What Customer Contact Innovation Actually Requires

In considering how businesses can innovate responsibly without compromising the human touch, strategic decisions begin well before the technology selection phase.

At CCW Orlando earlier this year, CCW Digital presented a workshop titled “CX Buzzwords and Clichés We’re Sick Of Hearing.” Our contemporary business practices demand a shorthand, but platitudes and jargon have become the dominant language of our space. The sense of urgency to adopt AI in order to remain competitive has resulted in expedited rollouts and suboptimal results. Over the last three years, 63% of contact center leaders abandoned at least 10% of their technology stack due to insufficient impact and ROI. At the same time, only 51% of leaders are confident their technology solutions are living up to expectations.

With AI playing an increasingly dominant, but misunderstood role in our work, it is alarming how often language falls short. Complex ideas, when communicated inadequately, are reduced to empty oversimplifications. If adoption of AI continues to outpace institutional knowledge and understanding of AI, outcomes will continue to disappoint.

This is one way of describing the loss of “the human touch” we speak about so frequently in customer contact. It does not just refer to AI-led customer interactions or digital interfaces that feel robotic, it’s the diminishing of the essence that makes experiences vibrant, unique, and memorable. When used exclusively as a cost lever, the proliferation of AI and automation erodes the vitality of experiences, scaling back creativity in favor of optimization. This is top of mind for most practitioners, with 56% saying cost and efficiency is a top priority for technology investments, and 71% saying customer service and experience are priorities.

As CX leaders, balancing technology-led innovation with a preservation of the human touch is our prerogative. But where the “human touch” comes into play is not necessarily in-the-moment empathy or high-touch service, but a more ephemeral understanding that the experience has meaning and intention. With that in mind, we identified some of the more ambiguous misconceptions common in evaluating the role of humanity as emergent technology continues to shape experiences.

Failing to disclose where AI is taking the lead

Recognizing that the human touch is the essence of customer service is paramount. No matter what technology is capable of, customers inherently expect that there is another human being on the other side of the channel they’re communicating in. They may not be expecting an emotional or sentimental interaction, but if they become aware that there is no one on the other end–just an amorphous brand and not a real person–trust plummets.

According to CCW Digital data, 92% of customers rate transparency in AI usage as important and 67% feel deceived when they use a chatbot under the guise that it is human. This is as important as it is avoidable: clear disclosures of where and when AI is used will serve as a commitment to honesty and accountability.

Using generalized information to make decisions

There is no shortage of evidence that AI can transform and elevate CX. CCW Digital serves as an aggregator for information on how this is transpiring, bringing together technical capabilities from solution providers, practical case studies from industry leaders, and of course, data-backed insights from our analyst team. While there is tremendous value in familiarizing oneself with industry knowledge, it also leads many to making a major mistake.

The mistake is simple but remarkably common. Leaders start the transformation process with generalized information about what AI can do for their organization, and choose best-in-class technology at a price that makes sense. Then, after months of implementation and onboarding, they find themselves with lackluster results. This is because “moving the needle” carries little to no value when it’s not moving in the right direction; it may not even be the right needle. Alternatively, when leaders identify a gap, inefficiency, or specific metric to improve and build their AI strategy around this, progress follows.

Acknowledging that AI drives business outcomes through specific and tactical ways, and not as a force of progress shrouded in mystery, is a powerful mindset shift that can have multivalent effects across the organization. In this way, technology augments strategy that is led by human ingenuity and creativity, ultimately keeping the human element at the forefront even as automation takes on more work.

When it comes to leaders’ intended outcomes of new AI solutions, only 19% emphasize cost and efficiency metrics, while 42% value customer satisfaction metrics. This indicates how intrinsically tied to the success of the business customer satisfaction has become. As we look towards technology to do the work of enhancing experiences, from speed to quality to creativity, the optimistic assumptions we make about how this takes place is what results in disappointing results.

Read our full issue here.