In a recent brainstorm roundtable for Frost & Sullivan’s Customer Engagement Leadership Council, Mariano Gutierrez focused on the critical council issue of leveraging evolving technologies. Part presentation and part spontaneous group discussion, the session served as a springboard for generating new ideas and guidelines for effectively and efficiently leveraging AI’s potential. Read on for some of the key challenges, insights and takeaways shared.
ABSTRACT
AI has the potential to transform customer experience by revolutionizing how businesses engage with their customers, but it’s still a mystery to some on how to use it effectively. With extensive experience in proven and successful AI implementations, Gutierrez guided members through actionable steps and critical factors to unlock AI’s potential in the organization.
INTRODUCTION AND OPENING QUESTION
Colloquially and respectfully known as “the AI Guy,” Mariano Gutierrez opened the brainstorming session by asking members: What’s the biggest challenge in your call center operations that AI could help solve effectively? Responses included:
- Writing knowledge articles and leveraging them during calls with customers; making them more user friendly for customers (popular answer)
- Helping clients w/self-service; deflecting tickets and getting questions answered before a call is needed (popular answer)
- Capturing and summarizing meetings
- Using AI to help agents be more empathetic and to improve the quality of their interactions
- Improving chat quality; improving coaching tools
- Using AI for training apps internally and externally
- Using AI to gather and analyze data
- Summarizing emails and providing suggestions for responses
Noting that he helped companies leverage AI to solve complex problems with the end goal of driving growth, Gutierrez shared some key strategies to consider when implementing AI:
- Train AI to do the mundane tasks – so others can do complex work
- But don’t forget the human touch or importance of empathy
- Drive efficiency gains – use AI to do tasks faster and reduce costs
- Aim to accelerate personalized content delivery at scale
He also outlined some common challenges when it comes to getting started with AI. Different departments don’t always collaborate or communicate as effectively or efficiently as they might, which can result in duplicative efforts and wasted resources and money. Adhering to regulatory requirements can also create distinct challenges and slow progress.
As underscored, enterprises – and their leadership – should, first and foremost, think about the business challenge(s) or problems to be solved when implementing AI. There is nothing inherently wrong with experimenting with the technology and its applications, and it’s often necessary, especially at beginning stages. But the focus should be on improving customer service or solving business problems.
Several AI business applications were discussed, including:
- Using a conversational intelligence solution to increase call center empathy and customer loyalty. AI tools can help agents:
-
- Understand the customer in real time (RT conversation analysis)
- Route calls more efficiently
- Improve the customer experience
Concrete examples of how this might work include the tool sending a message to an agent via pulse, such as “slow down” or “stop talking and listen to the customer.” Using AI capabilities that identify the next best action for an insurance claim is another example.
- Using GenAI solutions like Canva (a free online graphic design tool) to increase speed to market, cut costs, and improve customer satisfaction
- This tool can quickly create and deploy assets such as social media graphics, ad creatives, open enrollment materials, and internal communications
- It’s useful for streamlining the creative process and personalizing content
- Makes collaborating with other departments and partners easier
Whatever AI solution organizations choose to implement, it’s important to test and experiment to determine what’s best for customers and/or brings the best results. An important overall goal is to offer the right content to the right customer at the right time.
MEMBER Q & A
As the session continued, members asked questions, as highlighted below:
Q: What about governance? How to effectively introduce AI tools into the organization and oversee usage?
Stakeholder management is critical. Be transparent. Reassure senior staff. Put safeguards in place and communicate them clearly.
Here are three key things to consider:
- Speed. Move fast. Fail quickly and learn. Ensure your proprietary knowledge model is protected. Create a “safe sandbox” to play in. Own the data and protect it.
- Documentation. This step is critical. It can be time consuming but it’s entirely necessary.
- 3. Be proactive internally. Learn from others. In one example Mariano shared, the IT dept didn’t know about what he’d already built. Communication across the organization is key.
It’s always critical to ask: What business result am I driving? “I’m doing x with AI…how will it drive revenue?”
Q: Where do we begin? What’s a good starting point for implementing AI capabilities?
Writing knowledge articles is a great place to start. Then customers can find many answers themselves. AI can also be used to create better summaries, to continuously update them and keep them relevant.
Writers can be trained to use these AI tools and to oversee them. AI can also be used to generate ideas. Starting with a small task was recommended, i.e. writing about an industry event or happening first. Then, once a good, vetted process is in place, you can scale it.
Q: How do we align better with marketing, especially when it comes to customer issues and finding solutions?
The conversation about AI solutions should start with your customers. Avoid thinking about it from a purely internal or departmental perspective. Within the organization, ask: who – or what other departments – can benefit from the tool? How can it help them better understand and serve the customer? Often the answer to the question is the marketing department.
It pays to explore financial incentives and opportunities within the organization. Consider partnering with a call center department that doesn’t have the budget for an AI tool by themselves. As you implement successful solutions and see time or cost savings, (or both) make sure you document that and tie it back to a metric to show leadership. Remember to show how customers benefit too. Finally, as one member shared, aligning efforts and solutions with other departments can often lead to better customer retention, a win for all.
CONCLUSION
These are just some of the pointers shared and discussed at this timely virtual event. Gutierrez encouraged members to visit platforms like LinkedIn to stay informed about how other companies and their leaders are starting to implement AI capabilities. As noted, if you haven’t already started, now is the time to unlock AI’s potential in your organization – or risk being left behind.
Mariano Gutierrez is a thought leader in Generative AI, Marketing and Transformation. He most recently led MetLife’s marketing transformation program, which included moving the entire global organization into agile, standing up a Generative AI practice and overhauling marketing data operations in the US.
Prior responsibilities included risk, financial and marketing operations for marketing worldwide supporting life, accident and health insurance, retirement and savings products. Mariano also led the Business Planning and Governance organization for MetLife’s $22 billion U.S. Group Benefits business, which serves over 50,000 group insurance customers covering more than 41 million employees and their families.
Prior to MetLife, Gutierrez held positions in the public and private sectors in Mexico City, Paris and New York
Feel free to reach out to Mariano on LinkedIn for further discussions on Gen AI implementation in your organization.
.
