Category: SaaS

Clouds of Change: AI’s Role in Revolutionizing Cloud CX in 2024
“AI is the new electricity. Electricity revolutionised all industries and changed our way of life, and AI is doing the same. It’s reaching into every industry and discipline…”

Andrew Ng, Founder of deeplearning.ai, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera, and Adjunct Professor at Stanford University.

“AI is the most profound technology humanity is working on. More profound than fire, electricity, or anything that we have done in the past.”

Sudar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

2024 will be another good year for the cloud. According to a Gartner report, global spending on public cloud services is forecasted to grow by 20.4% to $678.8 billion. That’s up from $563.6 billion in 2023. 

Coincident with this growth, artificial intelligence will continue to escalate in demand, and it will continue to shape the cloud landscape, most especially in customer experience.

It’s more than cost, time, and efficiency. The cloud is now a catalyst for innovation, agility, and success across diverse industries – much of it spurred by AI.

Consider NICE, a CXaaS company specialising in improving customer experience. NICE has shifted its entire focus to AI-based tools.  Why? Because they see the obvious. AI is here. And at an astonishing rate, it will be even more capable and intelligent. NICE and dozens of other cloud solutions firms are augmenting their product portfolios with AI. Those companies that harness it and provide useful and meaningful solutions for customers will attain remarkable market dominance. 

With NICE, AI has augmented its tools for tasks like social listening, digital CRM analytics, intelligent call routing, understanding caller intent, and analytics in quality monitoring. These AI-driven tools help reduce average handle time, increase first-contact resolution and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

2024 will be a robust year for cloud companies. AI’s impact will continue to influence how companies and their customers interact. It all comes down to improving customer experience.

Companies in the Customer Experience as a Service (CXaaS) space are at the forefront of this AI integration.

These companies employ AI to transform contact centers, enhancing customer interactions through advanced AI tools. 

Integrating AI in these platforms is not just about automating tasks; it’s about creating a more intuitive, responsive, and personalised customer service experience.

The surge in AI-powered virtual assistants has provided a view of the future, revolutionising customer interaction and offering automated yet personalised responses. 

CXaaS companies that have already deployed advanced AI capabilities include:
- Zoom: Known for its video conferencing solutions, Zoom has been integrating AI features to enhance the user experience, which can be applied in contact centre scenarios.
- CallCabinet: known for its complete product offering to capture data, track voice calls, and ensure high security and compliance requirements, it utilises AI algorithms to analyse call data. This can include sentiment analysis, speech analytics, and keyword detection, which help understand customer interactions more deeply and improve the overall customer experience. 
-       Simplify360: Specializes in AI-driven customer support and marketing, using chatbots with Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning for personalized, efficient service across multiple channels.
- NICE: Capabilities include full journey orchestration with advanced analytics, automation, machine learning and predictive algorithms for enhancing customer interactions and operational efficiency
- RingCentral: This platform provides AI-driven insights and analytics for contact centres, helping to improve customer interaction and operational efficiency.
Key developments and trends in AI features. Now till 2029.
1. Emotion detection and sentiment analysis will become highly accurate. AI will be able to detect subtle voice inflections and word choices to determine how customers truly feel with over 90 percent accuracy. This will enable companies to deliver ultra-personalized service and support.  
1. Predictive analytics will anticipate customer needs. By crunching massive datasets, AI will foresee problems and predict optimal solutions for customers, sometimes before the customer is even aware of the issue. This proactive care will wow customers.
1. Chatbots and virtual assistants will handle increasingly complex queries. With advanced natural language processing capabilities, virtual agents will resolve up to 70 percent of customer support tickets with no human involvement required. This will slash costs while also providing 24/7 assistance.
1. Full omnichannel integration will anticipate needs. AI will combine data from all channels (voice, chat, email, etc.) to discern customer intents, emotions, and expectations. It will then direct outreach to the ideal channel for each situation. This contextual care will build strong loyalty. 
1. Hyper-personalization will feel like working with a friend. With full customer insights, CX platforms will enable authentic personalized small talk, thoughtful gestures like discounts, and spot-on anticipatory problem-solving, making customers feel genuinely cared for. This human-like treatment will elicit intense customer loyalty.
By 2029, AI may handle nearly all routine inquiries, freeing humans to focus solely on complex issues. 

 

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

In 2024, the landscape of cloud computing will continue to be reshaped by AI. Not just as a technological trend but as a customer-centric revolution, redefining how businesses interact with and serve their customers. Its ease of access, provided by leading CXaaS providers, will dramatically impact the intelligence of digital interactions.

