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20 Panelists
The Future of Customer Experience in AI
October 30, 2018
The Future of Customer Experience. Best practices in using digital tools and technology to improve customer experience and streamline process. Applyin... See more
Executive Summary
Virtual and personal assistants driven by AI are everywhere; great for routine tasks because they are inexpensive and efficient. Alexa, Siri, Echo, and other such devices embody this technology..
- The Google Assistant seems to be everyone’s favorite VA; useful for general knowledge, ordering food, making reservations, online shopping, …
- Demographics plays a large role in foretelling the future of the VA space.
- The underlying technology can monitor a lot more data sets; taking care of many activities without failing.
- Users today are smart, do not appreciate being told what to do, but appreciate experiences that knows what the user will do next plus giving them choices.
Theme Content Brief
We began to better understand some of the leading digital technologies using AI today by examining "Voice Command and Visual Search", "Leveraging Big Data"", " Integration into Mobile Strategies", and "Chatbots" during our last four themes. Having "Virtual Assistant's" that act as a personal concierge is the last top five innovation using AI today that is pioneering the best practices using digital tools and technology to improve the customer experience, deliver beyond customer expectations, and to streamline the process that we will want to examine. We will use the foundation we create from examining the leading digital technologies using AI today to pose new themes that will realistically explore the future of customer experience and applying AI.
Please approach and answer this theme using: your personal experiences; your professional expertise; and the industry(s) that you work in for evaluating (maybe using S.W.O.T., S-Curve analysis, or some other quantitative and/or qualitative analysis method, commenting, criticizing (cons), complimenting (pros) ;and any other opinion, unintended consequence or outcome resulting from the leading digital technologies using AI today posed in the current theme.
There are a ton options for when, where and how to leverage AI, but if you are looking for quick impact, there are five ways AI tools can help drive results across the customer experience with or without the heavy lift. The fifth AI tool is:
5. Having Virtual Assistants that can be your personal concierge: Leverage AI tools to make your most lucrative customer segments feel known and valued. Virtual Assistants (that use AI, speech recognition and loads of data) can serve as a personal concierge, helping loyal customers with purchase recommendations, education and customer service. Loyalty programs can also use AI to supercharge personalization. They can recommend products based on local weather conditions, hyper-personalized subscription services and tailored promotions based on what resonates with each customer specifically.
So we will now begin our next theme by asking the following question: How have "Virtual Assistants", acting as a personal concierge, changed, improved, or harmed the customer experience today?
Would you please help me? My LinkedIn account has been hacked, a crazy scam has been sent to my connections, and I can't login or reset my account ... THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN TO ME .... It just happened to a friend who called me for "assistance."
Inspired by Himanshu Bharadwaj's post below, I thought about her situation and her journey in beginning the resolution of the problem. As it turns out (no surprise), LinkedIn doesn't have a phone number that you can call for help. After some digging, she found a web form to log the report of her account being compromised. She soon thereafter received an email requesting proof of identity. This is a necessary annoyance, right? LinkedIn couldn't verify her identity by her login, as she COULDN'T LOGIN.
The problem is still in email H311.
Could a chatbot / virtual assistant have handled this? I actually believe it could. A well designed and engineering chat form could have allowed her to provide other bits of information to verify her identity, and also upload a picture of her identification (front and back, of course), and move the process along rapidly and efficiently.
Any thoughts for other ways a VA could be truly assistive?
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We take it for granted that our microwaves will heat up food or coffeemakers will brew coffee. As gadgets are capable of connecting to a wi-fi signal and the programs that are used to run them become more complex (now allowing them to accept commands from a connected device), we are seeing introduction of devices like a microwave oven that works with Alexa.
The latest story is that of Roku and Google Assistant joining forces. They both needed each other (Roku had only a rudimentary voice command system and Google did not have a TV the way Apple has Apple TV and Amazon has Fire TV).
For the next few years, I expect to see a lot options being explored, but as we have seen with operating systems, one or two will emerge as the leaders in the universe of virtual assistants and then most gadgets will simply incorporate features that will enable them to connect to whatever your preferred assistant is.
