There is an undeniable buzz around generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) these days, and it is fascinating to see some of the innovative applications emerging in this space. While chatbots are everywhere, serving important roles in many scenarios, there is a much broader spectrum of opportunities that generative AI can offer organisations beyond these standard implementations.
I am fortunate to speak to a lot of people on a daily basis about this in my role, so I wanted to share some thoughts in the spirit of helping to inspire you on other opportunities you may not yet have considered.
1. Chatbots
I wanted to push the boundaries a bit in this article and not include chatbots, but on reflection it would be remiss of me to do so as I still see a huge opportunity for them, especially as advancements in tech make it far easier to build and deploy them than a year ago.
The appeal of intelligent chatbots largely lies in their ability to help users search for and find information quickly. Generative AI's ability to efficiently sift through multiple search results to deliver the most relevant information for specific queries offers a massive time saver across many job roles.
One of the bigger opportunities for these are in call centres, and I generally recommend organisations develop a strategic approach to enhance the customer journey, which unfolds in a few key stages:
Enhancing Call Centre Operations
Initially, chatbots are deployed to assist call centre agents. This reduces Average Call Handling Time (AHT) and boosts customer satisfaction. By speeding up finding answers to routine inquiries, agents can focus on more complex issues, enhancing efficiency.
Extending to Web Interfaces
Once the chatbot system proves reliable, organisations can refine their search indexes to prioritise customer-friendly content. This allows the chatbot to be extended to web chat interfaces, enabling customers to self-serve and find answers to common questions easily.
Integrating with Voice Channels
The next logical step is to add voice capabilities, integrating chatbots with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. This integration helps deflect calls, further enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing the costs associated with manual handling.
Further info: There is a great interview with Jennifer Lowry, a Senior Director at Microsoft in charge of their 45,000-agent contact centre. She discusses some of the significant benefits her team have seen by leveraging AI. It is worth a listen. Power Time (Episode 10)
While these advancements in chatbot technology are impressive, they merely scratch the surface of what else generative AI can achieve. Here are four other compelling use cases that I have seen and expect to become more popular over the next 12 months:
2. Streamlining Purchase Order and Invoice Processing
For organisations with shared inboxes, such as accounts@theirdomain.com, AI can automatically review and process incoming email attachments. For instance, it can extract information from a Purchase Order (PO), like customer names and product details, and input it into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems for seamless processing. It can also automate responses, sending a thank-you email to confirm the order is being processed.
Further info: Ignite Breakout Session 176: Automate email, doc, and image processing (scroll to 20 minutes)
3. Intelligent Routing
At a recent Ignite event, McKinsey showcased an AI solution developed on Microsoft's Power Platform. This system parses emails and routes inquiries to the right person, reducing the time to find the appropriate consultant by 90%. Such a solution can be extended to automate replies to customer support inquiries, offering preliminary steps for customers to resolve issues before a consultant intervenes.
Further info: McKinsey - Unlock Autonomous Agent Capabilities with Copilot Studio
4. Customer Feedback Management
Earlier this year, Coles spoke about how they process 40,000 customer feedback messages weekly using generative AI. This innovative approach operates behind the scenes, classifying and enriching datasets without a user interface. Feedback is matched to specific stores, providing store managers with targeted guidance for improvements, enhancing the overall customer experience.
Further info: Coles turns GenAI onto 40,000 customer comments a week
5. Leveraging Images for Occupational Health and Safety
With the multimodal capabilities of GPT-4, combining images with text has become seamless. The Power Platform team demonstrated an intelligent app for lost and found items, where photos of found items are used to create descriptions. These descriptions are matched against a database of reported lost items, facilitating the matchmaking process. This approach can be extended to occupational health and safety, where images help identify potential safety hazards.
Further info: Ignite Breakout Session 176: Automate email, doc, and image processing (scroll to 33 minutes)
Where to Start
Every day, generative AI is reshaping the landscape of business operations, offering potential across a wide array of applications. From enhancing customer interactions and streamlining internal processes to improving safety measures and enriching data, the possibilities are vast.
These five use cases represent just a fraction of what is possible. The common thread is that each one addresses a specific, well-understood business challenge where AI can deliver measurable results, whether that is reducing call handling time, automating manual data entry, or improving workplace safety.
If you are exploring where AI fits within your organisation, the best starting point is identifying the processes where your team spends the most time on repetitive, rules-based work. That is typically where generative AI can make the biggest immediate impact. Our AI Accelerate Workshop is designed to help organisations do exactly this, moving from broad interest in AI to a focused, prioritised set of use cases. You can also explore our project case studies to see how other organisations have applied AI to similar challenges, or learn about our approach to AI skilling to build internal capability alongside implementation.
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