Unlocking the potential of AI in business communications

As businesses navigate communication challenges with AI solutions, balancing internal needs and customer demands, strategic deployment is the key to success.

The Indian business landscape is no stranger to the rapid advancements in technology that are reshaping industries and redefining the way organisations operate. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to gain prominence, it is ushering in a new era where AI-driven solutions are no longer confined to the realm of data scientists but are accessible to the broader workforce and consumers. While AI adoption is on the rise, the path to leveraging its full potential can be riddled with complexities.

Challenges facing Indian businesses

Indian businesses, like their global counterparts, are grappling with several key challenges that AI can address effectively. Two of these challenges pertain to internal operations, while the other two are customer-facing.

Indian businesses are seeking ways to efficiently sift through communication data to gain valuable insights into customers, suppliers, and partners.

Conversational data insights: With the rise of remote work and digital channels, a staggering number of business conversations occur daily. This wealth of unstructured conversation data is a goldmine of untapped knowledge. However, the sheer volume of data and its unstructured nature make it challenging to extract actionable insights. Indian businesses are seeking ways to efficiently sift through this data to gain valuable insights into customers, suppliers, and partners.

Empowering sales teams: Sales teams often struggle with managing numerous conversations and disjointed toolsets, resulting in missed opportunities to act on critical customer insights. AI-powered solutions can automate tasks for sales representatives, such as scheduling meetings and updating CRM logs, while providing visibility into sales metrics and improving overall productivity.

Intelligent self-service: Contact centres, the primary customer-facing interaction point, face challenges in providing efficient self-service options. Customers today prefer quick, intelligent assistance without waiting on hold or navigating complex menu options. AI-driven virtual assistants and chatbots have the potential to automate call centre tasks, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce operational costs.

Empowering contact centre agents: Contact centre agents require quick access to resources to assist customers effectively. Assist solutions, powered by AI, provide real-time information and insights to boost agent productivity and improve service levels. AI also helps forecast future agent hiring requirements, thanks to increased efficiency.

Essential considerations when deploying AI

While the benefits of AI are evident, deploying AI solutions requires a strategic approach. Here are some key considerations for Indian businesses.

AI is a tool, not a complete solution: Modern AI is an advanced tool that uses Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing. It is essential to recognise that AI is not a standalone solution and requires ongoing monitoring to ensure it provides accurate information.

Compliance and ethics: As AI adoption grows, new regulations come into play. Indian businesses must stay updated with evolving regulations to maintain compliance, ensuring ethical AI usage and data privacy.

Privacy and data security: Introducing AI can bring new security and privacy risks. Businesses and vendors must implement policies and practices to map and protect sensitive information.

Transparency and ethical AI: Ethical AI begins with transparency. It is vital to establish clear guidelines for AI usage and prioritise vendors that provide transparency on their AI technology.

Consider all costs: The price of an AI platform is not the final cost; other factors like training, hidden costs, and maintenance overhead should be considered.

Avoid vendor lock-in: As AI evolves rapidly, flexibility and choice are critical. Indian businesses should select vendors that support their unique workflows and allow integration with third-party applications.

Assist solutions, powered by AI, provide real-time information and insights to boost agent productivity at the call centre and improve service levels.

The future of AI in Indian business communications

The AI revolution will transform the way Indian businesses operate, communicate, and engage with customers. Navigating this transformation requires a trusted technology partner. As Indian businesses look to embrace the transformative power of AI, expertise, cutting-edge technology, and commitment to ethical AI are at the heart of this approach.

Trust, innovation and a commitment to responsible AI should be the guardrails for how Indian businesses select vendors to work with when it comes to AI solutions. After all, AI-driven insights present new opportunities to drive unprecedented levels of productivity and customer satisfaction.

 By Sathesh Murthy

The author is Managing Director and Engineering Head at RingCentral.

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