Preparing Your Business for the Artificial Intelligence Revolution

Although artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a popular solution for modern businesses, many companies regard it as an option reserved entirely for the "bigger players." After all, AI is a complicated thing and a daunting challenge for those who have never considered using data and machine learning before. For some people, the concept of "smart" computers still belongs in the realm of science fiction.

However, no matter how you feel about artificial intelligence, it's impossible to ignore it's pervading importance in the business world. AI is affecting everything from customer experience with things like predictive and sentiment analysis to the cloud contact centre environment , with new virtual assistants.

The good news?

Any sized business can prepare for the AI revolution with a few simple steps.

Step 1: Know Your Business Needs

The first step to succeeding with any new technology is looking at your business and determining the pain points that you can eliminate with AI solutions. For instance, can you use sentiment analysis to improve the satisfaction that customers feel when they interact with your contact centers? Can you automate tasks to take some of the stress away from your agents?

According to Gartner's CIO survey for 2018, only 4% of companies have deployed an AI solution so far. If you haven't decided exactly how you want to use this technology yet, then you're not alone. Now's the time to get planning.

Step 2: Focus on Customer Experience

While there are many different ways to engage in the AI environment today, one of the easiest and most valuable options is to invest in customer experience. Enhancing your cloud contact center with artificial intelligence will help you to gather crucial data about the buyer journey and make decisions that can improve customer engagement and satisfaction.

Now that companies have more ways to connect with customers than ever before, it's important to understand how you can delight your audience on every available channel. Gartner predicts that a quarter of contact centres will implement virtual assistants and chatbots into their channels by 2020.

Step 3: Partner with AI Experts

If you want to add AI to your communication strategy, then it only makes sense to work with a vendor that knows how to make the most of this disruptive technology. Companies like RingCentral invest a great deal of time and effort into discovering how they can add artificial intelligence solutions to their products to better empower and inform their customers.

Look for a vendor that can guide you through the possibilities that are available with artificial intelligence and remember that you can start with very small steps. For instance, you don't necessarily need to build your own chatbot straight away. Instead, you can begin with automating a few basic tasks in your cloud contact center, so that you can free up more of your agents' time. As you learn more about AI, you can implement additional features to suit your needs.

Step 4: Build the Right Background

Finally, begin to put the right AI background in place to support your transformation efforts. Remember, any evolution in your business requires the right selection of tools and people. From hiring the right employees to support your AI initiatives to investing in reliable tools, becoming a part of the AI revolution will take time.

One great way to get started is to make sure that you're securely collecting the right data to support your AI strategies. After all, 96% of marketing leaders use AI to handle tasks to do with data and research in the years to come, and data is the fuel that powers your AI strategies. Get your information storage systems right, and you'll have a great foundation in place for the AI revolution.