How Will Generative AI Shape Retail Customer Service?

Good overview...

How Will Generative AI Shape Retail Customer Service  by Tom Ryan in Retailwire

Customer service reps (CSRs) continue to land on lists of the top ten jobs at risk due to advances in conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Some observers, however, are hopeful the technologies only reinvent the role for the customer’s benefit instead of replacing jobs.

Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s group chief executive, technology and chief technology officer, writing for the Harvard Business Review, predicts AI will automate a few repetitive tasks for CSRs, augment others and add “new, high-value tasks” to the CSR role.

“The ability of generative AI to put massive amounts of information at the fingertips of CSRs greatly increases their capacity to resolve the customer’s problem more thoroughly and quickly than either a chatbot alone or a CSR following a rote script,” said Mr. Daugherty. “But because conversational AI can sometimes produce plausible sounding but nevertheless incorrect, irrelevant, or nonsensical responses, a human must remain in the loop to ensure the accuracy and trustworthiness of machine-generated suggestions and information.”

Writing for Unite.AI, Eli Israelovk, CEO of CommBox, a communications automation platform, said AI could reduce stress and increase job satisfaction for CSRs. “They can deal only with the most complex or valuable calls, while bots and other automated features serve more simple queries,” he wrote. 

Yoon Kim, assistant professor of computer science at MIT, speaking to Scripps News, believes that while humans will be necessary for monitoring, ChatGPT-enabled chatbots “can cover a wider range of customer queries, and moreover, enhance the engagement of the customer with the chatbot, and ultimately widen the scope of problems that can be potentially addressed.”

Artificial intelligence was being  touted for its potential to reduce   waits and problem resolution times in a 24/7 timeframe, tailor responses based on individual consumer preferences and drive down costs even before ChatGPT and the hype around it arrived.

Gartner last year predicted that by 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organizations. Uma Challa, a Gartner analyst specializing in customer service and support technology, said in a release, “When designed correctly, chatbots can improve customer experience and drive positive customer emotion at a lower cost than live interactions.”  .... '