Automation is also key for our increasingly digital-first, self-service culture.
As we talk about this, Joyce reminds me about the introduction of the airport self-service ticketing kiosks.
“I think initially, when we got to an airport and we saw those kiosks, we went straight past them and got in line to talk to a person. But now, we’ve learned that the kiosks are way faster than the people and, because we've learned we can trust what happens at those kiosks, we prefer them.”
I nod and laugh at the truth of this example, remembering also when the first self-checkout stations appeared at the grocery store and how appalled we were at their arrival. What about customer service? But now, when I’m determined to rush in and out for toilet paper and a pack of gum, I’m grateful for expedited self-service.
In practice, great customer service doesn’t require a person-to-person experience. Between a growing consumer market of digital natives and pandemic-induced zero-touch service, organizations are reconciling the need for increased digital experiences.
Adopting more automation and self-service solves for both labor shortages and better customer service. Case in point: a financial institution client of Insight recognized a need to alleviate their staff’s ordinary, routine, customer-facing tasks while also delivering a preferred customer experience.
In partnership with Insight, they developed a virtual customer assistant, or chatbot. Insight already had the foundation of the intelligent bot and deep learning models created. Through a pattern of transfer learning, the bot was tailored further to meet the client’s specific needs.
The financial institution experienced a 72% increase in digital account opening after deployment.
And, when the chatbot struggles to correctly understand and respond to an inquiry, the question or conversation gets routed to a human to determine what should have happened. Then, that information is added to the code so the bot is always getting smarter.
But, to harken back to Joyce’s ambition of tech for good, there are other human factors for deploying automation and the intelligent edge. When I ask about ambitious possibilities here, she lights up.
“I have a lot of confidence that with access to technology, we can solve almost anything,” Joyce says, and she begins to tell me about a recent meeting with a client in the medical research field. They see the potential for personalized medicine using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the intelligent edge. Before I know it, I’m engrossed in a medical research and data science lecture rolled into one.