Artificial Intelligence – The Future of Inbound Call Center

Since the first call center came into existence in the late 70s, there has been an ascent in technological advancement pertaining to the industry. However, in terms of any major revolution, the last 12-15 years have been rather disappointing. Even though BPO companies have changed the face of inbound and outbound call center services by offering cost-effective services 24/7, yet fresh problems like attrition, accent, and other difficulties in terms of remote operations have cropped up. In such a scenario, the progression of artificial intelligence (AI) for managing inbound call center service and customer care can be considered as the next big revolution in the call center industry.

Dependence on human resources is expected to get considerably lowered with the advent of artificial intelligence. As AI will be able to take over front-end functions, human agents will be needed only to provide backup, thereby reducing stress and attrition problems to a great extent. Not only will inbound call center outsourcing see a major upheaval, but outbound call center services will also feel the impact in the form of thousands of simultaneous outbound calls that can be managed through an AI interface. Can it get any better than this?

Summing it up in a few points, Artificial Intelligence can replace the following technologies currently used in any BPO company offering call center services:

• The Voice Over IP (VOIP) or, in other words, the internet, has enabled the low cost of communications. However, it still hasn't replaced the need for human resources. Naturally, since AI is geared up to replace humans at the front-end, it can by far overshadow VOIP technology.
• The interactive voice response systems (IVRs) and interactive virtual communications (IVCs) are extensively used for call traffic management, besides having a low percentage of coverage. However, they are unable to cater to all the customer queries. Their responses are limited to the various DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) signaling keypad inputs using a telephone that is script-oriented. On the other hand, AI can capture a caller's thoughts intelligently and take a series of actions based on deductions, thereby enabling total customer satisfaction.
• The most important factor that goes in favor of AI is that it can be operated from the cloud. This means that there shall be no clogging in a standard Automated Call Distributor (ACD) as well as solve all metric problems prevalent in a call center, both inbound and outbound. AI can handle multiple calls simultaneously, thereby eliminating the call abandonment rate on an inbound queue. Therefore, a call center can be immensely efficient in call-handling with the help of AI even if there is a flurry of inbound call waves that can usually choke inbound call centers presently.

Since AI is a fast-growing technology in the present years, it is only a matter of time when it can be considered as “the next big thing” in the call center domain if implemented carefully and methodically.