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Decreasing Call Transfers and Improving Customer Experience.
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/decreasing-call-transfers-and-improving-customer-experience
June 19, 2023
Call transfers and long hold times in customer service can significantly impact customer satisfaction (Csat) and First Call Resolution (FCR) rates.
Research shows that when calls are transferred or put on hold, the customer experience can be negatively impacted. According to a study by SQM Group,
https://www.sqmgroup.com/resources/library/blog/call-transfer-hold-performance-impact-csat-and-fcr
19% of customers who call a contact center are transferred to another agent.
This transfer results in a 12% lower customer satisfaction rating and a 14% lower First Call Resolution rate compared to when a customer is not transferred.
The primary reason for these transfers is often due to the initial voice menu system (IVR) failing to route the customer to the correct agent or due to the agent’s insufficient knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Furthermore, how a customer is transferred can also affect satisfaction and resolution rates. For customers who were “warm transferred” (meaning their call was handed off directly from one agent to another with the customer on the line), satisfaction and resolution rates were significantly higher.
This is because customers do not have to repeat their information to the new agent.
Still, the ideal scenario for most customers is for the first agent they speak with to handle their call without needing a transfer at all.
Hold times also have a considerable impact on customer satisfaction and resolution rates.
The research shows that 46% of customers are put on hold during a call, and this results in a 15% lower customer satisfaction rating and a 19% lower First Call Resolution rate compared to when customers are not put on hold.
The typical hold time is between 30 seconds and five minutes, and customers often prefer a “live hold” (where they can speak to an agent at any time) over being put on mute.
From a cost perspective, American consumers spend, on average, 13 hours per year
https://hbr.org/2019/02/why-is-customer-service-so-bad-because-its-profitable
in calling queues, costing an estimated $38 billion.
A third of complaining customers must make two or more calls to resolve their complaint, and some simply give up out of exasperation after the first call. This is particularly prevalent in industries where customers have few alternatives, such as airlines, cable, and internet services.
To mitigate these issues, many businesses are turning to contact center platforms that can automate many customer service tasks and integrate multiple communication channels.
These platforms streamline the customer service process, reduce the need for call transfers, and provide agents with the necessary context to handle calls more effectively.
In this guide, we will explore strategies to decrease call transfers and improve the overall customer experience in contact centers. We will cover different types of call transfers, the benefits of reducing them, and effective strategies to implement.
Additionally, we will provide real-world examples of enterprises that have successfully solved this problem using AI-powered customer service solutions.
Understanding Call Transfers
Call transfers involve rerouting calls to other agents when the initial agent is unable to resolve the customer’s issue. Common reasons for transfers include wrong routing, the need for specialized assistance, or escalation to senior employees.
Excessive call transfers can result in frustrating experiences for customers and inefficiencies for contact centers.
Types of Call Transfers
- Cold Transfers
These occur when the receiving agent has no knowledge of the caller’s issue, leading to the customer having to repeat their problem. Cold transfers can prolong call duration, causing frustration for both parties involved.
- Warm Transfers
In this scenario, the first agent provides relevant information about the caller to the second agent, ensuring a smoother transition.
Warm transfers can be done manually or with the help of integrated technology that automatically sends customer information along with the call.
Benefits of Reducing Call Transfers
Reducing call transfers positively impacts several key customer support metrics, including
- Call Transfer Rate (CTR),
- First Contact Resolution (FCR), and
- Average Handling Time (AHT).
It also enhances the overall customer experience, as studies show that customers are likely to discontinue business with a brand after a bad experience.
Strategies to Reduce Call Transfers
Better Call Routing
Implementing techniques such as location-based routing, status-based routing, campaign-based routing,
https://appsource.microsoft.com/es-es/product/web-apps/artificialsolutions1610634679270.openquestion?tab=overview
VIP call routing, or even Conversational IVR that can help direct calls to the most suitable agent from the beginning, minimizing the need for transfers.
Conversational IVR
Leveraging this technology enables contact centers to capture caller intent more effectively. Instead of navigating through a list of options, customers can state their reason for calling, and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) interprets their speech, routing them to the most relevant agent.
Learn how Telefónica Germany
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/telefonica
reduced call transfers and increased IVR resolution rate, here.
https://vimeo.com/836242076
No-Code Platforms for Reducing Call Transfers
Simplify the process of setting up automation for improved call routing techniques. These platforms eliminate the need for extensive coding and allow easy integration of services to optimize call transfers.
Improve Self-Service Options
Enhance self-service channels such as interactive voice response (IVR) systems,
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/interactive-voice-response-ivr
chatbots, and knowledge bases. By providing customers with relevant and accurate information upfront, you can reduce the need for them to speak to an agent and potentially eliminate the need for a transfer.
Agent Training and Knowledge Base
Invest in comprehensive training programs for agents to equip them with the skills and knowledge required to handle a wide range of customer inquiries. Additionally, create a robust knowledge base that agents can refer to during calls, reducing the likelihood of transfers due to insufficient information.
Customer Feedback and Analysis
Regularly gather feedback from customers regarding their experience with your contact center. Analyze the feedback to identify recurring issues that lead to transfers and take proactive measures to address them. By understanding customer pain points, you can make targeted improvements to decrease call transfers.
Learn how Telefónica Germany reduced call transfers and increased IVR resolution rate, here.
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/telefonica
Monitor and Optimize Call Metrics
Continuously monitor call metrics such as call duration, transfer rate, and resolution rate. Identify patterns and trends that indicate opportunities for improvement. Set performance goals for reducing transfers and regularly assess progress towards those goals.
Use AI-Powered Analytics
Leverage AI and machine learning to analyze customer interactions and identify patterns that lead to transfers. AI-powered analytics can provide insights into the root causes of transfers and enable you to take proactive measures to address them.
Real-World Examples for Improved Call Routing
Telefónica Germany
Telefónica implemented the OpenQuestion
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion
solution to enhance customer engagement and support across multiple channels. OpenQuestion provided real-time answers, personalized experiences, and omnichannel interactions.
- OpenQuestion handled almost one million voice-based requests per month, along with 200,000 customer requests via SMS and WhatsApp.
- The solution supported the creation of over 400 generic use cases and 20 personalized use cases.
Swisscom Reduces Call Transfers
OpenQuestion served as the first point of contact for Swisscom customers across four languages. It expanded products and services while improving the customer experience. Results achieved include:
- Ensuring natural and continuous conversation beyond simple Q&As.
- Efficiently resolving simple customer requests through easy self-service.
- Assigning inquiries quickly and accurately, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.
Learn more, here.
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/swisscom
Global Top 3 Technology Provider
OpenQuestion saved agent call time by referring 55% of callers to web resources and reduced misrouted calls from 60% to 30%.
Additional achievements include:
- Decreasing Average Handle Time by two minutes per call.
- Reducing customer friction due to multiple transfers.
- Achieving a call containment average of around 60%.
Learn more, here.
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/csg
Global Healthcare Tech Company
OpenQuestion replaced the traditional keypad navigation system with an intuitive and user-friendly interface.
Results achieved include:
- Reducing call misrouting by 90%.
- Decreasing the call workload in contact centers by 8%.
- Full integration with existing tech stacks and deployment to handle full traffic within 90 days.
Reducing call transfers is essential for improving customer experiences and optimizing contact center operations.
By implementing better call routing techniques, leveraging conversational IVR,
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/what-is-conversational-ivr
and utilizing no-code platforms, businesses can minimize call transfers and provide exceptional customer experiences.
Best practice examples such as Telefónica Germany, Swisscom, a large software company, and a global healthcare tech company demonstrate the effectiveness of AI-powered solutions like OpenQuestion in addressing this challenge.
By following these best practices and leveraging AI-driven customer
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/how-generative-ai-unlocks-new-possibilities-in-a-contact-center
service tools, businesses can decrease call transfers and provide exceptional customer experiences. Remember that continuous monitoring, analysis, and adaptation are crucial for long-term success in reducing call transfers and enhancing the customer experience.
Customer Experience With Ai Telephony Self Service.
Streamlining Customer Experience with Telephony Self-Service: Challenges and Solutions.
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/customer-experience-with-ai-telephony-self-service
June 19, 2023
In today’s digital era, the voice channel continues to play a crucial role in customer communication, defying predictions that it would diminish in importance. Voice calls remain the most convenient and efficient communication channel. And with new technologies impacting telephony self-service, major developments are possible.
Additionally, customers’ expectations for quick and efficient service continue to rise, while concerns about identity theft have heightened their confidence in the voice channel. As businesses strive to enhance customer experience, protect personal information, and manage costs, automated voice-based solutions, such as telephony self-service, have become widely adopted.
The Importance of Interactive Voice Response (IVR):
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) serves as a key component of telephony self-service, employing touchtone (DTMF) or automated speech recognition (ASR) technologies. IVR performs essential functions, including call routing, caller identification, customer segmentation, and complete customer service interactions without human agent involvement. Implementing IVR enables businesses to reduce costs, improve customer service, and ensure operational efficiency.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Telephony Self-Service:
Telephony self-service offers significant advantages, such as cost reduction, freeing agents from repetitive tasks, shorter queue times, and enhanced customer satisfaction. However, it also presents challenges, including inflexibility, long-winded menus, perceived low customer value, and increased session abandonment rates. To address these drawbacks, businesses should focus on designing user-friendly IVR menus, finding the right balance between self-service and live agent support, and providing clear exit paths to human assistance.
Harnessing Speech Technology and Cloud-Based Solutions:
While DTMF IVR has proven successful, automated speech recognition (ASR) provides greater flexibility and functionality, bridging the gap between digital and voice interactions. Despite initial cost and ongoing support considerations, cloud-based solutions offer an alternative by reducing upfront investment and providing on-demand access to telephony resources. These solutions overcome capital investment hurdles and offer operational flexibility without additional costs for system upgrades.
Unlocking the Potential of Telephony Self-Service:
Telephony self-service adoption varies across sectors, with finance and the public sector leading the way. Large contact centers are more likely to offer telephony self-service compared to mid-sized and small centers. On average, about 33% of calls are handled entirely through self-service without agent involvement. However, not all calls are suitable for self-service, as complex inquiries or customer preferences for human assistance may require live agent support.
Enhancing Customer Adoption and Experience:
Introducing OpenQuestion,
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion
an advanced AI IVR solution for smart call routing and contact center transformation. Powered by Teneo,
https://www.teneo.ai/product/why-teneo
OpenQuestion streamlines customer interactions and improves operational efficiency with its easy module installation.
How OpenQuestion Works:
OpenQuestion utilizes cutting-edge AI technology, including Teneo’s patented Linguistic Modeling Language (TLML)
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion/accuracy-booster
and conversational context understanding. By asking the question, “How can I help you today?” OpenQuestion intelligently routes customers to the most suitable agents, reducing average handling time and providing agents with relevant information before they pick up the call.
Cost-Effective and Simple Installation:
OpenQuestion offers a cost-effective and simple installation process. Its subscription model ensures you pay only for what you use, based on a basic fixed cost and call volumes.
The Impact of OpenQuestion:
Numerous organizations have experienced significant benefits after implementing OpenQuestion.
A global top 5 tech company projected a $39 million return on investment, along with a 30% reduction in misrouted calls and a 2-minute decrease in average handling time.
OpenQuestion replaced failing keypad navigation, improving overall customer satisfaction.
The Impact of Generative AI on Customer Service.
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-customer-service
June 15, 2023
How to use AI in Customer Service with new innovations, such as Large Language Models and generative AI.
This article explains the transformative potential of generative AI, particularly its ability to amplify the quality of customer service and enhance operational efficiency for businesses.
Improving Customer Service through AI
Customer service excellence remains a cornerstone of successful business operations. In this context, generative AI is breaking new ground, providing businesses with AI-powered customer service bots to cultivate stronger customer relationships, fuel customer loyalty, and create brand advocates.
Generative AI is projected to dramatically increase company productivity, with some estimates predicting an uplift of up to 40% by 2035. By automating routine tasks, generative AI provides customer service agents the bandwidth to handle more intricate issues, requiring a human touch.
One of the primary applications of AI in customer service is chatbots. AI-powered bots can interact with customers on behalf of the company, responding to customer queries and requests in a human-like manner, thanks to natural language understanding. Businesses have been steadily adopting chatbots, incorporating them into their service models to answer customer questions and automate routine tasks.
For instance, businesses use chatbots to handle routine queries such as delivery dates, balance owed, and order status. The use of advanced technologies, including Conversational AI, NLU, TLML,
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion/accuracy-booster
and machine learning, enables bots to respond to customer support requests instantly, dramatically improving the customer service experience.
Benefits of AI in Customer Service
Generative AI has the capability to manage straightforward tasks such as addressing customer queries. This alleviates the workload of customer service teams, enabling them to dedicate more time to value-adding tasks and nurture deeper relationships with customers.
Blending Generative AI into Existing Service Tools
Generative AI can be seamlessly melded with existing service tools and IVR applications. By integrating with platforms like?Amazon Connect, Genesys Cloud CX,?Google Cloud,?Microsoft, businesses can offer an AI-powered conversational experience that resolves service requests rapidly with plugins, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction.
The Future of Customer Service with Generative AI
Generative AI’s power lies in its ability to automate mundane tasks, provide immediate responses, and maintain 24/7 service availability.
It promises to offer unparalleled benefits to businesses and customers alike. By enriching and automating customer service delivery, generative AI empowers agents to focus on complex, human-centric issues.
Join the generative AI revolution in customer service. Sign up for updates and stay ahead of the competition!
