Cochlear Incorporates AI into Worldwide Contact Centre Functions
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Quick Read
- Cochlear incorporates AI into its Amazon Connect platform to enhance agent and call assessments.
- The firm has standardised its worldwide contact centre operations across 14 nations.
- AI technologies are being employed to automate assessments and optimize workforce management.
- This implementation has resulted in a dramatic rise in call evaluations, escalating from 1,000 to 22,000 monthly.
- Cochlear is investigating the feasibility of AI agents for managing voice calls.
Transforming Contact Centres with AI
The hearing technology pioneer based in Sydney, Cochlear, has initiated a groundbreaking journey by integrating AI features into its Amazon Connect contact centre framework. This tactical initiative aims to automate both agent and call assessments, ensuring they meet defined quality and compliance standards.
Worldwide Standardisation with Amazon Connect
Two and a half years prior, Cochlear restructured its global contact centre services in 14 countries using Amazon Connect. This enabled the company to refine its offerings, which encompass business-to-business and business-to-customer communications, device assistance, orders, insurance, clinical guidance, and sales.
Andy McLaughlin, the director of IT networks and telecommunications, emphasized at the AWS re:Invent conference that the voice channel remains the preferred communication method, vital for both hearing-impaired clients and business associates.
AI-Powered Evaluations and Transcriptions
The integration also introduced call transcription functionalities, which are essential for Cochlear’s continuing AI and automation advancements. This setup is fully aligned with the company’s Salesforce CRM, granting agents rapid access to customer information through screen pops.
With a growing emphasis on Amazon’s extensive AI resources, Cochlear strives to enhance support services while reducing reliance on non-Amazon solutions, thus improving data privacy and operational efficiency.
Improved Agent and Call Evaluations
Initially, Cochlear’s evaluation capacity was constrained, with only a limited number of calls per agent assessed each month. The rollout of AI-driven evaluations has significantly boosted this figure to 22,000 evaluations monthly, indicating a remarkable advancement in performance and compliance supervision.
These evaluations employ both rule-based and generative AI to evaluate compliance and soft skills such as empathy, offering focused insights for agent education and growth.
Optimized Workforce Management
By concentrating on workforce management through forecasting, capacity planning, and scheduling (FCS), Cochlear utilizes two years of historical data within Amazon Connect. This allows for precise call volume projections and efficient agent scheduling, ensuring optimal resource utilization.
The Prospective of AI Agents
In looking forward, Cochlear is contemplating the use of AI agents for managing voice calls. Initial experiments with interactive voice response systems incorporating AI agents have shown potential, although further development is necessary to tackle integration obstacles with current IT systems.
Conclusion
Cochlear’s merger of AI into its global contact centre operations marks a pivotal advancement in boosting service efficiency and agent performance. By harnessing Amazon Connect and its AI capabilities, Cochlear has not only enhanced call evaluations but also laid the groundwork for future breakthroughs in AI-driven customer engagements.