AI technologies are revolutionising customer service

The report, "The AI revolution: creating a new customer service paradigm", explores how AI is driving a new revolution in service delivery, drawing on research* carried out with 770 IT professionals responsible for the customer service function in 10 European countries.

It reveals that nearly a third (30%) of European organisations have introduced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to customer service and 72 per cent of those are already seeing benefits that include freeing up agents' time, more efficient processing of high-volume tasks and providing always-on customer support. 

"The majority of organisations are offering omnichannel experiences to customers, but many are struggling to keep up with increasing consumer demand for service across these channels," said Paul Hardy, Chief Innovation Officer EMEA, ServiceNow. "Early adopters are reaping the benefits of using AI technologies to deal with common tasks and requests, freeing agents to shift away from a reactive role to really driving proactive, meaningful engagement."

Customer service teams in Europe struggle to keep pace with customer demand

According to survey respondents, providing service and support 24/7 is their number one customer service challenge. Customers are being offered multiple service channels, but they expect responses at any time of the day and this is pushing organisations to breaking point:

• Half (50%) of organisations are not available to respond to customer enquiries 24/7.
• 40% of organisations say they struggle to meet the rising expectations of customer service.
• 37% are challenged to answer repetitive questions in an efficient way.

AI will reinvent customer engagement

AI will allow organisations to move beyond handling more queries more efficiently, to anticipating and acting on customer needs:

• 59% of organisations will extend the range of queries that VCAs and chatbots handle.
• 47% say AI will enable the customer service operation to become more efficient.
• 37% say AI can be used to provide a higher level of service.

"We are only at the beginning of the AI-driven customer service revolution," said Debbie Elder, Principal Consultant, Devoteam. "A powerful development is the ability of AI to help transform high-stress moments into positive experiences for customers that build loyalty. For example, in the case of a flight cancellation, AI can detect the customer starting a live chat and indicate it is likely to be due to the cancellation. It can then immediately escalate the interaction to a human agent to arrange an alternative and deliver a superior service."

AI will empower customer service agents

While the adoption of AI will increase, these technologies will only serve to augment the role of the human agent at the front line of delivering 'wow' customer experiences:

• 37% of organisations say AI can be used to provide a higher level of service, with similar levels of employment
• 29% of organisations using AI-based technology are aware of the need for upskilling customer service managers

"AI technologies will enable our customer service agents to focus on the customer interactions where the human touch is needed the most. This gives them greater job satisfaction, enabling them to focus on VIP customers and high priority enquiries, as well as focus on more strategic contributions within organisations," said Clive Simpson, Head of Service Management, CDL.