How AI can make businesses look more caring “YOUR CALL IS important to us,” a recorded voice tells resigned customers as they wait endlessly to speak to a human agent.人工智能如何能让企业看起来更关心它们的客户 “您的来电对我们很重要。”电话那头传来一个预先录制好的声音 AI is starting to help companies improve the quality and consistency of their service in order to persuade customers that they do in fact care about them. 顾客们除了没完没了地等待人工客服接听，别无他法。不过，人工智能已经开始帮助企业提高服务的质量和稳定性，以让客户相信自己是真的关心他们Ocado, a British online grocer, receives around 10,000 e-mails from customers every day and uses AI to detect the prevailing sentiment in them.英国网上杂货店Ocado每天收到约一万封来自客户的电子邮件，它用AI探测这些邮件中的主导情绪 It now replies to the most urgent ones first, and is planning to route complaints to agents with expertise in the relevant field. 它现在会先回复最紧急的问题，并计划把客户投诉发送给具有相关领域专业知识的客服人员“Like other applications of AI, it’s about trying to make humans more efficient, not take them out of the process entirely,” says Paul Clarke, Ocado’s chief technology officer. “和人工智能的其他应用一样，这是为了提高人的效率，而不是把他们整个从业务流程中拿掉。”Ocado的首席技术官保罗·克拉克（Paul Clarke）说Between 2017 and 2021 the share of customer-service interactions worldwide handled entirely by AI will rise fivefold, to 15%, and by 2019 at least 40% of such interactions will involve an element of AI, according to Gartner, a research firm. 据调研公司高德纳估计，2017年至2021年间，全球客服互动中完全由AI处理的比例将增加五倍，达到15%；到2019年，这类互动中的至少40%将用到某种AI元素AI will change customer service as much as the telephone did in its day. Before the phone started to spread in the early 20th century, companies handled customer inquiries by post or by visiting in person. AI给客服部门带来的变化将堪比电话在当年产生的影响。上世纪初电话开始普及之前，企业靠邮政系统或登门拜访来处理客户咨询Phones helped agents to become more productive, and AI will boost productivity even more dramatically, because it can handle large numbers of customer inquiries more quickly than humans can. 电话提高了客服人员的效率，而AI将更大幅地提高他们的生产率，因为它能比人更快地处理大量客户询问This has become more important as communications channels have multiplied to take in e-mail, mobile messaging apps and social media. And consumers have got used to dealing with automated services. 如今交流的渠道更多了——电子邮件、手机聊天应用和社交媒体——这一点就愈发重要。而消费者也已习惯了面对自动化服务Surveys suggest that around 40% of American internet users would rather use digital customer services than speak to someone on the phone. Virtual agents are on the rise. 调查显示，相比与真人通话，约40%的美国互联网用户宁愿使用数字客服。 虚拟客服正在快速发展Some 30% of companies now offer standalone “bots” that can answer questions and solve problems, although their range remains narrower than that of a human. Many of these use some AI. 目前有约30%的公司提供能独立回答和解决问题的“机器人”，尽管它们处理问题的范围一直比人工客服要窄They are trained on logs and transcripts of past customer interactions, and as they are fed more data they become better at solving more complex queries. 其中有许多用到了一些AI技术。企业用客服人员与顾客的互动历史记录来训练这些机器人，随着提供给它们的数据越来越多，它们也越来越能够处理好更复杂的咨询Such bots enable businesses to deal with many more inquiries without hiring extra people. China Merchants Bank, a commercial bank, uses a bot on the popular Chinese app WeChat to handle 1.5m-2m queries every day, a workload equivalent to around 7,000 human staff.这些机器人让企业能够处理的咨询量大增却无需多雇人手。招商银行在流行的中文应用微信上用一个机器人每天处理150万至200万条查询，相当于约7000名员工的工作量 Caesars, the hotel and casino group, offers a virtual concierge, Ivy, at two of its hotels, which answers guests’ queries by text, many of them automatically if the inquiry is simple to answer. 赌场和酒店集团凯撒娱乐（Caesars）在它的两家酒店里提供了通过文本回答客人提问的虚拟礼宾员Ivy，如果问题简单的话它很多就自动回答了This has reduced calls to the human-concierge desk by 30%. AI will also enhance customer-service agents’ knowledge, performance and speed. 这使得客人打给真人服务台的电话减少了30%。 AI也将增强客服人员的知识、表现和速度Some companies are experimenting with “voice-printing” technology which recognises clients’ voices and alerts agents if a caller is impersonating someone else. This will be especially helpful in financial services. 一些公司正在尝试使用“声纹”技术识别客户的声音，在发现来电者假冒他人时发出警报。这对金融服务业尤有助益One Australian bank is experimenting with a standalone smart voice-controlled speaker to listen in on agents’ conversations about loans. 