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I remember seeing Burger King's 'Subservient Chicken' application in early 2000. That was the Virtual Assistant of the decade. It helped in the innovation of Virtual assistants that came after it. Today a good virtual assistant is one that is frictionless and invisible. User should not even know someone is holding his hand and walking through a digital experience. Virtual Assistants have to almost assume a God like quality of being Omnipresent, Omniscient and invisible to be successful..
Users today are smart and do not appreciate being told what to do, but appreciate experiences that knows what the user will do next.
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Although AI will be an adopted technology in the future, the programming is vital. People to people relationships is and will most likely have value.
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Our themes so far have asked about the benefits of AI to innovate the improvement of customer experience. Our discussions have also responded to the question of how such uses of intelligent software may have diminished the relationship between a brand and it's current and prospective consumers. Here are a few reasons why I have found it difficult to identify damage as a result of thoughtful and creative forays into the use of AI. And it's simply because the many fears we see in the media are quite unfounded. These include the concerns over unintended bias, the shortfall in explainability, and the overall replacement of human workers. While these factors exist, current applications of AI have not been allowed to operate autonomously in high risk areas. And given risk-averse business environments, untested AI applications are not likely to be adopted wholesale anytime soon.
The real challenge is to channel this fear of bad outcomes into a pragmatic perspective on the benefits that are achievable today. Perhaps the "fear of missing out" may be the best substitution and drive enthusiastic action.
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General Knowledge
These days, when we have a question, we can just ask a computer. Virtual assistants are playing a major role in this digital era. Although they are still not perfect, they are evolving at a fast pace and answering questions correctly more often than in the past, giving solid and fast answers with context and citing sources.
Smart Home
Voice assistant devices as Google Home, Apple HomePod and Amazon Echo are designed to help us interact with our smart home quickly and easily - they can connect to multiple IoT devices at the same time. Below I have listed some of the pros of a smart home:
- Increasing Autonomy: for example, hands-free technologies may increase autonomy for the elderly and individuals with disabilities.
- Keep your home safe: you can connect your virtual assistant to your smart home security devices to make it easier to keep your property safe by giving voice commands to Alexa.
- Save money on energy bills: virtual assistants can control smart home devices, including next-gen lighting options.
Others
Ordering food, making reservations and online shopping are three other areas where virtual assistants can be very useful.
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To me, arrival of virtual assistant to business applications like CRM is a signal that the technology is now mature enough to convince the CTOs. As Joana Santos said, if it can make grandma's life easier, it sure can make a salesperson's life easier who can focus more of his/her time on interacting with customer and less time on interacting with a computer.
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Well, while we don't have a very large sample size, but clearly Alexa is major player in this space. Late yesterday, Amazon announced new hardware that integrates with Alexa. Some of the ones that stood out to me:
- Alexa Auto (goes on the dashboard of your car and gives you Alexa capabilities while you're driving)
- Echo Link (you plug into a stereo, turning your legacy sound system into an Alexa-powered music station)
- Input (turns any regular speaker into a smart speaker)
- Microwave (wirelessly connects to another Alexa device in your kitchen and takes commands that way)
- Smart plug (Insert it into an electrical conduit, plug in an appliance like a light, space heater, or coffee maker, and you can now turn that device on or off with your voice)
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It does not surprise me. As awesome as Amazon is in retailing, it has never had tremendous success with devices. Even Kindle is no longer cool.
Contrary to my expectation, Google has done pretty well in hardware mainly because of its Android OS. Sort of reminds me of how Windows found success against MacOS.
And I guess Apple does a good job only with smartphones; even the smartwatch has not been a great success.
So, if I were to put my money on it, I would say that Google will dominate this space. I also say this for another reason. Based on some of my work in the autonomous vehicles space and my understanding of how Google's search algorithm and Google Translation work, I would put this company among the top five in the field of AI in the world. Amazon does some good work but I do not believe that there are pioneers in this field. Apple itself has had some success in AI but is nowhere close to where Google is.
In conclusion, because of its hold on Amazon Prime customers, the company will have success penetrating that group but as everyone expects that we all would have a smart speaker one day and use AI assistants, chances are very high that it will be Google. It is so easy for the company to commercialize its AI success in one field (e.g. autonomous vehicles) to other products.
