EDITOR’S QUESTION
DON SCHUERMAN, CTO AND VICE
PRESIDENT OF PRODUCT STRATEGY
AND MARKETING AT PEGASYSTEMS
Q + A + Q + A + Q + A + Q + A + Q + A + Q + A + Q + A +
As businesses continue to rollout
their Digital Transformation plans
– which have been accelerated by
the Coronavirus pandemic – an inevitable
side-effect has been the explosion of data,
specifically customer data, as consumers
have been forced to shift almost their entire
life online.
But organisations must not let this
valuable information go to waste – it can
be harnessed to help improve customer
interactions. However, because of the
increase in the scale and complexity of
customer data and the need for real time
insights, businesses need AI to step in.
Used wisely, Artificial Intelligence (AI) yields
a deeper understanding of customers across
different contexts and channels. AI can read
signals and sense your customer’s unique
intent – to purchase, to upgrade, to get
support, even to cancel – before they act.
By feeding the technology with real-time
data, AI can serve up unique, relevant
actions – offers, yes, but also conversation
and guidance – automatically, or guide
customer service representatives (CSRs) to
make the right offer at the right time. In
highly regulated industries, AI can also be an
invaluable transparency tool to demonstrate
why you are presenting particular offers
to specific customers and prove that no
unconscious bias is at work.
An additional approach that organisations
can take to handle the influx of customer
data is by introducing process automation.
For example, this type of automation can
digitise forms for employees and automate
their routine processes, meaning customer
service representatives don’t have to spend
as long trawling through information to get
to what they need. Instead, they have more
time to spend interacting with the customers
who need serving most, providing a truly
tailored service.
Lastly, as the volume of data grows,
organisations need to be sure they have the
correct governance in place to guarantee
compliance and keep customer data safe.
For any successful Digital Transformation
journey, governance is an important aspect
to have as it helps organisations to properly
manage data assets and ensure they have
the right customer data processes in place.
“
AS THE VOLUME
OF DATA GROWS,
ORGANISATIONS
NEED TO BE
SURE THEY HAVE
THE CORRECT
GOVERNANCE
IN PLACE TO
GUARANTEE
COMPLIANCE AND
KEEP CUSTOMER
DATA SAFE.
36 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com