It's been well documented that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation initiatives. ZK Research data found that 74% of companies have moved digital initiatives up by at least one year. Most modernization projects tend to revolve around customer experience (CX), which makes sense, given CX is now the top brand differentiator. A single bad experience can lead to a lost customer and a damaged brand reputation. One thing that's often overlooked is that employee experience (EX) and CX are tied together because customer interactions are still commonly handled by people.

It can be difficult to make sure chats are responded to within the right amount of time after a customer asks a question. It can be expensive to staff live chat 24/7. However, only staffing during the day could result in lost interactions that drive revenue. Chat should not be put on every webpage on your site. Only place them on high-intent pages related to sales, or your sales team could get inundated with unrelated questions all day.

The acceleration of digital transformation was one of the most striking impacts of the pandemic. Video conferencing, contactless payments and conversational AI were just three of the technologies that saw massive adoption rates during 2020 as organisations scrambled to enable employees to work remotely, while helping customers to safely transact in-store and self-serve online. Contact centre employees in the healthcare, travel, financial, retail and insurance sectors found themselves inundated with calls, while they adjusted to working from home themselves. Many organisations quickly implemented chatbot solutions to address this quandary. According to Gartner, penetration rates of conversational AI increased by 20%-50% in 2020, up from a range of 5%-20% in 2019 and chatbots are projected to see 100% increase in the next two to five years.