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Demographics plays a large role in answering this question and foretelling the future of this space. We have seen a massive movement in personal assistants through Amazon, Google and Apple devices. The primary driver of growth in this segment has been the Millennial and Gen-X demographic. Baby boomers, on the whole, are less accepting of this new technology. (speaking in general terms). For the generations that have grown up on technology and incorporating social media and other technology into everyday life, virtual assistants will hold a valuable space in all aspects of the customer experience area. I think at this juncture, we can safely say that the customer experience has been enhanced with the use of virtual assistants.
Another area of interest in this space is working with virtual assistants to better add value to peopel with impairments. A recent article in "Fast Company" which provided some insights on how there is a lot of research and investigation how smart devices can be incorporated to assist those with physical or cognitive impairments by automating crucial activities and services, such as opening and closing doors, or contacting medical professionals.
Personally, I still like human interaction when I have a customer service or account issue. However, I will accept a "chat" solution or other virtual assistant or automated solution if the opportunity to speak to a human is not available or a long wait.
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When Jason Griesenauer wrote previously "It can learn your commute patterns..", it is very important to remember that in order for an AI virtual assistant to be useful, it has to learn a lot about you. The more it knows, the better it can be at recommending and solving problems. For instance, if I never reveal to my virtual assistant that I am lactose intolerant or avoid red meat whenever possible or drink mostly craft beer, it might keep recommending restaurants that wouldn't appeal to me.
In other words, if I want my assistant to be useful, I must share as much as possible and keep reinforcing it (the algorithms are written around giving more weight to repeat behavior -- if I keep making reservations at Continental food restaurants out of convenience because that is what most hotels have, the AI will interpret it as my preferred cuisine even though I might prefer Chinese food).
So how are human agents (still) superior to AI virtual agents?
- My EA is the only one who needs to know and I just need to tell her once. Yeah, she might share the info with someone else but these are harmless details. Does anyone else care that I prefer a hotel room with a coffeemaker or I would rather take longer to get to a hotel, but I don't like the noise level in airport hotels. Unfortunately, with AI, these details are owned by someone else and I don't have much control over how they use the information. Chances are that they will get a kickback when they recommend a hotel away from the airport and the next thing I know the information is available to a lot more entities.
- My EA can make decisions beyond the parameters that typically limit an AI algorithm. Because I flew into Boston and will miss my scheduled flight because of a meeting running late, the algorithm will try to schedule me on a later flight or if it is really intelligent, get me a hotel for the night and put me on a flight the next day. My EA, on the other hand, might call my cousin in New Hampshire who I haven't seen in 3 years and alert her that I have a night to spend doing nothing. So when I get out my meeting, instead of dealing with hotels and flights, I have a message from my cousin inviting to spend the night at her home.
Conclusion: AI, at least at the level we have it now, has some use but human agents still do a much better job. They are also discreet and you only need to tell them once.
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The Google Assistant is currently my favorite example of a Virtual Assistant. It can learn your commute patterns and recommend the best time to leave for work or home while also recommending the best route to take based on current traffic conditions. It can do these things proactively, not just when you ask it, if you've put the right settings in place.
Apply the Google Assistant to your photo library and it automatically categorizes them based on the people in the photos, the places they were taken, and the objects included in the photo. The assistant also proactively clips what it determines to be the best portion of a video and turns it into a looping GIF, creates collages of related photos, pieces together clips from videos to recap periods of time and compares photos of children when they were babies and toddlers to when they have grown up.
These little touches throughout the day have improved the customer experience through small increments at a time but in a delightful way that, once experienced, are hard to imagine living without.
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I just got off the phone with a human agent from D&B (with whom I have an account to run credit checks on firms). She was making sure that everything was going well and I was getting all I needed from them. I appreciate such in-person interaction and there is no way to replace this experience. For instance, she tried to dig deeper into how I use the D&B reports and was surprised that I don't use them to screen customers but more to screen acquisition targets for my clients.
Could this phone call have been done by a virtual assistant? Yes. It would have also been cheaper for D&B, but they still chose to put a live person on the phone to call me. Why?
- If this phone call was structured as a survey (phone or web-based), chances are very high I would have ignored it.
