Botman vs. SuperAgent: AI & Customer Service.
Dr Nicola J. Millard, Head of Customer Insight & Futures,BT Global Services Innovation [email protected] | @DocNicola
From East Coast to West: the Story Starts Here in 1990.
From BT Labs to Burnham-on-Sea
A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence in BT....Expert Systems for Customer Facing Environments (ESCFE) – 1990-93
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Com
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– re
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Product/service knowledgeProcess knowledge
Policy/RegulationCustomer careSystem knowledge
More accurate & consistent
call handling
Quicker access to expertise, regardless of skill level of customer or advisor.
Thanks to Dr Tony Houghton, Mike Ward & Dr Michael Gardner.Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Accommodating different levels of expertise in customer & staff.Dialogue created dynamically according to information from customer and/or from database.
A comms expert might offer information which is entered directly into the form window.
Has any testing been done?
Automatically eliminates certain questions based on the answers to previous ones.
Form window allows customer to offer information when they want – rather than sticking to a rigid script – and dialogue paths are modified accordingly.
OR: the advisor is guided by the dialogue window as to what questions to ask a less expert user.
Can you locate the modem?
Enters information from dialogue into multiple databases on the back end.
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence in BT....Epsilon, 1993-1995, Newcastle & Thurso.
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Product/service knowledgeProcess knowledge
Policy/RegulationCustomer careSystem knowledge
Push dialogue &
links to back end
information
Advisor gets quicker
access to relevant
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Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
AI in Action at the Customer Interface: Making things easy by curating choice.
"I don’t foresee anything replacing customers calling for help, but their contacts will become more complex. We may also have to reach out to them more often”,
Manager, CCMA Ireland.
Primary function of contact centres in 2020.
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016Source: Millard & Alcock (2014), SuperAgent 2020, BT White Paper
When things go wrong, which channels will we be using in 2020?
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016Source: Millard & Alcock (2014), SuperAgent 2020, BT White Paper
Challenges:• Works for simple queries – effectively steering the
customer through the “known knowns”, i.e. GIGO.• More difficult for complaints/complexity - if we
get angry, we tend to tell long, rambling stories which are hard to parse.
• Sarcasm tends to throw algorithms: e.g. “Thanks, @TrainCo for my free sauna this morning”; “It was so good to see that your maintenance department hadn’t spoiled things by making unnecessary repairs”; “I would have cheerfully strangled them”.
• Limited ability to parse emotional context - YET!
Chat is where it’s at: are chatbots “IVR for digital”?
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Screenshot: Digital Genius
10
Robo and other automated advice only appeals to 1 in 6 consumers.
Automated advice - you would be presented with a set of multiple choice
options (for example your appetite to financial risk - High Med, Low) and as
you enter your answers the system dynamically changes to ultimately
providing a recommendation/advice based on your input
Might be useful
Really add value 14%
43%
Financial service online games - Fun tools that help you with money, for
example Apps that set goals for savings, give you tips on better driving
for cheaper insurance or help you budget weekly and games which
teach children about money and help first time buyers understand home
ownership
Might be useful
Really add value 13%
36%
Robo-advice - where you get basic advice about financial
services pensions and investments from a government
regulated online or voice recognition service, but the cost
to you is a fraction of an independent financial advisor
Self-help videos about financial services products - impartial and
useful information about banking, insurance, pensions and
investments which you can watch in your own time
Might be useful
Really add value 14%
40%
Might be useful
Really add value 18%
53%
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016Source: Davies/Hickman (2016), Youbiquity Finance, BT White Paper
Managing social media: DebateScape.
Thanks to Dr Simon Thompson .
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
"Customers are calling us about an issue because of the complexity of the world we are living in. We have termed this a ‘contact centre job’ – with people being paid the same wage as ten years ago. That is
unsustainable – you will not get expert problem solvers who are shifting organisations in six monthly cycles – they are call handlers – we need expert problem solvers”,
CCMA UK, Contact Centre Strategist.
Super agent skills 2020.
Source: Millard & Alcock (2014), SuperAgent 2020, BT White Paper
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Intelligent skills based routing regarded as vital to get customers to the person with the right skills. Cloud and big data analytics are regarded as less important but are key (and often hidden) technologies underpinning flexible contact capabilities & intelligent call steering.
Key technologies 2020.
Source: Millard & Alcock (2014), SuperAgent 2020, BT White Paper
Being Proactive using big data and AI: Aperture.
Thanks to Dr Detlef Nauck .
• Interactive models of customer behaviour
• Data from customer service processes & customer feedback.
• Ability to build in other related data, e.g. weather forecasts, Internet of Things.
• Identification of drivers.
• Ability to build “what if” scenarios, e.g. volumes, staffing levels, backlogs etc.
• Used for churn & complaints prevention.
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Proactive analytics and Security: Saturn.
Thanks to Dr Ben Azvine.
Enabling automatic notification of:
• Agile fusion of information feeds from multiple sources
• Artificial Intelligence based knowledge management and interactive visualisation
• Interactive Human/Machine data analysis for identifying patterns or links
Failures
Anomalies
PotentialThreats
Attack
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
44%Would share social media profile to get better service
4 in 5Like orgs using technology to listen to calls if the agent is rude or a problem arises
71%Like it when organisations notice consumers have problems on their website and try to help
55%Might share location with organisation for a better service
The emerging “ego” system:
62%Find dealing with customer service issues exhausting
55%I put a lot of effort into safeguarding my rights
54%Give feedback to companies but they don’t change
The more information I give, the better customer service I expect
48%China
63%UAE
75%India
62%Singapore
66%USA
69%Indonesia
63%UK
56%Belgium
57%Germany
74%Spain
Source: Davies/Hickman (2015), The Autonomous Customer, BT/Avaya
Creating smart customer service: it’s all about me!
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Botman + SuperAgent.
“Hollowing out” & “Uberisation” of work
Pattern matching & unstructured problem solving, e.g. Watson,
Digital Genius.
Chatbots, e.g. Siri, M, Cortana, Amelia and many, many more.
Robot customer service – e.g. Pepper, EMIEW3
Robotic Process Automation.
Copyright: BT Global Services, 2016
Thank You.Dr Nicola J. MillardHead of Customer Insight & FuturesBT Global Services Innovation [email protected]@DocNicola
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