The adoption of LLM is a transformative step towards improving online customer experiences, retention rates, and even generating revenue. Businesses that effectively leverage this technology will undoubtedly reap the benefits in the form of improved customer satisfaction and increased operational efficiency.
As we move forward, GPT and others will continue to reshape the landscape of customer service, opening new avenues for innovation and growth. An example of this revolution is OpenQuestion,
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion
a tool that enables contact center transformation with a straightforward plugin, from an IVR to a Conversational IVR.
With the help of GPT, OpenQuestion adopts a smart approach to call routing. It begins interactions with the simple question,
“How can I help you today?”
This approach not only personalizes the customer interaction but also ensures the swift routing of customers to the most suitable agent. As a result, the average handling time reduces, and call agents are provided with a clear summary of relevant information.
Generative AI is not just a fancy tech buzzword; it’s a game-changer for customer service. By automating routine tasks and providing immediate, personalized responses to customer queries, it allows businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences and boost their bottom line.
Improve customer experiences and increase operational efficiency with generative AI and request a demo now
https://www.teneo.ai/contact
or watch how Telefónica achieved IVR transformation with Teneo/OpenQuestion here.
https://vimeo.com/836242076
The AI Influence: Reshaping Hiring in Contact Centers.
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/the-ai-influence-reshaping-hiring-in-contact-centers
June 9, 2023
In the dynamic sphere of digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), has transitioned from being a high-tech buzzword to a critical business tool.
This is especially notable in customer service, where it’s reshaping the hiring landscape and redefining call routing within contact centers.
A leading example of this transformation is OpenQuestion, a Conversational IVR (Interactive Voice Response) solution from Teneo.ai, designed to enhance customer experience with intelligent routing capabilities?.
The advent of AI has sparked crucial discussions about its potential impact on jobs within contact centers.
Despite apprehensions, AI isn’t displacing jobs; instead, it’s modifying recruitment patterns in this sector.
Insights from the upcoming Metrigy’s
https://metrigy.com/
“CX Optimization 2023-24” study validate this trend. The study suggests that enterprises not utilizing AI for customer interactions are projected to hire approximately 2.4 times more agents in 2023 than their AI-embracing counterparts.
As companies grow, so does the demand for robust customer service capabilities. The introduction of new products, services, and clients necessitates a corresponding increase in customer service representatives. However, this ‘proportional’ increase is swiftly evolving in the era of AI and intelligent routing.
AI’s influence on hiring is clear: businesses integrating AI are expected to recruit an extra 39 agents on average in 2023, compared to a surge of 91 new hires anticipated by companies avoiding AI.
These figures highlight AI’s significant impact on recruitment norms within contact centers?.
Importantly, these numbers do not suggest AI-induced job cuts. Instead, they represent how AI is revolutionizing the recruitment landscape. As a potent tool, it refines and streamlines customer service operations, allowing businesses to maintain and even enhance their customer service standards while managing growth sustainably and cost-effectively.
OpenQuestion demonstrate how Conversational AI can be a boon rather than a bane. OpenQuestion, for instance, reduces call misrouting by 90% and integrates seamlessly with commonly used tech stacks.
It has not only led to considerable improvements in customer service for high-growth companies like Telefónica, HelloFresh, and Swisscom, but it also showcases the power of intelligent routing within the contact center industry?.
In essence, the infusion of AI in contact centers is a valuable opportunity. It empowers businesses to manage their expansion effectively, maintain superior customer service, and make astute, efficient recruitment decisions.
With a vision of a world without queues, without traditional IVR systems, and with instant service, AI solutions like OpenQuestion are indeed paving the way towards this future?.
Hence, it’s time for organizations to embrace Conversational AI, Conversational IVR, and intelligent routing
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/understanding-intelligent-routing
and leverage the myriad advantages these technologies bring to the table.
Enhance Call Center Automation: Generative AI for IVR Systems.
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/enhance-call-center-automation-with-generative-ai-for-ivr-systems
June 8, 2023
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems have long been a staple in customer service operations, serving as the first point of contact for many customers. As technology evolves and customer expectations increase, traditional IVR systems are facing a challenge in delivering more.
The answer to this challenge lies partly in leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) to empower IVR systems.
LLMs, such as ChatGPT
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/teneo-and-chatgpt-better-together-for-conversational-ai
and
Bard,
https://bard.google.com/?hl=en
are artificial intelligence (AI) models trained on vast amounts of data to understand, generate and transform human language.
When integrated with IVR systems, large language models have the potential to significantly improve both customer experience and operational efficiency, making LLMs a promising prospect for the future of customer service operations.
Leveraging LLMs: The Next Step in Customer Service
One of the key benefits of integrating an LLM with IVR systems is the ability to utilize GTP in agent-assist scenarios.
This would particularly help newer agents ramp up quickly, providing them with concise, summarized answers they might otherwise struggle to provide.
This feature not only boosts agent productivity and reduces the potential for escalation, but it can also minimize call duration and significantly enhance the overall customer experience.
Furthermore, LLMs are employed to expand coverage and enhance precision in intent recognition within IVR systems.
Systems such as Teneo OpenQuestion integrate with LLMs, incorporating intent and entity recognition, sentiment analysis, etc., to further refine the understanding of customers’ needs and ensure accurate routing to the appropriate agent.
This reduces the time required to deploy new functionalities, update existing ones, and respond to new scenarios, enabling organizations to quickly adapt to changing customer needs.
Transforming Customer Interactions with LLMs
The integration of LLMs in IVR systems is not only about operational efficiency, but it is also designed to significantly improve the customer experience. LLMs can generate dynamic responses, making interactions more engaging and personalized.
Additionally, they have the capability to incorporate company-specific information into generated answers, adding a touch of brand flavor to customer interactions.
Systems like Teneo OpenQuestion can combine LLM analysis with its own internal mechanisms, capturing subtle conversational nuances and allowing the IVR system to adapt and clarify when necessary.
This ensures accurate transcription and minimizes misunderstandings.
Another exciting feature of LLMs is integrated machine translation. With their advanced language understanding capabilities, LLMs can provide real-time translations, facilitating seamless communication between customers, automated solutions like Teneo OpenQuestion, and agents who speak different languages.
The Challenge of LLM for a Contact Center and for IVRs
Although LLMs provide numerous benefits such as improved customer experience, operational efficiency, dynamic responses, language translation, and more, they also come with challenges.
One of the significant challenges lies in managing the subtleties and nuances of language, including handling ambiguous or unclear user queries.
LLMs struggle to accurately interpret short phrases and keywords or differentiate between similar intents with subtle differences in wording.
This can lead to misunderstandings or inaccuracies in the responses of the system’s virtual assistant or chatbot, ultimately causing dissatisfaction or frustration for the customer.
How are Challenges Solved with TLML?
The Teneo Linguistic Modeling Language (TLML)
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion/accuracy-booster
is designed to address some of these challenges. It operates as a deterministic language understanding system that identifies and interprets word patterns in a caller’s speech.
TLML works by providing an additional layer on top of traditional machine-learned models and LLMs, facilitating precise identification of user intents where machine learning alone might have difficulties.
It can differentiate between similar intents with minor differences in wording and effectively interpret short phrases or keywords.
Moreover, TLML enables information extraction directly from a user’s response. This capability helps in better understanding the user’s needs, personalizing responses, and improving the accuracy and overall efficacy of the system.
With TLML, you can harness the flexibility and power provided by large language models, saving time in building and maintaining content. This example shows how this is achieved:
Teneo and GPT
Why does a Contact Center need TLML when working with LLMS?
Contact centers need TLML when working with an LLM because TLML enhances the capabilities of the LLM, coordinating multiple methods to achieve the highest precision and improve the overall performance of IVR systems.
By integrating TLML, the system’s comprehension and interpretation of language become significantly more precise.
TLML boosts overall accuracy by incorporating LLM capabilities to improve intent identification, making it easier to understand and respond to user needs, ensuring the system evolves smoothly as more intents and use cases are added.
TLML is a deterministic language understanding system that identifies and interprets word patterns in a caller’s speech, significantly improving the accuracy of LLM and Natural Language Understanding (NLU).
TLML capitalizes on the benefits and capabilities provided by large language models, saving time in building and maintaining content.
This allows contact centers to focus more on delivering exceptional service and less on the technical aspects of system maintenance and updates.
Accuracy Booster
For Contact Centers, TLML is available through OpenQuestion.
OpenQuestion: Revolutionizing Customer Service
OpenQuestion is a plug-in built on Teneo that revolutionizes customer service by replacing traditional keypad-based menus with natural language-based routing and automation.
It is fully integrated with major Call Center platforms such as Genesys, AWS, Google, and serves as a Conversational AI frontend, enabling callers to engage with a virtual assistant or agent that accurately routes them to the relevant queue.
Other customers can use OpenQuestion along with other AI services in their Contact Center, such as voice services like Speech-to-Text (STT) and Text-to-Speech (TTS), or even as support for other conversational AI platforms.
How OpenQuestion Works
OpenQuestion’s out-of-the-box Conversational IVR solution offers:
- Pre-built flows for direct routing and conversational clarification when users don’t provide sufficient information.
- FAQ and common situation handling such as empty inputs, nonsense, user-requested repetition, and very long inputs.
- Callback functionality, sentiment analysis, and summarization before handover to the agent.
- Impacts key contact center KPIs by increasing NPS and automation while reducing misroutes, redials, and transfers between agents.
- OpenQuestion also expands Genesys Cloud CX with ChatGPT features through the Teneo GPT connector.
- ISO and SOC2 compliance with strong privacy protection, addressing concerns missing from GPT-based chatbot platforms.
The transformative power of AI showcases the potential of such advancements in redefining customer service operations. The innovative combination of TLML and LLM in OpenQuestion provides an effective and scalable solution to enhance IVR systems and create a seamless, personalized experience for customers.
Implementing AI-powered IVR systems is not just a technological upgrade; it’s a strategic move towards revolutionizing customer service and gaining a competitive advantage.
How Generative AI Unlocks New Possibilities in a Contact Center.
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/how-generative-ai-unlocks-new-possibilities-in-a-contact-center
June 7, 2023
We see the influx of Generative AI and Large Language Models
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/large-language-models-landscape
like GPT-4 transforming industries, and call centers are no exception.
The traditional IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems have been the backbone of many call centers. However, with the onset of Smart IVR systems powered by AI, the landscape of Call Center Automation is changing rapidly.
The blockers of Generative AI in Call Center Automation
Unfortunately, standard key-pad navigation IVRs cannot harness the immense potential of AI, especially the power packed within Large Language Models.
The inability to integrate with these AI models creates a massive barrier to enhancing the customer experience and streamlining operations. This is where an upgrade to a Conversational IVR
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/what-is-conversational-ivr
system can unlock new possibilities.
The Drawbacks of Key-pad Navigation IVRs
Key-pad navigation IVRs have served us well in the past, providing a fundamental means of interaction between customers and businesses.
However, these systems lack the ability to create personalized customer interactions. For instance, they can’t comprehend natural language queries or provide context-specific responses.
This lack of personalization and understanding creates an impersonal and often frustrating experience for customers.
In contrast, a Conversational IVR equipped with AI capabilities like those of Modern IVR systems can lead to a dramatic improvement in customer satisfaction.
The Shift to Conversational IVR Systems
The integration of AI into IVR systems allows for a more natural and intuitive interaction for customers.
With AI, IVR systems can now understand and respond to customers’ voice instructions, significantly reducing the time spent on calls and increasing customer satisfaction.
Conversational IVRs are designed to simulate human-like interactions, leveraging AI technologies to understand and process natural language, understand caller intent, and deliver more personalized responses.
One such advanced Conversational IVR solution is the one offered by OpenQuestion.
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion
OpenQuestion: Bringing AI to IVR
OpenQuestion has not just stopped at integrating AI into IVR. It has gone one step further by pre-integrating with Azure OpenAI, bringing the power of any of the GPT-model, including GPT-4,
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/chatgpt-the-future-of-customer-service-and-contact-centers
a cutting-edge Large Language Model, into the IVR system.
This integration elevates the Conversational IVR experience to a whole new level, making interactions even more intuitive, conversational, and context aware.
Through OpenAI’s GPT-4,
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/teneo-and-chatgpt-better-together-for-conversational-ai
Conversational IVR can better understand customer queries, deliver more accurate responses, and even predict customer intent based on the call’s context, such as sentiment and dialogue summary to the call center agent.
This results in more efficient call handling, reduced call duration, and ultimately, happier customers.
With OpenQuestion’s Conversational IVR solution, your business can truly embrace the future of Call Center Automation.
If you’re ready to explore how your call center
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/call-center-glossary/call-center
can benefit from Conversational IVR, please contact us
https://www.teneo.ai/contact
to see the OpenQuestion solution in action.
Take your IVR to the next level with Conversational IVR and unleash the full potential of Generative AI and Large Language Models. Get started with OpenQuestion today.
Learn how one of the world’s largest healthcare used a modern IVR solution to drive next-generation call center automation, below.
Unleashing the Power of AI in Healthcare Contact Centers.
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/unleashing-the-power-of-ai-in-healthcare-contact-centers
May 30, 2023
The healthcare sector is currently undergoing a revolution, courtesy of the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in call center operations.
Leading the charge is a prominent global healthcare tech company, enhancing its services through the application of Conversational AI.
The organization, catering to 70+ conditions with its groundbreaking medical technologies, has adopted an AI-driven IVR solution called OpenQuestion, made possible by Teneo.
Previously, the company’s Cardiovascular Patient Technical Service Group grappled with operational bottlenecks.
Each call drained nearly $26 from the company’s resources, and 9% of calls were misrouted.
