Latest 8x8 Research Reveals IT and Contact Center Leaders Embrace Conversational AI or Fear Falling Behind
September 28 2023 - 4:00AM
Business Wire
8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), a leading integrated cloud contact
center and unified communications platform provider, today
announced findings from its 2023 State of Conversational AI in the
Contact Center report. Key findings reveal that contact center and
IT leaders believe conversational artificial intelligence (AI) is
the future of the contact center with 80% saying these capabilities
will be a must have in the near future, and 41% agreeing that if
companies don’t adopt these capabilities they will fall behind.
Further findings highlight how they are thinking about applying
conversational AI through automation.
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Key findings from over 300 IT and contact center business
leaders surveyed include:
- Investing in Contact Center automation is a top
priority: 99% of organizations plan to dedicate more spending
on contact center operations over the next year, with much of that
investment going towards adopting or increasing automation.
Interestingly, in the United States, respondents were more likely
to consider automation extremely important (27%), versus their UK
(8%) and Canadian counterparts (16%).
- Conversational AI for the win: the expectations and the
stakes for conversational AI are high, with 87% of respondents
believing that conversational AI/chatbots increase productivity,
76% that conversational AI/chatbot capabilities are revolutionizing
business communications, and 72% believe these capabilities will
increase company profitability and revenue and lower company
risks.
- Automation improves CX: contact center and IT leaders
are turning to AI and automation to assist with key challenges such
as increasing support volume, staffing challenges, and the need to
be more cost-efficient. In fact, 52% of organizations say they have
already invested in conversational AI for the contact center. Of
those already using the capabilities, 92% report it has resolved
customer issues faster and reduced effort for agents (87%) and the
overall cost of contact center operations (53%). Respondents in the
UK are taking it a step further, with 94% rating voice chatbots as
a top two priority for AI-based capabilities for contact center and
customer support operations, compared to 68% in the US.
- Conversational AI complements the human touch, it doesn’t
replace it: organizations currently using conversational AI in
the contact center are doing so to improve customer service
capabilities (62%), streamline internal workflows (42%), improve
customer satisfaction (36%), and reduce customer wait times. Only
6% of adopters are actually using it as a means to reduce employee
and agent headcount.
- Trust is still an issue for Generative AI: even though
almost one third of organizations reported that they are currently
using generative AI in the contact center, with an even greater
number experimenting with it, 8x8’s research shows that
organizations still struggle with fully trusting generative AI at
this stage. 64% of respondents said they would very much or
completely trust generative AI to answer customer questions, but
from there, percentages dropped significantly, with just 24%
putting their full trust in the technology to directly engage with
customers and 23% trusting generative AI to guide their contact
center agents.
Supporting these findings, Metrigy’s Customer Experience
Optimization: 2023-24 report found that 51% of CX leaders say Al
investment in customer engagement is a high priority. The research
also shows successful companies using Al for customer engagement
increase revenue by 38% and agent efficiency by 36%, improve
customer ratings by 46%, and decrease operational costs by 6%.
“At 8x8, we understand how the contact center industry can shift
and change—especially as new technologies are introduced, tested,
and standardized—and we are proud to always be at the forefront of
that changing technology landscape,” said Hunter Middleton, Chief
Product Officer at 8x8, Inc. “As we can see from the findings of
the ‘State of Conversational AI in the Contact Center’ report, it’s
important to understand the needs and requirements of
organizations, including how they actually use the different
technologies available to them. We are committed to working closely
with our customers to deliver AI-driven tools and resources, such
as 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant, to help drive their digital
transformation and business success initiatives.”
For the report, 8x8 surveyed more than 300 business leaders in
Contact Center, Customer Support, Customer Experience, Customer
Care, Customer Success, IT, IT Help Desk, IT/Vendor Procurement,
and Operations. The survey was administered in the United States,
the United Kingdom, and Canada between May and June 2023, through
Hanover Research. Survey respondents included employees from
organizations with more than 250 employees and included managers
and above.
View the 8x8 2023 State of Conversational AI in the Contact
Center Report.
8x8 delivers the 8x8 XCaaS (Experience Communications as a
Service™) integrated cloud contact center and unified
communications platform, which includes cloud contact center,
business phone, video meetings, team chat, and SMS capabilities.
8x8 XCaaS is a resilient, secure, and compliant platform, offering
the highest levels of reliability with a financially backed,
platform-wide 99.999 percent uptime SLA across an integrated cloud
UCaaS and CCaaS solution.
About 8x8 Inc.
8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT) is transforming the future of business
communications as a leading software as a service provider of 8x8
XCaaS™ (Experience Communications as a Service™), an integrated
contact center, voice communications, video, chat, and SMS solution
built on one global cloud communications platform. 8x8 uniquely
eliminates the silos between unified communications as a service
(UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS) to power the
communications requirements of all employees globally as they work
together to deliver differentiated customer experiences. For
additional information, visit www.8x8.com, or follow 8x8 on
LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
8x8®, 8x8 XCaaS™, Experience Communications as a Service™,
Experience Communications Platform™ are trademarks of 8x8, Inc.
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Media: PR@8x8.com
Investor Relations: Investor.relations@8x8.com
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