Personal AI is getting ready to swamp your contact center with more calls and chats than you could possibly handle. Here’s how, and why, and what you can do about it.
Last week OpenAI launched a new model: GPT4o. It’s better, 2x faster and 2x cheaper than their previous best model. This continues the ‘better, faster, cheaper’ trend that we’ve been seeing. On average, the cost to use OpenAI models is dropping 90% per year.
OpenAI immediately made its new model available to users of the ChatGPT app and website, for free.
The best AI. For everyone. For free.
They also showed some impressive demos of the ‘always on’ multimodal capabilities of the model.
You can literally speak to it, and it’ll speak right back.
Whereas previous voice bots had to transcribe speech into text, process the text to get a response, and generate speech from that text. GPT4o consumes speech (and video, and text, simultaneously) and generates speech (and text, and images, simultaneously)
OpenAI claim the time between the end of a customer’s speech input, and the model’s response is around a third of a second. That’s about the same as natural human speech.
Gen AI voicebots used to be at the edge of what’s possible. Once GPT4o is rolled out fully, they’ll become mainstream.
So everybody now has access to the best Generative AI models, and we’re going to be able to speak with them in much the same way we do friends, family, and customer service agents.
And rumor has it that OpenAI’s tech could be making its way into Apple products… maybe even Siri?
So their best model is available free to all. Their best model will be accessible via a fast, easy, voice interaction. And their best model could enjoy a deep integration into Apple’s devices.
Free. Easy. Ubiquitous.
These are the green shoots of a Personal AI revolution.
Everyone is going to have AI. That’s easy to access. All the time.
Which is what makes one of the OpenAI demos particularly interesting. It’s named “Customer service proof of concept”, and in it the user asks ChatGPT to contact his cellphone provider about a new iPhone that didn’t work. We then see the user’s GPT4o contacting a pretend cellphone provider called Acme Telco, where another GPT4o plays the part of a customer services advisor.
Personal AI, calling Customer Services AI.
Now, think about this for a second.
Customers don’t call because they want to. They call because they have to.
And often, it’s just too much of a hassle. So they don’t. They don’t complain. They don’t ask for a refund. They don’t return an item. They only buy one item because they can’t be bothered to return the extra one.
There are so many reasons why we don’t call. But what if calling was easy? What if sitting in a queue was painless?
What if your consumers had personal AI to make the call, and sit in a queue?
When contact is painless, you’ll get more contact. And potentially more customers.
But only if you can handle the increasing volume of contact.
Only by becoming an AI-first contact center can you achieve the scalability and cost structures required to handle the tsunami of contact, and opportunity, that Personal AI promises.
The contact tsunami is coming. Better get started then!
Kerry
PS: You are building with genAI right now, aren’t you? If not, what’s stopping you? Check out our latest blog on gen-AI blockers or sign up for a complimentary Strategy Workshop to help you get started.
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About the Author
Kerry Robinson
VP of AI Strategy
Waterfield Tech
An Oxford physicist with a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence, Kerry is a technologist, scientist, and lover of data with over 20 years of experience in conversational AI. He combines business, customer experience, and technical expertise to deliver IVR, voice, and chatbot strategy and keep Waterfield Tech buzzing.