The customer wait time averaged above two minutes, with customer satisfaction just about passable. The keypad IVR system struggled, failing to provide sufficient care to patients and customers.
Call agents were also adversely affected, bearing the brunt of basic troubleshooting and the consequences of misrouting calls.
In 2022, the company resolved to upgrade its IVR and revamp its contact centers. The primary goal was to heighten the customer experience by efficiently routing callers to the correct agent, thereby cutting down call handling time and boosting customer satisfaction.
This was of utmost importance as people calling for support were often in an emergency situation needing vital support with the operation of medical devices such as pacemakers and other cardiovascular technologies.
This transformative journey led to significant improvements by 2023.
There was a clear requirement to improve the performance of the Cardiovascular contact centers and to provide a greater level of service for people calling for help.
We wanted to take an approach that was both innovative yet simple to manage, while driving improvements for patients, clinicians as well as our internal agents. With Teneo, we were able to achieve better results than we could have imagined, and we’re thrilled with the performance of the product. Our team has been able to design and develop the solutions that were needed, and we have not been let down at any point. The success in the Cardiovascular department has led to other contact centers implementing the same solution for their needs.
Service Delivery Manager for Virtual Assistant as a Service
- The OpenQuestion IVR managed to decrease misrouted calls, slash wait times, and raise customer satisfaction levels.
- The system also improved the service level and deflection rate, with a notable 42% surge in calls being correctly routed.
- The company efficiently dealt with over 1 million voice IVA sessions, saved $6M annually, and increased customer satisfaction by 6%.
A vital part of this transformation was its impact on call agents. The AI-fuelled system provided agents with context about the customer’s issue, eliminating the need for customers to reiterate their problem.
The company’s dedication to customers and patients, combined with its innovative application of Teneo and OpenQuestion, has dramatically revolutionized its operations.
This success has not only raised the service level for individuals seeking urgent assistance but also spurred other contact centers to adopt the same solution.
As we look to the future, the Cardiovascular Patient Technical Service Group has ambitious plans for 2024.
It intends to incorporate greater troubleshooting capabilities to both voice and text and plans to use a custom Large Language Model (LLM) for analytics and transcript reviews.
There’s also potential to employ an LLM system to monitor patient data and scrutinize trends, thereby uncovering new ways to augment customer service and patient care.
This case study stands as a testament to the transformative potential of AI, particularly in the customer service realm within the healthcare industry.
By nurturing deeper relationships between customers and agents, generative AI solutions like OpenQuestion are carving out the future of customer service, making it more personalized, efficient, and customer centric.
The success with Conversational IVR for this global healthcare firm acts as a beacon for other organizations, demonstrating that harnessing AI can trigger long-lasting digital transformation and significant enhancements in customer service.
Interested in how OpenQuestion can revolutionize your contact center? Connect with our team, here.
https://www.teneo.ai/contact
Access the full case study, here.
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/global-healthcare-tech-company
Artificial Intelligence in Call Centers
Source
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-call-centers
May 29, 2023
Artificial intelligence (AI) automates tasks, provide real-time assistance, and analyze vast amounts of data and enhances customer service, improve efficiency and productivity in call centers.
This guide will analyse the advantages of deploying artificial intelligence in call centers while sharing insights on how
OpenQuestion
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion
and Teneo
https://www.teneo.ai/product/why-teneo
integrate the technology.
The Impact of AI on Customer Service in Call Centers
In the past few years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have been rapidly transforming many fields, including the customer service sector.
AI is allowing companies to improve their customer service with optimized customer service workflows and automated processes, which are resulting in improved customer satisfaction and boosted efficiency from call centers.
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/call-center-glossary/call-center
While AI can be utilized in various customer service applications, one of its most effective uses is within the call center environment.
Call centers are the cornerstone of customer service as they enable businesses to quickly respond to customer inquiries, provide support, and resolve any issues, 24/7.
Benefits of AI in Customer Service
Traditional call centers rely heavily on human agents who can handle only one customer at a time. AI changes this dynamic significantly.
AI-powered tools such as IVRs, chatbots and virtual assistants are capable of handling multiple customer inquiries simultaneously, drastically reducing wait times.
This ability to multitask not only accelerates service delivery but also frees up human agents to tackle more complex customer issues that require a nuanced understanding and emotional intelligence.
For example, AI can facilitate automated conversations between customers and company representatives.
Before AI
In the era prior to AI, one particular business faced numerous operational hurdles and lost almost $26 per call with a 9% rate of call misdirection.
Customers had to wait over two minutes on average, and customer satisfaction was barely satisfactory. The previous touch-tone IVR system was unable to adequately serve customers and patients due to excessive demand.
Not only did this affect customers, but agents also suffered, having to deal with elementary troubleshooting and the repercussions of misdirected calls.
Results with AI
Upon implementing the OpenQuestion IVR, the company experienced significant improvements including a decrease in the number of misdirected calls, reduced customer waiting times, and a boost in customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, it improved service levels, deflection rates, and a noteworthy 42% increase in calls being correctly routed to the right agents was observed.
Successfully managing over a million IVA sessions, the company saved an annual amount of $6M and elevated customer satisfaction by 6%.
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/global-healthcare-tech-company
One of the critical aspects of this transformation was the effect it had on the call agents. The AI-fueled system equipped the agents with the necessary context about the customer’s problem, making it unnecessary for the customer to repeat their issues.
This efficiency was achieved through predictive analytics, which identified potential problems based on patterns and usage, enabling a more personalized and effective customer service experience.
As AI is very adept at recognizing patterns and quickly responding to questions, it can completely transform customer service.
With new technological advancements in AI with generative AI, large language models (LLM) are reshaping the way businesses operate. However, the decision to integrate LLMs into a business strategy should be a calculated move, not a blind gamble.
In the context of call center automation, for instance, LLMs can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service.
However, it’s equally critical not to corner yourselves into a single technology or approach.
The future is invariably uncertain, and the key to thriving is to build for an open architecture to be able to stay on top of new advancements in AI, such as generative AI.
How to harness the power of generative AI in customer service
When embracing generative AI in a Contact Center, an orchestration is fundamental to maintaining a harmonious technological ecosystem where each element enhances the other, preventing discord and disruption when introducing a new tool like an LLM.
When it comes to contact centers, an orchestration ensures that the customer experience remains smooth and consistent, even as new technologies and methodologies are introduced.
So, whatever platform you choose, AWS, Google, Microsoft or Genesys, make sure to add an orchestration layer to reap the benefits to be able to future proof your call center.
One example of an orchestration platform is Teneo, which plays the role of the conductor, ensuring each component operates in harmony.
Teneo integrates various technologies and systems, including generative AI, into a single cohesive and efficient operational framework.
Read how Teneo can orchestrate your call center, here.
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion/architecture
Self-service: Improving Call Center Interactions with Generative AI
As businesses strive to enhance customer experiences, the adoption of AI-powered tools, such as generative AI is skyrocketing. Generative AI
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/teneo-and-chatgpt-better-together-for-conversational-ai
can significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of call centers in various ways.
7 challenges with Generative AI for Call Centers
The implementation of generative AI
https://www.teneo.ai/blog/large-language-models-landscape
poses several challenges for businesses, and we will explore the key obstacles associated with the adoption of generative AI and discuss strategies to overcome them.
Technical Complexity
Generative AI models are incredibly complex, often containing billions or trillions of parameters.
Training such models requires extensive computational resources and expertise, making it impractical for most organizations.
As a result, businesses are likely to rely on cloud APIs for consuming generative AI, with limited customization and tuning capabilities.
This concentration of power in a few entities may raise concerns about data privacy, control, and accessibility.
Legacy Systems
Integrating generative AI into existing technology environments can pose additional challenges.
Legacy systems may have well-established processes and workflows that do not align with the capabilities and thinking of generative AI models.
Enterprises must decide whether to integrate the new technology with their legacy systems, use an orchestration tool like Teneo or invest in replacing outdated infrastructure.
Finding ways to create integrations or adopt new capabilities becomes crucial to achieving desired outcomes efficiently.
Avoiding Technical Debt
Generative AI should not be treated as a mere optimization tool but rather as a means to bring about significant changes in business processes.
Deploying AI models for customer support, for example, should involve reducing the number of human agents handling cases, not simply redistributing the workload.
Failing to achieve substantial improvements can result in generative AI becoming another burden of technical debt, adding complexity without true optimization.
Reshaping the Workforce
Generative AI has the potential to reshape how work is performed across various industries, raising concerns about job displacement.
While some roles may be eliminated, new positions will emerge to oversee and improve AI-assisted processes. Employees can transition from being “doers” to becoming trainers, responsible for refining the AI algorithms and leveraging the technology’s capabilities.
Organizations must proactively identify and create new job opportunities to ensure a smooth transition and avoid workforce obsolescence.
Monitoring Misuse and Misinformation
Generative AI models have the ability to create content at a reduced cost, but this also introduces the risk of misuse by threat actors. AI models themselves can produce misinformation and generating false facts.
Legal Concerns and Algorithmic Bias
Generative AI models
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/call-center-glossary/gpt-4
may inadvertently infringe upon intellectual property rights by using training data without proper authorization, potentially leading to copyright issues.
Additionally, algorithmic bias is a critical concern when training generative AI models. Biased or incomplete training data can perpetuate discriminatory results, leading to legal repercussions and societal harm.
Implementing robust governance frameworks and ensuring diverse and representative training data are essential steps to mitigate legal and ethical risks.
Providing Coordination and Oversight:
To effectively navigate the challenges of generative AI, organizations should establish centers of excellence (CoE) focused on the technology’s adoption and governance.
CoEs play a vital role in understanding the capabilities of generative AI, developing policies for its usage, and involving key stakeholders from legal, IT, risk, and other relevant departments.
CoEs ensure coordination, oversight, and responsible deployment of generative AI within organizations, fostering innovation while managing associated risks.
Generative AI in Contact Centers – How to use it
Generative AI is pivotal in redefining customer interactions in contact centers.
However, despite its immense benefits, there are certain challenges and limitations that need to be addressed for seamless communication to boost accuracy in the language understanding models. These challenges can be solved with the Teneo Linguistic Modeling Language (TLML).
https://www.teneo.ai/solutions/openquestion/accuracy-booster
The Teneo Linguistic Modeling Language (TLML) is a state-of-the-art, deterministic language understanding system capable of recognizing and deciphering word patterns in customer speech.
It adds an extra layer of determinism on top of Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Language Learning Model (LLM), and machine-learning classification, attaining precision that eludes probabilistic models.
By producing matches that instigate specific actions based on the customer’s intent, TLML enables the use of LLM and accurately interpret spoken language and enhance contact center operations.
The Working Mechanism of TLML
Teneo can identify a customer’s response, assign an intent to the call, and then extracts crucial information from the text to decide the appropriate response.
For instance, without Teneo, a match on “unlock” would only process the request and route the call into an account support queue.
Alternatively, it might need the creation of a new intent and workflow to probabilistically respond to clarifications like “my device is locked”, “password is wrong”, or “login says my account is locked”.
However, with Teneo, the system matches “unlock”, asks for clarification, and accurately matches the language on “device is locked”, “password is wrong”, or “login says locked”, thus routing the call appropriately.
This strategy employs a single flow, unified clarification, and simple language constraints to assure correct routing.
Teneo’s Unique Strength
Teneo differentiates itself by employing the TLML system to understand and interpret spoken language with more precision than traditional techniques. It uses a unified workflow dependent on words and context to determine conditions, bypassing the need for manually constructed rulesets.
Consequently, TLML streamlines bot and dialogue management by standardizing deployments and reducing dependence on ad hoc solutions and human intervention.
Other platforms rely on metadata markup or custom scripts, leading to the necessity for static and ever-expanding rulesets. Such an approach escalates the demand for resources, infrastructure, and personnel dedicated to maintenance and support.
Key Advantages of TLML
Accuracy Booster
With TLML on top of ML, you can boost accuracy rates from 80% to 95%.
Guardrails for Generative AI and Precision
Implement safety measures at scale to ensure the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated content as well as the correct interpretation of closely related intents.
High-Functioning and Critical Component
TLML is designed to optimize and scale performance across all aspects of bot and dialogue management.
Teneo: Enhancing Customer Engagement
Teneo enhances both agent and customer engagement and accelerates competency by merging TLML with other AI-based technologies. The advanced language understanding capabilities of TLML enable more accurate and efficient handling of customer calls, making it an essential asset for any contact center.
Case Studies: Successful Implementations of Artificial Intelligence in Call Centers
Artificial intelligence in call centers is a new topic to most people, but the technology has been quietly developed over a long period and has been delivering results for businesses all over the world.
Find out how, in any of the following success stories.
Telefónica Germany Creates Industry-Leading IVR Solution
This system provided 24/7 real-time answers that were personalized covered an omnichannel approach.
As a result, there was a 6% increase in IVR resolution rate, and the system handled over 900,000 monthly calls and 200,000 monthly text requests.
The use of AI in this way allowed Telefónica to provide better customer service and improve customer engagement.
ACCESS HERE
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/telefonica
Swisscom Successfully Implements & Operates Europe’s Leading Conversational IVR Project
Swisscom, in collaboration with Teneo, used OpenQuestion as the first point of contact for customers.
The AI solution was multilingual, covering German, Italian, French, and English, and integrated seamlessly with Swisscom’s pre-existing systems.
With this implementation, Swisscom was able to support over 9 million calls per year and increase its transactional Net Promoter Score by 18 points.
ACCESS HERE
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/swisscom
Tech Giant Saves $39M with OpenQuestion
CSG International
https://www.csgi.com/
a top global tech company implemented OpenQuestion and estimated a $39M ROI.
