COVID-19 INTELLIGENT SERVICE AUTOMATION REPORT

 

Adoption of automated self-service was well on its way at the start of 2020, with Conversational AI at the forefront of the digital discussion. Now that an unprecedented global pandemic has struck, adoption is accelerating causing the future of service automation to arrive sooner than expected.

To learn more, we commissioned an independent research firm to survey 500 US IT decision makers across eight industries to find out how IT leaders are using automation to remain agile.

 
 
 
 

Before the Pandemic

Before the pandemic, businesses were already adopting AI-powered service automation as a cornerstone of their digital transformation strategies. Gartner estimated that 25% of customer service and support operations would integrate virtual custom assistant or chatbot technology by 2020. Our survey showed similar results with organizations across eight industries already automating critical service tasks.

 
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I.T. leaders reported progress in automating key tasks but g

overnmental organizations

had the highest number of respondents with no automation strategy.

 
 

When the pandemic struck, organizations faced surges in service requests from customers looking for vital information.

Call centers were swamped, as anxious consumers looked for answers about the virus, attempted to change travel plans or access other vital services. This situation caused long wait times and dropped connections – preventing callers from getting help when they needed it most.

At the same time, call centers were short-staffed as agents called in sick or were transitioned to remote work.

Facing a need to respond quickly, many I.T. leaders increased their use of automated service channels.

 

During the Pandemic

 

 
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Organizations across all sectors acknowledged that intelligent service automation was helping them weather the crisis.

 

The New Normal

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As organizations try to get back to business in a world that is looking for a new normal, IT leaders are planning to accelerate their use of intelligent service automation. I.T. leaders in every industry surveyed said they planned to increase the use of automation to support customers as well as their own employees.

 

 
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The majority of respondents plan to increase their use of intelligent self-service automation.

More than a third (34%) will invest in voice-based Intelligent Virtual Agents for customer service.

Not surprisingly, businesses that offer services to consumers who are stuck at home planned to increase self-service automation the most. In second place were healthcare and banking.

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Home Entertainment

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Home Delivery

 
 

We asked what was preventing them from deploying more automated services. The answer was….too much time to develop and deploy, too much cost and too much reliance on development teams or outsourced PS organizations.

 

 

Barriers to Adoption

 
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75% of IT decision makers agree that tools that allow them to build and manage their own applications are important to their automation strategies.

 

To learn how you can deploy self-service applications in a fraction of the time, using fewer developers and at a fraction of the cost, schedule your personal demo today.

To learn more, including a full breakdown of the survey results by industry, download the complete report.