As the topics of artificial intelligence and, specifically, conversational automation, are gaining momentum, we decided to address the rising interest and talk about some of the interesting aspects of the conversational automation journey.
Here I have Ewa Karczmarczuk, Sales Director of InteliWISE (now Efecte) and a Conversational Automation expert, who agreed to share with me her thoughts on the current market situation and answer the most common questions and concerns of those who are yet to “jump on a train”. In the run-up to her upcoming webinar, I also asked Ewa to give us a sneak peek into what’s awaiting us on February 28th.
Tatiana Chesniak: Hi Ewa! As we are preparing for a second webinar regarding Conversational Automation and the use of AI and are amid this process, I wanted to give our audience some background about you and your story.
Ewa Karczmarczuk: Hi! Would love to share.
TC: So, why Conversational AI, and how did you become a specialist in this field?
EK: My road to Conversational AI was not a standard one, but I look at it from the perspective of it being unavoidable and a natural progression. I have been always working with companies on optimizing operations and processes. Organizational analysis and change management has always been the center of my interests and strengths. Throughout my career, I had the opportunity to work within different industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale, logistics, and HRM. What dawned on me at a certain point was that no matter the industry, all businesses have to face the bulk of the same challenges. I took part in many projects focused on variable areas of automation as part of my role. It became very apparent that automation is not only needed for simplification, scalability, and standardized quality of processes but will also become an absolute necessity for all businesses to stay competitive. Since then, I was given an opportunity to pursue that path and share that knowledge as part of Efecte and implement very successful solutions for our clients.
TC: It truly sounds like a natural flow of events and an interesting career path, I’m glad it led you to Efecte. Speaking of which, as a specialist in the conversational automation field, could you give us some insights into what you’re planning to talk about and share in the upcoming webinar? This is the second one in the series, so please tell us what we should expect.
EK: Indeed, this is our second one, and I am so pleased to see the whole topic gaining more interest. This time I want to focus a little more on real-life cases, examples, and numbers to show the actual tangible advantages of conversational automation solutions. Things get much more interesting when you can picture them.
TC: Give me an example, where do we start that journey?
EK: I assume talking about global trends would be a good starter. I cannot stress enough how important it is to realize that we are in the midst of a total digital revolution of business processes, and Conversational AI is a huge part of it.
Just quickly in a few numbers, the Conversational AI market size was at 3,87 billion EURO in 2019, 5,29 Billion Euro in 2020,and is expected to grow by 14,6 billion EURO by 2024, 29,86 billion Euro by 2030. All this, taking into consideration increased demand but also constantly dropping costs for Conversational AI implementation, and constant expansion of functionalities. This is the time to ‘jump on that train” and take a window seat!.
TC: It sounds like a journey worth taking. So previously you told us that NLP and AI are what makes conversational automation more valuable, how so?
EK: Well, it’s one thing to be able to access information quickly, but is also as important to make it as effortless as possible. NLP, Natural language Processing, is what brings those interactions as close as possible to a human-to-human conversation…excluding inconsistencies and the possibility of having humanly worse days :). Now the possibilities of AI are immense. To give you an example, a great value of AI in conversational automation is that it allows us as businesses not only to help out with the first contacts and answer the simplest questions but also to perform advanced tasks integrated with other platforms, reach out for information to multiple sources within the company and its systems, and provide comprehensive answers or solutions.
TC: The functionalities are obviously of huge value, will you have some examples for us regarding ROI and cost savings? Optimizing costs, understandably so, is a topic all businesses regardless of the industry are interested in.
EK: Sure is. I will talk about the financial merit of Conversation AI solutions. It’s one of my favorite topics. Let’s see what I can throw at you from the top of my head. I just had a meeting with a client who has a large call center, and they are interested in voice bot solutions. Why is it worth it? The benchmark cost-per-call by a live agent for them is at a level of around €3 (across the industries it ranges between €2.40 – €5.40). Of course, it greatly depends on the type of business you have. An average agent makes 2-5 calls per hour. Now let’s compare it to a Voicebot - the cost per call by Voicebot is a range of €0,50 – €0,65, additionally it makes between 15 – 100 calls per hour. You don’t need a mathematics degree to see an opportunity there.
TC: Wow, that is a substantial difference that’s hard to be ignored! But it makes me wonder about the complexity of the whole process. I imagine it’s not an out-of-the-box solution that you are talking about.
EK: Why not? Some of the solutions are very simple and their value is in the fast scalability. If you have thousands of customers to contact with information, confirmation, or a quick question, automating this process is quick and easy and value is visible immediately. Naturally, there are also very complex projects depending on the needs of the client, but I will leave those examples for the webinar if you don’t mind.
TC: Sure, then from your experience what is the best way to start the Conversational AI journey?
EK: I always recommend starting small and implementing new solutions in sprints. Identify where the need is dearest and start there. A perfect example is our Efecte Chat for Service Management. It optimizes the ticketing process and allows for self-service solutions to problems, eliminating a third party where there is no need for them. A simple tool, scalable value.
TC: That makes sense. You start with simpler solutions so you can see how they work, evaluate their value, and build on that…
EK: Yes, and more than this, gain an understanding of the tools enough to notice the areas in your business that would benefit from this type of automation.
TC: Well, I’m excited to hear about it more.
EK: I’m glad to hear that because I’m always excited to talk about it! :)
There seems to be a reasonable justification as to why conversational automation is considered such a worthy investment nowadays. Low costs, fast scalability, continuous development and extension of use cases, and no less importantly, a perfect way of staying on top of innovation. As the developments in the field are happening expeditiously, now is the time to consider setting off on this journey while the opportunity is still within your reach. Are you ready to leverage the powers of AI in your business? While some of you can already draw the conclusion based on the facts and numbers Ewa has mentioned, others might need more information to make a weighted decision. Feel welcome to watch our on-demand webinar to learn more about the topic!
Tatiana is a Content Marketing Specialist at Efecte. Driven by her passion for marketing, she provides different types of content that reflect Efecte as a European market leader, an innovator in their space, and a bright place to work. Her professional goals include engaging the readers and shaping a strong image of Efecte in people’s minds.
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