The Disruption of Customer Experience Management. Artificial, Intelligent, Hype or Reality?

“100 days ago I took over as CEO of IGT Solutions.”

This powerful opening statement sets the stage for Kathryn Stein’s insightful discussion during MachineCon 2024 on the disruption of customer experience management through artificial intelligence. As the new CEO of IGT Solutions, a customer experience and customer service firm with a 20-year history rooted in the travel and hospitality industry, Stein brings a fresh perspective on how AI is reshaping the landscape of customer interactions.

Redefining the Experience Economy

Stein emphasizes that IGT Solutions’ charter over the last 100 days has been to “redefine the experienced economy.” With 25,000 colleagues (agents) in 30 locations worldwide, the company has diversified beyond its travel and hospitality roots to serve various consumer-facing verticals, including consumer goods and high-tech industries.

She challenges the conventional focus on productivity, stating:

“The hyperfocus on productivity it’s a distraction. We need to really think about the value that we’re driving towards organizations.”

AI in the Loop: A Paradigm Shift

Stein introduces a novel concept: “AI in the loop” instead of the commonly discussed “human in the loop” approach. She explains:

“This is our time for AI in the loop… This is our time with generative AI to unlock human potential and expertise in a very different way. It is AI in the loop, AI enabling us to unlock that expertise faster as opposed to humans in the loop training AI to replace their jobs.”

This perspective shifts the narrative from AI replacing human jobs to AI empowering humans to reach their full potential.

Deciding Where to Disrupt

Stein outlines four key topics she addressed in her first 100 days as CEO:

1. How to decide where to disrupt the organization
2. Rethinking expertise in customer service and experience
3. Assessing current and future technology capabilities
4. Addressing responsible AI

She emphasizes the importance of stepping back from the rush to implement AI and focusing on the fundamental question: “Why should we use technology? What is the business problem that we’re solving?”

From Processors to Advisers

Stein reframes the role of customer service agents:

“I don’t even say agents anymore. I don’t say analysts because it sounds like we’re actually analyzing something. [I say] advisers, so that in that experience, we’re helping the end consumer, irrespective of the industry, to navigate what is inevitably a multifaceted and complex environment.”

This shift in perspective aims to elevate the role of human agents from mere processors to valuable advisers, leveraging AI to enhance their expertise and capabilities.

Transforming Training and Skilling

One of Stein’s primary initiatives focuses on revolutionizing agent training. She explains:

“It’s less about teaching people to interrogate AI. It’s about AI coaching people to be better prepared for the multitude of simulations and scenarios that they will face.”

By using AI to create diverse, realistic scenarios for training, IGT Solutions aims to reduce the time it takes for agents to reach expertise from 16-20 months to 5-10 months. This approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also enhances the agent experience, potentially reducing burnout and attrition.

Technology Readiness and Consumer Sentiment

Stein acknowledges the challenges in implementing AI in customer service, citing a Gardner survey that revealed 60% of consumers don’t want to interact with an AI bot. She emphasizes the need for a balanced approach:

“We’re thinking much more about again how can we use this technology to aid and augment our agents, and if we are putting this in front of the end consumer, how can we make it truly omnichannel so that at any moment that human or that customer can escalate and move into a human agent seamlessly.”

Responsible AI and the Path Forward

While recognizing the importance of responsible AI, Stein focuses on practical implementation strategies, such as using restricted access to data (RAG) to limit exposure to sensitive information. She emphasizes the importance of involving the people who will be aided by AI in the process:

“It’s about having the people that are going to be aided actually interacting with the technology in a way that’s not invasive, that’s assisting them, that’s helping them become better, that’s seeing a better career path through them.”

Igniting Human Potential

Stein concludes her talk by reframing the narrative around AI in customer experience:

“This is changing the equation I saw a year ago on its head to once again come back to the comment I made around generative AI igniting like fire human potential, which is generative AI truly igniting what I think is the future of customer experience, which is human empathy and human ingenuity.”

By leveraging AI to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them, IGT Solutions aims to transform the customer experience landscape, demonstrating that AI can be a powerful tool for unlocking human potential in the service industry.