Artificial intelligence (AI) is a fact of life for today’s customer service teams. We asked them how the technology benefits them and what impact it has on data protection.
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Customer service is a busy profession in 2024. According to our research, demand looks to be increasing, and brands plan to invest in both employees and software to handle this.
As in most industries, artificial intelligence (AI) may offer some solutions here. The technology has the potential to automate customer interactions and streamline back-end processes. But is it living up to this?
To find out more, we asked 200 customer service professionals in Canada about how they use AI-powered customer service tools, what benefits and drawbacks they see, and what the effect of AI might be on data protection.
You can scroll down to the bottom of this article for a full methodology.*
- 79% think AI in customer service software impacts customers positively, and 50% already use it.
- Speed and cost savings are the major reported benefits of AI, but 79% say they have concerns about the accuracy of information provided to customers.
- 83% have received training on handling customer data in relation to using AI technology.
- But less than half (47%) say that their company alerts customers about the use of AI involvement during interactions.
Customer service professionals feel the benefits of AI
No conversation about software in 2024 can exclude a discussion of artificial intelligence (AI), and this is equally true of customer service. Tools such as chatbots already handle customer queries on many websites, and the people responding to our survey see AI as a significant contributor to their work going forward.
Half of respondents (50%) said that the customer service software they use already has AI functionality built in. And these users report that productivity and customer satisfaction have increased on the whole, while employee stress levels have decreased.
Overall, respondents predict that 44% of customer service inquiries will be managed exclusively by AI (rather than human agents) in the next five years. But they already think AI is a good thing for customers: 79% said that the introduction of AI capabilities into customer service software has impacted customers positively.
If your company is one of the 50% that hasn’t begun using AI in its customer service processes, now might be a good time to start.
Many customer service tools include built-in AI functionality. This could include chatbots, —automated assistants that can field customer queries— but it can also mean capabilities like automatic tagging and ticketing, determining customer stress levels, or recommending changes to help pages, for example.
AI is not the answer to every customer service problem
Despite the optimism about the potential of AI in customer service, the customer service professionals in our survey were realistic about its benefits and its challenges, and don’t see it as a straight replacement for humans.
Overall, respondents are excited about two particular benefits regarding AI-enabled customer service systems: 64% think it can reduce response times, and 60% believe it can save money.
However, people are realistic about the limits of AI and where it makes sense to bring in a human touch. They see AI and humans outperforming each other roughly half the time.
Despite the optimism, respondents recognise a range of challenges in adopting AI-enabled customer service software. The biggest of these centre around trust and accuracy of information.
Moreover, when asked, 79% agree that they have concerns about the accuracy of information provided to customers by AI-enabled software.
Our research shows that AI and humans excel in different aspects of customer service, but even then, professionals don’t all agree on the benefits of one approach over another.
Respondents also highlight challenges around trust and accuracy —recurring themes in the developing discourse around AI. Here are three tips for any company considering implementing AI for customer service.
1. Establish your use cases
AI employed for its own sake can come across as a gimmick. Any deployment needs clear criteria: what problem are you trying to solve and how will you measure success? For example, AI could be used to triage incoming calls and route them to the relevant agents. And your success metric could be call resolution time.
2. Get buy in from everyone
If AI is going to replace some of the work that customer service does, you should gather input from those teams. They might feel positively or negatively about sharing their workload, and they can feed into the design of new systems. You should also involve your digital experts as well as anyone in charge of data protection and cybersecurity to verify that the solution you chose will comply with your policies.
3. Learn and iterate as you go
AI is evolving fast, and software providers are updating their capabilities all the time. What might be relevant in summer 2024 won’t necessarily be the best solution for you in January next year. Keep your eye on market trends and on your success metrics to see if you should change your approach as you learn more about AI.
Room for improvement in transparency and data protection
There is a clear recognition among customer service professionals that trust and accuracy are potential issues with AI. But people report that their company is actively addressing some of these concerns.
Of those that use AI-enabled customer service software, 83% have received training on handling customer data in relation to using AI software or technology.
When it comes to transparency, 60% of respondents say their company gives customers the option of choosing between AI and human-assisted interactions. And 56% provide notice in their policies or terms of service. However, less than half (47%) say that they provide a notice or labeling about the use of AI involvement during the interactions themselves.
Anyone in your organization that is involved in implementing or using AI must have a solid understanding of the issues it can present. They don’t necessarily need to understand the finer points of the technology itself, but they should understand how it works, what it means for customers and your teams, and how it can affect data protection.
Of the 12 countries in our survey, Canada ranks in the top three for training customer service employees on handling customer data in relation to AI.
If you are interested in educating your employees about AI, privacy, data protection —or any other topic— at scale, you may want to consider training software. These tools allow you to design training programs, share them with your teams, and track progress as employees learn.
Customer service is a data-heavy discipline, and companies may have to process and store large amounts of confidential personal and financial information. Increasingly, handling this data is subject to laws, such as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), designed to protect consumers. [1]
However, remaining compliant still appears to be a challenge for those in our survey. For example, 57% of those in our survey that outsource customer service to some degree use overseas suppliers. But 29% of those said they are only partially compliant with data laws in those countries where outsourcing takes place.
What’s more, many companies do not apply common data protection practices to their customer information.
Less than half, for example, audit their data, control access, and have incident response and reporting and procedures in place.
Failure to keep customer data safe can have disastrous consequences. Authorities in Canada and the U.K. are currently investigating a breach at the genetic testing company 23andMe, where nearly 7 million customer records were hacked and a class-action lawsuit is underway. [2]
Your data protection experts will know exactly which approaches will be required to keep your data —and that of your customers— safe. Many software tools have built in features to protect data, such as encryption, secure storage, and access controls. But specialist solutions are available in all of these areas should you need to implement them on your own systems or data.
What to consider when planning your AI rollout
AI certainly has its benefits for customer service, according to those who work in the field. Brands should definitely be considering how they can resolve calls faster and save money by integrating it into their interactions, but they should also be aware that human agents are more appropriate in many circumstances.
Any implementation of AI should include transparency, privacy, and data protection as key components. This means considering technical controls, appropriate processes, and relevant training for your employees.
Methodology
Capterra's 2024 Customer Service Technology Survey was conducted online in May 2024 among 2,307 respondents in the U.S. (n=199), Canada (n=200), Brazil (n=188), Mexico (n=184), the U.K. (n=194), France (n=196), Italy (n=183), Germany (n=187), Spain (n=191), Australia (n=193), India (n=200), and Japan (n=192). The goal of the study was to explore how emerging call center technologies are enabling brands to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Respondents were screened to be full-time employees at organizations with 1 to 2,499 employees. They must be involved in customer service operations, use or buy customer service software, and handle customer service phone calls in house or externally.
Sources
- The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Canada, U.K. launch joint privacy probe into 23andMe data breach, CBC News
