To overcome a growing skills gap, rising costs and limited resources, two-thirds of customer service operations plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) in their cloud-based Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) applications to help agents better engage customers in the next three to five years, a new global study by Frost & Sullivan indicates.
These findings result from Frost & Sullivan’s 2024 WEM Customer Perspectives global survey, in collaboration with SuccessKPI, of more than 300 contact center operators at commercial and government enterprises. This research gauges market demand for AI-powered WEM technology that impacts the entire customer experience (CX), not only on customer service calls in the contact center but also across all customer experience workforce management motions.
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Only 30% of enterprises believe that WEM features included in CCaaS platforms are best suited for their organizations because, as Frost & Sullivan reported, 70% of organizations have multiple CCaaS platforms in addition to blended operations with on-premise environments and those leveraging contact center outsourcing providers. This illustrates that CCaaS-specific WEM solutions are not the preferred model in the market.
The study indicated two-thirds of enterprises plan to integrate AI-powered WEM applications into their customer service operations. The top reasons for migrating WEM to the cloud are the ability to scale customer interactions, manage costs better and accommodate fluctuating workstyles which can impact workforce training and readiness and require technology that connects remote or hybrid workers.
“Supervisors are the unsung heroes and they need to have the tools to really help agents with training, onboarding, career growth and career pathway,” said Alpa Shah, Vice President of CX at Frost & Sullivan. “In terms of AI, (it) really helps better predict the agent’s needs. AI is really helpful as it is more targeted and more personalized, which also is more humanizing. As an agent, I don’t need to waste time on something I already know, but at the moment, I might need some training on a specific task. Clearly, that’s why many businesses intend to move WEM to the cloud, focused on the supervisor helping their teams perform better.”
Industry Breakdown
From a vertical industry perspective, the Frost & Sullivan survey showed that government and financial services were the least advanced, reflecting the lowest adoption and satisfaction across all solution categories. Financial services had the lowest average adoption/satisfaction score at 59% (lowest in six categories) while government had the lowest score in eight categories, citing modernizing legacy systems as the biggest need for advancement.
Government had the lowest reported use of contact center automation with just 45% reporting automation adoption. Government also lags behind in adopting AI-guided resolution/next best action, using CCaaS for proactive customer support, and advanced WFM in the cloud.
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