How To Deploy Gen-AI Without Disrupting Customer Trust And Loyalty

In the tech ecosystem, generative AI (GenAI) has become a game changer in customer service and support. A Bloomberg Intelligence report estimates that the GenAI market will hit $1.3 trillion by 2032, up from $40 billion in 2022. However, while many companies remain bullish about deploying AI customer support, most still underestimate the requirements for deployment, according to an MIT Technology Review Insights global study.

How to Implement AI Without Destroying Customer Trust

Successfully deploying Gen-AI without disrupting customer trust and loyalty requires a systemic approach. This article will present a three-step roadmap for organizations while traversing this transformative journey.

Step 1. Build an AI-ready organization

The first step to successfully deploy AI customer support software into your CS is to adopt a data-centered mindset. By this, we mean combining data strategy, setting up the necessary data governance mechanisms and initial infrastructure, and implementing organization-wide data literacy programs. 

An effective data strategy will spearhead all the decision-making regarding technology selection and assessment of use cases. Some of the questions leaders must ask include:

• What functions could Gen-AI assist with?
• How will AI improve our services or operations?

By answering these questions, leaders will be better placed to translate strategy into actionable roadmap. 

Step 2. Out with the old in with the new

Once you’ve established a data strategy, the next step is to clean the knowledge base and customer data. Michael Boz, senior VP of innovation strategy at Salesforce, says that when businesses incorporate Gen-AI into poor customer self-service, they are only worsening the situation, albeit on a grander scale and with more severe repercussions than before. 

Imagine an AI customer service software that always provides incorrect information due to a flawed underlying knowledge base. It will only become more proficient with Gen-AI. The only difference is that it will now be more confident disseminating false information, not because it is merely hallucinating. 

Ed Thompson, senior VP of marketing at Salesforce, sees another route to implementing Gen-AI. According to Ed, old or unreliable knowledge base data is better off being scrapped altogether and the knowledge base filled with new content from scratch. 

He further says that more than 40% of businesses begin from scratch knowledge acquisition from customer chats, emails, calls, etc. These businesses experience faster and more accurate creation of knowledge sources and a dramatically reduced risk of delusions.

Step 3. Getting it right for the customer

The secret to effectively adopting Gen-AI customer support bot lies in taking decisive action rather than getting paralyzed in a cycle of overanalyzing. You can start by identifying a specific use case and moving forward decisively. 

Then, you can form cross-functional teams and employ a culture of experimentation and learning to reap the full benefits of GenAI. Leaders don’t lie around waiting for a solution - no! They identify a specific opportunity to benefit their customers and build around it. 

Conclusion

Successfully deploying Gen-AI without disrupting customer trust requires strategic planning. It involves redefining your legacy systems and optimizing how you collect, analyze, and apply data to make faster, more informed decisions that add value to your customers. The key is to prepare your organization for the rollout, from forming teams to deploying the technology and customer engagement.