Unlike the advent of electricity, AI is evolving much faster and becoming more powerful without our intervention. Who knows what the AI-powered customer experience will look like in 10 years? The focus today remains on balancing innovation with security and compliance.

The future looks incredible. AI is here to stay. Stay tuned.
12/26/2023
2024 Outlook in Cloud Communications: AI’s Impact in Three Areas
“It is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”

Charles Darwin, “Origin of the Species”.

As 2024 begins, all of us can take inspiration from Darwin’s observation. In this era of hyper-change, if we skilfully adapt, we have a good chance of thriving – and enjoying the process. After all, collectively, we face the most dramatic and consequential changes in human history (economic uncertainty, AI, war, political upheaval, and climate change). Darwin’s “changing environment” is clocking at a pace like no other. Despite everything, some industries and technologies, like cloud-native business communication platforms (or cloud communications platforms) for instance, steadily continue to adapt and evolve.

AI and ChatGPT appeared all of a sudden, or so it seemed. But in fact, AI has been evolving for decades out of the mass consumers’ spotlight. Then it arrived; a powerful technology like no other. Our first seemingly self-aware companion, offering up answers tirelessly in response to our endless queries. And beyond the hype cycles and buzz about AI, businesses worldwide will continue to focus its impact on three crucial areas of their digital communications deployments. Those are bolstering security, ensuring regulatory compliance, and delivering a seamless customer experience (CX).

These three areas are not just individual goals but intertwined elements that will collectively shape the future of cloud-native communications platforms.

Security: The Unwavering Pillar of Cloud Communications

In the era of rampant cyber threats, security remains a top priority for cloud communications providers and adopters. This coincides with the rise of remote and hybrid work, which have increased security threat levels significantly.

According to a report by Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime damages are projected to cost the world $9.5 trillion annually by 2025, making security risks an existential threat to businesses and organizations. And, with the widespread use of multi-channel communications and its high volume of video, voice, text, and whiteboard communications, digital cloud systems must address its relative challenges.

Cloud communications solutions will continue to incorporate advanced security tools like end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and AI-powered threat detection systems. AI – powered by machine learning (ML) and natural language processing – are becoming a critical part of advancing and improving security, and compliance platforms, according to an article in UC Today.

Below are some of the ways innovative platforms are elevating security:
- Data Encryption: Optimizing encryption methods with AI based on the type of data and its usage patterns, and automating the complex process without manual intervention or performance compromise.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Utilize machine learning to predict potential data breach scenarios by analyzing patterns in data usage and access.
- User Access Controls: Advanced systems can use AI to analyze user behaviour to identify deviations from normal patterns, enhancing security by detecting potential threats or compromised accounts.
The UC Today article also mentions quantum cryptography as a valuable emerging technology, as it introduces the most sophisticated encryption to date, safeguarding data transmissions against advanced threats.

Compliance: Steering Through Regulatory Landscapes

Compliance with regulatory standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and various national privacy laws is a significant challenge for cloud communications providers.

Consider the $1.8 billion (US) fines against Wall Street firms in 2022 for failure to abide by compliance regulations. The trend continued in September 2023 when the U.S. Security Exchange Commission (SEC) fined five broker-dealers $79 million for “failures to maintain and preserve electronic communications in violation of federal laws.”

As these regulations evolve, and they evolve quickly and constantly, cloud communications providers must adapt and even future-proof compliance to avoid penalties and maintain customer trust.

Here’s how cloud communications platforms are enhancing their compliance tools with AI, machine learning and automation:
- Archiving and Record-Keeping: Classify and index records with AI, and using the same system for quick retrieval based on AI assistants.
- Compliance with Regulations: Training AI systems to update to the latest regulatory changes and automatically adjust as needed. Teams can also utilize machine learning for ongoing risk assessments and ensure the compliance standards of data handling.
- Audit Trails: Utilize machine learning to sift through vast amounts of log data to identify patterns, anomalies and other signs of potential issues.
RingCentral, Cisco Webex, Zoom, NICE, Microsoft Teams, CallCabinet and other firms are a few of the many companies that are integrating advanced compliance tools into their platforms.

Seamless CX: The Holy Grail

The quality of customer experience is a measure of how well a company embraces agile processes. One that deftly adapts to unexpected events – such as the pandemic – will thrive. Consider the pandemic. A Deloitte report indicates that with customers in the pandemic lockdown, omnichannel communications suddenly became the de facto method to enhance customer loyalty, even as restrictions have lifted. Customers demanded it. They want brands to deliver a consistent, positive experience at every touchpoint. Technology solutions need to align with customer values and anticipate their needs.

