Thanks to ChatGPT, conversational AI is making waves in 2023. See what other AI & automation trends are bursting onto the customer support scene this year -- backed by our own in-house market research with hundreds of business leaders.
We’ve been praising conversational AI for years, but it wasn’t until the arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022 that this branch of artificial intelligence – which allows bots to communicate with people in a natural, human-like way – was catapulted into the cultural mainstream once and for all.
But ChatGPT is not the only reason business leaders are getting (rightfully) excited right now: In recession times, many have seen the ROI of doing even more with even less firsthand, thanks to AI-powered support automation tools.
"Automation, AI, and other technologies have opened up new possibilities for our company. We’ll have faster customer service with increased flexibility and the ability to operate 24/7 — improving both our customer service quality and productivity,” said one of the business leaders we surveyed in our 2023 trends research when asked how their perception of AI had changed over the past year.
Reetu Kainulainen
CEO and Co-founder, Ultimate
Hans van Dam, CEO and Co-founder of the Conversation Design Institute, explains how customers are rapidly warming up to AI & automation. He also talks ChatGPT and what it means for the future of conversation design.
Gain insights into your customers' preferences (like the channels they prefer and their FAQs) by using AI to analyze your support conversations. This gives you a data-driven understanding of their pain points.
Customers want to self-serve, but they might not always know how. Let a virtual agent, or chatbot, guide them toward your website's help center, or integrate it with your backend systems to empower them to instantly solve their most frequent issues on their own.
Keep up with newest developments around conversational AI like ChatGPT so your support stack will be ready for it when the time is right. The key to understanding the tech behind the hype? Education. Get started with our suggested reads below!
When most people think of automation, they think chatbots, and when they think chatbots, they think online shopping. And not without reason: The ecommerce industry has taken exceptionally well to automation because many requests in this field are easily automated end to end.
But as AI automation continues to make the case for low costs and high ROI, the range of applicable use cases from all industries is rapidly growing.
In 2023, support automation's momentum has hit the mainstream, and industries like Fintech and SaaS are taking note – and seeing rapid results.
10 minutes saved per chat
50% reduction in AHT
Fintech company Tomorrow needed to scale their support team without comprising quality. By adding automation to their team, they halved their average handle time (AHT).
Does your support automation provider do 24/7 support in several languages? Can they automate email ticket triage? Then you’ve found your go-to to reduce AHT and cost per ticket. Take the time to translate your unique business needs into automation KPIs, then grill potential providers on how they'll help you reach them.
CS automation is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The most trustworthy providers know this, and can provide you with use cases, case studies, and reference calls to existing customers in a similar industry, so you can educate yourself within your community.
Another thing CS automation is not? Set-and-forget. Look for a provider with a dedicated customer support team to help you build a bespoke solution for your needs. This could include building and optimizing dialogue flows together or building custom API integrations.
AI is changing the nature of work: just look at the waves ChatGPT has made. But that doesn’t mean us humans are being replaced. In fact, it will make agents’ roles more interesting as they develop the technical and strategic skills to work with this technology.
In 2023, 48% of business leaders replying to our trends survey are opening up new automation-related roles within their organizations — and this is a trend that will only accelerate.
AI tools work best when a human is in the loop to manage and quality-check them. That’s why many career paths around building dialogues with automation and managing support operations have recently emerged -- Conversation Designers and Automation Managers are increasingly in-demand.
Take Iveta Liaudanskaite, who started out as a support agent at UK-based fintech TransferGo before upskilling to Conversation Designer after their collaboration with Ultimate:
Iveta Liaudanskaite
Conversation Designer, TransferGo
With automation taking care of mundane, repetitive tasks, you upskill your existing support staff toward more technical or strategic roles. Doing this means that you are bringing their knowledge of your product and customer base into your automation strategy. It's a great way to boost employee morale while reducing employee churn -- a win-win for everyone.
Consult educational institutions like the Conversation Design Institute or University4Industry for courses and certifications that can turn support agents into Conversation Designers or Automation Managers within weeks. You'll save time on tech onboarding with tech-savvy staff already on hand.
Automation is doesn't just help your support team solve problems more effectively -- It can also help you make sales and generate profit. Let your sales department in on automation basics, so you can break down silos and wield automation tools for all touch points of the customer experience.
As the recession starts to bite, the unsung hero of faster, better support is finally taking center stage.
Background processes (like searching for customers’ details and routing inquiries to the right department) are essential to delivering joyful CX. But when agents have to update information in multiple tools or hunt down siloed data, it’s no wonder customers aren’t getting the instant support they expect.
Enter: process automation.
It's everything your customer-facing chatbot needs to do its work even more quickly and accurately as possible and take the tedious tasks off your agents' hands.
Hosam Hassan, UltiMATE and ticket automation whiz, explains how to use ticket automation to cut AHT and improve overall efficiency.
Triages incoming requests and instantly routes them to the right rep, driving down AHT and freeing up agents for more complex tasks
Enables 24/7 support even for requests that need to eventually be handed over to an agent -- a godsend for CSAT
Let your virtual agent guide your customers to self-service opportunities, from changing a PIN code to requesting a shipment tracking status
Want to dive even deeper into 2023's hottest CS trends and statistics? Grab your Ultimate 2023 Trends Guide now.
These trends were forecast by collating data from three sources.
First, we conducted two Ultimate-led surveys — one with respondents who have already embraced automation, and one with business leaders from our wider community that includes influencers and industry experts. The findings were then triangulated with anonymized usage data from more than 100 of our customers and collated for our 2023 CS Trends Guide.
