Reimagining the Customer Service Experience With Gen AI

Hafner and the BCG team call it “augmenting the front line.” DEEP AI gen AI accelerators can act as a co-pilot to support human agents by instantly retrieving and delivering relevant customer data, pulling scripts and nudges, and even generating real-time responses to unexpected questions. Together, these functionalities drastically reduce average handle time (AHT), the amount of time it takes to resolve a customer inquiry; and increase FTR, or the portion of customer inquiries resolved at the first point of contact.

This has proven transformative for some of BCG’s clients in the financial sector, like banks, where sensitive account holder data can make customers wary of engaging with automated customer service offerings. The success is so evident that those same banking clients have started using the same technology to go after new business. Increased service-to-sales powered by DEEP AI, which nudges the salesperson for any contextually relevant sales opportunities, have helped those clients convert 28 percent more of initial interactions.

Limitless Insights, Limitless Learning, Limitless Improvement

Another gen AI superpower is to derive insights at scale from unstructured data sources, like client conversations. With DEEP AI gen AI accelerators, customer service teams can analyze recordings and transcripts of real customer agent calls and grade effectiveness according to “hundreds of parameters,” Hafner explains: “Responsiveness, process compliance, knowledge of product, implicit customer satisfaction, and so much more.” It can also extract granular customer variables on a call-by-call basis—as many as 200 distinct variables per call, in a recent deployment across a vast domain of vernacular languages in call centers in India.

The end-to-end impact of these capabilities is profound: From extracting insights, augmenting the front line, and automating conversations, BCG clients utilizing DEEP AI are reducing cost-to-serve by 70 percent across customer service functions. And they’ve captured some of this value within just a few months of implementation.

We shouldn’t be surprised that gen AI tools could have such a profound end-to-end impact on the broad category of customer service. The problems to be solved in customer service are a perfect fit for the technology, and consumer expectations around the perfect service interaction are borderline insatiable. One of the most disruptive technologies in years—decades? ever?—was always going to make waves in a space ripe for disruption.

What is surprising is just how fast and effective the sea change could actually be here, and it starts with just how well a transformation is delivered. With DEEP AI’s offerings, these outcomes can be achieved faster and with far less risk. “We don’t sell tech; we capture value,” Maglione says.

That kind of impact allows businesses and customers to dream the same big dream: near-flawless interactions that make both parties on either end happy. Hafner, Maglione, and the BCG and BCG X teams are only on the cusp of DEEP AI’s evolving capabilities—and that excites them. “The future is about perfect interactions at any time, on any channel,” says Maglione, describing how DEEP AI will transform the customer service landscape.

He likens the ideal customer service interaction to the simplicity of ordering a rideshare service: “When you order a car, you don’t feel like you’re paying for the entire infrastructure, app, service, maintenance,” Maglione says. “You feel that you’re just paying to get from point A to point B. Customer service should feel the same.”