This Past Week in Tech

AI and Cross-Functional Data Management: Ambivalence and Ambiguity

This past week highlighted the ambivalence and ambiguity surrounding "AI" and its use in cross-functional data management. On the one hand, Verizon and Amazon are both proclaiming the impacts AI will have for CX (customer experience). On the other, problems with energy usage and with cybersecurity surfaced in the EU, leading to both investments and increased regulatory scrutiny.

Our research into cross-functional data management and AI shows that AI is failing to deliver on CX, as viewed by both customers and the organizations deploying it. Despite the theoretical or hypothetical advantages that AI can deliver to CX as proclaimed by leaders at Verizon and Jeff Bezo, companies are failing to leverage AI appropriately.

Deceptive Statistics

According to our most recent studies conducted two months ago, while 90% of leaders surveyed agree that AI is necessary for competitive advantage in CX, 69% fear that data security and poor bot performance are "highly concerning." Meanwhile consumers themselves overwhelmingly dislike bots. Our recent surveys agree with others on the market that show anywhere from 59-64% of consumers prefer human interactions and the majority are either unsure or certain that bots are worsening their customer experience. This also coincides with the biggest dip in consumer loyalty ever recorded at the beginning of this year. This should be highly concerning to anyone making investments in AI CX advances based on the rosy picture consulting companies and businesses are projecting about AI and CX.

While our research does show a correlation between AI investment and improved profits, it is impossible to distinguish those investments from company growth and size. In other words, is it that the largest companies with the largest budgets in all areas, not just AI, going to show growth not because of AI investments but in spite of them?

We suspect yes--and we believe it is because investments in AI will not solve already existing CX problems. We also see signs that AI is best used in identifying and prioritizing problems and not with replacing human agents; we advise our network members to be careful about the use of the term "AI" as a catch all for highly variable functions and execution. Voice bots, chat bots, and the AI for CX insight identification and analysis, are all highly different categories of AI deployment in CX with variable results.

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