Nuance Launches Artificial Intelligence Bundle for the Contact Centre

Nuance Communications has announced a new technology bundle that helps enterprises with Agent Artificial Intelligence (AI) – uniting human agents and AI to enhance customer experiences.

Nuance’s approach to Agent AI enables contact centre agents to be more productive by giving them easier access to information with relevant, real-time insights, visibility into active conversations, and proactive recommendations.

Consumers are demanding personalised, efficient conversations with brands – whether through a virtual or a live agent – and organisations who do not deliver risk losing business and damaging reputation.

A recent study by Frost & Sullivan commissioned by Nuance found a single frustrating interaction with an agent triggered the desire to switch service providers in 77% of customers, and the majority of consumers say interactions with agents impact brand perception significantly.

Also, Forrester found that 95% of US consumers use at least three channels and/or devices to engage with customer service today, and with only 8.4% of organisations having those channels connected, delivering a unified and personalised experience can prove challenging.

Nuance gives agents access to its biometric, analytics and intelligent customer engagement technologies to help solve this problem, empowering them with real-time insights not only to validate a given customer’s identity more efficiently and understand past interactions the organisation has had with that person, but also to get to a resolution more quickly by having access to their company’s latest information and programs.

“Too often, when AI in the contact centre is discussed, there is a concern that it will take jobs away from humans, when in reality the most successful customer engagement strategies include a blended approach between customer service professionals and AI,” said Robert Weideman, EVP and GM of Nuance Enterprise Division of Nuance Communications.

“Agent AI is not about replacing humans. Instead, it is about strengthening the confidence of agents.”

“By leveraging AI, we are actually empowering agents to succeed and enabling them to deliver the best experience possible with less frustration for both them and the customers they are serving.”

Intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces are important for agents to find answers faster and focus on the customer they are interacting with, not waste time deciphering how to use complex tools.

Built to scale and taking advantage of the same AI that is driving IVRs and virtual assistants, Nuance’s technology for Agent AI lets organisations maximise agent efficiency and improve job satisfaction while delivering superior service to the end customer.

Enterprises who have already deployed Nuance’s technologies for Agent AI have seen impressive results:

• A US bank found 60% of agents reported improved job satisfaction
• A major utility found sales conversion increased by 60%
• A collections agency reduced customer engagements with “escalation language” by 15%
• A mortgage services company reduced agent call time by 60%

“While automation and self-service are irreplaceable when it comes to the customer engagement of the future, not everything is solvable by a virtual assistant or IVR,” added Weideman.

“Adding AI to the contact centre means arming both humans and machines with insights gleaned from customer interactions – and making recommendations based on those insights.

“It won’t just help agents perform better but will also increase the value that the enterprise is delivering to their customers.”

For more information about Nuance Communications, visit: www.nuance.com