Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to not only increase customer satisfaction and scale operations, but also to boost the confidence and productivity of their call center teams.  

BPO providers who adopted AI early in the game have a competitive advantage over their direct competitors in the same space, because they can now offer more efficient and effective solutions.    

The way BPOs and call centers have embraced AI should not come as a surprise, however, because the sector has always been open to digital transformation and the success that comes with it – especially compared to other verticals. BPOs have always been known as early adopters of a wide range of innovative technologies, tools, and platforms to improve service delivery for clients. 

When talking about embracing AI, Support Services Group (SSG) is no different. Rick Owens, SSG’s Chief Global Technology Officer, said the company is perfectly positioned to focus on advanced technology, including AI, and bring that into a customer care environment. 

SSG Drives Innovation

“We’re uniquely positioned to be a force in the industry, and that’s one of the reasons I was also very excited to join SSG,” said Owens, a 20+ year industry veteran. “With the tremendous things that are going on with Artificial Intelligence and the advancement of customer care capabilities, SSG is looking to invest in that capability.” 

In an increasingly AI-integrated world, it’s no longer cliché to say that companies must adapt or perish, especially BPOs. For his part, Owens believes that there are three main AI-driven technologies that are changing the BPO landscape today. 

Enablement Is Key

First is helping customer service associates rapidly make sense of information and connect them to callers, by allowing them to seamlessly understand the key points of previous conversations. 

“For example, a history of a customer’s interaction with one of our clients and being able to rapidly make sense of that information and providing it to the associate who’s talking to the end customer,” said Owens. “It might be their third time calling one of our clients, and if we have quick access through AI and large language models to that history, we can present it to the associates, so that they can now make this more like a continuing conversation and not start from scratch.”  

AI as a Helper

Said Owens: “Another of these technologies is giving agents something like a copilot, so that when they are talking to a customer, they have some scripting that will guide them on what the transactions have been in the past, what are the clients, the callers’ preferences, and what are the best options in providing a solution from the customer’s portfolio. So copiloting is very key.” 

Automation Broadens QA

“There’s also a lot of automation in the back-office arena where you know we’re able to take advantage of things already: automating coaching, automating quality assurance and analysis,” said Owens. “And instead of listening to … maybe 5% of calls, you can listen to 100%.” 

Owens said compliance improves because AI is running in the background on all interactions. If a compliance step is missed, the system knows that and prompts an outbound call to resolve the matter.  

Speed to proficiency increases because all interactions are scored, and trend analysis reveals areas for crucial coaching opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.  

“Piloting (automated) quality assurance, coaching, training, and recruiting – all of those technology areas are things where SSG is investing in advanced technology to improve our business,” said Owens.   

Faster Training

What Owens is most excited about among SSG’s initiatives in the technological space, however, is rapid training for associates. As its name suggests, this initiative aims to shorten the training time for associates who are trying to get up to speed on how to respond to a specific caller’s inquiry. 

“So what we do is we are able to create mock training rooms that mock calls for the associates to listen to and then respond to, and then we’re able to immediately and automatically give them a grade on how they did and how they could have done it better,” said Owens. 

The learning curve is reduced through the repetition and immediate feedback that AI affords.  “You learn more by participating in a phone call or inquiry,” he said. “But then you know that it’s AI that’s talking to you, and you don’t have to worry about it being a customer.”  

Shaping the Future of BPOs – and SSG in Particular

Owens believes that these new AI technologies are going to change the BPO space. 

“They are already changing the BPO space,” he said.  

“Here at SSG, we’ve actually been slowly improving our technology for several years now with interactive voice response, introducing chats and chat bots, and making knowledge bases available to end users because people don’t really want to call in and waste time talking with someone to get a solution. They usually only do that as a last resort.”  

According to Owens, the move to innovate is all about expediency.  

“We want to quickly respond to what that customer call is referring to and give them a solution to help them along with their journey,” Owens said.