澳大利亚的一家银行正在测试一种独立使用的语音控制智能音箱，让它聆听客服和客户有关贷款的对话If the agent forgets something or makes a mistake, it jumps in. Some companies are also using AI to suggest responses to customer queries which a human agent can approve or adapt before sending. 如果客服忘记了什么或说错了，它就会做出干预。一些公司也在使用AI为客服人员提供回答问题的建议，他们可以选择直接发送这些答案或者微调后再发送Over the past year this has allowed KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, to double the number of text-based customer inquiries it handles to 120,000 a week while increasing the number of agents by only 6%, says Dmitry Aksenov of Digital Genius, a firm that helps automate customer support. 专门帮助企业实现客服自动化的数字天才公司（Digital Genius）的德米特里·阿克塞诺夫（Dmitry Aksenov）表示，过去一年里，荷兰的国家航空公司荷兰皇家航空（KLM）就用这种方法令它每周处理的客户文本咨询量增加了一倍，达到12万人次，与此同时客服人员仅增加了6%A few companies have started offering AI-enabled services that listen to calls to judge agents’ performance and send them suggestions for improvement in real time. 一些企业已开始提供一类由AI支持的服务，它们会聆听客服电话以评判客服人员的表现，并实时向他们发送改进建议One startup, Cogito, whose customers have included insurance firms such as Humana and MetLife, focuses on recognising “compassion fatigue” in agents创业公司Cogito的客户包括哈门那（Humana）和大都会人寿（MetLife）等保险公司，其AI系统的工作重点是识别客服的“同情疲劳”. It takes in details such as how fast agents are talking and what words callers are using to detect emotion and gauge whether the interaction is going well. If there is a problem, it cues agents to act more empathetically. 它会考察客服的语速、顾客的用词等细节来探测情绪，衡量互动是否顺利。一旦察觉问题，它会提示客服表现得更有同情心些A tool like this can help large companies monitor their agents’ performance, but the agents may also welcome the feedback.像这样的工具可以帮助大企业监控其客服人员的表现，但客服人员自身可能也会欢迎这类反馈意见。 Call-centres have a turnover of 30-40% a year, partly because agents have had little help with improving their performance, says Joshua Feast, Cogito’s boss.Cogito的老板乔舒亚·费斯特（Joshua Feast）说，客服中心每年的人员离职率为三到四成，部分原因是客服在改善自身业务方面得不到什么帮助 Marty Lippert, head of technology for MetLife, reckons that in areas like customer service and human resources AI offers a return on investment of around 20%. 大都会人寿的技术主管马蒂·利珀特（Marty Lippert）认为，在客服和人力资源等领域，AI的投资回报率约为20%Most companies buy AI services from outside providers, but firms with technical know-how often prefer to create their own. 大多数公司都从外部供应商那里购买AI服务，但那些拥有技术知识的企业往往更愿意自行创建AI系统For example, a team at Uber, a ride-hailing firm, has built a system using AI to deal with e-mailed queries (there is no telephone option).例如，网约车公司优步的一个团队开发了一个使用AI处理电子邮件查询的系统（这家公司没有电话客服） It sends the agent ranked options for what to do next, which has cut the time it takes to resolve a complaint by around 10%.它会向客服人员发送下一步该做什么的优选项排列，从而将解决一则投诉所需的时间缩短了约10% One hope for AI is that it will free customer-service agents from routine tasks so they can sell customers other services and generate new revenue. AI带来的希望之一是客服人员不用再处理常规问询，因而能腾出时间来向客户推销其他服务，创造新的收入KLM has been able to generate millions of dollars of extra sales since it started using AI because agents now have more time to help customers book upgrades and new flights, says Mr Aksenov of Digital Genius. 数字天才公司的阿克塞诺夫说，自开始使用AI以来，荷航的销售额增加了数百万美元，因为其客服人员现在有更多时间来帮助客户预订升级和新航班But not all customers will appreciate more sales pitches. AI will certainly change the way selling is done. 不过，并非所有顾客都会喜欢更多推销。 AI势必会改变销售方式Many firms are experimenting with developing AI-enhanced recommendation tools, like those used by Amazon and Netflix, to help salespeople with their jobs. 许多企业都在尝试开发由AI增强的推荐工具，比如亚马逊和网飞使用的那些，以帮助销售人员提升业绩Google, Facebook and Amazon have been using AI to target consumers with ads and special offers online for years, with great success.多年来谷歌、Facebook和亚马逊已在使用AI提供针对特定消费者的定向广告和特殊优惠，取得了巨大的成功 Similar practices could spread to other businesses. For example, when sales staff at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, take orders for corporate bonds, they can now see instant suggestions of bonds with similar risk profiles to pitch to their clients. 类似的做法可能会传播到其他企业。例如，投资银行高盛的销售人员现在为客户下公司债券订单时，可以立即看到具有类似风险特征的债券而向客户做出推荐Caesars uses AI to work out customers’ potential daily spending, choose the clients who will receive personal phone calls and in what order, and decide what specific promotions to offer them. 