The AI solution saved agent call time by referring 55% of callers to web resources, reduced misrouted calls by 30%, and decreased average handle time by two minutes per call.
OpenQuestion was also scalable, allowing the company to expand its use to high-priority commercial customers.
ACCESS HERE
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/csg
Healthcare Call Center Transformation
These examples demonstrate the significant positive impact AI can have on call center operations, from improving customer service to reducing operational costs and increasing overall efficiency.
Note that the specific outcomes will depend on the particular context and implementation approach of each company.
ACCESS HERE
https://www.teneo.ai/learning-hub/conversational-ivr-case-studies/global-healthcare-tech-company
The latest innovation in Conversational AI arrives with Teneo.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/the-latest-innovation-in-conversational-ai-arrives-with-teneo
July 5, 2022
The latest upgrade to Teneo has arrived and with it, the leading SaaS-based platform for developing and scaling Conversational AI solutions, just got better.
In this article, we will cover the key updates to the platform and explain how Artificial Solutions’ approach to Conversational AI enables organizations and developer teams to create industry-leading customer experiences.
Providing creators with the power of creativity
This release builds upon Teneo’s pedigree as the most productive & efficient platform for conversation design and solution development.
Focusing on a more intuitive and effective developer’s journey, one that emboldens creativity and enhances productivity, this latest release will enable teams to build better customer experiences faster, with higher quality and greater efficiency.
One of the keys to unlocking a better customer experience, is improving the developer experience while using Teneo. Creativity and productivity are dramatically enhanced when creators can focus on the product, not the tools, therefore, Teneo has been designed to be a natural extension of the creative process.
The platform arms developers with the expert tooling they need to be their most productive, while supporting them throughout the development lifecycle with quality assurance and design intelligence, guiding them and assisting them from build to implementation and through continuous, ongoing improvement.
Expanded Studio Access
One of the most important new features of the platform is the expanded access to Teneo Studio. Teneo now supports users accessing Studio over a streamlined web client as well as through a feature-rich desktop client.
As Conversational AI development teams become increasingly diverse, drawing support from traditional application developers, advanced conversation designers, as well as from subject matter experts within the business, it has become even more critical to cater to these unique and varied user experiences.
For advanced technical users that want a more traditional IDE, Teneo Studio’s desktop client might be ideal. For lesser technical business users, the new web client may make more sense. Or perhaps an advanced user just wants to make a simple change or review a flow design, in which case the web client may be more effective.
Either way, users are free to choose whichever client works best for them and can pivot and change throughout their development journey as needed.
Optimized Development Experience
Whichever access method you choose, whether it’s web or desktop, the next set of improvements you’ll find in the latest release will be the optimized flow design experience.
As Conversational AI use cases continue to expand in terms of scope and complexity, the underlying workflows that support them also grow. Conversation designers building solutions for the enterprise contact center find themselves wrestling with interfaces never designed for solutions at such scale.
However, Teneo’s improved design canvas supports even the most complex and complicated flows without subjecting the builder to an equally complex and complicated user interface. Teneo Studio keeps developers focused, productive, and “in the zone”, regardless of the solution’s scope and scale.
Teneo clears up the often cluttered and inefficient CAI workbench, by exposing only what’s needed, when it’s needed. Teneo Studio provides descriptive and explainable features with a perspective geared toward conversations and customer experience, rather than systems and technology.
Improved Solution Quality
Teneo Studio leverages decades of experience from Artificial Solutions’ team for building and refining large-scale, enterprise-grade contact center solutions to provide users with expert support throughout the development lifecycle.
The developer’s journey in Conversational AI is often a slow and cumbersome one, made more inefficient by a quality control process that typically kicks in after initial design and development.
With our latest upgrade, Teneo introduces quality assurance and support at the very outset of solution design that continues support through the development lifecycle. Teneo Studio will guide, recommend, and provide quality insights and recommendations at every step along the way.
Supportive, descriptive, and explainable tooling makes Teneo easier to learn and easier to master. Ensuring your customer experience solutions are delivered faster, with greater functionality, and with higher quality.
Learn more, here.
https://www.teneo.ai/guide/experience-teneo-seven
Artificial Solutions announces new capabilities in Teneo.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-announces-new-capabilities-in-teneo
June 30. 2022
Focus on enhanced collaborations deliver the next generation of Conversational AI for enterprises on Microsoft Azure.
Artificial Solutions is pleased to announce further additions to Teneo, the most versatile Conversational AI platform for automation, driving revenue growth and cutting operating costs. Teneo is a pay-as-you- go, open and modular platform that is deeply integrated and optimized for the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, representing a single platform to develop, test, approve and publish Conversational AI solutions.
Teneo includes a range of new features that allows enterprise-level organizations to develop next-generation conversational customer experiences with no-code, low-code, and pro-code capabilities, all in one platform.
Teneo’s new UX provides:
- The freedom to put the customer experience at the foreground of the builder’s journey, to transcend the development process with a focus on the conversation.
- An enhanced Web and Studio UI that allows conversation designers to build solutions with remarkable efficiency. A platform so intuitive that it becomes a natural extension of the creative process.
- An improved flow editor that keeps the developer “in the zone” creatively and productively. A design canvas that keeps the developer focused on conversations and customers, not systems and technology.
- An optimized design canvas that will guide, recommend, and provide quality control throughout the development journey, ensuring conversations are built correctly the first time, every time.
- A clutter-free workbench. Gradually exposing exactly what builders need, and only when they need it. Teneo will supercharge your team’s creative skills. Descriptive and explainable tooling makes Teneo both easier to learn and easier to master.
Design and development teams will be provided with a diverse range of tools that will help them to achieve their full potential and create industry-leading Conversational AI solutions, as demonstrated by Swisscom
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai-case-studies/telco
and
Škoda Auto.
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai-case-studies/skoda
Andreas Wieweg, Artificial Solutions´ Chief Technology Officer, said:
“Our new additions will provide even greater capabilities to new and existing customers. We know how frustrating it can be to work with platforms that don´t scale, which is why we have created a platform that provides ultimate freedom and unlimited growth opportunities for conversational design teams.”
Teneo currently provides $7m in monthly savings for Artificial Solutions´ customers, while also supporting an 80% growth in conversational volumes seen across 65+ international implementations. The platform also allows users to build CAI solutions in 85+ languages, with additional dialects being planned over the course of 2022. Teneo is FULLY GDPR-compliant, ensuring the safety and protection of organizations and customers data.
Learn more about Teneo’s latest features, here
https://www.teneo.ai/guide/experience-teneo-seven
Artificial Solutions Announces Enterprise Partnership with CGI.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-announces-enterprise-partnership-with-cgi
June 30, 2022
Artificial Solutions® (SSME: ASAI), the leading specialist in Conversational AI (CAI), today announced a new partnership agreement with CGI, one of the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world.
The deal will see CGI use Artificial Solutions´’ SaaS platform, to develop and deploy conversational solutions for public and private sector organizations throughout Europe.
Mykola Sochynskyi, Global Partner Manager for Artificial Solutions, said:
“This partnership brings significant benefits to CGI and Artificial Solutions’ client base. CGI has been able to create and deploy highly intelligent conversational customer experiences for their customers thanks to the strong core consulting and technical skills they have in combination with the Teneo platform. CGI’s drive for excellence and high-security standards have already had a positive impact on our platform features.”
As an insight and data-driven organization, CGI
https://www.cgi.com/uk/en-gb/banking-and-financial-markets
is a leading provider of technology services around the world. Their ability to deliver complex, digital transformation initiatives that are both sustainable and scalable allows the group to be a leader across 21 vertical markets and in 400 international markets.
Adam Kobeissi, Vice President of Asset Finance for CGI in the UK said:
“As a systems integrator and innovator, the CGI team has found Artificial Solutions Teneo solution a flexible and fast way to deliver Conversational AI solutions that incorporate the disparate channels and backend systems in use at our clients. It allows us to easily add intelligence to the automations we build and its component-connector architecture means we can leverage best-in-class technologies across the operational value-chain.”
Per Ottosson, CEO of Artificial Solutions, said:
“We’re delighted that CGI has chosen to use Teneo for developing conversational customer experiences. We’re confident that our technology is amongst the best in the world and that our team has created a platform which will support the long-term growth of our partners and their respective clients.”
Teneo is a SaaS platform that allows Conversational Design teams to create automated text or voice responses in order to support and communicate with users. With 86 languages and a diverse range of integrations that allows users of the platform to work with the likes of WhatsApp, Slack, Facebook Messenger, SMS, Telegram and a variety of existing CAI platforms, Teneo is amongst the leading technologies in the sector.
About CGI
Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 84,000 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2021 reported revenue is $12.13 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB)
Learn more at
https://www.cgi.com/en
Why the Telco Industry Needs to Harness EX.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/why-the-telco-industry-needs-to-harness-ex
June 20, 2022
Contact Centers are under more pressure than ever as challenges continue to impact telecommunication organizations due to rising customer expectations and an increase in the complexity and range of difficulties call center agents face in 2022.
The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen across international contact centers, as recruitment and staffing issues have only been exacerbated by the global shutdown, as highlighted by ‘The Great Resignation’. This has increased the pressure on enterprise-level organizations operating in the telco sector in various ways, as both staff retention and recruitment has been made more difficult than ever.
Customer experience (CX) has always represented somewhat of a battleground for the telco industry, but this has taken on even greater importance as consumer behavior and attitudes have transformed so radically over the past two years.
As a result, the adoption of Conversational AI (CAI) has been prioritized by forward-thinking organizations that understand the impact that such technology can have for reducing Average Handling Times (AHT), increases in Net Promotor Scores (NPS), conversion rates, transfer quotas and automation.
A growing number of use cases, such as that of Swisscom,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai-case-studies/telco
can now be seen across the telecom sector, demonstrating the dramatic improvements that CAI can have on CX. However, few distinctive use cases have been built around Employee Experience (EX) in the industry, highlighting the importance of creating greater balance between customer and employee satisfaction.
Balancing the scales of CX and EX
Typically, customer success teams and product team are situated in head offices and receive large budgets to invest in innovative technology that will help a brand to connect with its target audience and existing customers on a deeper level via digital channels. This is one of the precise reasons a number of telecommunication leaders use the likes of Teneo to build highly complex Conversational AI solutions and deploy them across their contact centers. Customers are able to connect with an intelligent voicebot and have their problems solved in a much faster and efficient manner.
However, EX is yet to hold as much sway when it comes to the use of Conversational AI. The benefits are so clear for the customer facing element, the benefits offered to internal employees are often overlooked and use cases are not designed to with employees in mind as a primary beneficiary, however, if they were, the impact could be significant for a large contact centre.
According to Mckinsey:
https://www.mckinsey.com/pe/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Operations/Our%20Insights/Boosting%20contact%20center%20performance%20through%20employee%20engagement/Boosting-contact-center-performance-through-employee-engagement.ashx
“Engaged and satisfied call-center employees are; 8.5x more likely to stay than leave within a year, 4x more likely to stay than dissatisfied colleagues, 16x more likely to refer friends to their company and 3.3x more likely to feel extremely empowered to resolve customer issues.”
In the same report, the issue of poor EX impacts contact center employees more than any other vertical.
“The levels of satisfaction varied across industries: for example, banking, securities, and financial services had the highest proportion of respondents who reported being extremely satisfied at 52 percent, followed by travel, transport, and logistics at 44 percent and nonhealthcare insurance at 35 percent (which also had the lowest overall percentage of dissatisfied employees). Meanwhile, telecommunications and technology earned the lowest marks, with just 25 percent.”
The requirement for the telco industry is clear. Put a stronger focus on EX and the benefits will be felt across an organization.
From the standpoint of Conversational AI deployment and implementation, this mean inviting employees and managers into the process of designing conversational flows and processes. Contact center agents and those in direct contact with customers are at the front line of customer engagement and therefore have the best understanding of the most common questions and answers.
By involving a range of employees in a project and connecting a CX and EX team, the outcome is likely to have a bigger impact internally and externally. Furthermore, inviting agents to provide suggestions will provide an opportunity for them to feel more involved in high-level strategic decisions, which plays a key role in employee satisfaction.
“Our research found that a handful of factors—and not just wages or job-related stress—have the greatest influence on employee satisfaction and retention. Accordingly, companies should focus on improving the factors within their control to make employees feel empowered. Several activities such as the frequency and effectiveness of huddles, the duration of training (or nesting), the opportunities for socializing, and intentional supervision have proved effective. Collectively, these activities can be potent tools to foster a sense of belonging among agents and improve agent retention.”
For the next-generation contact center operated by an organization in the telco industry, placing a strong focus on EX as well as CX is imperative in order to make the most of technologies they adopt. The full potential of CAI is only realized when applied with both internal and external stakeholders in mind.
ŠKODA AUTO, Artificial Solutions & Cognizant announce European expansion of Conversational AI Solution.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/skoda-auto-artificial-solutions-cognizant-announce-european-expansion-of-conversational-ai-solution
April 28, 2022
Artificial Solutions® (SSME: ASAI) announces today that ŠKODA AUTO is expanding its Conversational AI
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai
solution to cover new European regions, taking the total number of countries covered by its chatbot ‘Laura’
https://www.skoda.ie/
to 13. ‘Laura’ is an intelligent chatbot that provides customers with valuable information, helping them in the process of new ŠKODA vehicle selection by advising them which vehicle best fulfills their expectations and requirements and guiding them through the following steps, like test drive booking or requesting a tailored quote from a dealer.
With the support of Artificial Solutions’ partner Cognizant,
https://www.cognizant.com/de/de
ŠKODA AUTO will be able to increase the reach and capabilities of ‘Laura’, which has already provided a significant increase in test drive bookings for the car manufacturer
Each new region will see the deployment of solutions in their respective native language, allowing for deeper levels of engagement and communication with customers across Europe..
