Key Highlights of Intelligent Automation APAC Summit 2021

Key Highlights of Intelligent Automation APAC Summit 2021

2 min read

A year after the onset of the pandemic, contact centers are looking to implement and transform their operations with conversational AI and automation technologies. However, most transformations require a roadmap to deliver successful outcomes.

Intelligent Automation – When, What, and How – a roadmap to a successful front-office automation

At the Intelligent Automation APAC Summit, Vijai Shankar, VP, Uniphore, shared his insights on intelligent automation during a fireside chat with Beth Hampton of SSON. This session will help you understand about successful front-office automation, the business value generated, and the technologies required.

Key takeaways from the session:

  • Intelligent automation – the next step in the CX digital transformation journey
  • The three stages of automation – foundational, strategic, and transformational
  • Roadmap to replacing high-level cognitive human activities with RPA technologies

You can access the on-demand webinar of the Intelligent Automation APAC Summit 2021 here.

Beth opened the discussion by sharing her perspective on how automation played a vital role over the past year in ensuring business continuity. Vijai said that contact centers were flooded with customer call with the onset of the pandemic, but most of them were ill-prepared. Vijai quoted the recent Accenture research, “Nearly 60% of customers would like to speak to a human agent in a contact center”. Vijai concluded that even though contact centers would like to divert customer calls to other channels, customers want to talk to humans.

Vijai said that “the current pandemic is an accelerant of digital transformation in the customer service industry.” He added, “From a technology standpoint, contact centers are deploying conversational AI and intelligent automation to manage call volume spikes, support WFH agents, and lower costs.” According to him, these three were the key trends driving the contact center industry as a direct consequence of the pandemic.

Beth posed Vijai a question – “What are the opportunities you see due to the pandemic in the contact center industry.” Vijai said business leaders need to consider the entire customer service spectrum if they genuinely believe in improving CX. Vijai explained how AI and automation could understand the customer intent, the context behind conversations, and customer sentiments. Vijai reiterated that “One particular area that we at Uniphore are seeing a lot of interest is related to the agent after-call work (ACW) automation.” Research showed that contact center agents spend an average of 3 mins after every call to summarize the call, update the CRM, but automation can help to shorten that duration by 50%, according to Vijai.

Vijai familiarized the audience with how RPA can help in front-office automation, with an example. When an agent promises something to the customer over a call – the RPA can keep track of it, trigger an email, and complete a set of follow-up tasks to ensure the promises made are kept. Thus, RPA helping in customer promises management is just one example of intelligent automation in the customer service industry.

Finally, Beth asked Vijai about the roadmap that contact centers need to follow to implement intelligent automation. Vijai explained that businesses could start with foundational automation like customer self-service with AI chatbots. Next, they can move towards strategic automation like agent after-call work and call summarization. Vijai stressed here that, “We at Uniphore believe that a better customer experience comes from a better agent experience.” Finally comes the transformational automation that is a little bit futuristic, but many companies are already deploying it for promises management and other high-value tasks, concluded Vijai.

Watch the entire on-demand webinar now.

Visit Uniphore to learn how we help contact centers with intelligent automation now.

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