AI tools have already begun to improve CX on cloud communications platforms. For example, with AI, speech analytics assesses emotional intent, leading to more personalized and effective service. Leading technology and analytics vendors that provide AI solutions to help companies improve and transform customer engagement and experience include:
- Salesforce – Salesforce offers Einstein AI capabilities across its platforms.
- Adobe – The Adobe Experience Cloud integrates Adobe Sensei AI engines for capabilities like automated customer journey mapping, and predictive analytics.
- SAP – SAP C/4HANA is SAP’s suite of customer experience solutions leveraging machine learning.
- Microsoft – Microsoft Dynamics 365 AI uncovers customer insights that help sales, marketing and service teams better align with customer needs.
- Verint – Verint offers AI-infused omnichannel customer engagement including areas like journey orchestration, contact centre intelligence, automated quality management and advanced text and speech analytics.
The future looks bright with AI. It can enhance and transform CX by understanding language, analyzing unstructured data like customer feedback, recommending relevant offers or information, and even conducting increasingly natural conversations.

The push for advanced personalization experiences opens up new disciplines in data and lifecycle management. Within a decade, AI bots could be so powerful that they will help guide a customer through even considerably nuanced dilemmas that require unique solutions.

Conclusion: Bit by Bit, Things Get Better. Not in Leaps.

Cloud communications platforms and solutions will continue improving incrementally,  driven by customer demand, technological innovation, and an ever-demanding customer.

As we navigate through 2024, the cloud communications landscape is being reshaped by the collective forces of security, compliance, and seamless CX and enhanced by careful and practical AI innovation.

These are not standalone goals but interdependent objectives that must be pursued together for businesses to thrive in the dynamic cloud communications market. As these technologies evolve, they hold the promise of transforming not just communication strategies but the very fabric of customer and business interactions.
01/11/2024
Generative AI Can Accelerate Learning Curves

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools stands as a transformative catalyst, revolutionizing how employees engage with their work and facilitating accelerated learning curves. But the introduction of AI into the workforce requires a thoughtful and staggered approach to ensure a seamless transition and optimal results. How do these tools actually impact work processes?

A study from National Bureau of Economic Research, USA examined the effects of generative AI-based conversational assistant using data from 5,179 customer support agents. In their findings were a 13.8% increase in issues resolved per hour by customer support agents, including a 35% improvement for low-skilled and novice workers. The same metrics also showed minimal impact on experienced and highly-skilled workers.

Contact Centres Already See Benefits of AI

According to a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, conversational AI tools are providing a crucial boost for contact centre agents, especially less experienced ones.

The study analysed data from a group of 5,179 contact centre agents.

The results are impressive: a 35% increase in issues resolved per hour for novice agents and a nearly 14% jump overall. More experienced agents saw a less pronounced, albeit positive, effect. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction is rising thanks to more positive interactions. It’s a classic win-win.

Accelerating Learning Curves

What’s more intriguing is the journey of the least experienced agents, who, with AI, witnessed the most significant uptick in their resolution rates.

Generative AI catalysed this by emulating the best practices of highly-skilled members, effectively democratising knowledge and expertise when it provides further recommendations to the rest of the team. This evolution wasn’t just beneficial for productivity; it also started a positive feedback loop that could propel continuous improvement.

Improving Overall Sentiments

Yet, an increase in productivity metrics isn’t the sole barometer of success. The true gauge is the human experience, both for the customer and the employee.

Agents on the frontline face a lot of customers express their frustrations. Thanks to AI-fortified recommendations, contact agents are much more likely to double down on more empathetic responses, significantly improving their social awareness. This, in turn, led to happier customers and a reduction in the frequency of escalated calls.

Tread Carefully, But Don’t Wait

The advent of generative AI tools is a significant milestone in workforce management and the professional growth. These tools could eventually offer substantial benefits – they improve productivity, improve the customer experience, and foster a culture of relentless learning and development in the organisation.

Organizations can fully leverage the potential of AI, unlocking new dimensions of employee performance and setting the stage for sustained success in the ever-evolving business landscape.

But AI tools not only lead to quick gains in productivity. Managers must provide ongoing training and support just to keep up with the speed of improvement of the AI systems themselves, to avoid locking themselves out of AI’s potential.

About us

ULAP Networks has assisted Fortune 500 companies with our coverage in over 113 countries, specializing in cloud solutions in complex jurisdictions from APAC, MENA to LATAM.

We’re partnered with leading collaboration vendors, including Zoom, NICE, Simplify360, MS Teams and CallCabinet. Work with their leading AI capabilities to bring the best of global innovation to hard to reach markets.

