Communication is a foundational cornerstone of any business. It’s also a huge amount of work. Countless business hours are spent handling calls, writing messages or meeting summaries, and trying to find ways to optimize workflows.
These days, however, AI and Machine Learning (ML) significantly reduce friction in business communication. These algorithms let you streamline processes, take routine tasks off your hands, and yield invaluable insights into your business’ communication practices.
Modern Unified Communications platforms not only centralize all usual communication channels – from voice and video calls to chat and virtual fax. They also come with a plethora of handy AI tools.
Here are four of the best.
1 – Interactive Voice Response
“Please press 1 for -”. Many people feel their blood pressure spike when they hear this phrase. It means, of course, listening to a huge menu of choices in several rounds, and still ending up with the wrong agent.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) puts a stop to all this.
This technology, based on Natural Language Processing (NLP), allows the caller to state their issue in their own words. Then, the algorithm parses their meaning and connects them to the best available agent for the task.
Going even further, Interactive Virtual Assistants (IVAs) respond to callers and handle routine tasks like scheduling appointments.
2 – Virtual Pas
Next up, virtual personal assistants make your team members’ lives easier – especially when interacting with customers.
When a customer contacts your business, the system can recognize them and automatically pull relevant records from your customer relationship management (CRM) database. This could be the date of the last purchases, transcripts of previous interactions, or instructions given to fix problems.
Consequently, the customer won’t have to re-explain their issue from scratch and the conversation can start off on much more even footing.
Just as usefully, virtual PAs can offer pointers to agents during difficult conversations. For example, an algorithm could recognize from the vocal patterns that the customer is upset, and the agent is struggling to handle the situation. Then, it assists the agent with company-approved talking points and suggestions.
3 – Transcription
Another perk of NLP is that AI can easily transcribe entire conversations. Whether it’s a conversation with a customer about a contested issue, or a multi-hour meeting with business partners, they’ll generate a transcript within seconds.
Additionally, many tools can also create summaries. The algorithms recognize the important points of a conversation and write them up for quick and easy reference.
4 – Analytics
Finally, another big advantage of ML and AI algorithms is that they can unearth insights from huge amounts of data without breaking a sweat.
Whether it’s statistics on overall customer satisfaction or individual agents’ performance, these tools can highlight the salient points and automatically generate reports.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence has gone from something imagined only in science fiction to a mature, reliable technology. Unified communications platforms provide a massive variety of time-saving, efficiency-boosting tools based on these algorithms that can help you take your business communications to the next level.