凯撒娱乐用AI估算客人的日常消费水平，选择向哪些客人致电以及以何种顺序致电，并决定向他们提供哪种针对性的促销The company’s boss, Mark Frissora, says that refining marketing to a “message of one” boosts customer loyalty over time.公司老板马克·弗里索拉（Mark Frissora）表示，久而久之，将营销细化为“专人信息”的做法提升了客户的忠诚度 Don’t call us Gartner, a research firm, expects the number of phone-based customer-service agents worldwide to decline by 10% by 2019. 别打电话来 调研公司高德纳预计，到2019年全球电话客服人员将减少10%That would increase the workload of those who are left. But companies need to be careful not to dilute their interactions with customers too much. 这将使得留在岗位上的人的工作量增加。但是，企业需要小心不要过多地稀释了自己与客户的互动The rise of virtual communication has left them with fewer opportunities to establish deep relationships, so customer service will become ever more important. 虚拟沟通的兴起减少了企业与客户建立深厚关系的机会，因此客户服务只会变得愈发重要Clever firms will use AI not just to improve existing services but to engineer new ones. 明智的企业将不仅仅利用AI改进现有服务，还要打造出新服务Metro Group, a German retailer, is testing the use of computer vision at the checkout: the items in a basket are recorded by cameras and the shopper is charged accordingly. 德国零售商麦德龙集团（Metro Group）正在收银台上测试计算机视觉技术：摄像头会记录下顾客篮子中的物品并相应收费Amazon uses similar technology in a convenience store in Seattle. 亚马逊在西雅图的一家便利店里使用了类似的技术Timo Salzsieder, chief information officer of Metro Group, reckons these new unmanned, vision-enhanced checkouts can handle 50 customers per hour, more than double the number for a manned checkout. 麦德龙的首席信息官蒂莫·萨尔兹泽达（Timo Salzsieder）估计，这些全新的视觉增强型无人结账系统每小时可为50名顾客结账，是人工收银员的一倍多。Some insurers, including Ping An of China, use AI to let customers file a claim after a car accident. 包括平安保险在内的一些保险公司利用AI技术来帮助客户在车祸后提出索赔Instead of having to phone the insurance company and fill in lots of forms, customers take photos of the damage to their car and submit them through an app for a quick quote for repairs. 客户不必再打电话给保险公司并填写大量表格，而只需拍摄车辆损坏的照片，通过一款应用提交后迅速获得维修报价Building a tool like this is a technological challenge, but getting in early is a good idea. 创建这样一款工具是一项技术挑战，但尽早利用AI是明智的Services that make customers’ lives easier will generate more customers, who will provide more training data to make the AI systems smarter.能让客户的生活变得更轻松的服务将带来更多客户，而他们又将提供更多的数据来训练AI系统，让它变得更智能化 Ping An gets 15m claims a year and handles 30% of them on its app.平安每年收到1500万个索赔申请，在其应用上处理其中的30% “It takes an enormous amount of cost out of the system and puts customers in control,” says Jonathan Larsen, Ping An’s chief innovation officer. “这节省了大量成本，并让客户自己掌控过程。”公司首席创新官乔纳森·拉森（Jonathan Larsen）表示Such offerings also reinforce firms’ direct relationship with their customers. Conversely, voice-controlled smart speakers, as offered by Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple, could come between the companies and their targets. 这类服务也加强了公司与客户的直接联系。 与之相反，由亚马逊、谷歌、微软和苹果提供的语音控制智能音箱却可能会妨碍企业和其目标客户的关系Some of these speakers host other firms’ apps. For example, UPS has built a tool enabling customers to track their packages through Amazon’s Alexa, which they might previously have done online or by phone.一些音箱安装了其他公司的应用。例如，UPS已经创建了一个工具，让它的客户能通过亚马逊的Alexa来跟踪包裹——他们以前可能要通过网络或电话来做这件事 Companies worry they could be disintermediated, so that the firm that makes the speaker becomes the customer’s primary relationship, says Paul Daugherty of Accenture, a consulting firm, and co-author of a new book, “Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”. 新书《人机融合：人工智能时代的劳动方式》（） 的合著者之一、咨询公司埃森哲的保罗·多尔蒂（Paul Daugherty）说，企业担心自己遭遇“去中介化”，而音箱的制造商将和客户建立起首要关系And, since voice-controlled speakers guide customers to a single answer rather than offering them multiple choices of firms to interact with, those that cannot or do not want to use these speakers may miss out on forming a relationship in the first place. 而且，由于语音控制音箱会给客户提供单一的答案，而不是多个公司的选项，那些不能或不想使用这些音箱的企业可能在一开始就错过了建立关系的机会Much will depend on how quickly voice speakers spread. Currently only about one in six American adults owns one, but that is already more than double the figure a year ago.这在很大程度上要取决于这种音箱的推广速度。目前只有六分之一的美国成年人拥有这种音箱，但相比一年前已经增长了一倍多 And as speech recognition improves further, the appeal of speakers will grow, especially among youngsters.而随着语音识别技术进一步完善，它们的吸引力会越来越大，对年轻人尤为如此。