The regions within Europe include France, Spain, United Kingdom, Poland, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Finland, and Italy. The project has also been expanded to New Zealand.
The solution, built and launched in 2020 by Artificial Solutions’ award-winning SaaS platform Teneo, has gradually scaled upwards across the European continent over a two-year period, providing car buyers with highly personalized conversational customer experiences.
Veronika Marecková, Business Lead from ŠKODA AUTO, said:
“The expansion of our Conversational AI solution in these key regions further demonstrates our commitment to provide our customers with the best service and experience possible. The dedicated team has been working hard in order to expand the market coverage and capabilities of ‘Laura’ and we’re extremely excited about the next phase of our project and look forward to sharing ‘Laura’ with millions more people.”
Harshit Mistry, Engagement Lead of Automotive Industry Consulting at Cognizant, added:
“ŠKODA AUTO has demonstrated a strong commitment to build best-in-class conversational customer experiences by investing in technology and in specialized teams that focus on delivering results. The success of their virtual assistant ‘Laura’ has demonstrated that consumers want a personal and bespoke experience when interacting with a brand online and so, we’re delighted to announce this expansion and further enhance the position of ŠKODA AUTO and Cognizant as industry-leaders in this field.”
Joel Plazzotta, Account Executive for Automotive at for Artificial Solutions, said:
“Once more, Teneo has demonstrated its ability to scale solutions effortlessly and adapt to highly complex requirements and client needs. ŠKODA AUTO has enjoyed significant success and gained a competitive edge over its competitors over the past two years by investing in Conversational AI and by showing a commitment to growing its dedicated team. I’m thrilled with the results we have achieved so far and look forward to many more years of expansion and success.”
Conversational AI is shaping the future of Contact Centers.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/conversational-ai-is-shaping-the-future-of-contact-centers
April 27, 2022
Think back to 2020, when lockdowns and work-from-home became the norm for most people suddenly. Can you recount how many times you tried to engage with a business or government office, only to be put on hold for a while because support teams everywhere were overwhelmed by the unexpected avalanche of calls? What is the Future of Contact Centers?
Experiencing a pandemic has changed us as customers forever. It disrupted and transformed the way people expect to interact with organizations demanding 24/7 accessibility and support across channels. From medical support, rescheduling holidays to obtaining emergency loans, call centers have been at the center of it all. In a time that heavily influenced consumer loyalty, slow responses, high attrition rates, call volumes and delays meant that organizations faced a huge loss in brand confidence.
Contact Centers today are facing challenges born out of the pandemic, that continue to impact operations and customer satisfaction in three major areas:
- Supporting the Customer: call centers are still experiencing long wait times and are having difficulty keeping up with the demand, which increases negative customer feedback.
- Digital transitions: the rapid pace of digitalization has left contact centers with disjointed self-services experiences and fragmented operations that were implemented in a rush.
- Reactive operations: rising costs to serve, regulatory changes, staff shortages – contact centers leaders are having to manage new strategic challenges while keeping up with unprecedented rise in customer contact demands resulting in reactive management.
But not everything is bad news; thanks to technologies such as Conversational AI, the future is bright but complicated. Legacy systems, staffing and costs are hampering change but, if implemented right, Conversational AI (CAI) can bring solutions to the challenges previously mentioned and offer quantifiable results to contact centers such as better NPS and cost savings.
We suggest that companies take a holistic approach to their omnichannel support and use CAI to enhance those channels that make sense to automate.
This is explained in the graphic below:
The ROI of a conversational AI solution, such as virtual agents, and the impact that these will have on customers’ satisfaction will increase proportionally to the complexity of the use case and the maturity of the enterprise.
See how in the graph below:
If you want to learn more about this topic, Artificial Solutions and CGI
https://www.cgi.com/en
hosted a webinar about “The Future of Contact Centers: Digitalizing using Conversational AI”. Adam Kobeissi (CGI), Chidi Akurunwa (CGI) and Mykola Sochynskyi (Artificial Solutions) talked about how, with advances in Process Automation and Machine Learning, the answer lies in Conversational AI
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai-technology
to provide human-like experiences with meaningful outcomes.
Click below to watch the full webinar on-demand and learn how Conversational AI is changing the way contact centers operate.
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/17594/532931?utm_source=blog-post&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=532931&utm_term=AS-blog&utm_content=button-link
Sean Mcllrath announced as new VP of Americas for Artificial Solutions.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/sean-mcllrath-announced-as-new-vp-of-americas-for-artificial-solutions
April 7, 2022
Artificial Solutions has named Sean Mcllrath as the new Vice President of Americas, continuing the company’s strong team expansion in 2022.
With 20+ years of enterprise experience, Sean McIlrath’s understanding of AI software operation and keen collaboration skills have made him a leader in B2B sales. A distinguishing component of his professional background is his experience running and building sales GTM for AI, machine learning, and automation service.
Sean has 10+ years of experience with AI and cloud-based technology; this level of experience sets him apart from other leaders in the industry and has aided him to generate $1B+ in revenue for some of the world’s largest companies.
On his appointment, Sean said:
“I’m delighted to join Artificial Solutions. It´s an exciting time for Conversational AI and its potential to change the CX landscape for many companies that are ready to finally ´go big´. I look forward to building a world class organization in the US to reach our goals.”
Chief Revenue Officer, Nicolas Köllerstedt, added:
“Sean brings a wealth of experience to our team and we´re looking forward to seeing the impact of his leadership across our operations in the Americas as well as within our organization. As a clear and strategic communicator, Sean has a demonstrated history of developing partnerships and relationships in the technology sector while also driving growth on multiple fronts. His addition highlights our ambition to lead the CAI market and to build an industry-leading company.”
GrapeTree Medical Staffing Launches Conversational AI Solution Built on Teneo.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/grapetree-medical-staffing-launches-conversational-ai-solution-built-on-teneo
April 4, 2022
The specialist healthcare recruitment organization, GrapeTree Medical Staffing,
https://www.grapetree.com/
has launched a Conversational AI (CAI) recruitment solution, built using Artificial Solutions’ SaaS platform, Teneo.
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/developers
The solution will support online job applications and interview processes that candidates experience at the GrapeTree portal.
The goal is to automate, reduce disengagements and increase the customers experience in the recruitment process. For Grapetree, the key objective to provide the candidates with guidance and information. Teneo is also on hand to provide information to candidates before key interview steps, helping to prepare individuals and increase the rate of successful hires.
Furthermore, conversational data is collected throughout the online process, allowing for informed and data-driven decisions to be made by the organization, such as streamlining and content support provision at different stages of an application being received, and an interview being processed.
Joaquim Bargalló Angerri, Director of Customer Success for Artificial Solutions, said:
“In only two weeks, Grapetree´s virtual assistant handled 17k API calls alone, demonstrating the instant impact that Teneo brings. Teneo is built to allow for rapid growth and we’re excited to see how our technology will be used in the very capable hands of the GrapeTree team.”
Teneo is a SaaS platform built for enterprise, allowing organizations to design, develop and deploy highly complex CAI solutions in 86 languages. The technology has been developed over a 20-year period and includes a range of industry-leading features and core capabilities.
About GrapeTree Medical Staffing
GrapeTree is a 24/7 healthcare staffing agency that offers staffing solutions to healthcare facilities throughout 12 states and has been operating for 20 years.
The organization provides quality healthcare professionals to fill last minute or long-term shifts due to staff being sick, on leave or on vacation.
Artificial Solutions announces deal with one of the largest Healthcare Providers in the world.
Source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-announces-deal-with-one-of-the-largest-healthcare-providers-in-the-world
April 4, 2022
Artificial Solutions® (SSME: ASAI), the leading specialist in Conversational AI (CAI),
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai
today announced the signing of a three-year licensing agreement with one of the largest single-payer healthcare system in the world. The deal will allow access to Artificial Solutions SaaS platform, Teneo.
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/teneo
The healthcare institution’s goal is to create complex conversational customer experiences across its digital properties and within its core communication channels. The organisation is aiming to see the deployment of CAI solutions at the end of Q2 2022, with a national roll-out set to take place in the near future.
Per Ottosson, CEO of Artificial Solutions, said:
We’re delighted that one of the most recognizable names in European healthcare has chosen to use Teneo as its primary tool for developing conversational customer experiences. We’re confident that our technology is amongst the best in the world and that our team has created a platform which will support the long-term growth of our customers.
Teneo is a SaaS platform that allows Conversational Design teams to create automated text or voice responses in order to support and communicate with users. With 86 languages and a diverse range of integrations that allows users of the platform to work with the likes of WhatsApp, Slack, Facebook Messenger, SMS, Telegram and a variety of existing CAI platforms, Teneo is amongst the leading technologies in the sector.
Microsoft’s LUIS platform is also integrated with Teneo, while Apple, IBM and Google all use patented technology built by the Artificial Solutions Development team.
Intern Diary: Week 7
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-wk-7
March 28, 2022
Happy Monday!
Andrea, the Artificial Solutions marketing intern, is proud to say I’m still out here kicking!
I made it through week one of two of finals, we’ll see how this one goes. I confess that my room right now is a mess of papers thrown around everywhere, meticulously divided into different sections to determine what I have gone over and what I haven’t, and I can happily say that the “studied” pile is finally larger than the “to study” pile! Finally!
I have a small confession to make this week, actually.
And that is that when I first started looking into Artificial Solutions for this job, I had no idea what Conversational AI was.
I know! How dare I! But honestly, I had been highly disconnected from the world of Artificial Intelligence throughout my life, with most of these big emerging technologies being too fleeting or too abstract for me to take the time to truly understand them.
The world of Conversational AI is one that I never saw myself going into or learning about, but now I can’t stop looking at the small chatbots that are available in almost any website, and I have realized what a widespread and important technology it has become.
I’ve fought with my share of chatbots online,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/why-chatbots-are-annoying-make-sure-yours-isnt
just like anyone else, just arguing with a chatbot that absolutely refuses to understand whatever it is that you’re trying to say, fully ignoring the point, and just resending the same useless message. I guess I had grown slightly resentful of both chatbots and voice bots who would be in conversation with me when I was trying to fix an issue. I confess that when I’m on the phone with a bot I actively try to make it not understand so that I’m redirected to an actual human.
I guess I am Conversational AI’s worst nightmare as a customer.
And I guess that most of the conversational AI solutions that are available in the market are like that, because now that I (slightly) know about the technology I am still annoyed whenever I have to make use of most of them.
They don’t truly adapt to the conversation that is actually going on, and I knew that if the conversational solutions built by Teneo
https://www.teneo.ai/
were anything like those I would have to definitely pretend to like the platform. So, I’m just glad that Teneo is more complex, and therefore builds more complex conversations.
I guess, overall, I was just surprised at the fact that this huge industry had just been flying over my head this entire time, with a widespread adoption in fields that I had never thought of.
My mom talked to me about it last week (hi mom!), mentioning that there was an initiative that she saw on the news where a chatbot
https://www.inamu.go.cr/web/inamu/violencia
was created so that victims of domestic violence were able to get information, guidance, and call out for help, all without the fear of being judged by another person at other side of the conversation.
She thought that it was a good idea and was happy to hear that the company I worked in was building a technology that had so much untapped potential for good and that could have such a positive impact on the lives of individuals, and that slowly as an industry we are getting there.
I’m actually off to go to a talk on Conversational AI!
Tune in next week to see if I make it out of my undergrad in one piece!
Loomis signs agreement with Artificial Solutions.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/loomis-signs-agreement-with-artificial-solutions
March 28, 2022
Loomis
https://www.loomis.com/en
to increase customer experiences with the help of Artificial Solutions’ Teneo,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/teneo
as a step in their efforts to combine the physical and digital customer offering.
Loomis operates through an international network of more than 400 branches in more than 20 countries. Teneo is available in 86 languages and has an outstanding ability to transform customers’ digital experiences as it provides bot-builders with the most productive and scalable development platform in the marketplace.
“We are proud that Loomis, who is at the center of the payment ecosystem, are committed to deliver market leading conversational AI to improve satisfaction levels”, said Per Ottosson, CEO at Artificial Solutions.
Artificial Solutions’ Teneo provide outstanding levels of automation, ROI and TCO:
ROI (Return of Investment)
Teneo transforms contact centers into a cognitive contact center to increases automation and accuracy of routing over 120,000 voice calls per month. $39M ROI: that’s what a global tech company benefits from adding Conversational AI to its IVR.
TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)
Using Teneo one large enterprise handle more than 400K conversations per month and 98 % of the tasks completed successfully. Only 3 people needed to build and maintain the solution.
AUTOMATION
A European Telco built its own multilingual (English, Italian, French and German) voice assistant in under 9 months. The new digital brand ambassador handles over 2,000,000 dialogues per month and has achieved 40% higher resolution rates for automated flows.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Completed dialogue flows have improved by 25% and there’s a +30 tNPS (transactional net promoter score) increase over chat channels and +18 tNPS over voice.
SPEED IN GO-TO-MARKET
It took less than 6 months to integrate Teneo in the complex architecture of one of the largest Telco’s, leveraging the already existing investments in Azure, Nuance, and Genesys.
Intern Diary: Week 6
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-wk6
March 21, 2022
Hello! It’s a very stressed marketing intern checking in again from a rainy Barcelona!
This Tuesday marks the beginning of (hopefully) the last finals that I ever take as an undergraduate college student! Which comes hand-in-hand with a bit of added stress! And I honestly can’t wait for exam period to be over.
