The implications for artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the contact center are far-ranging, but so are the opportunities. Our recent blog posts have examined several facets here, along with how AI aligns with digital transformation. The analysis continues here by looking at an area that is easily overlooked when considering AI’s impact – AI Reporting.

Reporting provides a critical link between supervisors and agents, especially with work from home and a distributed environment. The increased complexity around real-time customer service with digital channels puts new strains on supervisors to effectively support agents. As such, contact center leaders should pay close attention to how vendors are using AI to make reporting more impactful. This impact really extends to two areas – agent experience (AX) and customer experience (CX).

Impact of AI Reporting on the Agent Experience

Contact center reporting has long gauged agent performance in terms of conventional metrics such as first contact resolution (FCR), agent solve rates (ASR) and average handle time (AHT). While accurate, these metrics are agent-centric, and serve primarily to optimize internal operations and rate the individual performance of agents.

Within those parameters, supervisors could evaluate agents across a standard set of metrics that could easily be measured. In this context, agent experience was defined by their impact on operations, not the customer.

In Gartner’s 2022 Customer Service Trends and Priorities report, 74% of respondents said creating a seamless customer journey across assisted- and self-service channels was “important” or “very important.” With CX at the forefront of strategic business models, contact center reporting needs to evolve to include how agents impact customer satisfaction. Without this information, supervisors cannot drive better AX.

The solution is to incorporate reporting metrics that reflect how agents are actually engaging with customers, as well as where they are really making a difference for CX. This is where AI Reporting plays a key role with real-time CX that is driven by many touchpoints.

Telephony may still be central to CX, but most interactions are now omnichannel, covering voice, email, web chat, SMS, messaging, video, bots, and more. For reporting to be effective for both supervisors and agents, AI is critical with its ability to track interactions across all channels.

Reporting needs to happen both at scale and in real time – across a distributed operation. Traffic volumes will continue to grow, as will the use of digital channels. Without these reporting capabilities, agents will get overwhelmed at some point, so there is a clear impact on AX to consider with AI Reporting.

Impact of AI Reporting on the Customer Experience

As AI enhances reporting to improve AX, CX outcomes stand to improve. A key aspect of improved reporting is ease of management for agents. With AI automating the collection and processing of data, agents don’t have to rely – or wait – on supervisors for guidance in the moment. With AI-based reporting, every agent benefits from rich analytics for every customer interaction. This represents an order-of-magnitude leap for driving AX, regardless of where agents are working from.

Not only will agents have access to performance-based metrics – which alone can improve CX – but the “intelligence” in AI Reporting provides another layer that goes beyond speed of response. Digital transformation has raised the bar on what customers expect for service; not only do they want quick results via digital channels, but also a personalized experience. The 2022 State of CX Report from GetFeedback states that 73% of respondents have increased their efforts in delivering a personalized customer experience.

AI-based analytics can detect patterns in speech and behaviors that anticipate stress, anxiety, hesitancy, confusion, and more. All of these sentiments are triggers that detract from CX, and with real-time reporting capabilities, agents can proactively mitigate difficult situations with personalized responses, and prompt dialog that can reveal new opportunities that customers are not articulating.

Beyond all that, AI-driven reporting can tailor specific responses and prompts for agents that not only improve CX, but streamline processes for similar scenarios that other agents may be having. The driving idea behind this is how AI can aggregate learning across all customer interactions, and use that to provide reporting for each agent that will help optimize customer interactions in the moment. With these capabilities, AI elevates reporting to a real-time, intelligent resource.

As you consider the role of AI in your contact center modernization plans, reporting should not be overlooked. While it may seem to be an after-the-fact consideration, reporting is central to success when moving to the cloud and adopting new technologies like AI. The key is to move towards reporting that drives results and improves both AX and CX.