| | October 20218IN MY OPINIONBy Ravi Saraogi, Co-Founder & President - Asia Pacific, UnipRavi thas vast experience in directing technology teams in initiatives spanning mobile theft security, wireless network development, and mobile learning applications and leads Sales, Delivery and Customer Success for Uniphore.THE POWER OF VOICECommunicating with technology with our voice has become a commonplace with the introduction of intelligent virtual assistants in our daily lives. As technology gets smarter, these assistants will be able to process more complicated commands. The human voice is the most natural interface for anyone to interact with; it is how we express emotions, resolve our problems, and how we work and live. Naturally, this behaviour has also dynamically affected how customers interact with their favorite brands.Customer service is the backbone of business continuity, and the $500 billion market is ripe for disruption. Due to the ongoing pandemic, people are increasingly looking at customer service to solve complex issues through various platforms, quickly. To address this behaviour, conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) is high on business leaders' agenda to deliver a more wholesome customer experience and build long-term affinity with customers.Despite having understood the importance of customer experience, the challenge businesses are facing today is finding the right tool or channels to achieve this in real-time and at scale. Conversational Service Automation (CSA), an AI-powered platform, can take this to a whole new level. The platform addresses the entire conversational experience for both customers and agents. Using conversational AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and workflow automation to blend front-office and back-office operations, CSA is the key to unlock two-way happiness for those involved.Talking Up Speech Technology For BusinessVoice capabilities and conversational AI are not limited to platforms like Alexa or Google; it has evolved into different areas. Enterprises across industry verticals ­ from banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), telecommunications, education technology (EdTech) to healthcare ­ are investing in conversational AI and adjacent technologies today. Contact centers in these industries act as one of the touchpoints where consumers and businesses converge.For example, after-call work in a contact center refers to summaries written, calls categorized, and actions taken or scheduled. Other next steps include ensuring that the conversation history is accurately documented for future interactions with a company. During a global pandemic, one company that has adopted a CSA platform reportedly revealed to have improved productivity of more than 1,000 of their agents. Besides, the company achieved up to 80 percent reduction in after-call work and a 20 percent reduction in average handle time.Having AI to streamline and automate such routine and essential tasks could not have been more beneficial. CSA helps to ensure the quality and consistency of wrap-up Ravi Saraogi
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