I’ll check back in two weeks and let you know if I’ve made it out alive (as I’m currently running on caffeine and anxiety, I highly doubt it).
This past week came with a really long list of links of blog posts that needed to be optimized for search, but after many, many hours I got to go through all of them, and most of my part in fixing-up the website is almost done!
I also spent more time at the office last week and got to work with my coworkers a bit more. I have started to do small design projects for different departments, and I’m working in adding a bit of life to different sections of the website, especially the community tab for developers alongside Benjamin Kolz, of Customer Success.
Talking about the website, I’ve also been working alongside Monica Kutrowski, CRM specialist, on the launch of the https://www.teneo.ai/ website, and coming up with the different hero images that will differentiate the content pages in the main menu!
I’ve also taken up to help on the design of the annual report, and I think most of those images just need to be edited and they can finally be added to the final version of the report. I’ve been missing Yoleidy Carvajal, Head of Partner Marketing, because she’s been helping me throughout the process and she’s been off over the past week, but hopefully I will soon be able to ask her a million questions on the report.
In other news, being a (men’s) Barça team fan was fun yesterday for the first time in a while. The women’s team has yet to let me down, on the other hand, and I’m very excited for their Clásico moment that is also coming up this week (I will be going to the game at Camp Nou, if you happen to be around come say hi!).
Talking about women being cool, this week has come with many different #AiAllies posts from amazing women in partner organizations! Make sure you check out the stories of Kathy Turner, Joanna Runesson, and Samantha Sosa, all of which offer a perspective of entering STEM fields as a woman in different ways, whether it be from telecom, innovative companies like Spotify, or fintech.
That’s all from me this week! I have to go back to reviewing, wish me luck!
I hope that this week is wonderful for everybody.
Intern Diary: Week 5
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-wk5
March 14, 2022
Happy Monday! It is Andrea, the Artificial Solutions Marketing intern, reporting back after a busy, busy week!
Last week, the team was preparing for the upcoming webinar that we had in partnership with CGI and making sure that the word got out in an email campaign.
It has already happened (wow I can’t believe you missed it, that’s so sad), but if you want to catch the replay, you can check it out here!
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/17594/532931?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=link
The past week was also very big in the team, because we started the #AiAllies initiative,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-celebrates-international-womens-day-with-aiallies-campaign-2
where in celebration of International Women’s Day, we started to showcase different women in the company and industry with a daily blog post dedicated to them telling their story as women part of the tech industry.
The series starts here,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/ai-allies-maddalena-molteni-head-of-product?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=aiallies
with an interview with Maddalena Molteni,
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddalena-molteni-b0868a11/
Head of Product, and has continued for every day of the past week with conversations with wonderful women! Make sure to check back in frequently, to see what is being shared under the #AiAllies tag!
It’s my first-time being part of a company during IWD, and I certainly didn’t have many expectations really, given that most of the places my friends have worked at have not done anything really special, with one of them even saying that her workplace didn’t really want to mess with the set social media rollout for that day, so they just made a mere post almost a week beforehand and called it a day. I’m comforted by the fact that Artificial Solutions is taking the time to be able to broadcast the women that make up such an important part of their company. I think I’m also very lucky to be part of a team that has so many women in it, when I first started applying to jobs in the sector I was a little bit intimidated by the idea of entering a field that has the fame of being notoriously male-dominated, and I didn’t really want to be part of a team that was mostly made up with men, with the younger intern being the only woman.
Being part of a marketing team that is 80% women was definitely not something that I expected coming into it, but it has definitely changed my idea of what being part of tech looks like, all with incredibly interesting stories on how they have entered the field, how they have seen it change over the years, and what they’re doing to change it for the better.
It has been interesting to learn over the course of the interviews from the past week that many of the women in our company come from a distinctly different background than tech, mostly because due to the nature of the technology that we create the company requires a lot of people with a linguistics background.
I never really saw myself in the tech space growing up, and while I’ve always had incredible women that have inspired my and guided me through my life, I’ve heard all kinds of horror stories on how they have been treated, and that always made me a bit fearful of what it would be like to enter a male-dominated space. But I’m truly grateful I’ve been able to meet such wonderful women in the industry that have worked tirelessly to be able to teach me and guide me through this new stage of my life.
To all the women in my life, thank you!
Ai Allies – Gavriella Schuster
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/ai-allies-gavriella-schuster
March 10, 2022
With 25 years of experience working for one of the largest businesses in the world and now acting as a leading figure in the fight to improve gender balance across the technology industry, Gavriella Schuster is well placed to discuss the key challenges that women face in the sector and what can be done to improve gender balance across the industry.
In her role as the Chairwomen of Artificial Solutions’ Advisory Board, Gavriella is working to implement the #BeCOME framework,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/artificial-solutions-our-diversity-manifesto
which she has focused on implementing across a range of other businesses with the technology sector.
“I’m a former Corporate Vice President from Microsoft but recently left the organization to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in high tech. My focus and objective is to help to build a network of allies to create a more inclusive environment and culture that is accepting of diverse talent throughout the industry.”
Gavriella believes that creating personal allies within a working environment is critical for creating a strong culture that is both supportive and productive. Her #Allies campaign is a major driving factor of this belief and more companies are committing to the implementation of the #BeCOME and #Allies framework.
“To be an ally to somebody who may need personal and professional support, that means that you are recognizing that you have privilege and some power within an organization and you are willing to work with intention to confer that power to those around you. An ally is one who shares their power.”
The fundamental concept of Gavriella’s framework, is that allies need to be made within tech businesses and across the industry. The goal is to encourage women to reach out to others who they believe can support them and elevate their voice within a professional environment, especially if they are facing issues with recognition and validation.
“I have spent 30 years in high tech and things have actually gotten worse in relation to the the gender equity equation. In 1991, 36% of the computing workforce was made up of women, since then its now between 22% and 27% and so while the industry has really taken off, the percentage of women in the industry has declined. That is very troubling for me.”
“As every company become a tech company and as technology becomes ubiquitous, it’s problematic if women are not participating in the technology economy.”
As is now well known, a company that has greater diversity has better overall performance and so, there is a clear mandate for the tech industry to encourage and educate more women to enter the sector.
“Businesses are 22% more likely to be more profitable and to be more innovative, which allows tech businesses to build solutions that reflect the general population. This isn’t just a ‘women’ problem, this issue is impacting the bottom line of businesses so we need to see ally-ship with intention. That’s why it’s so important.”
One of the key issues facing the sector is a high drop-out rate amongst women, who no longer feel comfortable in their professional life, however, Gavriella believes that making allies in the workspace and having a certain mindset can help to mitigate this issue.
“Most men want to be allies, they just might not be aware that women face as many microaggressions as they do. If you’re in a meeting and you find that you are constantly being interrupted and you’re not being heard, then you should find somebody who is frequently in those same meetings who you feel you can trust.”
“That’s when you have a conversation where you can ask for support the next time you are interrupted or ignored. You’ll be amazed at how strongly you’ll be supported as soon as you ask for someone’s help.”
Gavriella is eager to support women at all levels of the industry and has created a number of resources to provide help and advice for women in tech.
Her e-book can be found here,
https://gavriellaschuster.com/become/
and her recommended reads include ‘Empowering Women and how to Empower Women’, ‘Why Men Win at Work’ and ‘Good Guys’.
“There are also two amazing groups that I would encourage women to engage with. One is the Women in Technology Network
https://thewitnetwork.com/
and Women in Technology
https://women-in-tech.org/
is also a valuable network to access. Finally, Wentors
https://www.wentors.com/
is a career matching service which helps women connect with senior women mentors.”
Gavriella is also a strong advocate of International Women’s Day and continues to see its relevance and importance.
“It gives us a chance to pause and reflect on the progress, or lack of progress, we have made. It reminds us all of what we need to do and what our commitments to action should be. I think the best way to drive change is through storytelling and so we need to use International Women’s Day to share the stories of successful women and what they have done.”
Ai Allies – Maddalena Molteni, Head of Product.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/ai-allies-maddalena-molteni-head-of-product
March 8, 2022
As the Head of Product for Artificial Solutions,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/
Maddalena Molteni (Madda) holds a key position with the tech company and has had a major influence on the success of the business over the span of a 17-year career with the organisation. And like many of the women celebrated in the Ai Allies series, her original background was not one typically associated with technology.
“I come from a linguistic background and actually wanted to be an interpreter or a translator as a younger person. Linguistics is my passion, in all its facets and it’s what allowed me to discover machine translation, but also computational linguistics, NLP and Conversational AI.
“When I was looking for jobs I was lucky to find Artificial Solutions, It has been the perfect fit as I was able to combine my interest with my skills as a linguist working initially as a Conversational Designer.
Artificial Solutions was one of the very first technology businesses to innovate in the Conversational AI sector and so, Madda has been a major part of the development of the business and the tech it produces.
“I’m really proud to have been able to start as a user of what has now become Teneo, our core product, that my team is responsible for developing. I started out building bots and that was a lot of fun, as it was a real niche back then. Now it’s a global industry and we’re right at the forefront of the space.”
“I really love the intersection between machine and human interaction, it’s the perfect combination of language and technology which I am most interested in.”
Madda now leads a team of Developers and Conversational Design specialists, who work to improve and innovate Artificial Solutions’ core product, Teneo.
Advice, Learnings and Overcoming Challenges
Technology companies have traditionally employed more men, however, Artificial Solutions has always maintained a healthy balance, according to Madda.A reason for this attributed to the fact that that more women study linguistic subjects at university and can enter the Conversational AI space as a result.
“It might not be the same in other companies, but we’ve always had a lot of women throughout our teams. A huge number of women study linguistics and so, a career in the CAI space is a great route of entry.”
“Again, there is a real niche for women to explore on the computational linguistic side, and I would definitely recommend it as an area you can be successful in from the tech sector perspective.”
Education represents the starting point for any career, most of the time, and the focus in every level of education is evolving as more and more focus is put on technology-based skills. As well as preparing the next generation for an even more tech-centric world, another benefit is that more women will have opportunities to get into the industry.
“My 10 year old daughter is studying robotics after school! And there are a lot more opportunities for young people to pick up and learn the skills that they will need in a technology environment. There are a lot of online resources, and the industry is getting better at making education accessible via those channels.”
Though the future may be brighter for women in tech, one of the most important challenges that remains is the lack of seniority given across the industry.
“I think that a lot of women have been able to benefit from coming into the industry, however, I think there is still a big barrier for women who want to secure senior roles. That requires another mindset change across the industry.”
Leading a Balanced Team
In her role of Head of Product, Madda is responsible for a variety of people from a diverse mix of backgrounds and a focus on being multidimensional is a clear focus within her team.
“In your team it is so important to have people who have versatile skills and can work on different kinds of projects. Within an R&D team, there are so many different types of roles that both women and men can take on and in my experience, women tend to enjoy positions that allow them to apply multiple skills and work on a wide range of projects. Having a great work environment is key to retaining talent, and mixed teams are more efficient but also more close-knit.”
“Having a team culture where everybody can fit in and is allowed, even pushed to contribute on multiple aspects of the development lifecycle, you’re going to have a much happier and more productive team. Focusing on a specific target % figure is not the solution, it is not important to have the same percentage of each gender in each role, but it is important to have a balanced and mixed team, with enough women within it. There are so many roles and skills required in a software development team that go beyond pure programming.
For Madda, it’s clear what the industry needs to do more of in order to help and support more women in the sector.
“I think we all need to do a better job of explaining the variety of roles that women can train for and enjoy successful careers within. I love my job and I am so grateful for everything that I have been able to achieve in this role, but I might not have discovered this career path unless I had stumbled into Artificial Solutions.”
“I think that a lot more women would be in this sector if they knew about the different types of roles that are available and I would greatly encourage anyone who is thinking of learning more about this space, to get in touch with Artificial Solutions!”
Artificial Solutions Celebrates International Women’s Day With #AiAllies Campaign.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/artificial-solutions-celebrates-international-womens-day-with-aiallies-campaign-2
March 8, 2022
Artificial Solutions is delighted to announce a brand-new series that will celebrate the success, innovation and leadership of women in the technology sector, beginning today on International Women’s Day.
Feature interviews with leaders from across the tech-sector will be shared across the month of March in order to help create a network of #AiAllies for women to connect and learn from. Each interview will be published with a strong focus on practical advice for others to follow, while key learning resources will also be shared throughout the series.
Following on from the publication of Artificial Solutions Diversity Manifesto,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/artificial-solutions-our-diversity-manifesto
#AiAllies will demonstrate an ongoing commitment to improving access and education for women in the STEM sector.
Chief Impact Officer, Marie Angselius Schönbeck, said:
“We’re thrilled to announce this series and can’t wait to share inspirational stories from across our network of partners, customers and industry friends. Importantly, we’ll also be promoting the stories of the women who act as leaders within our own company.”
The Chairwoman of Artificial Solutions’ Advisory Board, Gavriella Schuster, is a leading figure in the fight to improve greater gender balance across the tech-industry and her #BeCOME framework is being implemented throughout the Artificial Solutions ecosystem.
She said:
“Our ambition is to lead by example and act as a beacon for the entire industry in order to create a more inclusive and diverse future, together.”
If you would like more information on #AiAllies or you would like to get involved, get in touch:
as-marketing@artificial-solutions.com
Intern Diary: Week 4
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-wk4
March 7, 2022
Hello! It’s the Artificial Solution’s marketing intern Andrea reporting back for another week at the office!
Last week I reported on the introduction of a cute notebook in my life. In this one I can happily say that this diary entry is being typed on a new (yes! brand new!) laptop! After a bit of issues with the colors showing on it, it is now ready to be used and abused (that was a joke, I pinky promise I will take good care of her) by me.
