The Lufthansa Story: Unlocking Contact Center Efficiency with Generative AI

Lufthansa’s Omer Adiguzel - Technical Lead, Generative AI and our very own Sebastien Salou - Senior Manager, Sprinklr Solutions share their experiences and expert tips on how Generative AI can improve a contact center’s efficiency, in oiur recent webinar with CX Netwiork.. Learn the core tenents of Gen AI implementation to ensure maximum impact, first-hand examples and more.  

Love it. Hate it. You just can’t ignore it. Well, that’s Generative AI for you. In the contact center world, Generative AI is making waves of impact in the areas of agent productivity, call volume management, and customer satisfaction to name a few. Early adopters who have invested in Gen AI have seen a 20% improvement in chatbot performance within just seven weeks of implementation, says McKinsey. This is the future of customer experience (CX) where Gen AI is transforming contact centers into hubs of efficiency and satisfaction.   

In this blog, let’s explore the shared perspectives of Ömer and Sebastien as they decode the core principles, the challenges in adoption of Gen AI, its true value and the what the future might look like, so read on.   

Core Principles of Gen AI and Its Impact on CX  

Gen AI has immense potential to create an impact in overcoming four main challenges faced by contact centers:  

1. Volume management – how can your contact center keep up with rising call volumes? 
2. Productivity – how can agents efficiently resolve the customer’s inquiry on the very first contact? 
3. Quality management – how can you ensure high quality of responses, based on relevance, timelines, personalization and accuracy, in every interaction? 
4. Identifying revenue opportunities - how can you identify opportunities to cross or upsell leveraging existing customer data? 

It is no surprise that customer expectations are higher than ever and are constantly evolving. For an airline, when a customer reaches out for resolution to their delayed or cancelled flight, it’s imperative that the agents’ response be more personalized, concise, relevant and quick. Generative AI can help agents in all these aspects where it can be used recognize customer intent, sentiment, sense their urgency and the chatbots can route the customer to an agent most experienced in this situation. 

Challenges and Quick Wins in Gen AI Implementation  

The key to making Gen AI adoption successful is to focus on a few challenges and go for the quick wins. For example, enabling basic chat GPT plugins on internal websites can be a quick win, when Gen AI is implemented for use cases like text summarization, multi-language support, and document assistance services. The agility and DevOps readiness in navigating the fast-paced Gen AI landscape also play a huge role in overcoming the challenges. With Gen AI, contact center users no longer rely on coding but give it text-based instruction to create workflows that help them go to market faster with their communication strategies. That said, considering it is now so simple to go-to-market, contact centers have to be doubly sure they have the necessary clearances like legal, financial, data protection policies to ensure a risk-free implementation.  

For quick wins, enabling basic ChatGPT on internal web pages can yield significant benefits. By allowing experimentation with translation, text generation, and summarization, companies can enhance their customer service capabilities. Additionally, services like document assistance provide efficient solutions for contact centers.  

Value Realization with Gen AI

Efficiency and traffic containment are two crucial factors in evaluating the value Gen AI can create in your contact center. The cost and CSAT value behind implementing Gen AI solutions and highlight the positive impact on employees' productivity and job satisfaction.   Here’s where Gen AI can add the most value across key areas in a contact center: 

• Overcoming Agent Concerns and Maximizing Efficiency – Generative AI enhances efficiency by assisting agents with grammar-checked responses, automatic translation, and conversation summarization. Despite initial apprehension from agents, they soon recognize the value of these tools, leading to reduced average handling times and happier customers. 
• The Path to Human-Like Self-Service - When it comes to estimating the value of Generative AI (Gen AI), we rely heavily on the first value realization dashboard we build on the platform. It's all about efficiency and containing traffic and volume on self-service channels. By automating tasks easily handled by Gen AI, we reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction by providing immediate, 24/7 responses. 

Future Outlook and Strategic Direction 

Looking toward the future with Gen AI involves augmenting existing AI capabilities to improve results and build better customer service experiences. Innovative stages include developing human-like self-service, empathetic bots, and advanced text-to-speech functionalities. Proactive engagement, driven by Generative AI, fosters customer loyalty and satisfaction by addressing issues before they arise.  

Strategic Advice for Embryonic Gen AI Adopters  

For those beginning their Gen AI journey, conducting tests and proofs of concept is essential to understand the value it can bring. Focusing on people and DevOps capabilities, along with ensuring robust security measures, are crucial for success in this rapidly evolving landscape. Ultimately, getting started and embracing innovation is key to realizing the full potential of Generative AI.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, Gen AI represents a game-changer for contact centers, unlocking new levels of efficiency, satisfaction, and innovation. By embracing its principles, empowering self-service, overcoming implementation challenges, and embracing a future-oriented mindset, contact centers can thrive in the age of Gen AI.  

Stay tuned for more insights on how Gen AI is reshaping the CX landscape and revolutionizing customer service as we know it.