The Capgemini Research Institute has published a new report entitled "The Art of Customer-Centric Artificial Intelligence: How organizations can unleash the full potential of AI in the customer experience". In the publication, the experts consulted found that customer interactions based on artificial intelligence have become widespread. More than half of the customers (54%) surveyed interact daily with companies via AI, compared to only 21% in 2018 according to the Capgemini study published the same year on this subject. According to the report "The Art of Customer-Centric Artificial Intelligence: How organizations can unleash the full potential of AI in the customer experience", the intensification of enterprise AI deployments and growing customer concerns resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic have significantly boosted consumer adoption of the technology, helping to increase consumer trust and confidence, and advance human-like AI interactions. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive customer adoption of contactless AI systems, such as voice assistants and facial recognition, which are a real lever in the adoption of artificial intelligence. In the current health crisis, more than three-quarters of respondents (77%) say they are using contactless interfaces more frequently to avoid interaction with other people or via touch screens. And this phenomenon is likely to continue, with 62% saying they will make it a habit once the epidemic is over. This figure is even higher in countries such as Germany (73%) and Brazil (71%). At the same time, while health and safety has become a major issue, organizations have also become aware of the growing importance of contactless interfaces in the customer experience: 75% of them believe that the growing customer interest in contactless practices will persist even after the pandemic. Specifically, customers increasingly prefer interactions based exclusively on AI. Kelly Anderson, Head of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Procter & Gamble, confirms this:
"The customer perspective has evolved to the point where AI-based interactions have almost become a prerequisite. In the event of human intervention, they are very pleasantly surprised or sometimes even shocked. This clearly shows that chatbots, natural language processing and AI have progressed and are becoming more and more sophisticated. »
From a sectoral point of view, the automotive (64%) and the public sector (62%) are clearly in the vanguard. The widespread use of in-vehicle voice interfaces partly explains why the automotive sector is a leader. For example, BMW, which deployed its own AI-based in-car voice assistants many years ago, plans to make them even more natural for the 2021 range by integrating gesture and eye recognition functionalities.

Interactions are increasingly realistic and trustworthy

In 2018, confidence was one of the areas for improvement. Today, the latest Capgemini Research Institute study shows that organizations have made great strides in this area. The numbers speak for themselves: just over two thirds (67%) of the customers surveyed trust the recommendations and personalized suggestions provided through AI interactions. In addition, nearly half (46%) consider AI interactions to be trustworthy, compared to 30% in 2018. Similarly, the proportion of respondents who do not trust machines to ensure the security and confidentiality of their personal data has dropped to 36%, down from 49% previously. Two years ago, customers were also hoping for more realistic interactions. Again, organizations have made great strides. Overall, 64% of customers surveyed find AI interactions more realistic (up from 48% in 2018). Customers are most enthusiastic in China, Australia and the United States, with 74%, 72% and 70% respectively. This is a logical development, as organizations have begun to integrate more "human" functionality into AI applications: 72% of organizations report that they are actively working to make AI interactions more realistic.

Contextual" use cases of AI are the key to curbing the drop in customer satisfaction

While clients have increased their interactions with RNs since 2018, their level of satisfaction has decreased. Overall, 57% are satisfied with RN interactions, down from more than two-thirds (69%) in 2018. 51% of clients surveyed believe that a "positive" RN experience should be unique and exceed their expectations. The study found that more customers are satisfied and derive more benefit from "contextual" use cases. Examples include parking cars independently, detecting fraudulent banking transactions and making payments authenticated by biometric scanners.

Most companies struggle to measure the impact on the customer experience with basic KPIs.

Few clients were impressed with AI. This may be due to the fact that a majority of companies (73%) only evaluate the customer experience based on basic performance indicators and are mainly interested in the number of customers using AI interactions. According to the report, in order for organizations to fully exploit the potential of AI and move it towards an improved experience, they should take customer feedback into account from the design and development of systems.

What is the future of the customer experience?

Capgemini's 2018 survey showed that less than 30% of customer interactions in the vast majority of organizations (93%) are based on AI. Today, only 10% of the companies surveyed are at this level: 80% of them indicate that 30% to 50% of their customer interactions are based on artificial intelligence. According to the report, within two to three years, in the vast majority of organizations (80%), more than half of interactions will be based on artificial intelligence.
"Artificial intelligence is an integral part of the customer experience and will remain so. The Covid-19 pandemic was a catalyst that enabled organizations to embark on the implementation of AI. Likewise, the changes in customer behavior associated with the crisis have clearly provided an opportunity for organizations to expand their AI deployments," said Darshan Shankavaram, head of Capgemini Group's Digital Customer Experience practice. "However, it is essential for organizations to understand that because AI is a driver of customer satisfaction, they need to optimize interactions and experiences and not treat it as a gimmick or use it only to support higher volumes or speed up processes. To achieve this, they must continue to invest in realistic and trustworthy AI experiences and improve their KPIs and make them more sophisticated. If these changes materialize, we expect customer satisfaction levels to increase and the use of AI throughout the customer journey to grow. »
Translated from Les interactions client reposant sur l’IA auraient doublé en 2 ans selon un rapport du Capgemini Research Institute

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