Thank you, William and David of IT, for your help in putting the computer in weird settings so that the purple shows purple instead of a weird blue. The laptop also has a really cute case with a velvety inside, I now spend most of my days stroking the inside of a laptop pouch.
In other important events of the past couple of days, the team has been busy as MWC 2022 has been going on, and the marketing and sales teams were working hard on promoting our platform and building awareness of what makes Teneo
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/teneo
the right choice for building their chatbot.
On Wednesday, we got to have an in-person marketing meeting at the office for the first time in a month, and it was very nice to be able to meet with the team again. We set important KPIs for the rest of the quarter and the rest of the year, and I think it’s good to be aware of what we are working towards and how to focus our efforts, and make sure we celebrate the smaller victories while moving towards the bigger goals!
The meeting was followed by a videoconference about my (insert ominous music) dissertation, which I’m still unsure on what it will be about, so stay tuned in the upcoming weeks where I will probably have an inevitable breakdown on that. Before that I will have a breakdown about finals. I’m basically just giving you a rundown of my emotional state over the next month.
I spent the rest of Wednesday afternoon with Monica, CRM Specialist, working on trying to set up our new work laptops (we had to log back in to all programs, it was a very lengthy process), getting yummy lunch, and creating the next email campaign on Marketo,
https://www.marketo.com/
which is working on promoting the upcoming webinar that’s happening March 14th.
Wait, now that I think about it, this is a good place to plug it! If you are interested in knowing how the future of contact centers is looking, and how conversational AI can help with the change in consumer demand due to the pandemic, you can check it out here!
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/17594/532931?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=cgi-webinar&utm_term=andrea
I hope everybody has wonderful, sunny moments in what is looking to be a pretty rainy and cloudy week!
Intern Diary: Week 3
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https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-wk3
February 28, 2022
Hello! It’s me again!
For those that might be new around here, welcome! My name is Andrea, and I’m the (now not so) new marketing intern at Artificial Solutions.
I come with amazing news today, and it is that on Thursday I received a cute little notebook from Sabrina Franco, of human resources, with the company logo on it and I’m incredibly happy about it. I love cute notebooks.
This week I got to spend more time than usual at the office, and it meant that I got to talk with more of my coworkers, and I have definitely gotten more comfortable around the office.
Those first couple of days I was very nervous walking into the building, but now I happily greet the man that works in the reception every time I come in.
Covering Mobile World Congress…
It has been a busy couple of days in the marketing department, as we are gearing up for Mobile World Congress,
https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/
which starts today!
Mobile World Congress is arguably the biggest event in Barcelona every year. It is the first time it happens at its regular time of the year since 2019, and the city is buzzing with the chance of being able to host it again fully.
In this expo, tech companies get to display all of their new products and share what it is that they do, there’s different pop-up events that happen all around town, and the streets get filled with people in fancy suits who are very important in their respective fields but somehow can’t really find their way to the venue using Google maps. I hope that this year it goes by without any issues, though as it always happens there are going to be strikes from different transportation sectors.
The only one that I know is confirmed for a fact is the FGC one, that will run until March 4th. It’s definitely going on because the other day I was late to class because the train would not show up on its regularly scheduled time. I have yet to hear anything about the taxis or the metro, but if you are going to MWC be prepared to face traffic and public transportation delays. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
However, if you are going to MWC make sure to check out stand 5F86, I heard the people that are going to be there are really nice ??. We will be having a Swedish Fika! Make sure to book ahead so that they don’t run out of sugar treats before you get there!
Meet us for a coffee and sweet treat, on us, here!
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/mobile-world-congress-2022
Connecting with the wider team…
Outside of MWC, I was also able to sit in on an interview between George Brown, Head of Content, and Britta Guldmann, Conversational AI Consultant, which was set up for our upcoming International Women’s Day series. I had briefly met Britta before, but it was the first time that I heard about what she does and her story.
I won’t spoil too much, but it was comforting to hear the story of someone that ended up in a field that was never in their radar when they picked what they were going to study.
The world feels as though it is going to end when you’re 17 trying to figure out what you want to do in university (I personally had multiple crying sessions about it throughout my teenage years), but it was nice to hear the story of someone who ended up in a completely different field that from what they expected but are still able to find different aspects of it that link to their passions.
I never intended to end up in tech when I chose my university degree, but I can certainly say that so far this industry has been welcoming and that I’m having a great time learning from my coworkers.
I hope that even though hard-core coding is not part of my educational background, that I can continue to make my way in this industry and find the combination of both my skills and what the company requires.
I hope that everyone has a good week, and that those going to MWC have a great time, say hello to any cool robots for me!
Intern Diary: Week 2
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https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-week2-student-life
February 21, 2022
Happy Monday from a stressed student!
Once more, my name is Andrea and I’m sharing my journey as a Marketing Intern to help others who are thinking of taking on an internship. I’m also trying to track my own journey into the world of tech and of the beginning of my professional life. My first diary entry can be found here if you’re new to my series!
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-week-1
My second week with Artificial Solutions brought a new challenge as a big midterm exam and assignments took over my life! This week has been much more stressful than the last as a result, so I wanted to talk about balancing academic and professional life in this week’s diary entry.
A Balancing Act
The midterm exam went alright. I think. The test was designed so that it was impossible to finish and one that throws in questions that my professor knew that I didn’t know the answer to, but all in all, I think it went okay.
It’s been a big adjustment to my schedule these past weeks, having to learn to juggle both work and school, but I feel like I’ve been doing alright! I’ve been able to handle the responsibilities of both, and luckily everyone has been very accommodating to my university schedule, so I’m very thankful!
I think that it’s really important to find an internship that has flexibility if you are looking to maintain any kind of balance between work and study. I am not required to go to the office for a set number of hours, so as long as I complete the tasks I have been given, the team are happy with me!
I was able to complete my SEO tasks efficiently on Monday, finishing up the list of blog posts that had to be optimized, and I was able to concentrate on working on the PPC campaign that the company is launching. This, I learned, is called ‘remarketing’.
To create the ads, I used a graphic design platform called Canva
https://www.canva.com/de_de/
which is a really simple tool to use. You can create all kinds of designs and you don’t need experience to understand how it works. If you are interested in working in social media or in marketing in general, I would recommend that you learn how to use Canva, as you can put it on your CV as a skill.
My other priority during the first couple of days of the week was to get through most of the tasks that I had set on Trello,
https://trello.com/
the platform that the team uses to keep track of each other’s progress and of the upcoming tasks for weeks ahead.
This is another really easy tool to use and it’s really important for the marketing team as we can keep track of our tasks and the progress we make. It’s something else you should check out if you’re just starting out!
I also worked on setting up the social media calendar posts for this week and creating some posts for all our socials, using Buffer
https://buffer.com/
to coordinate the schedule on all social media channels which automatically posts them at a set time. So, if you see the scheduled posts this week on LinkedIn,
https://www.linkedin.com/company/artificial-solutions
Twitter,
https://mobile.twitter.com/artisol
or Facebook,
https://www.facebook.com/artificialsolutions/
you know who is responsible for them!
Learning from the Best
Juxtaposing the sleepless nights that I had this week to go over game theory concepts and exercises, I had the very special opportunity to talk to Gavriella Schuster, the Chairwoman of Artificial Solution’s Advisory Board, and a champion for equity and diversity in the workplace, specifically in the tech-sector.
We had the opportunity to have an insightful discussion on what it’s like to enter the tech industry as a woman. We discussed how it is important to be allies to those around us and uplift others who might need support when entering a professional situation that might not be immediately welcoming.
Gavriella shared her experiences of navigating a male-dominated industry, with her journey starting back in the 90s, but also how the situation has worsened over the past decades, and that in actuality the total percentage of women that make up the labor force in the tech sector has actually decreased (I know, I was shocked as well).
This is especially worrisome due to the trend of tech becoming a bigger and bigger part of the world economy and the shift of industries into needing tech roles in their firms.
We spoke about the importance of International Women’s Day, which is quickly coming up, and ways to honor the women that came before us, but also those that will come after us, and how important it is to create community and sorority in the industry.
I want to thank her again for taking the time to talk to me, and to thank all the women that are still working on making strides in creating spaces for us to thrive in!
Gavriella was extremely supportive and gave me lots of advice on how to be successful in the tech-sector and I really hope to be able to work with her in the future.
If you want to connect with Gavriella, you can find her on LinkedIn, here
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavriella-schuster/
and you can also learn more about her work on her website, here!
https://gavriellaschuster.com/
The Power of Partner Conversations with Mykola Sochynskyi.
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https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/the-power-of-partner-conversations-with-mykola-sochynskyi
February 18, 2022
Having operated in the European tech-sector for over a decade and now working with some of the largest enterprise organisations on the planet, Mykola Sochynskyi has a unique insight into how AI has developed across the tech-sector and how Conversational AI, Conversational Customer Experiences and Automation are set to define the future of consumer engagement, workforce management and digital transformation.
Artificial Solutions recently announced that Mykola (Myko) had moved into a new role as its Global Partner Manager following a sustained period of success since joining the company in January 2021, with his understanding of key trends and ability to develop relationships key to his success.
“I have had a lot of fun in the CAI space over the past few years and I’m enjoying being part of the Artificial Solutions team. I came on board because of the strong relationships I already had with the likes of Per Ottosson (CEO) and Marie Angselius-Schönbeck (CMO) who I had worked with in my previous position.”
“I believe that 80% of our revenue will be generated via partnerships in the future as this is a sector and technology that relies heavily on collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach. Our SaaS platform, Teneo
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/teneo
is beyond imaginable when it comes to its capabilities for building conversational solutions, so I’m really excited about the possibilities offered by this new role.”
Mykola Sochynskyi, Global Partner Manager (left) Joel Plazzotta, Director of Strategic Partnerships (right)
Conversational AI (CAI), specifically refers to the technology that drives intelligent virtual assistants, chatbots, conversational IVRs as well as technology behind the well-known voice assistants created by the likes of Google, Apple and Amazon.
The proliferation of this technology is only growing and according to Accenture,
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/pdf-77/accenture-research-conversational-ai-platforms.pdf
56% of companies state that CAI is driving disruption in their industry, with a further 43% reporting that their competitors are already in the process of implementing chat technology.
According to Myko, this rapid change has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and further fueled by ‘The Great Resignation’.
https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation
“Before the pandemic, there was always conversations around how automation would be responsible for the loss of millions of jobs in the future, and that a major crisis would be caused by the technology. But the opposite has actually happened. Over the past two years, millions of people left jobs that they had been unhappy in, leaving employers with a major staffing issue. This has encouraged a significant increase in the adoption of automated technology such as intelligent voice systems and chatbots, especially in the contact centre space..”
Organisations that operate with contact centres have always had to deal with a high turnover of staff, with average employment lasting a single year. The pandemic has only increased the rate of resignation within call centres. Businesses that outsource their customer services are suffering as a result, as waiting times are continuing to cause major dissatisfaction with users.
“A business spends three months training and onboarding staff, only for them to leave within a few months. This is a highly unsustainable model and so, CAI is being rapidly implemented across the world.”
Chief Marketing Officer of Artificial Solutions, Marie Angselius-Schönbeck, added:
“The pandemic has forced call centres to deploy more forward-looking technology solutions to address an increase in call volume and negative calls. AI technology is growing so fast for a good reason, Juniper Research
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/09/chatbots-expected-to-cut-business-costs-by-8-billion-by-2022.html
found that chatbot-tech is expected to reduce business costs by $8 billion annually by 2022.”
Contact centres are expected to see the biggest increase in the adoption of Conversational AI due to this fact. For a human to answer a call, an outsourced call centre could charge a business from €4 per call (being based in Colombia) well over €10 per call (being based in Germany or Switzerland).
Alternatively, one single CAI solution can handle hundreds of thousands of calls simultaneously while providing a high level of qualification and data gathering. A customer can talk to the voice bot and provide a wide range of information that can then be transferred to the human support provider who will have a range of information already presented in front of them and a customer who has wasted no time on hold.
So how does this all add up for Mykola and for partners looking to reduce costs, increase customer experience and improve productivity?
“The technology really shines when it is in the hands of people who know how to use it as Teneo is amongst the best platforms in the world for building conversational customer experiences.”
Finally, on his new role and working with the Artificial Solutions team going full steam-ahead in 2022.
“I am driven by the massive value I can provide to partners and clients, many of whom need guidance of how much money they could make and save with Teneo. But I also consider myself very lucky to be able to work amongst real friends and with people I view as being innovators in the field.”
If you would like to learn more about Teneo and how our partnership program works, you can reach Mykola Sochynskyi here:
mykola.sochynskyi@artificial-solutions.com
You can also connect with him here:
Mykola Sochynskyi LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/msochy/
Meet us at #MWC22 in Barcelona
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https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/meet-us-at-mwc22-in-barcelona
February 14, 2022
Finally! We can meet again at the MWC 2022 event in Barcelona to reassess what the next years of Customer Care are going to look like – automated, omnichannel & multilingual.
Conversational customer experiences and Conversational AI
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/conversational-ai
has become a strategic technology to guarantee a competitive advantage against competitors.
Book a time to meet us at the event and find out what we can offer you through Teneo 6, a development platform for Conversational AI so smooth and powerful, it has no problem managing things a lot of people simply do not believe possible.
Our customer’s performances, including Swisscom, AT&T, O2 Germany, are something we are super proud of: NPS +18 points, +20% increased automation, -30% deflection rate.
Visit our booth #5F86 in Hall 5? to discover more on how you can start your Conversational AI journey today or become part of our ecosystem of partners.
