satisfaction with live, personalized content in the near future. While this may look different across various applications, it could include live information or feedback provided to customer service teams during customer calls or meetings.
For example, AI tools have the power to provide customer data, strategy suggestions, and feedback during a conversation. However, the technology must be able to listen and understand in real time to provide this type of feedback.
“We’ve got something that’s really near-term called a virtual employee assistant,” Jeff says. “This tech needs to give little helpful nuggets that can be actioned upon in real time. We need to make sure the agent has the things they need to improve their interactions with the company they are working for, too.”
The experiences an agent has with an organization are just as important as the customer experience — they help shape the company holistically and determine overall customer experience health. By utilizing AI technology to better improve agent experience, customer interactions can thrive.
“The tools we’re bringing allow that quality experience to be more effective and more continuous. We shouldn’t wait for a moment to deliver coaching or feedback,” Darryl says. “We, as employees, want to be engaged. AI can help us pay attention at scale.”
The translation of improved experience to increased brand equity
The overall experience a brand offers should arguably be top-of-mind for an organization. However, it can sometimes be treated as secondary. To better understand, and therefore improve, brand experience, organizations should take a close look at the value they promise and deliver at every single step.
When organizations can defend the product they are offering at every touchpoint, they are able to take a holistic view of the overall brand experience — if the quality varies, opportunities to improve customer service are brought to light.
“The most important thing is delivering quality at scale,” Darryl says. “Delivering consistent and personalized experiences at scale depends on how the agent feels, and what tools are accessible — this is what generative AI can do at scale.”
By implementing AI-generated content to support agents and provide them with the tools they need exactly when they need them, brands can create consistency that improves brand equity and experience from both sides of a touchpoint.
Without modern tools, organizations are at the mercy of regular, delayed check-ins and feedback loops that often come too late, leaving agents feeling unseen and continuously providing experiences that may unintentionally not be up to par.
The human shift from trivial tasks to providing delight
According to Jeff, humans aren’t going anywhere in the customer service and experience realm. But, they will experience a shift that many will actually enjoy.
In addition to providing live feedback to agents, AI-generated content and automation play a huge role in greatly decreasing the number of trivial, repetitive tasks human agents often handle. Rather than investing endless hours into answering the same customer queries again and again, human agents will be able to shift their focus to real challenges in their systems, ultimately gaining the time and ability to provide more delightful experiences to their customers.
“Things aren’t always going to work right, and that’s where humans can flip customer mindsets,” Jeff says. “When an angry customer comes to you and you help them solve a really complex problem and delight them in some way — that’s where humans will go over time.”
As AI and chatbot automation handle more of these tasks, humans will have the power and capacity to truly create a differentiated brand experience.
What’s next? Taking steps toward valuable AI applications in your industry
ChatGPT took the world by storm, with experts and novices alike running to test ideas and challenge the system. While this generative AI content creation process is impressive, it doesn’t translate directly into business use cases.
According to Jeff, the next step towards valuable organizational AI applications must be industry-specific and built upon existing AI chatbot systems. Simply put — ChatGPT and AI writing tools aren’t the answer to all of your automation and business problems. However generative AI does offer a strong foundation for building the next generation of customer experience.
“Organizations are going to have to take the raw capability to generate things like sophisticated stories based on facts, data, and information and put it in the context of industry-specific experience,” Jeff says.
To do this, Jeff suggests exploring existing organizations already in the process of developing solutions to gauge what’s currently happening and what’s to come. Use cases across industries can inform each other.
Likewise, Darryl emphasizes the importance of embracing creativity and fun. With the new realm of possibilities with generative AI tools, it’s important to experiment and pursue ideas. Capabilities will be greatly impacted by the people behind the ideation and development of the technology.
“Go be playful, be a child, pretend they’re Lego blocks, and get creative, do some fun things,” Darryl says. “Understand how you’re interacting with AI on a daily basis today and ask big questions. It’s equally as important to experiment.”
Generative AI has the ability to change the way your business and the world operate. While it won’t be replacing humans in the foreseeable future, humans are the key to unlocking the true power AI applications can have in improving holistic experiences across industries.
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