Questão 1942508

What Impact Will AI Have on Customer Service?

1. There’s no doubt that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of customer service. AI has
2. shown up everywhere in recent months, even taking fast food orders in drive-thrus. And with it
3. come many ethical gray areas and calls to slow down the speed of its development. One of the
4. biggest opportunities and fastest adoption rates is in customer service. But AI's growth in
5. customer service brings a big question: Will AI replace human customer service jobs?
6. Although Goldman Sachs says AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs,
7. most experts agree that customer service jobs will be augmented and automated but not
8. replaced. By automating mundane tasks, AI could provide a better experience for customers with
9. more self-service options and help fix some of the industry's biggest problems, especially
10. employee burnout and inefficiency. Working in customer service is notoriously stressful — it was
11. named one of the world's top 10 most stressful jobs — and companies see turnover rates of up
12. to 45% of agents every year. That has led to a massive talent shortage and is costly for companies
13. to continually recruit and train new employees — all of which affects the customer and employee
14. experience.
15. AI won’t replace human customer service jobs in the short term simply because there are so
16. many open jobs. With limited budgets and talent shortages, contact centers are looking to do
17. more with less and make the most of their limited workforce. AI is the best tool for both of those
18. issues. AI will automate repetitive tasks: Most customer service requests are fairly mundane or
19. repetitive, such as tracking an order, checking a balance, or resetting a password. Modern
20. customers increasingly want fast, convenient service. Leveraging AI to provide frictionless self-
21. service through bots and other channels is a win for customers and agents: it provides faster,
22. more efficient service while also removing much of the repetitiveness for agents.
23. Leading HBR researchers put it this way: “Despite the media narrative to the contrary,
24. generative AI will not wipe out entire categories of jobs, such as those in customer service.
25. Automation is ideally about unlocking human potential to do tasks differently and do different,
26. higher-value tasks.” In other words, AI allows humans to focus on the human side of customer
27. service. With many repetitive tasks removed, customer service agents can focus on more creative
28. and fulfilling jobs, such as providing personalized service, working through complicated issues,
29. and building relationships.
30. That same research from HBR found that companies that strategically apply AI to customer
31. service create a new set of human tasks, many of which are of higher value than traditional
32. customer service responsibilities, including the following: Pursuing continual improvement;
33. Making sure the system aligns with the customer; Testing and evaluating avatars for customer
34. interactions; Monitoring data privacy and minimizing data bias; Assuring ethical machine
35. behavior. When companies redesign customer service jobs with these new tasks in mind, they
36. can create a more engaging work environment and attract and retain great talent more easily.
37. As much as customers want speed and efficiency, they also want someone who understands
38. them, and that can’t always come from AI. Customer service agents provide a critical human
39. element: empathy. By providing the best of both worlds: speed and human empathy, AI can
40. create more satisfied customers and more engaged employees. Developing consistent,
41. convenient, and personalized experiences at scale has never been more important. 47% of Gen
42. Z will walk away from a brand after a single bad customer service experience, so every interaction
43. matters. AI helps brands provide reliable experiences for every type of interaction. That isn’t to
44. say AI has reached its full potential yet. There are still countless issues and regulations to address
45. with its use, plus building systems that seamlessly move customers from AI to humans. Still, the
46. foundation has been set to revolutionize customer service and create an excellent experience for
47. customers and agents.

(Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2023/08/16/what-impact-will-ai-have-on-customer-service/ - text especially adapted for this test).

*Bot: a computer program that works automatically, especially one that searches for and finds information on the internet. (www.dictionary.cambridge.org 09/09/23).

All excerpts from the text listed below have an -ing structure. Mark the INCORRECT justification for its use.