- My responses, in case I would have responded, would have been more boxed. That does not always give the insights that you need.
- I also got a warm and fuzzy feeling about the call knowing that D&B cares for my business and has live agents ready to help.
So when do virtual assistants make sense?
I like the way airlines use technology to guide you as you are approaching your flight departure time: reminder to check in, prompts to upgrade, report on weather/hotel etc., alerts to take advantage of a promotion to earn more miles, etc. A human agent can do all of this but it will be so inefficient since these are routine tasks. I am fine with just an alert that it is time to check in rather than have a polite agent greet me, help with checking in, and then sign off. I will have to engage in a conversation that is probably unnecessary.
Best approach
Routine tasks are best handled by a virtual agent because it is inexpensive and efficient. The underlying technology can monitor a lot more data sets and can take care of many activities without failing.
For more complex tasks or to appreciate the relationship, nothing better than two human beings have a conversation.
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I fully agree - and wanted to expand on - your thought about "appreciating the relationship." Indeed, perhaps there are complex tasks that would be better served by an AI assistant - the classic example here would be complicated math problems, but you could say the same for taking a great deal of requests from a person (e.g., I need these dates 5 miles from this location and it needs to have a pool and a hotel room with connecting doors). Fulfilling that type of complex request while ensuring that you're building trust with the guest by getting them all of the right answers very quickly would take a human agent significantly longer to source hotels matching all of those criteria whereas an AI assistant (provided everything is categorized on the backend, which is a large caveat) would be able to do this instantaneously. So I suppose what I'm suggesting is more of a quadrant, where you have simple / complex on one axis and routine / emotional on the other axis.
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My view of AI personal assistants is embodied in Alexa and Siri and Echo and other such devices. People willingly bring these devices into their home and use them as "Personal Assistants"..
I like these devices because they give customers as choice.
The customer is free to use these devices to whatever extent they wish. Some people use them a great deal, Other people use them a little. Other people don't even have one in their house and never will.
But the common theme is that there is CHOICE. The customer is the decision maker.
In other types of AI devices like chat bots, the AI engine is crammed down the throat of the customer whether or not they like it. That is the recipe for disaster. Customers leave because of this.
But when a customer is given a choice, it is the best type of AI because then the only limit of the tool is it's technology. If a customer chooses to use Alexa, then the extent of the use is related to how well the tool is designed.
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What I would really like to see, though, from AI-self is to not just to take care of the routine tasks, but also tasks that I truly dislike, for example, negotiating with used car salesman or asking for my money back if I am not satisfied with a product/service. I can't imagine the meltdown of the executives at cable companies.
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Microsoft sees future versions of the personal digital assistant as the development of an 'alter ego' or really a second self... As a result companies will have to work with governments and academia to determine the ethical implications of using AI in our daily lives. By 2038 digital devices will help us do more with one of our most precious commodities: "time.”
Microsoft Harry Shum, EVP of AI and research, Microsoft president Brad Smith new book “The Future Computed,”
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On other occasions, I like the option to pick up the phone and simply talk to a live agent to figure out my options when a planned trip must be rescheduled.
I get quite irritated when a provider tries to force you to AI for whatever reason.
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keyboard_arrow_down The strengths of AI "Virtual Assistants", acting as a personal concierge,
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format_quoteRoutine tasks are best handled by a virtual agent because it is inexpensive and efficient. The underlying technology can monitor a lot more data sets and can take care of many activities without failing.
By: Jay D
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format_quoteMy view of AI personal assistants is embodied in Alexa and Siri and Echo and other such devices. People willingly bring these devices into their home and use them as "Personal Assistants"..
I like these devices because they give customers as choice.By: Donald Wedding
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format_quoteOthers
Ordering food, making reservations and online shopping are three other areas where virtual assistants can be very useful.By: Joana Santos
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format_quoteToday a good virtual assistant is one that is frictionless and invisible. User should not even know someone is holding his hand and walking through a digital experience. Virtual Assistants have to almost assume a God like quality of being Omnipresent, Omniscient and invisible to be successful..
By: Himanshu Bharadwaj
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format_quoteThe primary driver of growth in this segment has been the Millennial and Gen-X demographic.
