In a recent Diary of a CEO podcast, the Godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, confirmed what many of us have feared for some time – AI is going to take our jobs. In fact, he went further, suggesting that the machines could even wipe out humanity. During this fascinating conversation with host Steven Bartlett, Hinton explained that AI is to our society what the industrial revolution was to generations past; this time, it is jobs involving the mind, rather than muscle, which are being targeted.
Inevitably, the AI conversation, in relation to the contact centre industry, has focused on replacing agents. The term Agentic AI is used to describe machines that can make autonomous decisions. It is estimated that there are approximately 17 million contact centre agents around the world, and the industry is continuing to grow, with the market size of over $41 billion in 2023 expected to rise to in excess of $100 billion in the next three years. This is a huge amount of money for what has often been referred to as a ‘cost centre’.
The message that AI can replace agents or help one agent to do the work of ten people will resonate strongly in the boardroom. But is it the right thing to do? Not just from a moral standpoint, but from a commercial and customer perspective.
Undoubtedly, a raft of innovative technologies has transformed contact centres and customer service over the past 25 years, helping to reduce customer wait times, ensuring they speak to the best person to handle their enquiry and enabling it to be dealt with in the most efficient way. This has been further aided by the adoption of online services and messaging apps, to empower customers to self-serve, when and where they prefer, whilst reducing ‘avoidable contact’ for more mundane tasks.
Online banking is a great example, and earlier today, I found myself in a strange situation when I was sitting in a high-street coffee shop that was once a bank. As I sipped my latte (or “Latty” as I pronounce it in my native Yorkshire tongue), I was on my phone transferring some money from one bank account to another. It was not lost on me that a few years ago, I would have been in a queue in a similar building, or on the phone to do the same thing.
The key is that I know that if I need to speak with someone about an issue, then I can. And at this point in time, I would prefer that person to be a real person.
Having a conversation with a machine is becoming more commonplace, with the likes of Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices selling over half a billion units around the world. What’s more, they have come on leaps and bounds in terms of their understanding and how they sound, but they are far from able to replicate a two-way conversation – yet! Despite this, some organisations are attempting to give the impression that you are speaking with a live agent, and the experience can unravel very quickly.
After I finished my online banking, I had a few minutes spare, so I visited a website of a local car dealership that I had been in contact with a few days earlier regarding a test drive. I was looking for a telephone number as I needed to reschedule the appointment, when a pop-up invited me to speak with Grace, who was ‘online now’. I clicked on the prompt, and Grace greeted me and asked how she could help. I asked if she could give Cameron (the dealer) a message, and it became immediately obvious that Grace was neither in the showroom nor a real person. Grace was also unable to switch me to a live person, so I reverted to plan A and called Cameron.
It is a similar case at the supermarket checkout, where we scan and pack our bags, and wait for one member of staff to confirm our age, weight of items, or carry out one of the seemingly very frequent spot checks. Supermarkets say that self-checkouts are there to make it quicker and easier for shoppers, but in my experience, it means fewer staff, similar length checkout times, and I am doing all the work (but strangely not receiving any financial reward in exchange for my work).
My point is that technology, whether AI-powered or otherwise, should help organisations to be more productive and operate more efficiently. Whether that means using fewer (or even no) people is a commercial and moral discussion for each boardroom. However, whilst we are all glued to our screens, we do sometimes need and want to look up from them and have a real interaction with a person who can relate, empathise and connect on a human level. That is what the best contact centre technologies facilitate.
As many have said, the genie is out of the bottle when it comes to AI, and it presents many fantastic opportunities for contact centres in back-office operations and the front line. There is also a case that Agentic AI will help level the playing field and enable smaller enterprises that could not afford to operate a contact centre to deliver more service to more people. Furthermore, given the advances in natural language processing and emotion detection, I suspect there will come a time in the not-too-distant future where it will not be possible to distinguish between a human and Agentic AI during certain types of calls. And, when that time comes, organisations will have to think hard about the direction they take.
But looking at the bigger picture, what does that mean for the future of the contact centre and the livelihoods it supports? Will customers receive a better customer experience? Will the ‘cost centre’ get wiped from the company books? If recent research from the likes of Gartner is to be believed most customers would currently prefer not to speak with AI agents, yet despite this, those responsible for delivering service are under pressure to embrace the technology. Being an earlier adopter can be a gamechanger, but if it is driven by short-term cost cutting, rather than longer term customer strategy, it has the potential to backfire, if customer vote with their feet.
I suspect (and very much hope) that organisations will strike a balance as they have before, as transformative innovations have arrived on the market. Since the first outbound sales call in 1910, the telephone has been a cornerstone of customer communication, and whilst the channels may change, the premise of providing a conduit through which people can connect with other people will continue to deliver value for any business that places a premium on customer service and experience.
