This report focuses on how AI leaders differ from laggards, and the greater value that they capture as a result.
"In recent years, smart companies have seen significant value from using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to boost their customer experience (CX) offering. Encouraged by these signs of success, smart companies are now motivated to use AI for an empathy-driven customer experience. By understanding intent, predicting what the customer needs, and improving first contact resolution through effective responses, companies can create a more empathetic CX — and in turn drive competitive differentiation.
For many, this will involve embedding AI more widely and deeply in their end-to-end customer journeys, with significant implications for the work carried out in the customer service, sales and marketing departments.
Companies need more mature AI strategies to evolve from limited tactical deployments to a more overarching approach that is focused on the entire customer journey -- and one that keeps people at the heart. That will depend on executives having a clear understanding of current pain points along those journeys, an ability to effectively prioritise AI deployments, and an unrelenting focus on outcomes.
Strategies to use complex AI tools to provide a more empathetic and human experience also extend to employees, who are both critical to the customer journey and whose own experience is a key priority for organisations focused on performance.
To better understand what maturity looks like in the context of AI-powered customer journeys, Economist Impact (formerly The Economist Intelligence Unit) conducted a cross-industry survey, sponsored by Genesys, of over 750 senior customer service, marketing and sales executives worldwide, including a set of “AI leaders,” defined as organisations who are more advanced in their AI journeys based on survey responses. The survey findings
presented in this report demonstrate industry executives’ perceptions of how AI can improve customer journeys and strategies for deploying this technology to enable a more empathetic experience. In particular, this report focuses on how AI leaders differ from laggards, and the
greater value that they capture as a result."
