The strategic value of artificial intelligence (AI) is widely recognised by customer experience (CX) leaders worldwide. However, AI implementation in the contact centre appears to have slowed over the last year. Recent Talkdesk research explores why CX leaders find it challenging to realise the full potential of AI technology in the contact centre. CX leaders understand the value of AI and automation, viewing this technology as critical to accelerate success. The core benefits of AI technology deployment in the contact centre are not contested.

Let's face it: customer experience chatbots have been a major disappointment. They currently sit squarely at the bottom of Gartner's Hype Cycle for Natural Technologies, July 2021 ("As an innovation does not live up to its overinflated expectations, it rapidly becomes unfashionable and attention wanes."). GOMoxie found only 22% of consumers have a positive impression of chatbots. A Userliike survey found that the No. 1 thing that consumers want from chatbot experiences is the ability to escalate the interaction to a human. No wonder some research firms have called the current chatbot landscape a "failed revolution." Why, despite the millions upon millions of dollars of funding going into the space, have chatbots yet to provide anywhere near a level of experience warranted from such market hype?

Through the power of our cloud, digital and AI technologies, organizations can realize Experience as a Service, our vision for empathetic customer experiences at scale. With Genesys, organizations have the power to deliver proactive, predictive, and hyper personalized experiences to deepen their customer connection across every marketing, sales, and service moment on any channel, while also improving employee productivity and engagement. By transforming back-office technology to a modern revenue velocity engine Genesys enables true intimacy at scale to foster customer trust and loyalty.

Artificial intelligence serves a number of purposes in contact centers. It can automate routine processes, provide live chat in the form of virtual agents or chatbots to address customer queries, help deliver personalized experiences and provide predictive analytics, among other things. Each of these AI functions helps enhance both the employee and customer experience, and many CX leaders are taking a closer look at how it can help in their companies. The driving force behind this movement is the increase in contact center interaction volume as COVID-19 shows no end in sight, moving customers from physical to virtual buying patterns and requiring help from live customer service agents. CX leaders have reported many changes in their contact centers, including the need for more agents to support customer demand over both the phone and digital channels, and replacing in-person experiences with virtual ones -- driving even more traffic to the contact center.

There are three primary solutions for cultivating and maintaining CX: artificial intelligence, omnichannel and continuous intelligence. ORLANDO, Fla. -- Customer experience (CX) is not another name for customer service or even user experience. CX is a digital strategy that CIOs often overlook. "Everyone is in the customer economy," said Gene Alvarez, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, while speaking at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, Florida, in October. Government CIOs are servicing citizens, banks have clients and the military has soldiers, for example.

It's that time of year when industry experts and thought leaders release predictions for the year ahead. And while there's growing consensus that customer experience is the primary battleground for brands, it's important to identify trends in how new technology will impact the competition. Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) is one key to innovative customer experiences in 2019 and beyond. But it's equally important to understand the current state of AI so you can make CX decisions that positively impact your business. The following 2019 trends and predictions will give you a better idea of how to successfully leverage AI to improve customer experience both now and in the years to come.

Customer experience initiatives are getting stuck with quite a few weighty labels lately: next key battleground, primary competitive differentiator, table stakes. And momentum for this topic is not slowing anytime soon. My ongoing personal survey of CMOs and industry analysts continues to land customer experience within the top three marketing and digital transformation priorities this year, as it did last year and the year before that. So it's no wonder companies are looking for every advantage to make their customer experience processes "smarter." Enter machine learning (ML) and cognitive computing.