Reach out to us to see how we can help you with your global requirements at info@ulap.net

11/06/2023
AI: Appearing In An Emerging Market Near You

In Mary Shelley’s 1818 literary masterpiece, “Frankenstein, A Modern Prometheus,” the protagonist, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, creates a sapient creature in his laboratory that crudely resembles a human being. When Frankenstein first sees his living creature, he is horrified. Unable to accept his attempt at creating a misshapen human being, he flees, leaving the intelligent creature to fend on its own.

But unlike Victor Frankenstein, the creators of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT are racing headlong toward more powerful, capable, and useful forms of AI. Rather than a misbegotten creation, they see it as a bona fide, if not logical consequence of evolutionary technology.

According to them, AGI offers the potential to remake nearly every aspect of human endeavour.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, believes that we all need time to reconcile the notion “that we may soon share Earth with a powerful new intelligence, before it remakes everything from work to human relationships. ChatGPT was a way of serving notice.” (Atlantic magazine article, September 2023.)

But this doomsday sentiment isn’t necessarily shared across the board, especially outside the Western hemisphere.

Global Attitudes About AI Vary Considerably

A 2019 study by The Oxford Commission On AI & Good Governance revealed that the perception of AI varies widely from region to region. The survey used data from a sample of 154,195 respondents in 142 countries that analysed basic indicators of public perceptions about the potential harms and opportunities of involving AI in personal affairs and public life.

Internationally, sentiments about technology are ambivalent at best. North Americans and people from Western Europe see the development of AI and robotics as more likely harmful than beneficial, whereas South and East Asia are much more likely to see these developments as beneficial.

View image and read the full study here.

Technology-Enabled Disruptions (TEDs) in Southeast Asia

With their exploding populations, widespread reliance on smartphone apps to fuel business transactions and a burgeoning young demographic of tech-savvy users, emerging markets offer nearly limitless untapped opportunities for growth.

A Bain & Company research report indicates that technology-enabled disruptions (TEDs) like AI are the greatest force of progress in most developing countries. Businesses in these markets are motivated to find ways to “leapfrog” developed economies by jumping straight to the latest innovations.

To Deliver State-of-the-Art AI, You Need State-of-The-Art Connections – And Partnerships

The study suggests that global enterprises that want to integrate their AI solutions will find more acceptance in APAC, the Middle East and Africa compared to the attitudes of people in the Western Hemisphere.

But the map isn’t the terrain. Setting up operations in the complex emerging markets is not as simple as the Western hemisphere. Cultural nuances, language barriers, government regulations and compliance rules create unforeseen hurdles for enterprises accustomed to the familiar landscape of North America and the EU.

When it comes to deploying AI in an emerging market, you need experienced partners who know the terrain.

About us

ULAP Networks has assisted Fortune 500 companies with our coverage in over 113 countries, specializing in cloud solutions in complex jurisdictions from APAC, MENA to LATAM.

We’re partnered with leading collaboration vendors, including Zoom, NICE, Simplify360, MS Teams and CallCabinet. Work with their leading AI capabilities to bring the best of global innovation to hard to reach markets.

Reach out to us to see how we can help you with your global requirements at info@ulap.net

10/30/2023
ULAP Reinvents CX with AI-infused Smart Exchange

Read original article here

ULAP Networks, the carrier-neutral intelligent solutions provider, has partnered with Simplify360, an omnichannel customer experience platform provider. Adding Simplify360’s customer experience tools to its Smart Exchange service for a cost-efficient unified solution.
This is great news to customers who expect flexibility and multiple communication channels in their stack.
Driven by AI, ULAP’s Smart Exchange lets businesses access Simplify360’s automated customer service platform to deliver innovative customer experience from a single interface. Allowing contact centers to schedule, collaborate, and publish across multiple channels to streamline workflows and improve agent productivity.
“We are thrilled about our partnership with ULAP Networks, a leading cloud services provider, to bring our mission of delivering end-to-end connected and engaging customer experiences to businesses worldwide,” says Rohit Gupta, Chief Executive Officer at Simplify360. “This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our journey towards a global level of impact, and we look forward to a successful and transformative partnership.”

“Adding Simplify360 customer experience platform to our ULAP Dynamic Ecosystem is a great match for our customers’ requirements,” says Dominic McDonald, Chief Executive at ULAP Networks. “As businesses evolve and face the challenges of providing great customer experiences across multiple communications channels, it’s logical that ULAP can bundle in Simplify360’s Omnichannel capabilities with our intelligent, cost-effective solutions.”

Visit ULAP for Simplify360 here for more information.

08/31/2023