Customer experiences edition
Your (quick) confident guide to all the latest updates and announcements…
Thousands of people around the world turned up or tuned in this week for WebexOne, eager to uncover how Cisco plans to help organisations navigate the future with responsible AI and hybrid work . With so many new products and features announced across the entire portfolio, it may be hard to keep track.
That’s why Natilik is here to help with a simple rundown of all the exciting announcements made at this years event (in no more than one sentence for each).
Introducing Webex AI Agent
(The Natilik team is really excited about this one, so summing it up in one sentence just wasn’t possible. Don’t worry, we’ve kept the rest snappy!)
To address rising customer expectations for helpful and immediate assistance, Cisco announced the new Webex AI Agent. This self-service concierge swiftly takes actions and handles customer inquiries with natural dialogue and conversational intelligence to eliminate wait times and provide faster resolutions. Webex AI Agent incorporates the latest in responsible AI and automation into the Webex Customer Experience portfolio. It will transform the experience for customers, eliminating the complexity and frustration they are accustomed to.
According to a new global study conducted by Cisco, there is a link between customer satisfaction and effective self-service tools. Current options are failing to meet their needs. For example, rebooking a flight or replacing a lost credit card typically require live agent support, leading to long queues and hold times, multiple transfers, frustrated customers and agent burnout. Webex AI Agent provides self-service options for scenarios like these, which can result in a 39% improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores according to customer experience leaders.
AI Agent Studio
Webex AI Agent’s new AI Agent Studio empowers business users and IT administrators to quickly train and deploy scalable, user-friendly AI agents, enabling contact centers to deploy voice or digital agents in minutes, customize AI models for customer inquiries, and reduce call volume to let agents focus on high-touch, relationship-driven service.
Availability
Webex AI Agent along with the AI Agent Studio will be generally available in Q1 2025 for cloud customers, with customer trials for on-premise customers in Q2 2025.
Building on Webex Contact Centre AI Momentum
Customer-facing teams often struggle with information overload and growing workloads, leading to longer resolution times and decreased CSAT scores. In fact, customer experience leaders report that 1 out of 3 agents lack the customer context needed to deliver ideal customer experiences. With the Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center, becoming generally available in Q1 2025, busy agents and supervisors benefit from automated guidance at their fingertips to provide expert-level customer support.
Context Summaries
Context summaries enable smooth handoffs from AI to contact center agents by providing all relevant background information, so customers can continue the conversation without repeating themselves.
Suggested Responses
Recommendations appear directly within the contact center platform, providing agents with the information they need right at their fingertips to reduce call times.
Dropped Call Summaries
Interactions are captured and documented up to the point of disconnection, ensuring continuity when the call is resumed.
Improving experiences with Agent Wellness and smart tools for leaders
These AI features allow for proactive actions such as automatic breaks for agents, changes in agent schedules and shifting of which channels agents support to increase or decrease capacity based on need.
AI is also powering analytics to help customer experience leaders operate a smarter, more efficient contact centre.
Topic Analytics
Generally available now, these analytics quickly identify the drivers of incoming calls and customer issues to enable proactive issue resolution.
Automatic CSAT Scoring
Launching in January 2025, this solution uses operational data and transcripts to assess 100% of customer interactions, overcoming low survey response rates and enabling business leaders to proactively address challenges and anticipate future needs for enhanced customer experience.
Looking for more in-depth, but still summarised, insights?
Then register your interest in our on-demand WebexOne webinar, launching soon, by completing the form. That way, you’ll be the first to know when it lands.
