The Power of Artificial Intelligence in Improving CX

ChatGPT and other novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, including DALL-E and Midjourney, are bringing AI mainstream—with the buzz growing louder by the day. Despite the hype, there’s little doubt that AI and Machine Learning (ML) technologies will be a driving force in the next stage of digital transformation and drastically change how companies interact with their customers. AI will even likely be involved in writing code for AI application development.

As part of a future-friendly technology stack, AI tools will help enable organizations to scale content creation at speed, deliver next-level personalization, and bring real-time engagement to every stage of the customer journey.

AI Tools & Applications to Enhance Customer Experience

AI and ML tools are powering an ever-expanding range of Customer Experience (CX) applications, from helping CX specialists summarize qualitative surveys to providing real-time customer support. 

The most common AI uses for CX can generally be categorized into two distinct groups: customer-facing applications and business analytics applications. Let’s dive a little deeper.

Customer-facing AI Tools for CX

Customer-facing AI and ML tools are designed to engage with the audience and directly enhance their experience with the brand. Chatbots, virtual assistants, recommendation engines, and AI-driven personalization are all examples of tools that help create a more engaging, relevant, and timely customer experience. 

One of the most common AI tools for enterprise organizations is conversational AI, which uses natural language processing (NLP) to simulate human-like conversation. 

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, offers great promise for conversational applications, although it also poses challenges and potential pitfalls. Notable issues with prompt-driven generative AI include reports of bias, prompt injection, and nonsensical responses known as hallucinations. There are even reports of AI forgetting its software and claiming to be human.

Despite the drawbacks, a recent poll from Gartner shows that 68% of executives believe that the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks.

AI-Powered Business Analytics for CX

Analytics-focused CX applications are business-facing AI tools designed to help strategists and analysts gain insights into customer behavior and preferences—and help executives make business decisions. These tools use AI to analyze customer data, predict customer needs, and identify opportunities for improvement. 

We expect to see a meteoric rise in plug-and-play AI analytics offerings in the near future. Even though most AI-powered CX analytics tools currently require technical orchestration to integrate with custom domains, the technology is advancing exponentially. 

We see a big future for AI informing customer segmentation, journey mapping, customer review analytics, demand forecasting, and price optimization, to name a few use cases.

Developing AI-powered CX tools

For insights on developing AI applications, I turned to Jefferson Cunha, a Senior Strategist at CI&T and driving force for many of our current AI initiatives. 

To get the most out of any AI implementation, Jefferson recommends “testing relentlessly in a controlled environment to ensure the application is ready for prime time.”

AI integration requires an iterative development approach and should include Human Reinforcement Learning (HRL), which incorporates human feedback and guidance for an AI system as it learns. Jefferson also suggests employing automatic filters to trigger human interaction.

The Road Ahead for AI in CX 

We’re just at the early stages of AI and ML tools and applications to improve customer experience at scale. But the road ahead will not be without obstacles. 

Cesar Gon, CI&T CEO and Founder, recently shared his insights on AI’s ethical challenges and societal transformation in Software is Eating the World, and AI is Changing the Menu, originally published in the MIT Sloan Review. He sums up the situation nicely:

“The AI revolution has only just begun, and the menu of technology capabilities available to us is changing fundamentally. The stakes are higher than ever and we must make sure we steer the course of this odyssey, ensuring that we navigate towards a destination for the betterment of all.”

We’re sure AI is here to stay. The question is: How will you use it to make better and more meaningful customer relationships?

For more future-friendly ideas, download the CI&T Trends for the Future report.

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