Last week, Ping Wu, Cresta VP of Product & Engineering, joined McKinsey for a webinar on generative AI and its tremendous potential to unlock value in customer service operations. Joined by other leaders from GainSight, Pypestream, and SparkBeyond, Ping offered his insights on the true impact that generative AI is already having on customer-related operations, and what we can realistically expect to see in the near future.
To kick off the webinar, McKinsey leaders set the stage with background on generative AI and some of the most obvious ways that this technology is already helping: However, they also acknowledged that there are concerns and potential pitfalls.
In a poll to the audience on which of the pitfalls they were most concerned about, 25% cited concerns around the maturity of AI, 19% are uncertain about how to combine AI with the human element, and 17% reported both an unclear roadmap of value as well as concerns around existing technology debt.
Acknowledging that there are some very real concerns around implementing this powerful technology was a great way to set the stage for active conversation between the panelists. Before launching into that, though, McKinsey dug into three big ways that generative AI will transform operations across an organization:
Automation
A huge piece of deploying AI technology is the instant productivity that an organization can gain back. Instead of consuming valuable human time, energy, and resources on repetitive tasks, a company can now hand these non-value-add – but incredibly necessary – tasks to technology rather than to their very skilled and capable workers. This will inevitably lead to drastic changes in productivity, allowing employees to do more strategic work in less time and to focus on projects and initiatives that will deliver value.
Augmentation
The idea of technology augmenting the humans using it rather than replacing them is central to Cresta’s beliefs about the power of generative AI and its implications in the contact center. This was particularly reflected during a webinar featuring Cresta co-founders, Zayd Enam and Tim Shi, in a conversation around the ethics of AI and why fears about AI putting people out of work can be overblown and unfounded.
McKinsey argues that implementing generative AI will in fact create superhumans who are perpetually and effortlessly in the loop, from managers and frontline agents, to the customer themselves.
Acceleration
An undeniable impact from generative AI across the enterprise is acceleration. Agents will onboard more rapidly. Managers will have faster understanding of issues and challenges that are facing the organization, and will thus be able to cascade responses and information to their teams more quickly. And of course, innovation will increase; the potential is tremendous.
To learn more from this conversation and the panelists, download and watch McKinsey’s webinar replay now!
