In the last four years, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in various business process activities has increased by 270 percent (Gartner). Customer service is one of the most AI-transformed industries.
Over the years, technology has increased efficiency and performance, but the introduction of AI-powered Intelligent Automation is changing the trend of customer service experience.
There is a misconception that AI might replace human customer service agents in the long run. Customer service requires reaching a level of human empathy that can not be done by bots.
You may use AI to support a part of your customer service automation. However, humans still need to back them up for a prospective user experience.
ASL BPO brings you hybrid customer service outsourcing support where you can find human agents supported by AI tools. However, we have listed the top five reasons why AI cannot replace human customer service agents.
Table of Contents
Why AI Can not Replace Human Customer Service Agents
Emotion and empathy
Empathy relates to customers’ perspectives. To assist a customer better, a service agent must understand the issue from a personal level. Your customers should always feel valued. They expect to be heard and understood.
Humans have a never-ending number of queries. New questions, issues and will keep arising. You can not just automate them all through artificial intelligence (AI).
Besides, the employee-customer relationship is also important to build brand loyalty. AI tools lack emotion and empathy. It can not relate to customers as human customer service agents do.
For example,
Imagine that you have added some necessary products to your cart from an e-commerce store and your order is canceled. You text the AI-based customer service about the canceled order. The AI bot might tell you the reason, but it can not apologize to you on a personal level.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can not perceive the types of emotions customers are experiencing. With human customer service agents, you are always able to turn their negative emotions into positive ones.
Artificial intelligence (AI) Implementation Cost
The implementation of AI-based customer service is very expensive. In particular, if you are a startup with insufficient market experience with your potential customers, AI is not for you.
The chatbot is the most commonly adopted part of customer service. Now, there are machine learning, interactive voice response systems, self-service checkout booths, and many other AI technologies used to assist humans.
Customer AI implementation could cost between $20,000 and $1,000,000. The cost may vary depending on the amount of intelligence required. Perhaps in the near future, the cost of AI will reduce.
For now, we still think that having human customer service agents is much better than AI.
Customer Preference
According to Forbes, consumers prefer to connect with a human agent 86% of the time; 71% stated they would be less inclined to utilize a brand if human customer support professionals were not available.
Dealing with AI requires a certain level of tech knowledge. Customers rather prefer to deal with humans. A customer survey by ASL BPO figured out that talking to AI did not solve their problem but rather caused frustration.
No matter how advanced your artificial intelligence (AI) is, your customers will still prefer human-to-human interaction. The survey also found that most of the customers prefer talking to someone they have met or talked to before.
Few Ways to Make Human Agents and AI Work Together
We should stop thinking if AI is going to replace human customer service agents or not. We should rather focus on how AI and humans can go hand in hand to provide better customer service.
A hybrid workplace built under collaborative intelligence where humans and bots work together is the ideal workplace. There are a few ways to make it happen,
Repetitive Tasks
Transform all repetitive tasks of your workplace with AI. Most businesses are already using automated chatbots, Email marketing, machine learning for talent acquisition, and other tools.
Automating these tasks gives you fast completion, error-free results, and space to invest your time in a task that requires more strategic fundamentals.
Sales Services
You can implement AI to find potential customers for your business. Besides lead generation, there are other tasks related to sales like invoicing, order processing, contact management, and shipment management.
Human sales personnel will work more productively with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). This system can run with success if human service agents have the authority to run the AI tools.
Examples of AI Fails
Microsoft Tay
In 2016, Microsoft released Tay (Thinking About You) to Twitter. Microsoft aimed to get deeper into people’s conversational understandings. According to Microsoft, the more you talk to Tay, the smarter it becomes. Tay was a big failure, as the conversation started to sound rude and racist.
Unfortunately, Tay wasn’t prepared to handle the sort of conversation it came across. Some of the factors it did not understand at all. Microsoft had to take the bit down due to the controversy.
McDonald’s Self-service Kiosk
McDonald’s introduced a self-service kiosk in 2015. The customers could place the orders by themselves and get the payment done. This initiative transformed McDonald’s whole customer experience. They no longer had to wait in the long queue to be served.
A number of people thought that McDonald’s might no longer need cashiers to operate. However, most of the customers preferred using the kiosk in front of a crew to make sure they do not make any mistakes. The kiosks did not make mass layoffs rather they reduced the workload of the cashiers.
Contact ASL BPO to hire your hybrid customer service today.
About the Author
Susmita Asad is a Digital Marketing Executive at ASL BPO. She has spent several years assisting companies in building constructive content strategies. Besides, she is passionate about assisting B2B and B2C businesses to build a digital presence through dynamic marketing.
