The Growing Role of AI in Customer Experience Strategy

The Gist

• Reduce cognitive overload. AI helps simplify decision-making by reducing cognitive overload. It allows employees to focus on what matters most and increases productivity.

• Enhance human empathy. AI-powered tools allow more empathetic, human-centered customer interactions by handling administrative tasks and letting staff focus on real connections.

• Scale great CX. AI allows businesses to deliver personalized, seamless customer experiences at scale by analyzing vast amounts of data and automating key processes.

Despite a lingering “wow” factor that AI-based tools can still possess, we’re well past the early days of AI adoption. And as companies grapple with finding the ROI on their investments, it’s crucial to understand the potential impact of AI in customer experience.

According to a recent study from McKinsey and Qualtrics, successful AI implementation has the potential to yield an estimated $860 billion in annual cost savings and revenue gains.

In customer experience management, AI can play a valuable role with employees, customers and the business itself. Organizations that adopt AI successfully improve efficiency while capturing cost savings and revenue.

Here are four ways to get the most out of AI in customer experience.

Table of Contents

AI in Customer Experience: Reduce Cognitive Overhead

The term “cognitive overload” refers to the difficulty humans face when they’re overwhelmed with too many choices or things to consider. This often results in slower (and often worse) decisions. It’s similar to how a computer’s spinning “wheel of death” can appear when its memory is maxed out, and it just needs a minute to complete a task that normally takes microseconds.

Building on this concept is the idea of cognitive overhead, which can apply both at the individual or company level. Consider all the things that your employees need to think about during their day. How many of these require deep thought, versus simply making the right choice at the right time?

AI in customer experience can help reduce cognitive overhead by giving employees the data they need to solve problems, equipping marketing and CX teams with better planning tools and providing leaders with strategic insights. By automating these time-consuming tasks, AI allows people to focus on the most important decisions and actions.

Enhance Human Interactions with AI Support

Creating better experiences that create more loyal customers goes beyond the speed of decisions. These choices and interactions need to be meaningful, and they need to actually solve the challenges that need to be solved. Otherwise, your customers at best will say, “Everyone was nice, but no one was helpful.” After all, customers choose your company or product to perform a job for them. As pleasant and personalized as an experience might be, if the job isn’t done, they’re not coming back for more.

AI in customer experience lets humans focus more on empathy during key interactions. For instance, during a patient’s visit to the doctor, it’s vital that the notes from the visit are accurate. Still, the time the doctor takes to write those notes often interrupts what could otherwise be a very personal conversation. 

Enter AI-based dictation, which can do more than summarize your latest Zoom or Teams meeting. Imagine how freeing it would be for the doctor to speak directly with a patient about an important moment in their life, without the interruption of a keyboard or computer. Similarly, when customer service representatives can focus on talking to customers rather than making sure their notes are accurate, they are able to be more in the moment and provide a more empathetic, human connection.

Related Article: AI in Customer Experience Works Best With a Human Heart

Streamline Data Access for Seamless Team Collaboration

When human teams and their AI counterparts focus on the right priorities, they become more effective. AI helps employees concentrate on meaningful tasks and gives them access to the data they need, creating more opportunities for valuable work to get done.

That said, those teams must be aligned, have access to a common source of truth and have a shared definition of what success looks like. Otherwise, instead of supporting a consistent customer experience, you’ve actually just accelerated mayhem.

Thankfully, AI has a role to play here as well. Bringing together a solid data infrastructure with AI tools that unify customer interaction data across marketing, sales and customer service channels creates a shared vocabulary and playbook for everyone in the company. This doesn’t mean that everyone is making decisions, but that everyone is working together toward the same goal, and there is transparency in the process. Employees are happier in this scenario, and customers have more seamless experiences. Most importantly, customers achieve their goals.

Related Article: 10 Ways to Turn Organizational Silos Into Collaboration Engines

Create Great Customer Experiences at Scale

By aligning on the most meaningful actions that will benefit customers, investments in AI-based tools and platforms allow companies to deliver these benefits to all customers, not just a select few. The ability to create great CX at scale is the holy grail of AI-augmented customer experience. While efficiency gains and potential revenue growth are important, success would be short-lived without happy, loyal customers.