Understanding the Role of Agentic AI in CX

In a survey of over 600 CX leaders, it was found that agentic AI is driving higher deflection rates, lowering costs and improving customer satisfaction. No wonder agentic AI has become the latest hot topic in the evolution of artificial intelligence. While generative AI refers to a category of AI that ‘generates’ content, such as text, images, audio or video from given input, agentic AI goes much further.

Agentic AI uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to make autonomous decisions and perform complex tasks based on those decisions – all without human oversight. Operating as AI ‘agents’, the technology can be used to personalise interactions and anticipate needs, learning from interactions and adapting actions based on new information, optimising outcomes based on predefined goals.

For these reasons, it is particularly useful in CX applications such as creating personalised responses, solving complex queries and engaging in conversations with customers across multiple touchpoints.

Personalisation – By assimilating and analysing vast amounts of customer data, agentic AI can tailor interactions based on customer data, preferences and behaviours, resulting in highly personalised experiences, whether that’s through recommendations, campaign targeting, or personalised support. This can be enhanced further by integrating the technology with CRM systems.

Proactive omnichannel customer support – By leveraging predictive analytics, agentic AI can anticipate customer needs and issues before they arise. This means it can identify patterns that suggest a customer might face a problem and proactively offer solutions, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing support costs. Furthermore, it can do this across multiple channels, eliminating silos, improving accessibility and maintaining consistency and context.

Automated customer service – While chatbots and virtual assistants already do a lot of work in the contact centre, those powered by agentic AI are much more sophisticated. These can understand language and even sentiment, providing accurate responses, while still escalating more complex issues to human agents when necessary.

Enhanced customer insights – By analysing customer feedback from various channels, including social media, surveys, and reviews, agentic AI helps businesses gain deeper insights into customer sentiment and preferences, which can drive decision-making when it comes developing new products and services and improving existing ones.

Boost revenue and customer satisfaction – In industries like e-commerce and travel, agentic AI can optimise pricing in real-time, based on factors such as demand, competition, and customer behaviour – maximising revenue and customer satisfaction. The technology can also identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling by analysing customer behaviour.

Fraud detection and prevention – Agentic AI can monitor transactions and customer behaviour to detect unusual patterns that may indicate fraud. By acting swiftly and autonomously, these systems help protect both businesses and customers from potential fraud.

All of this means cost-savings through reduction of manual effort in customer services operations, along with shortened cycle times for processes such as onboarding customers. Meanwhile, human agents are freed up to work on higher value strategic work

As agentic AI continues to evolve, its impact on customer experience will grow too. While much of this will be invisible to the customer, the buyer’s journey will be reshaped. Theoretically, a customer could brief a bot on their needs and that bot would then conduct the browsing and research needed before reporting back on the products or services that best meet customer need. This significantly lowers customer effort and will drive loyalty and revenue, as customers choose to value time over price.

Agentic AI is not just another fad; it’s a shift from task-based automation to goal-oriented systems that can dramatically influence how businesses engage with their customers. By harnessing the power of autonomous decision-making and proactive interactions, companies can create more meaningful, efficient, and satisfying customer experiences.

To find out how to put agentic AI to work in your CX operations, talk to DigitalWell.