Taking on big challenges is nothing new for Tsai, who was just 15 when she arrived at MIT. And while she always loved math and science, at the Institute she discovered even more interests. "Part of what was magical about MIT was that it really does encourage you to explore a lot of things," she recalls. In fact, she double majored (in mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering), double minored (in political science and biological engineering), and earned a master's in the MIT Media Lab. An early career in commodities trading took her to Switzerland and Singapore. Next, she worked at a fintech startup, and though the company wasn't successful, she discovered that the entrepreneurial mindset suited her.

But economists and workforce development experts say the shift could have a profound effect on economies across the world, especially in countries like India and the Philippines, where call centers provide millions of people with modest-paying work and where surveys have shown automation could render over a million jobs obsolete. The change is sparking a debate in the Global South about what, if anything, they can do to prevent a mass workforce disruption.

Our screens have become our gateway into a digitally transforming world. This means that we're each generating huge amounts of data for product and service providers, amounting to little short of a goldmine that can help brands predict a consumer's likes, dislikes and preferences. From a customer service perspective, this can provide an invaluable foundation for personalizing service to the individual customer, creating helpful and efficient experiences that foster loyalty. For example, a customer service representative can provide a better experience if they have access to the customer's full purchase history, or will know to escalate problems quicker if they see that a customer's record of complaints is extensive. However, this is easier said than done: having data is not the same as being able to effectively use it.

The Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) market is taking off with huge revenues after becoming one of the hottest technologies in the 21st century. The products with AR and VR functionalities are hitting the global market with better customer engagement. The reasons for this rapid growth are consumer buying behavior and cutting-edge technologies. On the other hand, robots have started dominating the market with more efficient and effective services to multiple industries worldwide in both indoor and outdoor scenarios. There are industrial robots, humanoid robots, dancing robots as well as entertainment robots for kids.

The travel industry is overwhelmed. As the coronavirus continues spreading around the globe, thousands of customers are calling hotels and airlines to cancel or change plans based on highly variable and unpredictable changes – and as a result, millions of travel-related jobs will be lost. With an industry so dependent on reviews and word of mouth recommendations, customer service and experiences are the foundation of the travel industries. Yet, we're facing unprecedented times, and every customer is different. Each individual is having to make dramatic, sometimes emotional decisions about their plans for the year.

Although enterprise interest in bots seems to be at an all-time high, Gartner reports that 68% of customer service leaders believe bots and virtual assistants will become even more important in the next two years. As bots are called upon to perform a greater range of tasks, chatbots will increasingly rely on back office bots to find information and complete transactions on behalf of customers. Related Article: Deploying a Bot? Remember the Conversational Advantage Chatbots -- and other customer-facing front office bots, such as speech bots and natural language voice response systems (IVRs) -- have been the focus of customer experience transformation efforts. They listen to customer requests, gather details, look up information, perform operations and present results. These capabilities are enabled by conversational AI that includes natural language processing, intent prediction, conversation management and response generation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest in a long line of technologies to play a part in the digital transformation of the financial services industry. The potential of this technology is vast: it can cut costs, provide human and systemic efficiencies, boost customer experience, promote loyalty and boost returns. According to business research firm Gartner, the two key components of AI – machine learning and deep learning – will be adopted as the norm within the next two to five years. There is real impetus and enthusiasm for organisations to adopt these technologies. Andy Pardoe, principal director of AI at Accenture Digital UK&I, says: "AI can be used across the entire value chain, from first contact with a potential new customer all the way to providing additional services to long-term customers. This is happening across the front, middle and back office functions."

It is an accepted reality of doing business that customers come and go. Loyal customers might stay with you longer than new customers, but sooner or later they will churn. The idea then is to keep on increasing the tenure of each customer with the right customer engagement strategies. It is key to use Machine Learning for understanding your customers and reducing attrition. Churn or attrition rate is the number of customers who have used your products or services in the past but are not going to continue using them in the immediate future.

Customer churn can provide great insights into what needs to change in business. In 2016, over a million customers switched their banks in the UK. With Current Account Switch Service in effect in UK, the pace of switching is making Current Accounts look a lot like Gas & Heating suppliers. By digging deeper into consumers' reasons for changing banks, the primary determinant is poor customer service; closely followed by accessibility by 23 per cent of respondents, rewards (16%) and special offers (13%). Collectively this is leading to a more competitive environment that favours the consumer.

Today, Milton Keynes based Artificial Intelligence software company, Celaton has been named a winner of the Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation 2017. The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the UK's most prestigious business awards to celebrate and encourage business excellence. Established in 2004, Celaton Limited has designed and implemented a machine learning software platform which, enables better customer service, faster. An Innovation Award has been given for the development of inSTREAM . Businesses receive a plethora of content on a daily basis from customers, suppliers and staff, which is highly labour intensive to process, make actionable and gain insights from.