3 ways AI can free up employee time and boost customer value

While many digitally advanced companies are targeting artificial intelligence (AI) efforts directly at customers, employees may stand to gain the most as the technology matures, according to a Tuesday Forrester report. Global employee engagement has not improved the past 17 years, according to Gallup. The issue may be getting worse, as workers increasingly must navigate a maze of legacy systems, underused and poorly integrated apps, and accelerating training needs. Augmenting human workers with AI capabilities can lessen the burden and offer more time for human interaction, wrote Craig Le Clair, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester and author of the report. Many businesses have turned to chatbots for customer service, with mixed results: Chatbot success rate for service is low, with some early adopters pulling back, the report noted.