survey

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are essential tools for building real-time personalization for customers. These technologies can analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, anticipate customer needs, provide tailored recommendations and dynamically adjust content to create personalized experiences.

With a recent NTT report finding customer experience (CX) remaining a top C-suite priority, tech leaders are turning to cloud technology, AI and predictive analytics to shape future CX capabilities.

In tandem with CX evolution is a focus on improving employee experience (EX), reveals the report – with 80% of organizations agreeing CX and EX are currently weak links and having a negative impact on the business. 

“What’s interesting is that since the rise of remote and hybrid work, EX has emerged as a crucial focus, an area that was predominantly overshadowed by CX,” explains Amit Dhingra executive vice president at NTT.

Despite this shift, however, less than half of organizations agree that their employees have the access to technology they need to optimally perform from a hybrid or remote setting.

“It’s clear that CX and EX are key business priorities that drive a positive impact on the bottom line,” he adds.

Business leaders are seeing the value of strong CX and EX, with 91% of organizations indicating that EX will directly impact their net profit – and 92% say the same about CX.

“Notably, we see a wider trend in the redefinition of EX,” Dhingra adds. “Organizations are focusing more on proactive technology enablement that empowers employees, leading to operational efficiency.”

This breaks from the traditional reactive approach to EX, where organizations simply go through and tick boxes off on areas such as well-being, mental health, satisfaction and more.

The survey also indicates cloud enablement is a vital factor in positive EX and CX outcomes, with 95% of respondents indicating that cloud enablement is critical to achieving their CX and EX goals.

“This cements it as a priority among businesses to further enhance operational efficiency and employee satisfaction,” Dhingra says.

In addition to supporting their workforce, organizations are seeing the benefit of migrating to the cloud, highlighting the cost savings, scalability, access to collaboration tools and improved security.

EdgeVerve CEO, Sateesh Seetharamiah, says automating routine tasks can free up employees for creative problem-solving and innovation in a business environment where processes are interconnected.

“This not only enhances the work experience by reducing mundane tasks but also improves the customer experience by enabling the creation of more innovative and personalized solutions,” he explains.

He adds that in a business environment where various departments and processes are interconnected, AI can be used to automate most manual processes and share data across different departments and customers.

“This develops immense collaboration and innovation potential,” Seetharamiah says. “Remember, successfully integrating AI-powered CX tools requires a strategic approach, focusing on enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency.”

There’s also little doubt AI and RPA tools have positively transformed the CX space, with 77% of top-performing respondents indicating that AI is meeting, or exceeding, expectations for delivering CX results, while 86% say the same about RPA.

Organizations are leveraging these tools to automate simple tasks and requests, such as providing information on an account balance or order status, freeing up employees to address more complex inquiries.

“We’ve also seen the rise of RPA tools to improve accuracy in form completion,” Dhingra says. “RPA tools can automatically identify all the necessary information and populate a database to deliver details faster and more accurately,” he notes.

Looking ahead, Dhingra says the infusion of AI with RPA processes will transform the applications to address more complex processes.

“Four in five organizations expect AI to become the norm in CX within the next 12 months,” he explains.

What he finds exciting about the role of AI-powered CX tools is their ability to not only analyze data, but to make intelligent decisions based on logged data patterns and predict outcomes.

Before integrating AI-powered CX tools, Dhingra says organizations must evaluate the capacity of their internal teams.

The survey finds 90% of respondents say the pandemic and other macroeconomic factors have forced their in-house IT teams to focus on core business activities.

Just 45% of organizations have the capacity to manage CX and EX procurement, design and deployment, CX services, and EX technology – such as communication and collaboration tools.

“As a result of this, we’re seeing an increase in the number of organizations outsourcing complex CX and EX workloads,” Dhingra says.

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