Today’s customers expect exceptional service that includes quick and comprehensive answers to their inquiries, available 24/7 across multiple channels. While traditional AI approaches have provided efficient service, they have their limitations. Generative AI, however, has the potential to transform customer care by leveraging large language models and deep learning techniques to understand complex inquiries and generate human-like conversational responses.

How Generative AI is Revolutionizing Customer Service

Generative AI is disrupting customer service in five key ways:

1. Conversational search: Generative AI provides customers with relevant information in their preferred language, minimizing the need for translation services.
2. Agent assistance – search and summarization: Generative AI improves productivity for customer support agents by generating responses based on conversation context. It also creates summaries and categorizes trends for easy reference.
3. Build assistance: Generative AI helps employees create chatbots and other customer service tools by providing content creation and build assistance based on existing data.
4. Call center operational and data optimization: Generative AI enhances feedback loops by summarizing and analyzing complaints, agent performance, and customer journeys, transforming call centers into revenue generators.
5. Personalized recommendations: Generative AI uses customer data to provide personalized information and recommendations in the customer’s preferred tone and format.

Transforming the Contact Center with AI

IBM Consulting™ offers a suite of AI solutions that harness the power of generative AI for customer care. Watson Assistant, combined with Watson Orchestrate™, automates customer service answers and integrates call center technology to deliver exceptional customer care.

IBM’s next-generation AI and data platform, watsonx, takes AI to the next level with watsonx.ai, watsonx.data, and watsonx.governance. These components enable training, scaling, and governance of machine learning models for generative AI.

IBM Consulting works closely with partners like Salesforce, Amazon, and Genesys to deliver the best generative AI solutions for contact centers.

Generative AI in Action

Bouygues Telecom partnered with IBM Consulting to transform its call center operations using generative AI capabilities. By leveraging foundation models, Bouygues Telecom achieved automatic call summarization, topic extraction, and actionable insights. This resulted in significant operational improvements and cost savings.

Lloyds Banking Group worked with IBM to build a proof of concept that demonstrated the benefits of generative AI. The solution improved the virtual assistant experience, reducing unsuccessful searches and manual effort, while increasing accuracy.

Navigating the Challenges of Generative AI

A study conducted by the IBM Institute of Business Value found that CEOs believe the organization with advanced generative AI has a competitive advantage. However, executives are concerned about risks such as bias, ethics, and security.

To address these concerns, IBM Consulting launched a Center of Excellence (CoE) for generative AI. The CoE comprises a network of skilled data and AI consultants who specialize in helping organizations adopt and scale AI safely and mitigate risks.

IBM Consulting is uniquely positioned to assist organizations in harnessing the potential of generative AI in a trusted and targeted way.

About the Authors

The article is written by a Global Service Transformation Leader and a Distinguished Engineer, CTO for the Global AI & Analytics Practice, both from IBM Consulting.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is generative AI?

Generative AI is a branch of AI that uses large language models and deep learning techniques to understand complex inquiries and generate human-like conversational responses.

How is generative AI revolutionizing customer service?

Generative AI is transforming customer service by providing quick and relevant information to customers, improving productivity for support agents, assisting in content creation for customer service tools, optimizing call center operations, and delivering personalized recommendations.

What solutions does IBM Consulting offer for generative AI in customer care?

IBM Consulting offers a suite of AI solutions, including Watson Assistant and Watson Orchestrate, to automate customer service answers and integrate call center technology. Additionally, IBM’s watsonx platform provides advanced AI and data capabilities for generative AI.

What are some challenges in implementing generative AI?

Challenges in implementing generative AI include addressing biases, managing ethical considerations, and ensuring security. IBM Consulting’s Center of Excellence for generative AI helps organizations navigate these challenges and adopt generative AI safely.