MIT Sloan Management Review Article on The Future of Customer Service Is AI-Human Collaboration

Successful AI-powered customer service systems will depend on bots working with humans, not replacing them.

Customer service is traditionally considered a cost center, so many organizations have focused their customer improvement efforts on reducing costs. This proves to be a critical mistake, as everyone is left unhappy. Even as customers are sick of pressing two for reservations and three for service, service reps are sick of answering the same questions over and over.

The latest technology for service is virtual agents: Automated systems, trained on service transcripts, that can use AI to recognize and respond to customer requests whether by phone or chat. Given the history of customer service, you might think the focus here is once again on cutting jobs and saving money. But it’s not.