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Customer experience (Cx) and artificial intelligence (AI) are a match made in heaven. Today, engaging and incredible customer experiences are built on the pillars of personalisation, quick resolutions, and 24/7 availability. For the brand, providing customers with these experiences involves cost-efficient, omnichannel, automated, secure, insightful and analytical solutions. 

AI does it all – it enables brands and customers to provide and experience exceptional customer experiences. So, how are brands incorporating this transformative technology into their Cx strategies? 

Exotel, which is a leading provider of AI-powered Cx solutions to over 7,000 clients in more than 60 countries, recently hosted a round table on ‘ Enhancing customer satisfaction through AI-powered solutions, from engagement to experience’. Held on June 20, it focused on how AI is disrupting the landscape of Cx as well as its impact on different industries.

The discussion featured perspectives from experts in a variety of industries, such as healthtech, edtech, fintech, supply chain management, retail and apparel, recruitment and more. The guests on the panel included Moiz Arsiwala, Co-founder and CTO, Work India; Nishant Chandra, Co-founder, Newton School; Satendra Singh, CTO, Propelld; Amit Kriplani, CTO, Ace Turtle; Vaibhav Magon, AVP Engineering and Head of AI, Cheq; Vishal Uchil, Director of Engineering, ZippMat; Sai Movva, Director of Engineering, Scaler; Kaushal Singh, Head Engineering, JAR; Saraansh Rai, Head of Product, Supertails; Sriram KS, Head-Engineering, M2P; and Shreyans Mehta, Head of Data Science, ApnaKlub. 

The panel was led by Prasanth MLNPP, Vice President- Emerging and Start-up Businesses at Exotel, and hosted by Madanmohan Rao, Research Director, YourStory. 

Exotel’s vision for Gen AI-powered customer experiences

Exotel launched a suite of AI-powered solutions in 2024 for businesses looking to transform their customer communication. The platform provides clients with a range of products and tailormade solutions, such as voicebots, chatbots, conversational intelligence, insights and more. The company has a strong Gen AI foundation to deliver these forward looking solutions now.

Prasanth MLNPP, Vice President – Emerging and Start-up Businesses at Exotel, said working with Gen AI is table stakes now and it is a technology that they are investing in.

He laid out a bold vision for the contact centres of the future. “Imagine getting the collective wisdom of your best agents and the bot being trained on all of that. And then the bot is actually performing as the best agent. Right? It’s a very different experience. The vision is to move towards the Autonomous contact centre” he said. 

The evolution of contact centres would take place over three phases to bridge the gap between agents and Gen AI-powered voice bots. The first phase is the current agent-led contact centre, where agents and admins are assisted by AI. The second is an agent-monitored centre, where human agents would oversee the work of bots. The third would be a centre with no agents. 

Leveraging AI: from the potential to the promise

From customer spend analytics to collection products, detection and elimination of fraudulent jobs, brand marketing and content creation, the speakers at the Exotel round table spoke about leveraging AI for customer engagement, as well as overall efficiency.

The panel represented a spectrum of AI usage, from those who are planning to integrate AI into their customer strategies to those using basic forms of ML to complete tasks, companies just starting their journey with AI to brands actively using the technology to create personalised customer journeys.

For instance, Work India is using AI to flag fraudulent job offers to safeguard job seekers on its platform. On the other hand, Supertails is planning to leverage AI-powered tools to create personalised content recommendations for pet parents, and to garner insights from customer calls to improve their product. 

Nishant Chandra, Co-founder, Newton School, shared an interesting anecdote on how Gen AI was able to help them solve individual customer problems. 

“One interesting case was when one of our learners had scheduled close to 10 mock interview sessions, and had cancelled each time. We realised she was terrified to speak before an interview session, as she came from a Tier II or III town. When we launched a mock interview AI tool, she actually attended five to six interviews one after the other. Mock interviews is one area where AI is better than 50% of interviewers,” he said.

CX stands for customer and context

Context in customer experience is a game changer. According to Prasanth, context is just as important for bots as it is for agents. He discussed the frustration of customers as agents and bots are often unaware of the previous customer interactions across different channels, and that usually impacts the experience of the customer and the efficiency of customer service. Oftentimes, 70-75% of agents’ time goes in understanding the context of a customer request. 

Uchil, from ZippMat, shared his excitement on bringing deeper context into ZippMat’s strategies. Combining context from various touch points could offer consistency in the quality of services offered, bring repeat sales, and inspire brand loyalty in customers. 

Personalise, personalise, personalise

The power of personalisation in Cx cannot be overstated. Various speakers shared how AI-enabled personalisation was a key part of their Cx offerings. 

“Every consumer expects a very personal touch, not just in terms of service, but also in how you treat them in the store. Brand loyalty only comes about if you treat your customers as a very special person. It’s borderline hospitality, to be honest,” said Kriplani, of Ace Turtle. 

According to Kriplani, AI enables personalisation at scale. It provides personalised services consistently to thousands of customers across each and every interaction.

Personalisation also plays a vital role in fintech, edtech, and recruitment, enabling companies in these sectors to offer personalised loan products, customised study plans, or the right job based on a jobseeker’s skill and motivation. 

Privacy and fraud

Another important role that AI plays in customer experience is in safeguarding sensitive information and identifying fraud – two pillars of cybersecurity. Speakers from the finance sector discussed the challenges of sharing sensitive information with third-party providers, the RBI guidelines that dictate the kinds of financial and personal information that businesses have access to (for instance, images for KYC documentation), and the risks of data leakage. 

“I would say making sure that your customer trusts that your software is really good. You can do that by proving yourself to an auditor or meeting a standard. These are the two spaces where you can build more trust and privacy,” said Sriram KS, Head-Engineering, M2P.

The roundtable covered a host of other topics, including the AI-powered self service solutions provided by Scaler, sentiment analysis, AI-driven SMS categorisation by JAR, and ApnaKlub’s plans for augmenting human-centric customer services with AI. 

Exotel concluded the round table by showcasing its product roadmap and its vision for transforming customer experience and engagement. You can reach out to Exotel, via their LinkedIn (or other channels).