We look forward to meeting you and chat about how we can help your company create outstanding Conversational Customer Experiences. To arrange a meeting with one of our Teneo experts, please fill in the form.
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/mobile-world-congress-2022
Intern Diary: Week 1
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https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/intern-diary-week-1
February 11, 2022
Hello! I’m Andrea, and I’m the brand-new marketing intern here at Artificial Solutions, the company which develops Teneo,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/developers
an innovative Conversational AI SaaS platform.
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/the-biggest-barriers-to-achieving-productivity-within-conversational-ai
This is my first diary-entry, in what will be a weekly series, documenting my progress as a Marketing Intern and I hope it can help to provide insight and help for those also looking to enter the tech-industry!
A brief introduction…
Answering the question of where I’m from is always a hard one. I was born in Venezuela, but I grew up in Costa Rica, after moving there when I was nine, due to the circumstances that the country finds itself in. Then, I moved to Barcelona when I was 18, coming here to get my university education at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where I study International Business Economics.
I am now in my fourth year, and about to finish up my degree, which allows me the opportunity to start an internship alongside my studies. There were many subjects which I enjoyed while I was studying (and some which I frankly despised and never want to think of ever again), but the courses which seemed to spark the most interest were my marketing courses, which why I decided to look for an internship in this field. I hoped that I would find a team where I would get to explore the different aspects of marketing and find what areas of it I enjoy the most.
An Unexpected Industry…
When looking at the different internships that were offered, Artificial Solutions quickly caught my eye. Mostly because while I was doing my Erasmus last semester, I took a course called Internet & Society (mostly because it seemed like a cool course, but also because it coincidentally happened to have no final exam), where I learned about the past and future of technological advances and their influence on modern society, and it did end up being an interesting class where we studied AI and its impact.
During this time, I also made a lot of friends that had either worked for or would work in the tech industry and that world started being interesting to me, especially compared to more traditional industries and sectors.
I never expected to end up working at a tech company, just from the fact that technology has never been my strong suit. I was part of the robotics club when I was in high school, but my robot never managed to complete the set tasks that were asked of us, no matter how many hours I put into it or how ridiculously easy the task was.
But here I am, having just been through my first week of working here, and I can happily say that I’ve survived.
My First Days…
When I walked into the office that first day, I was a little bit (a lot) terrified. My main concern at the time was the dress code. Which now feels like a pretty ridiculous thing to be so concerned about.
Throughout these first couple of days, I have been trying to get my bearings on what the company’s purpose is, on the technical terms that are used, and on performing smaller tasks to get acquainted with my job. George Brown, the Head of Content, has been guiding me through most of my initiation into the role and has been the one that’s responsible for giving me my weekly tasks.
I started out my week by reading earlier blog posts and improving different aspects of the format for SEO, which is one of the tasks that I will be carrying on further in the next couple of weeks.
On Thursday that week I met the rest of the marketing team, Marie Angselius Schönbeck, Chief Communication & Impact Officer, Yoleidy Carvajal, Head of Partner Marketing and Monica Kutrowski, Digital Marketer.
It happened during an online meeting where I introduced myself with a little presentation about me and my life so far (I guess kind of what I’m doing now), and they got to introduce themselves, as well.
The next couple of workdays were a lot more intense, and I had a lot of catching up to do, just to understand what the conversations around me were about.
Into the Deep End…
On Monday, we had our quarterly marketing team meeting, where everybody shared their plans and what their vision is for what our strategy should be. This meeting was in person, so I was finally able to share with the entire team.
It was insightful to be able to finally be part of a proper company meeting and see what ideas the team had. There were also a lot of acronyms that I had never heard before in my life thrown around (thank you Monica for all your help).
After the meeting we had a team excursion to Primark (?), which I never expected when I signed on to the job but was an extremely pleasant surprise. I love mindlessly browsing stores and convincing people to buy the cute items they maybe shouldn’t buy but will bring them happiness in the long run.
Following that we went to dinner, as the marketing team, some members of the sales team, and the CEO. When I went into it, I didn’t expect to be seated between Per Ottosson, Chief Executive Officer, and Nicolas Köllerstedt, Chief Revenue Officer, but I can honestly say I had a fun time. The people were great, and I’m happy that I got to know some of my co-workers a little bit better.
The rest of the week has been more relaxed, I’ve been working from home on the SEO of the blog pages and helping design different promotional material for Mobile World Congress
https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/attend/spanish-community-discount?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=community_pass&gclid=Cj0KCQiAr5iQBhCsARIsAPcwRON9F67rAWOvhAWzK5Cls3ppbyrf_FKa_OXCyHSk73TAKEjAsm2RShgaAkJOEALw_wcB
(which I’m insanely excited to be able to be a part of, since it has been such a big part of the city, and it finally gets to happen again).
I’m creating this intern diary to keep a record of my experiences in the company, and to be able to look back on it and track my own progress and interests, but also to help any other future intern that is also as terrified on their first day. It’s kind of like a survival guide, with a significantly less dramatic name.
I hope you join me on this ride over the next 800 hours of my life, into the world of a large tech start-up and being an intern at Artificial Solutions.
The Top Conversational AI Webinars of 2021.
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https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/the-top-conversational-ai-webinars-of-2021
January 28, 2022
As we start 2022 hopeful that will be able to go back to physical exhibitions soon, most events and presentations for the last year remained virtual due to the pandemic.
With so many companies fighting to grab the attention through webinars, our team has worked hard to bring exciting content for companies that are starting or are already in the Conversational AI journey. So, if you skipped out on webinars last year, you should at check out these five; they are the most popular and engaging webinars we hosted in 2021.
How to Develop Scalable Multilingual Conversational AI Applications Quick & Easy.
Enterprises are faced with the challenge of creating global conversational solutions that can engage customers in many languages all over the world and still understand them effortlessly. This may sound like a huge task – but it doesn’t need to be. In this webinar, you can see how Teneo uses a master language solution to quickly develop and scale to other languages. Develop once, deploy across many – no need to begin from scratch for each additional language.
Setting up your business for Conversational AI Success
Conversational AI is no longer a complex, unattainable technology that only a few companies know how to implement. The increase of low-code and graphical interfaces in the market has pushed companies to start taking ownership and developing their own Conversational AI solutions in-house, instead of purely relying on technology providers. Therefore, the demand for insights into how to ensure that the right profiles are picked to guarantee team productivity and project scalability growths has surged. As your company prepares to embark on this journey, how do you ensure that your organization is ready for Conversational AI Success? Find out by watching this webinar!
How to improve your Teneo chatbot with E2E test automation
Testing is a crucial enabler for the success of chatbots and doing it manually requires enormous time and efforts; Therefore, automated testing will remain critical to ensure that bots do what their designers intend. In this webinar, Conversational AI experts showcase the setup of a test automation pipeline for a Teneo based chatbot to continuously check conversation flows, NLP performance, and take it even further by adding full End-to-End Testing.
LUIS^Teneo: a Game Changer Tool for Bot Framework Developers
Looking for a tool to speed of development for bots built with MS LUIS and the Bot Framework, increase the productivity of your team, and easily scale all your solutions? And would you like to do it in 86 languages? Look no more; just watch this webinar.
Teneo + Power BI: Your Conversational Solutions Enhanced by Data Visualization
In our quest to make your development team even more productive, we have recently developed a connector for our Teneo Platform to integrate with Microsoft’s Power BI. This allows Teneo users to create their own reports on Power BI, to analyze the conversational data from their Conversational AI solutions. Watch this webinar to learn more about what your team can achieve with this connector.
BONUS: How much code do I need to build Conversational Experiences?
Although it wasn’t a webinar for last year, we thought we should include our first webinar for 2022. This was a fun discussion between Conversational AI experts who will discuss about the pros and cons of No Code, Low Code and Pro Code options and what they recommend from their experience to different users based on what kind of solutions these want to build.
Artificial Solutions Updates Conversational AI Platform to Include Pre-Built Knowledge of Bulgarian.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/conversational-pre-built-knowledge-of-bulgarian
January 27, 2022
Artificial Solutions has released Teneo 6.2,
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/teneo
[b[color=green]]an update that provides a range of new features and capabilities to its industry-leading Conversational AI platform, including a major upgrade to its language library that allows users to access pre-built knowledge of Bulgarian.[/color]
Teneo is a SaaS platform that allows business users and developers to collaborate and create a wide range of sophisticated Conversational AI applications that automate the customer journey, while increasing engagement through humanlike, intelligent dialog.
With a total of 86 languages available to users of the platform, Teneo offers a range of native language solutions that are unrivalled in the Conversational AI sector. The addition of pre-built entities in Bulgarian, further strengthens Artificial Solutions’ position as a market leader.
Pre-built Knowledge is considered relevant for any project domain and any type of solution because it enables developers to get up and running with a new solution quicker as it allows the project team to focus only on project or domain specific needs.
Per Ottosson, CEO of the company, said:
“Teneo 6.2 contains a wide range of updates that pushes our platform ever further ahead in the market by increasing our capabilities to deliver solutions in a high volume of languages. New and existing customers will now be able to create Conversational Customer Experiences using pre-built solutions in Bulgarian, allowing them to enter or expand in this key European region.”
For more information on Teneo 6.2 and its extensive list of updates, click here.
https://community.teneo.ai/t/end-of-year-enhancements-and-new-capabilities/444
Or, for a more in-depth analysis of the addition of pre-built Bulgarian entities and the importance of a true multilingual approach to CCX click here.
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/multilingual-conversational-ai
Multilingual Conversational AI and Pre-Build Knowledge.
source
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/multilingual-conversational-ai
January 27, 2022
Reading, writing, speaking and the development of language in cultures around the world has driven human civilization forward for thousands of years and harnessing its power to create meaning, stir emotion and share information is critical for businesses operating in an increasingly digital and globalised world.
Organisations operating in multiple countries must now contend with significant complexities and nuances associated with language and how to communicate with consumers that speak different languages.
However, with 86 languages supported and regular updates made to its linguistic library, Teneo
https://www.artificial-solutions.com/teneo/teneo-studio
is a conversational customer experience tool built to accommodate the full scale of human communication.
All languages listed, here:
https://www.teneo.ai/technology/languages
A recent update to the SaaS platform saw pre-built knowledge of Bulgarian added, allowing new and existing users to develop solutions faster and more efficiently in the Balkan language.
In this article, we´ll explore the importance of such updates and why it is relevant to businesses’ operating in both single and multiple languages.
Multilingual Conversational AI must be Supported
International businesses that cover multiple regions face numerous challenges, one of which relates to localised v global approaches to communication.
A localised approach to communication means that a business uses native language and a culturally relevant style to speak to its customers.
The advantages of this approach are clear.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” Nelson Mandela
For example, a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University
https://nlp.stanford.edu/pubs/pryzant2017sigir.pdf
found that products in Japan sell better if their advertising includes polite language and words that invoke cultural traditions or authority.
A machine learning technique was used to analyse more than 90,000 food and health-related product descriptions and their sales data on the Japanese e-commerce marketplace Rakuten.
The more of those keywords a description contained, the better the product sold.
“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think.” David Ogilvy.
However, there are challenges associated with achieving a truly localised approach when depoying conversational customer experiences.
Picture a company based in the UK and operating in 20 different territories. This company has successfully built, deployed, and enhanced its chatbot for the British market, achieving successful results in conversation rate and sales.
If this company operated across Europe, it would naturally want to expand its chatbot to the likes of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and the various other nations across the continent.
However, millions of consumers living in these countries would not speak English and would have unique characteristics related to their culture.
As exemplified by the Stamford study, even if they did speak English they might not respond in the same way as a British person would from a messaging perspective. The British might respond to humor and sarcasm more than a Spanish person, for example.
Therefore, being able to utilise a multilingual Conversational AI is critical for organisations looking to succeed and scale up in new territories.
More work is required for this approach, however, the rewards are likely to be significant and will also provide a major competitive edge if the correct investment is made.
In order to fully understand how to utilise and deploy a multilingual Conversational AI solution, access a feature article from Conversational AI specialist Agustin Etman, here.
How Pre-Built Knowledge Supports Rapid CCX Deployment
If a business wants to create conversational customer experiences (CCX) quickly and efficiently, having access to pre-built knowledge in multiple languages provides a significant advantage and speeds up the process of deployment.
For example, instead of having to write out individual automated responses in Bulgarian, Teneo users will now be able to select a whole library of pre-built answers, terms and expressions.
Pre-built Knowledge is considered relevant for any project domain and any type of solution because it enables developers to get up and running with a new solution quicker as it allows the project team to focus only on project or domain specific needs.
Effectively, an organisation will be able to build a chatbot or voice assistant 80% faster than usual with the support of pre-built knowledge. With the addition of Bulgarian pre-built knowledge, businesses can now expand and deploy in this key Balkan region faster than ever.
Why Bulgarian Pre-Built Knowledge?
Bulgaria may not be the largest or powerful country in Eastern Europe, however, as a hotbed of IT talent and being based in an area with the highest capital efficiency on the continent, the region is developing at a strong pace.
According to research by Noble Hire,
https://noblehire.io/
the average salary for IT roles ranges between EUR 25,000 and EUR 30,000. The Bulgarian software association estimated a 10% growth of the software industry in 2020. Around 70,000 people work in the sector, which is 2.3% of the total number of employees in Bulgaria.
This indicates that A higher volume of Conversational Designers may come from Bulgaria over the coming years and as the nation develops, more and more businesses will want to utilise conversational customer experiences in order to communicate and engage with users that speak Bulgarian.
With the lowest rate of corporation tax in Europe (10%), the country could become a hotbed for large enterprises and start-ups alike in years to come.
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