Voice AI is expected to reduce global call centre labour costs by as much as US$80 billion by 2026, according to Gartner. However, Australia’s adoption of conversational AI for customer service remains relatively low compared to other countries.
“Nine-in-ten Australians are now smartphone users, with Siri, Google or Alexa at their fingertips,” said Kun Wu, Founder and Managing Director of AI Rudder, a leading voice AI provider in the Asian Pacific (APAC). Voice AI technologies have enhanced consumers’ lives in terms of communication, media use, entertainment and information searches.
Given this high consumer penetration, Wu says the potential exists for the Australian customer service industry to follow APAC markets in using voice AI to deliver high-quality service. However, web-based chatbots and automated interactive voice response remain the primary AI systems used in Australia.
“Nearly all Australians are [now] able to confidently engage with brands using QR codes, and are more willing to fix problems themselves using chatbots or apps,” said Wu.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused global rapid adoption of digital channels and services by both industries and customers.
“AI platforms have been pushed further forward as people are moving away from traditional phone systems because of COVID-19. Not being able to go into the office has driven a spark to improve AI systems,” said Dan Blunden, Channel Manager at Channel UC, an Australian voice enablement and unified communications provider.
“Voice AI is extremely important now that everyone is working remotely; it’s important in building stronger connections with customers,” said Rohan Milne, Chief Executive Officer of Switch Connect, Australian technology and communications provider.
Australians also experienced rapid digitalisation due to the pandemic, which altered consumer expectations regarding online services and telecommunications, according to PwC.
Chatbots are expected to be the primary customer service channel for close to 25 percent of organisations within the next 5 years. However, while both chatbots and voice AI simulate human interactions, chatbots are generally computer generated and question-based, whereas voice AI provides human-like conversations.
“Expanding with voice AI is a unique way that telephony is going,” said Blunden. This includes automatic live transcriptions of calls, detection of customer sentiments using machine learning, and the recognition of key moments and words during a call.
Blunden told CRN, “It allows end users to provide better service to the customers, and better technologies and business offerings to end-user businesses.” Voice AI can largely assist businesses in navigating economic challenges and reduced staff as a result of the pandemic.
Milne mentioned how voice AI can easily recognise technical issues and immediately alert staff. It can also easily search through databases for customer information, maximising the efficiency of calls.
Promise
The promise of AI is that it can provide services and conversations that are almost indistinguishable from humans, allowing for increased authenticity and efficiency and more positive customer interactions.
“AI voices can understand customer sentiment on the phone, and respond to unique enquiries in real-time. Unlike a call centre operator however, voice AI can dial thousands of customers simultaneously and report live analytics back to Australian businesses,” said Wu.
This ability for voice AI to “analyse emotion in real time” allows “upset customers [to] be identified immediately so that supervisors can be flagged to step in,” said Milne, highlighting that AI can reduce negative customer experiences.
“AI can recognise cues and analyse calls to recognise how happy a customer was with the service – which is a sales opportunity,” said Milne, referring to voice AI’s ability to examine trends of calls. This includes analysing repeated phrases to recognise customer interest in particular services or products.
Due to the wide range of languages spoken in Australia, a “strong opportunity exists for voice AI to connect with culturally and linguistically diverse Australians in a language or specific dialect that is most familiar to them,” said Wu. Language, accents and dialects can be localised, with the aim of a more natural and comfortable conversation with customers, making it feel as though they are speaking with a human they can relate to.
Misconception
Many Australians have had negative experiences with offshore call centres, such as long speech delays and unclear accents, so gaining consumer trust will be a hurdle for voice AI customer service providers.
Regarding the lack of uptake of voice AI in Australia, Milne said, “It’s not talked about enough.”
Milne highlighted a common misconception, “that you need to spend a lot of time training AI engines to understand business so there’s massive costs involved,” but he emphasised that, “it’s not actually that hard.” He believed that voice AI could be useful for small companies as well as major corporations.
If these misconceptions and challenges can be overcome, there is significant potential for the future of voice AI in Australia to be more inclusive of diverse cultures and to maximise efficiency for businesses.
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