INTERVIEW
It seems like every day there is a new prediction, piece of research, warning, innovation, or opinion about the subject of the day: Artificial Intelligence. Whether sincere or an attempt to stay relevant, it’s clearly so pervasive that I’m unable to start a feature without mentioning it! “I think we’re just in a natural evolution as opposed to a standout tech,” said Chris Angus, the newly appointed Vice President of Sales in EMEA at 8x8. “We’re not switching from Beta Max to Blu-ray.” Potentially the wisest words I’ve heard on the subject for some time from someone who has witnessed an entire digital transformation within the contact centre. “A Contact Centre fifteen years ago was purely voice, and it was a cost centre. Difficult for organisations to find the budget to invest in because it was just seen as an expense. “Now with the demand for customer experience being one of the main drivers, we’ve seen the multichannel, omnichannel with WhatsApp, SMS, email, chat, and bots to a degree. “Machine learning was really the first part of AI. Intelligent decision-making and call routing within the contact centre that, from a simple phone number, identify the best person to answer the call. That was the first kind of evolution of AI before we got to where we are today.”
Chris Angus VP of Sales EMEA
8x8.com
Merging Experience Where we are today seems to be one of the most agile sectors in the technology market. While the CEOs of other businesses are enamoured of the potential of artificial intelligence and the exhausted CTOs try to grasp how they are going to fulfil their wishes, the contact centre has already embraced artificial intelligence to the extent that a lot of us no longer mind speaking to a robot. Largely past the challenge of Artificial Intelligence, the contact centre is now extending its reach into the service customers receive, even when there isn’t a problem. A challenge that 8x8 is mitigating by providing solutions based on outcomes rather than what the customer think they want. “The customer experience market is converging,” said Angus. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen more of the traditional CRM vendors in the same opportunities that we would have been for as a UC and CC provider. “Ultimately, the way businesses are run today is via a platform. As a customer experience platform, it allows us to completely delineate between UC, CC, CPaaS, AI, and approach things from an outcomes perspective.”
Now with the demand for customer experience being one of the main drivers, we've seen the multichannel, omnichannel with WhatsApp, SMS, email, chat, and bots to a degree.
CONTINUED
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ucadvanced.com
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