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You just assembled your new grill, but you don’t know how to connect it to the gas line. Then you call customer service and start talking to an agent. It turns out they’re an AI, not a person, but it’s hard to tell the difference.
Answering questions in conversational English, the agent asks you to share a video of the barbecue so they can “see” it, then tells you how to fix the problem in real time. Problem solved.
Does it sound like science fiction? Soon such calls will become routine.
This is good news for consumers. When it comes to AI and customer service, we will see a virtuous cycle in 2024. As the technology improves, it becomes cheaper and easier to use, a far cry from the rigid, robotic chatbots of just a year or two ago. more and more companies will adopt it.
In turn, many people will have their first truly positive experience with an AI agent. Consumers are ready to engage. In a recent survey, eight out of 10 respondents said they feel comfortable using generative AI for customer service or support requests.
As the founder of a company specializing in AI-powered customer service, I know how much companies value this technology. By one estimate, AI agents already handle more than 70% of customer conversations. As these agents begin to outperform their human counterparts in many aspects, look for the quality of customer service to improve dramatically.
With this in mind, here are four trends that will drive better AI-powered customer experiences in 2024.
Related: Why AI is the next revolution in customer service
1. Generative AI for voice support goes mainstream
“For billing, press 8.” We’ve all experienced the frustration of being stuck in the phone menu with an automated voice agent whose only ability seems to be to push our buttons. Good news for consumers in 2024: Those painful calls will soon be history.
This is because customer support is moving from declarative to generative AI. For users, it’s the stark difference between punching in numbers and having an actual conversation about why that mystery charge appeared on your credit card statement. Even better, instead of referring you to the billing department, the agent will give you an informed answer about what happened and will even be able to resolve the issue on the spot.
It is not a stretch to say that some of these experiences could soon prove more effective and satisfying than traditional interactions with human agents. Often, through no fault of their own, people working on support lines could use better training, don’t speak the same native language as their customers, and don’t have access to the business systems of the company they represent.
The new generation of AI agents faces no such challenges. Able to absorb and follow detailed instructions, they are fluent in the language of your choice. These agents also work well with company systems, allowing them to handle tasks like tracking orders and issuing refunds. The most capable will have the same authority as a manager, eliminating the need to pass a customer between people to solve a problem.
For companies the advantages are real. In one study, companies that used generative AI in contact centers tripled customer satisfaction compared to companies that didn’t.
2. Multimodal communication has its roots in customer service
In the new and improved world of AI-powered customer service, voice is just one element of truly multimodal communication coming to life this year.
Traditionally, phone support, chat support, and other channels such as email have been largely siled. We’ve probably all experienced the frustration of simply wanting to text a photo or video during a service call, only to find that there’s no easy way to do it. Even as AI has transformed customer service, these platforms have remained largely isolated from each other. Until now.
In 2024, customers will be able to contact a brand through the channel of their choice, seamlessly moving between conversations, text messages, videos and images, just as they do in chats with friends and family. All of these channels will work together to help you best solve a problem.
Multimodal will give AI customer service agents the power to do everything from looking at a broken product to offering personalized financial advice. Can’t figure out how to mount your new OLED TV? Start a video chat with an AI agent, who can use computer vision to pinpoint exactly the mounting bracket you need, then send you a code to purchase one.
We glimpsed this rapidly approaching multimodal future in Google’s recent demo of its new Gemini AI model. The model is apparently a breakthrough, as it powers a chatbot that maintains voice conversations with users and can recognize, distinguish and describe images. Yes, Google went to the trouble of making it look like Gemini could instantly process visual information, but it won’t be long before multimodal customer support becomes table stakes for any company using AI agents.
Related: Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Human Interaction? 4 ways AI is impacting and enhancing customer experience
3. Brands peer into the brain of their AI agent
Despite all the positives, some of the early generative AI efforts for customer service have left businesses and consumers frustrated. Brands have struggled with irrelevant or unhelpful responses, “AI hallucinations,” and even bots that defy business logic. Just ask the car dealer whose AI agent offered a customer a brand new Chevy for $1. The classic refrain: “Boy, these robots are stupid.”
What is often overlooked is that poor results are usually the result of inadequate or unclear instructions from humans. Until now, however, it has been extremely difficult for companies to peer into AI decision making and understand the “why” behind decisions – the frustrating “black box” problem. But new software tools are shedding light on the reasoning that informs AI responses, giving brands the ability to see where things went wrong and correct course.
This makes a big difference in customer service, where understanding Why an AI agent made a decision is as important as the decision itself. In fact, it’s the only way to drive improvement.
Suppose an agent gave a customer a non-guaranteed refund. Using a tool to examine the agent’s reasoning, the company discovers that the person who trained it gave conflicting instructions. What seemed like a mistake on the agent’s part was actually a management error. Knowing this, the company can issue new guidelines to avoid future confusion.
Like people, AI agents often have a good reason for a questionable decision, if given the opportunity to explain themselves.
4. AI manager becomes a hot job
The growing ability to course-correct AI agents suggests a broader trend in 2024. Smart companies are increasingly treating their AI agents not like software but like a real employee. Brands seeing the greatest return from their AI investments have quickly discovered that it’s not enough to simply buy an agent and turn them loose. To thrive, that worker needs to be onboarded, measured and trained, like any other employee.
And these tasks require a new generation of managers that we will see more of in 2024.
The AI employee manager already plays a key role at companies like money management company Wealthsimple, one of our clients. In addition to setting goals for their AI agents, providing them with feedback, and helping them learn, AI managers need to bring data analytics, project management, and technical skills to the table. It represents a true leadership role, with the potential to have a huge impact on business results, and will become an important career launchpad for young professionals across all sectors in 2024.
Related: 5 Strategies to Protect Your Company’s Customer Service from AI Pitfalls
Sooner or later, AI agents will also start collaborating with each other. For example, a customer service AI agent within a streaming platform might notice that a login button is not functional for iOS users. It’s time to alert the code generation AI agent to issue a fix. These generalist and specialist agents will need a new class of “HR” to coordinate them. At first, this task will likely fall to the CIO, who will turn to new dashboards to monitor the AI team’s performance, similar to performance management software for people.
The biggest transformation of all in AI customer service this year may be our own expectations. Early experiences of AI support may have disappointed some of us. In 2024, prepare to be amazed.