When it comes to the impact of other emerging technologies, Richardson says gen AI has the potential to enable better experiences, particularly for customer-facing chatbots. However, PepsiCo is conscious of making sure all the issues around responsible AI, such as bias, copyright protection, and data privacy, are front and center of any developments.
“We’re doing things internally first,” he says. “We’ve got a big partnership with Microsoft, which we started in 2020. We work a lot with Microsoft and other technology companies, but we’re seeing customer service is an area where generative AI could dramatically improve experiences.”
Developing a strategy
Tech analyst Gartner suggests most CIOs are in a similar position: 2024 will be the year of planning for the implementation of generative AI, while 2025 will be the year of execution. Businesses that start to explore AI this year must think carefully about the providers they use.
Hakan Yaren, CIO at APL Logistics, says his firm has been exploring AI and ML for several years, particularly to refine supply chain processes. As these developments continue, and as the firm starts to explore how AI can improve CX, he expects his IT department to work with a range of partners.
As well as major technology operators such as Microsoft, Oracle, and integration specialist Axway, Yaren says APL Logistics is likely to tap into best-of-breed solutions from specialist providers. “The other area that we continue to look at, because the barriers of entry are much lower, is start-ups,” he says. “There are companies coming up that are trying to solve specific problems.”
Ben Elms, chief revenue officer at internet connectivity specialist Expereo, is another business leader whose company is looking to develop an in-depth view of its customers’ requirements.
The company’s customers can use an interface called expereoOne to analyze global network performance, and Elms is keen to bolster CX efforts further with AI. The firm is exploring Salesforce’s ServiceGPT and Einstein technologies, and they’re building a knowledge base on the provider’s Sales Cloud platform as well.
In his previous role at Vodafone, Elms led one of the first implementations of Einstein. “They used it as a global trial on my workforce, which was about 1,500 people around the world,” he says. “We went through the learning journey with Salesforce on Einstein, both good and bad. Now we’re at a place where my task for this year is getting this technology implemented at Expereo.”
While the GPT-powered knowledge base at Expereo will be used to deliver faster responses to queries, customers who prefer to speak with a human will be supported through a multi-channel approach. Across all areas of service provision, Elms wants to give customers more in-depth information.
“I’m investing heavily in applying AI to expereoOne so I can offer customers predictability in the future,” he says. “From our intelligence, we want to be able to suggest alternative network infrastructure and architectures. It’s very future-focused, but that’s the kind of investment I’m making.”
Keeping AI in check
These kinds of innovative approaches suggest AI will have a big and long-lasting impact on CX. However, Bev White, CEO at recruiter Nash Squared, says AI should not be seen as a silver bullet for CX challenges. Like Expereo’s Elms, she raises the importance of human agency.
“When we buy things online, and we interact with automated technologies and AI, we don’t always want to be handled by a chatbot,” she says. “Sometimes, we need to speak to a human being. If you’re buying a complicated or expensive thing, such as a car, you don’t want to just rely on interacting with technology.”
White says high-quality CX will always involve a careful blend of interactions between AI and human professionals — a sentiment that resonates with Simplyhealth’s Eddie. While his company is already benefiting from using gen AI across customer services, he says emerging technology only boosts CX if it’s used to augment professional talent.
“I don’t think AI is the future; I think it plays a part in the future,” he says. “Success still comes down to having the human involved in understanding the complexity of the customer requirement. We’ll continue to test and learn, and we’ll evolve the capability we have. But human expertise is always at the heart of all the great stuff we do.”
