Artificial Intelligence and the Customer Journey

Virtual assistants--like Alexa and Siri--have gained traction in the consumer environment and are likely to continue to spur an uptick in voice-activated search and other customer activities, from purchases to providing feedback to seeking service and support. In short, voice technology can aid consumers at many points along the customer journey. "Digital customer care is on a major upswing with the expectation that 85% of customer relationships with an enterprise will be managed without human contact by 2020, according to Gartner," says Chris Bergh, CEO of DataKitchen Inc., a DataOps consultancy and platform provider. "Conversational AI is critical and plays an integral role in improving customer service, reducing agent-assisted service costs, and cutting down on fraud." Unfortunately, consumer expectations may outpace technological reality at this point, challenging both brands and tech vendors to meet those expectations.