Innovative strategies for delivering the best customer experiences (CX) took center stage at Forward ‘24, our premier customer event focused on the new world of digital experience, last Sept. 19 at the Hotel Nia, Menlo Park, CA.
While our previous blog covered some key takeaways from the event, there are still more insights to unpack shared by speakers from some of the world’s most notable brands.
The discussions highlighted the transformative capabilities of AI for CX, plus what’s ahead for industries like healthcare and transportation. Experts also touched on the role humans play in tech-driven operations, as well as the best approaches to protecting team well-being.
Here are five more notable insights from the event.
Empowered frontline teams deliver better interactions
Without a doubt, AI helps companies manage the high volume of inquiries and deliver significant cost-saving benefits. In a panel moderated by Jessie Sandvick, TaskUs VP of Client Services, Raj Venkata, Sr. Director of Global Product at Align Technology, Adeline Ley, SVP of Operations at Talkiatry and Samantha Kane, Sr. Manager of Vendor Operations at Grow Therapy, they stressed that relying on AI alone, especially for areas like healthcare, can lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Technology should be applied to automate repetitive and error-prone tasks and empower humans to focus on more sensitive types of interactions. Automated chatbots, for example, cannot understand human emotions nor demonstrate empathy, which may further frustrate patients who are already in need of help.
And, as agents’ roles evolve to a higher level, there’s an increased need to support their well-being. Navigating potentially stressful conversations every day can take a toll on people’s mental health. Identifying early signs of burnout or stress and using AI to encourage healthy behaviors can protect frontline workers in high-pressure environments.
AI is nothing without humans
What AI currently lacks — namely the context and judgement — was the theme of another discussion at the event. Harnalli Deepa Swarmy, SVP and Global Head of Data at Forge Global; Todd Schiller, Co-founder and CEO at PixieBrix and FX Leduc, Co-founder and CEO of Kili Technology, joined a panel moderated by Spencer Huddleston, TaskUs VP of AI Data Services, where they shared trends and best practices for training, moderating and applying AI.
Throughout the conversation, experts agreed that human intervention is key to bridging the gaps in AI’s capabilities. People help monitor for bias, ensure accurate responses and better manage ethical implications.
Even as models get better at understanding emotions and context, a combination of technology and the human touch is critical to delivering the best results and user experiences.
Autonomous transportation is the next big experience
Camille Dredge, Head of Rideshare at Waymo, and Jayne Aclan, Teleoperations Manager for Fleet Operations at Zoox, joined Jarrod Johnson, TaskUs Chief Customer Officer, to look at the significant progress in the field of autonomous vehicles (AV).
AI and sensor technologies are enabling self-driving cars to make real-time decisions. Advancements in solutions like LIDAR, radar and 5G connectivity are also enabling more practical and reliable AV technologies to help make larger scale deployments possible.
But even with the strides leading companies are making, regulations and a lack of public trust are slowing down the acceleration of AVs. The speakers emphasized the need for collaboration between governments and the private sector, and public education to improve safety and facilitate growth for the industry.
More sophisticated threats are increasing the pressure on trust and safety teams
Bad actors are more sophisticated, putting more pressure on trust and safety professionals to act fast in order to get ahead of new types of threats. These challenges inspired a panel session hosted by Irene Huang, TaskUs Sr. Director for Wellness + Resiliency. Speakers included Sugata Basu, Director of Trust and Safety at Google; George Zhang, Head of Product Design at Brightly/Siemens; Brendan Nugent, Director of Partner Success at Etsy; and Randy Joshi, Director of Tech Risk & Compliance at Google.
The group highlighted two strategies: First, the need for multidisciplinary collaboration to come up with innovative solutions for detecting and reviewing content. And second, building a work environment that prioritizes self-care and psychological safety, especially for content moderation teams.
The experts also talked about the ins and outs of outsourcing trust and safety and how to achieve it all: scalability and quality control, plus cost-efficiency and consistency.
The future of AI in CX is inclusive, self-learning and hyper-personalized
AI’s potential to revolutionize CX is untold, and we’ve only scratched the surface. Experts in the field joined Manish Pandya, TaskUs SVP of Digital, to share new solutions and what they think lies ahead for this technology.
Anant Singh, VP of GTM at Sanas, believes that AI will help create more inclusive experiences, where a customer’s (or agent’s) language, accent or background noise are no longer hurdles to receiving good service. Sami Ghoche, CTO and Co-founder at Forethought, expects AI to eventually learn from its conversations with customers on its own.
Meanwhile, Paul Andersen, Director of Solutions at Kustomer, thinks AI will reach a point where it can deliver personalized, multichannel customer experiences using real-time data. Predictive insights will be developed even further to build customer loyalty.
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