Proving the ROI of AI 

The promise of AI in the realm of customer experience is profound. It’s not an exaggeration to say that AI enables a future where customer support is more streamlined, more cost-efficient, and far more satisfying for customers.  

However, the magic of AI doesn't lie in replacing humans. The real power is in its ability to amplify human capabilities, enhancing customer interactions and making processes smoother. 

Think of AI in CX as a force multiplier, not a replacement. 

AI is there to supercharge agent productivity, streamline ticket management, refine content generation, and automate routine tasks, ensuring that every customer touchpoint delivers maximum value. 

Take Netflix, for example. 

Their AI-powered recommendation system isn't about replacing human curators but about enhancing user experience. It analyzes billions of records to offer personalized movie and series recommendations, which enhances the viewer's experience and the likelihood of continued subscription. It enables personal recommendations at a massive global scale—something that wouldn’t be possible with human curators alone. 

“AI can be likened to hiring a whole team of digital employees at a low budget. It allows you to analyze thousands of data points, pre-answer some parts of inquiries, and efficiently prepare calls for contact center agents.” - Bora Wiemann, CX & Self-Service Optimisation Lead | Product Manager | Conversational AI Evangelist

How to translate this into tangible benefits

Your AI ROI will largely depend on your business challenges. 

It's not just about cost reduction; it's about improving critical metrics, whether that's AHT, FCR, or agent onboarding time. Here’s a sample of the metrics where you might see a strong ROI from implementing AI

Agent productivity enhancements:

• Average Handling Time: AI can help in reducing the time an agent spends on a call, making the process faster for the customer and freeing up agents for other tasks.
• First Contact Resolution: AI-powered tools can provide agents with real-time information, improving the accuracy of their responses and reducing the need for follow-up interactions.
• Agent Training Time: With AI-assisted training modules, and the associated scripting AI can leverage the time to get a new agent up to speed can be significantly reduced.
• Agent Attrition Rate: By easing the burden on agents and making their tasks more straightforward, AI can play a role in reducing agent turnover. 
• Customer Satisfaction: AI can lead to more personalized and efficient interactions, leading to higher CSAT scores.

Ticket reduction:

• Self-Service Share: Track the increase in customer engagement with self-service options, which can reduce support ticket volume and costs.
• Automation Share: Measure the percentage of tasks or processes that AI successfully automates, reducing manual efforts.

Enhancing content creation:

• Email Responses: Automated email responses powered by AI can be more precise and faster, reducing the average handling time for email or chat queries.
• Knowledge Articles Writing: AI can aid in the rapid creation and management of knowledge base articles, driving down the cost per word or hour.
• Multi-language Translation: As previously illustrated, AI-driven translation services can provide translations at a fraction of the cost of human translators. 

Automating processes:

• Contextual Routing/Triaging: AI can help in directing customer queries to the right department or agent, reducing handling time and increasing first contact resolutions.
• Call Transcription: Real-time transcription of calls can reduce handling times and improve record-keeping.
• Data & Reporting Insights: AI analytics can offer agents insights during interactions, refining the process and outcomes.
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ROI calculator for AI in CX 

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Identifying potential AI benefits is one thing, but presenting a compelling ROI case, especially to budget holders, can be challenging. 

Your stakeholders want proof that the investment in AI will be worthwhile. Your goal is to justify the ROI of AI to those who control the budget.

To help you with this process, we've designed ROI calculator templates for each use case explored previously. Dive into the metrics and craft your ROI narrative using our ready-to-use spreadsheet.

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The calculator also includes a crawl-walk-run strategy and impact component, helping you communicate the longer term strategy, timeline, and milestones.

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