Let’s rephrase Mike’s words as “crucial moment interactions” – something we’ve all encountered while going through the trials and tribulations of travel. In these critical times, we want to get the help we need to resolve the issues so we can enjoy the moment again.
Whether it’s choosing the right destination, filling out your itinerary, booking your trip, arriving at the airport, navigating the Bermuda Triangle with your luggage, arriving safely at your destination, enjoying your trip, getting home safely again (with your luggage), or sharing stories and photos with our community, Every moment counts.
For me at least, artificial intelligence for human-computer interaction tells the story of productivity. How can we make AI do everything in its most general form, so that humans are only needed in exceptional cases? 99% AI, 1% human. In the business process outsourcing narrative, transactional work is measured in dollars per hour and the race for productivity is to eliminate human interaction, which is what we thought RPA would achieve during the early 2016 hype cycle.
But in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry, we’re not just trying to process a single, rules-based transaction quickly; It’s human nature that we’re trying to help our customers realize their dreams and maybe cross that once-in-a-lifetime trip off their bucket list.
At least for now, research supports this idea. In fact, as suppliers and customers respond to this changing environment, we are seeing AI being removed from certain processes. In these crucial moments, customers want to be seen, heard, recognized and helped – they need your undivided attention.
So, with this in mind, we should think of AI in the loop as the antithesis of humans in the loop.
Here, humanity is assisted, enhanced, even amplified. Of course, we’re still using technology to automate transactional, rules-based tasks, and we’re still using omnichannel experiences to guide customers to help themselves as information and opportunity allow. Still, doing so frees up time for humans to become more human.
Our goal is to transform agents into experts by increasing agent tenure and advocacy while driving customer success with the help of AI in the Loop. So, let’s look at the evolution of agents:
- Enabled proxy. Here, “enabled” simply means that the agent has received meaningful training, has good access to the application, can refer to structural knowledge and documentation, and therefore is “good technical enablement” to perform the assigned tasks. But think of this as the new lowest level of agent experience—eliminating agent stress and reducing agent churn. This is a critical step in building the experienced operatives needed for the future.
- assisting agent. This help comes from off-the-shelf technologies such as orchestration, embedded automation, proven artificial intelligence, machine vision and basic analytics. Assistant agents can invoke automation of simple tasks, automatically obtain external data to support cases, and seamlessly perform tasks across multiple applications from the agent interface. We may see practical applications of sentiment analysis, working with agents to help make more informed responses as well as metrics and metrics that provide meaningful insights into performance. We are also looking at how historical data can be combined with machine learning to predict the next best action, or how AI can interpret complex ticketing data to help advise what customers can do during cancellations or delays.
- Enhanced agent. Here we enhance our agents using latest technology. We can apply an omnichannel, omnilanguage philosophy to make interactions seamless across channels and present interactions in local languages and accents. The agent remains in control but can invoke artificial intelligence to generate an optimal response, where the AI technology also prescribes appropriate next steps. When technology reaches safety thresholds, augmented agents can be “invoked” to interact autonomously. It’s a symbiotic relationship between humans and technology designed to achieve customer success.
So, what else is there?
Expert agency. It is agents trained using artificial intelligence, accelerating their skill acquisition through gamification and immersion, and delivering better results through reinforcement learning. Many CX managers face the challenge of meaningfully accelerating the “velocity to capability” conundrum. When it counts, humans remain at the center of every customer experience interaction, and AI is able to handle day-to-day tasks seamlessly and without interruption as it evolves. Immersive artificial intelligence, autonomous agents make humans more humane.
As the latest developments in artificial intelligence replace human thinking and decision-making, Agentics whiz by and I offer hope for the intelligent agents of the future. Artificial intelligence can amplify what it means to be human and increase the time you have to solve truly complex problems at critical moments.
That’s what I think. Tomorrow’s human agents will be amplified by AI, not suppressed by it. Customers will have all the necessary channels to get the required results in a timely manner and be satisfied with it. It will drive loyalty and advocacy, enabling suppliers to create real value as they guide future consumers.
