The advent of ChatGPT seems to represent a quantum leap in the capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape the world we live in. Things are moving quickly, and organisations must begin now to think about how they can harness the power of AI to improve their performance beyond what basic process automation has long made possible. Customer service is especially ripe for the kind of improvements that AI can bring. Whether for providers of consumer goods or services ranging from healthcare to insurance and financial products--customer service operations have long been plagued by chronic inefficiencies. AI can help to reverse that.

One of the reasons call center employees burn out so quickly is that they're frequently forced to deal with abusive callers. This abuse often comes in the form of bigoted tirades from American clients. Maxim Serebryakov, the 24 year-old CEO of Palo Alto-based accent augmentation company Sanas, saw this problem up close when his friend Raul Garcia Letona was forced to leave Stanford and support his family in Nicaragua by getting a job at a call center. Serebryakov began toying with the idea of using artificial intelligence to change a call center agent's accent in real time, and in 2020 co-founded Sanas. By processing a multitude of voices and corresponding transcripts through an algorithm, Sanas allows call center agents to choose how their accent will sound to clients.

To increase efficiency and satisfaction levels with Customer Service, deploying a variety of technology-enabled solutions such as automated call centers, customer service bots, and digital marketing intelligence can help smaller companies compete on a global scale. As you may have experienced, it is increasingly likely that when you call to activate your new credit card, check on your cable bill, or file an insurance claim, your first point of contact is a voice or chat bot that is driven by AI. Data shows that the top 1% of a retailer's customers are worth 18x more than its average customer. The Customer Experience or CX that defines the quality of all the interactions that take place between companies and their customers is critical to maintain at the highest levels possible. The most effective tool for engaging those discriminating, high-value customers is through personalization.

Customer service can be frustrating for consumers, expensive for businesses, and time-consuming for both. But emerging technologies on the cusp of wide adoption--including augmented reality, the Internet of Things, and AI-powered virtual assistants--offer the potential to transform the customer experience while reducing cost. Demonstrations at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco provide a glimpse of where things are heading. In one example, a Wi-Fi-enabled Yamaha dirt bike showed how augmented reality could reshape the way field service technicians and owners work on machines. The motorbike essentially operates as an IoT device on wheels, uploading health and status information daily that is integrated into Oracle Service Cloud. A smartphone application from IoT specialist ThingWorx recognizes the bike and presents the user with a variety of information options superimposed on the bike's real-life image.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves the economics and capabilities of everything around us. Amazon and Netflix recommend products based on our history, Yahoo and Facebook tag photos, Waze and Google get us to our destination more effectively, Lyft and Uber precisely communicate arrival times of our drivers. Consumers are starting to expect intelligent experiences – personal, contextual to their immediate situation, and highly relevant – every time they interact with a company. And customer service interactions are no exception. AI can assist agents in completing repetitive tasks, or even completely take these tasks over. Yet, instead of replacing humans entirely, AI will enhance agents' skills and allow them to focus their attention beyond routine tasks.