The buzz around Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to intensify this year, especially in the realm of business communications. The promises of AI revolutionising various facets of work, from sales to customer service and collaboration, are no longer mere predictions; they are tangible realities shaping the landscape of how companies operate.
AI is transcending its buzzword status and becoming deeply integrated into our working lives. For example, at RingCentral, by infusing RingSense™ AI across its secure, reliable platform, RingCentral is empowering every employee in an organization, from customer service to sales and marketing, with personalized and context-aware interactions that make every conversation smarter and everyday work more efficient However, organisations need to take care in how they introduce AI to their workforces.
According to a survey conducted by RingCentral, opinions on the importance of AI vary among business decision-makers and employees. To bridge this gap, businesses must foster a culture of openness and collaboration to fully harness AI’s potential across various applications, RingCentral’s Chief Innovation Officer Kira Makagon told UC Today. They need to make sure that everyone understands how AI infuses collaborative intelligence across teams and is able to transform both employee and customer experiences.
“AI is revolutionising work across various applications, from writing and design to sales and workflow automation and customer support,” she said.
“Our survey revealed differing opinions and perceptions about the use of AI at work, how it’s used today within organisations, and how it will be in the future.
“While 42 percent of business decision-makers believed AI would be important in 2023, only 30 percent of employees agreed. To close this gap and harness AI’s potential, leaders need to foster a culture of transparency and collaboration, ensuring all team members are included in this transformative journey.”
Infusing AI to Transform Both Employee and Customer Experiences
AI can have a huge impact on many business areas once a company’s workforce has been educated on its benefits.
The role of AI in enhancing customer experience, especially in customer service operations, is a critical aspect of its integration into business communications. RingCentral’s AI portfolio includes RingSense for Sales, an innovative solution that analyses interactions among salespeople and prospects. This AI-driven tool offers automated follow-ups, interaction-level scoring, and integrations with leading CRMs, calendar applications, and call providers.
By organising call notes into chapters and sections, extracting crucial data, and providing key insights, RingSense for Sales goes beyond the stage of automation, unlocking valuable insights for revenue optimisation. It equips sales teams with actionable intelligence derived from customer interactions across calls, emails, contact center, and video meetings, seamlessly integrated with CRMs.
The integration of AI in business communications is further expanded with RingCentral Events, simplifying end-to-end event management for marketing teams through AI-powered capabilities for virtual, hybrid, and in-person events like Q&A categorisation, AI-generated summaries, and auto-generated smart clips for social media.
RingCentral is also embedding AI across its other products. RingCentral VP of Product and Industry Marketing Esther Yoon’s insights from UC Today’s Big UC Update video highlights how AI, through an AI companion, documents and takes real-time notes, providing a 60-second takeaway summary of a 30-minute conversation. RingCX, RingCentral’s native omnichannel contact centre solution, boasts AI-first functionality that supports agents throughout the customer interaction journey, from pre-interaction insights to post-interaction transcriptions and summaries, which enables businesses to truly understand what is going on with their customer relationships and boost agent performance.
Balancing Automation and Human Interaction
The evolution of the balance between automation and human interaction is a crucial aspect of AI’s impact on customer experience.
RingCentral addresses this by introducing AI APIs that allow developers and customers to access their data for voice, video, and chat interactions. This approach ensures that AI augments human capabilities, providing deeper insights into customer interactions and increasing customer retention.
RingCentral research found that effective conversational AI can increase first contact resolution by 20 percent, reducing the need for multiple interactions to solve an issue. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, equipped with advanced Natural Language Processing, offer 24/7 support and improve agent interactions, ultimately enhancing the overall customer experience.
Anticipating Future Trends
As businesses look to the future, the increasing automation facilitated by AI is expected to reduce the time and energy dedicated to manual tasks. RingCentral emphasises the importance of providing training to ensure that employees, including non-technical users, can easily leverage AI. The availability of AI APIs further empowers businesses to integrate sentiment analysis and other capabilities into their products and services.
However, businesses need to ensure they are utilising AI for the right reasons, according to John Finch, VP of Product Marketing for RingCX.
“AI, for its own sake, can be counterproductive, derailing CX initiatives and diverting investments that could be better utilised for projects delivering tangible ROI,” he said. “At RingCentral, we anticipate a heightened scrutiny of AI investments this year.
“Vendors with AI capabilities that genuinely address and solve business challenges in customer service and sales will be better positioned to secure investments in the annual operating budgets. Positive ROI will also be a requirement after deployment, thus increasing the potential for further investment in AI for organisations of all sizes.”
The era of AI being a mere buzzword is drawing to a close. The pragmatic applications showcased by RingCentral and other innovators indicate that AI is not just a futuristic promise but a present-day reality transforming how we communicate and conduct business. The key lies in a balanced integration that enhances human capabilities, fosters collaboration, and ensures the transparent adoption of AI across various organisational functions.
