Customers of communications and media service providers have given
their critical judgment on use of artificial intelligence (AI) for
customer care and commerce, and said how they want software robots
or chatbots to serve them in a new study of over 7000 consumers. As
part of the study, a survey of CEOs and other senior decision
makers on AI spending at the world’s biggest communications and
media companies also revealed how plans for a rise of the robots
for frontline customer interactions could be hampered by wrong
investment choices and a lack of human talent. These are part of
the findings from a commissioned study conducted by Forrester
Consulting on behalf of Amdocs in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
A video accompanying this announcement is available
at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/751a100e-04bf-4d12-9efa-ad9b2dfb7a46
Love their speed and convenience but don’t force robots
on us until they’re more human and smarter, say
consumers
Thirty-five percent of consumers interact with virtual agents at
least once a week because it's more convenient (44 percent) and
quicker (41 percent), but 47 percent say this is only because they
had no other option. If offered a choice, 83 percent would prefer
to speak to a human since human agents better understand their
needs (78 percent) and can address multiple questions at once (57
percent). Bots, say consumers, cannot deal with complex requests
(their biggest problem), deliver personalized offers as well as
humans (second biggest problem) or understand human emotions (third
biggest problem).
Consumers also have strong views on how they want bots to look
like and behave. Forty-six percent prefer their bot to look like a
human, as opposed to 20 percent who want to see an avatar. Although
half of consumers don’t care either way, 36 percent prefer them to
be female, rather than male (14 percent). Sounding polite (1),
caring (2) and intelligent (3) are by far the highest in terms of
preferred bot personality traits, followed by funny (4). But,
sounding posh or authoritative tie 12th with only nine percent of
consumers saying they would appreciate this.
Service provider investments not focused on what’s
bothering consumers
Service providers are not investing in the right areas in terms
of their AI investments. Forty-two percent are prioritizing AI
investment in increasing information security and privacy and 39
percent in speed of response. What customers rank as top areas for
improvement such as bots delivering better personalization or more
comprehensive information are lower on service providers’ priority
lists with 23 and 19 percent, respectively, prioritizing these.
Forty percent of service providers are also creating avatar images
for their bots while consumers prefer human-like images. They are
also investing in features that consumers don’t find as desirable,
with nearly a quarter of service providers (24 percent) building
their bots to sound posh and a fifth (21 percent) to sound
authoritative. More striking, while nearly a half (42 percent) of
service providers are building their bots to sound youthful, only
18 percent of consumers want to interact with a bot who sounds
younger than them. The fact that 38 percent of consumers
experiencing problems with today’s bot service don’t complain about
it means the industry is working in the dark.
Inability to grow, not cut, human workforce is the
biggest risk to AI strategies
Almost three-quarters of service provider AI decision makers say
that 85 percent of customer interactions will be with software
robots in five years’ time. And most of these decision makers (65
percent) fear they are lagging behind their competitors in the use
of AI to improve the customer experience. To catch up, almost half
(49 percent) plan to increase their AI budgets by at least six
percent in the next 12 months and 87 percent intend to expand their
AI workforce.
But this expansion might still not be enough. Contrary to the
common perception that tomorrow’s service provider will be run more
by robots than humans, only 19 percent of service providers are
looking at AI to replace human customer service jobs and only 10
percent see AI as the opportunity to replace a large number of
staff. Most decision makers (65 percent) actually see the lack of
human skills to set up and run AI as the number one risk to
delivering on their AI strategies, ahead of technology not being
mature enough (42 percent). The majority (61 percent) are seeking
external support, predominantly from their existing vendors as
opposed to native AI solution providers (79 vs 21 percent).
“Consumers have a good sense of how bots can serve them,
better-developed than perhaps the industry’s. Their level of
frustration with today’s bots is striking; a third even say they
will take their business elsewhere if the poor service continues,”
says Gary Miles, general manager at Amdocs. “The good news is
consumers actually believe that if anyone can get AI right, the
communications and media industry can. And that’s ahead of banks
and retailers. So AI could be a winning gambit for service
providers as long as they sync up their AI investment priorities
with what customers actually want.”
“The research shows, however, that service providers do not
believe they will be able to achieve this on their own,” continues
Miles. “Most are turning to their existing vendors and not to
native AI solution providers, probably in order to ensure AI does
not become another tech silo that is hard to scale and manage. Our
new Smartbot solution with Microsoft announced today is an example
of how Amdocs has enhanced its portfolio with unique skills and
solutions to help our customers grow confidence and capabilities in
this area. It provides service providers with telecom-specific AI
capabilities for offering highly personalized and emotionally-aware
bot interactions, which is something consumers are clearly missing
in today’s bots.”
The research covered consumers and senior service provider
decision makers in 12 countries across the Americas, Europe and
Asia, providing a wealth of market-, gender-, age- and role-based
information. An equal mix of 7,220 female and male consumers
between the ages of 18 to 74 were surveyed, as well as 31 service
provider executives from the world’s top communications and media
service providers, nearly half (45 percent) holding C-level
roles.
Supporting Resources
- For the Forrester Consulting thought leadership paper: “Humans
vs Machines: How to stop your virtual agent from lagging behind”,
please visit here
- Check out research highlights in short video with Amdocs’ Gary
Miles
- Learn more about Amdocs aia, Amdocs’ intelligence platform, and
the new Amdocs Microsoft Smartbot solution
- Keep up with Amdocs news by visiting the company’s website
- Subscribe to Amdocs’ RSS Feed and follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube
About Amdocs
Amdocs is a leading software and services provider to the
world’s most successful communications and media companies. As our
customers reinvent themselves, we enable their digital and network
transformation through innovative solutions, delivery expertise and
intelligent operations. Amdocs and its 25,000 employees serve
customers in over 85 countries. Listed on the NASDAQ Global Select
Market, Amdocs had revenue of $3.7 billion in fiscal 2016. For more
information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.
Amdocs’ Forward-Looking Statement
This press release includes information that constitutes
forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor
provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
including statements about Amdocs’ growth and business results in
future quarters. Although we believe the expectations reflected in
such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable
assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be
obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such
statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future
results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but
are not limited to, the effects of general economic conditions,
Amdocs’ ability to grow in the business markets that it serves,
Amdocs’ ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses,
adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts
that may render the Company's products and services obsolete,
potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop
long-term relationships with our customers, and risks associated
with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may
elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in
the future; however, the Company specifically disclaims any
obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater
length in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the
fiscal year ended September 30, 2016 filed on December 12, 2016 and
our quarterly 6-K form furnished on February 13, May 22 and August
14, 2017.
Media Contacts:
Linda HoriuchiAmdocs Public RelationsTel: +1 (201)
631-6810E-mail: linda.horiuchi@amdocs.com
Lindsay Noonan Hotwire PR for AmdocsTel: +1 646 790 4753E-Mail:
lindsay.noonan@hotwirepr.com or AmdocsUS@hotwirepr.com
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