Published on the 28/10/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
Artificial intelligence is about to percolate deeper into enterprise contact centres, with machines taking over the simpler consumer interactions…
Interactive Intelligence is readying a new version of its cloud based contact centre solution that will leverage artificial intelligence. Dr Don Brown, CEO of Interactive Intelligence recently visited Australia for the company’s user group meeting in Queensland, and said that the company was working on a “virtual agent” which would use a computerised knowledge base to deliver an “intelligent interactive voice response” to a customer inquiry. Brown shared similar insights in a recent interview with iStart.
He said that the solution would be deployed over the next three months on the company’s cloud based contact centre solution called PureCloud.
A further innovation, slated for 2016, is what Brown described as a Virtual Supervisor. A computerised system that scans contact centre interactions for patterns and problems, the solution would be much more efficient than human supervisors, according to Brown.
In August Forrester analyst JP Gownder caused a stir with a report predicting that millions of jobs could be performed by new generation robots in the near future.
Interactive Intelligence’s Don Brown says that the sorts of technology his company is working on will “Eliminate the need for human agents to deal with routine queries,” but he said it opened the opportunity for organisations to use human agents for special roles such as building empathy and relationships and taking more consultative roles.
“Artificial intelligence went through some lean times in the 1990s because the expectations were overblown,” said Brown. But he said that recent advances with neural networks and machine learning had led to a “renaissance” in AI over the last decade.
Already such technologies were being used to intelligently route calls to contact centres to connect the most appropriate agent with a client. The creation of a virtual agent was the next stage in that development.
However to be deployed customers will have to move off their existing Interactive Intelligence platforms and onto the company’s PureCloud solution which is offered out the Amazon Web Service’s Australian cloud for local users. At present no local users have signed up for that service according to regional vice president Brendan Maree, though he says the first local deals are close.
Internationally demand for the company’s cloud services are on the rise. In its half year results announcement the company revealed that total revenues to the end of June were 17 per cent higher than in the similar period a year earlier, and reached $US185.8 million.
Revenues from cloud subscriptions soared 59 per cent to $US43 million.
The company’s also edging closer to profitability with operating loss now $US8.5 million compared to $US16.3 million for the first six months of 2014.