By: Rob Bickford
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format_quoteGeneral Knowledge
By: Joana Santos
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format_quoteThe power of the Google Home device (and other Google assistants) is based largely on the history Google keeps of our activities across all their products.
By: Jack C Crawford
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keyboard_arrow_down The weaknesses of AI "Virtual Assistants", acting as a personal concierge,
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format_quoteI think what you've mentioned around routine vs. complex tasks is an important lens, and I'd add to it an aspect of "what level of emotional support customers expect to receive during that interaction" as a second dimension.
By: Jenna Louie
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format_quoteFor more complex tasks or to appreciate the relationship, nothing better than two human beings have a conversation.
By: Jay D
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format_quoteThe limitation and challenge with AI virtual assistant
By: Jay D
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format_quoteBaby boomers, on the whole, are less accepting of this new technology. (speaking in general terms).
By: Rob Bickford
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format_quoteUsers today are smart and do not appreciate being told what to do, but appreciate experiences that knows what the user will do next.
By: Himanshu Bharadwaj
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keyboard_arrow_down The threats from AI "Virtual Assistants", acting as a personal concierge,
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format_quoteMicrosoft sees future versions of the personal digital assistant as the development of an 'alter ego' or really a second self... As a result companies will have to work with governments and academia to determine the ethical implications of using AI in our daily lives.
By: Carola van der Linden
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format_quoteThat Amazon Basics Microwave is downright creepy. And I'm an early adopter of all things regardless of my loss of privacy. But knowing when I melt cheese on bread is just too far. :)
By: Jack C Crawford
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format_quotecontrary to my general opinion about negative influences of AI, the apparent BIAS in human resource systems is a risk both to organizational effectiveness, and to our goals of a fair society.
By: Jack C Crawford
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keyboard_arrow_down Best "Virtual Assistant"?
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format_quoteI would say that Google will dominate this space. I also say this for another reason. Based on some of my work in the autonomous vehicles space and my understanding of how Google's search algorithm and Google Translation work,
By: Jay D
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format_quoteAlexa
By: Donald Wedding
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format_quoteThe Google Assistant is currently my favorite example of a Virtual Assistant.
By: Jason G
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format_quoteSiri
By: Donald Wedding
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format_quotea human agent
By: Jay D
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format_quoteEcho
By: Donald Wedding
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format_quoteInput (turns any regular speaker into a smart speaker)
By: Jay D
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format_quoteMicrowave (wirelessly connects to another Alexa device in your kitchen and takes commands that way)
By: Jay D
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format_quoteSmart plug (Insert it into an electrical conduit, plug in an appliance like a light, space heater, or coffee maker, and you can now turn that device on or off with your voice)
By: Jay D
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keyboard_arrow_down The opportunities for AI "Virtual Assistants", acting as a personal concierge,
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format_quotethere is a lot of research and investigation how smart devices can be incorporated to assist those with physical or cognitive impairments by automating crucial activities and services, such as opening and closing doors, or contacting medical professionals.
By: Rob Bickford
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format_quoteSmart Home
By: Joana Santos
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format_quoteWhat I would really like to see, though, from AI-self is to not just to take care of the routine tasks, but also tasks that I truly dislike, for example, negotiating with used car salesman or asking for my money back if I am not satisfied with a product/service.
By: Jay D
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format_quoteI suppose what I'm suggesting is more of a quadrant, where you have simple / complex on one axis and routine / emotional on the other axis.
By: Jenna Louie
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format_quotethe technology is now mature enough to convince the CTOs. As Joana Santos said, if it can make grandma's life easier, it sure can make a salesperson's life easier who can focus more of his/her time on interacting with customer and less time on interacting with a computer.
By: Jay D
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format_quoteThose brands/services with a more open (transparent) customer experience would likely benefit more from an automated assistant than a firm that relies on human pitching. Why? Because the AI hasn't quite reached the acumen of a fire-up salesrep. At least not yet.
By: Jack C Crawford
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format_quoteThe real challenge is to channel this fear of bad outcomes into a pragmatic perspective on the benefits that are achievable today. Perhaps the "fear of missing out" may be the best replacement and drive optimistic action.
By: Jack C Crawford
