The News: TTEC has recently introduced two new AI-related solutions. The first, a consultative AI Readiness Assessment and the other, TTEC Digital Contact Center Intelligence powered by AWS, which leverages AWS AI and machine learning (ML).
The AI Readiness Assessment’s goal is to help companies assess their current abilities to use AI technologies for CX and offers a way forward. For more information on the AI Readiness Assessment Tool, see this Press Release on the TTEC website.
TTEC Launches Two AI Solutions
Analyst Take: Interesting announcements from TTEC over the past couple weeks with the launch of the AI Readiness Assessment tool and the TTEC Digital Contact Center Intelligence powered by AWS.
I was able to chat with Aaron Schroeder, TTEC Digital’s Director of AI Solutions and Head of AI Center of Excellence, to get further information on the AI Readiness Assessment and talk about trends TTEC is seeing in AI readiness amongst its customer base.
AI Readiness Assessment Offers a Gauge on Preparedness and Recommendations
The AI Readiness Assessment was created to help companies measure where they are in leveraging AI capabilities, how mature their digital CX is, and to also offer a roadmap for moving forward.
“The development of the AI Readiness Assessment came from wanting to help our customers determine how to leverage these massive leaps in AI capabilities realizing that there are definitely varying degrees of comfort around risk and eagerness to adopt. We want to help cut through a bit of the noise and chaos and offer an easy to use assessment as well as a roadmap forward that focuses on the best use cases for each customer,” says Schroeder.
Schroeder added, “We were also getting direct requests from customers to help them answer their growing list of questions about what the capabilities mean to them and their associates from a technology, policy and change management perspective.”
The Assessment tool was built from a cross functional team from different business units within TTEC, bringing in expertise from multiple areas. AI readiness is not just comprised of a single competency, so the assessment looks at four core areas.
AI & Business: What outcomes do you hope to achieve with AI and how does your business strategy align with those goals?
“We were very mindful to put this competency upfront, because without business readiness and business process maturity, the conversation about AI can be dead on arrival. And that’s OK, because businesses can still get there and figuring out where a company is in their inner ability to support these changes is crucial,” says Schroeder.
Customer Interactions: This looks at the effectiveness of current customer conversation channels and the state of automation. It considers how customers are viewing self-service, what are the more effective and important channels, and customer satisfaction levels.
Associate Augmentation: What ways can AI improve associate productivity and engagement?
“Customer experience can be greatly affected by agent or employee experience. Knowing how associates are already being assisted, what’s working for them and what will the effect be of introducing new technologies for training are important pieces as companies move forward with AI adoption,” says Schroeder.
Analytics and Platform: Determining what tech platforms and analytics tools are needed to move forward with AI strategy and make sure it matches with internal data needs.
The assessment itself is 10 questions and can provide a benchmark on where an organization is in using AI for CX in comparison to industry peers. Anonymized results are presented to respondents and TTEC can also provide customized, high-level recommendations and best practices for each participant as well as connecting them with TTEC CX AI experts for further conversations.
TTEC Digital Contact Center Intelligence powered by AWS is Launched
TTEC Digital has introduced TTEC Digital Contact Center Intelligence powered by AWS, which will allow customers to add in AI functionality to contact center infrastructure that is already in place without the need for technology replacements and major infrastructure upgrades.
Specific capabilities that are integrated include natural language understanding (NLU), transcription and sentiment analysis. TTEC Digital’s Contact Center Intelligence uses AWS AI/ML services like Amazon Chime SDK, Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Transcribe, Amazon Sagemaker, and Amazon Lex, and others.
According to TTEC Digital, the company has orchestrated more than 500 AWS CX engagements.
Implementing AI for CX in contact centers offers a host of very practical benefits for agents, managers, and the customers the center is supporting. Most are not in a situation to simply go for it, so it’s good to see solutions being developed by contact center solutions providers that are helping to scaffold those moves to meet companies where they are in readiness to implement, minimize potential rip and replace, and give companies a better chance of success.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in technology research and marketing; prior to her current role, she was a Research Analyst at Omdia, authoring market and ecosystem reports on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and User Interface technologies. Sherril was previously Manager of Market Research at Intrado Life and Safety, providing competitive analysis and intelligence, business development support, and analyst relations.
Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.
