Artificial intelligence's progress in contact centers is relentless. AI addresses an increasingly large swath of customer interactions today with some success and will continue to do so tomorrow with ever increasing success.
Human agents now use AI assist tools in their flow of work to summarize customer and ticket details, understand customer sentiment, draft service replies, and understand trending issues. Tomorrow, AI will take over an increasing amount of the work that human agents do and will eventually impact the jobs to be done in the contact center.
As the distribution of tasks shifts with AI adoption, contact center leaders should plan for a workforce that includes the following:
- AI agents that will replace human agents. AI agents supporting multi-turn conversations, resolving inquiries, and performing simple actions will replace a vast swath of human customer service generalists and tier 1 human agents as well as first-generation chatbots and rules-driven automations. Smaller, digital-first companies that carry less of a legacy technology burden will see this shift earlier than large enterprises that have just started their AI journeys. Outcomes and quality of autonomous digital engagement will be monitored and continuously improved.
- Human-in-the-loop agents that will fine-tune AI in real time. AI agents and automations will get stuck mid-process and require human intervention in real time to make a simple decision, in the flow of automated work. This is task-based work, very much like the role of a content moderator, and will become a good fit for junior agents who understand organizational policy and processes for a narrow set of inquiries.
- Automation supervisors that will optimize AI in line with business goals. Contract center supervisors today are responsible for customer service aligned to quality and cost service-level agreements. They manage staffing, monitor performance, and offer coaching. They also recommend process and knowledge improvements. Supervisors will translate these skills to an AI-first workforce. They will pivot from managing teams of human agents to driving the quality of AI engagement. Their end goal will be to maximize automations to deliver customer service aligned to SLAs for quality and cost.
- Relationship managers that will bring emotion and skills to deliver real customer value. There will always be customer inquires that demand the human touch. Emotional inquiries, such as navigating death benefits, consultative inquiries, such as managing long-term investment strategies, or grievances will always require a human conversation. Relationship managers who have an advisory role will support a blend of sales, customer success, and customer service tasks. They might have advanced degrees and specialized skills or deep interests in their companies' product or services; they might bring local expertise or speech patterns and interests with the customer. This role will also reflect the nuances of industry verticals. For example, a nurse managing telehealth engagements could be viewed as a relationship specialist.?
- Subject matter and policy experts. There will always be a small percentage of inquiries that are too complex and nuanced to reliably automate in the foreseeable future and will require higher levels of domain or technical expertise. There are two scenarios: 1) complex service requests might need input from multiple experts before they can be resolved, and 2) exceptions from nuanced scenarios, such as policies defining warrantees and return logistics, that require a product or policy expert to resolve. In both cases, these are back-office jobs done outside the flow of work.
- New contact center roles, such as data scientists, automation specialists, and application developers. We're just scratching the surface of new jobs related to AI in the contact center. These people will be responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining AI.
Fortunately, the emerging workforce is well-poised to adapt to massive changes in customer service. Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, is expected to account for 27 percent of the global workforce this year. This is the first generation of true digital natives who have come of age with technology integrated into every aspect of their lives. They thrive in a world where they're always learning and adapting to new technology, and they embrace working with AI. They will adapt to these changes and thrive in this new world.
Kate Leggett is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.