The robots and artificial intelligence that have come into our lives through movies and novels since our childhoods are concepts that have rapidly turned into reality rather than science fiction. I don’t want to repeat the information and statistics that you have read in dozens of places, but it is clear that these concepts have taken hold in all aspects of our lives, growing by leaps and bounds.
Though many opinions are reported by scientists and futurists, we don’t yet know the enormous impact and different results that these technologies will have on our lives.
Like the transformation that comes with each stage of evolution, human beings will find that the emerging world of AI and robots will change the way that they think.
We are witnessing artificial intelligence, virtual assistants, software that has automated processes, devices that can talk to each other, and robots that are ready to do much of our work.
At the end of the day, there is actually only one question that makes me really think: what kind of picture awaits us as a result of this digital transformation that will replace 80 percent of human effort and how will that affect the institutions and organizations that expend enormous budgets?
If the digital transformation is truly an industrial revolution, humanity will be forced to transform itself in the face of this revolution.
The most promising view is a life in which 80 percent of labor is carried out by machines; at the end of the day, all of the humanity will witness an even more rapid, dizzying development, focusing on issues that require deeper consideration and higher-power thought and skills.
Here is a sample transformation: One of the biggest bank has 240,000 employees and literally tens of millions of customers. Its technology budget over the last two years is close to one billion US dollars. The heads of the institution believe in digital conversion. At this bank, lawyers and credit officers spent about 360,000 hours annually on issues like evaluating commercial credit agreements. The bank has initiated the artificial intelligence-based Contract Intelligence program and has successfully transferred 360,000 hours from this workforce to machines.
Let’s evaluate the current situation and future influences on the subject, such as Customer Experience (CX), management, which is the key focus area after a general digital transformation.
CX management, which is experiencing a rapid transformation in line with the development of technology and the differentiation of expectations in this direction, has now moved from the point of multichannel independent services to the stage of omnichannel, integrated, and holistic interactions. Now, customers can communicate using different channels at the same level, or they can start communication on one channel and complete it on another.
We will see new additions to these communication channels, either by an increase in feasibility or differences in usage habits. Organizations that include social media and digital communications in their communication channels are continuing to integrate their virtual assistant solutions rapidly into their structures.
Recent research has reported that the smart virtual assistant market alone will be worth US$3.6 billion by 2020.
Artificial intelligence, like neural networks, increases the speed and stability of systems like virtual assistants as machine learning models become faster and more stable. Today, however, an emotional artificial intelligence infrastructure addressing the personal habits of individuals is still not fully established. Therefore, although virtual assistants have provided significant savings in terms of labor and service costs; whether they will be successful in the same way in terms of customer satisfaction will reveal itself in time.
CX is nothing but an emotional connection, which we must never forget. There will be no interaction without empathy.
The voice, which is a face-to-face interaction channel, is still used at the highest levels and is expected to keep its place for many years because human beings prefer natural interaction without the involvement of machines.
In summary, while the digital transformation makes our life easier, the right combination will truly be achieved when we can turn it into a more efficient and productive tool, rather than a reason to be less active.
Haluk Yetkin