What does it mean to be an expert, and how do we define expertise? In a recent podcast episode, “When Work Goes from Fixed to Fluid,” Paul Estes sits down with our CEO Antony Brydon to discuss how AI is transforming the economy, why unique knowledge is fueling the transition from a fixed to fluid workforce and an increase in flexible work schedules, and what all this means for the future of customer care.
According to Antony, experiential knowledge in a given problem area is what makes someone an expert — therefore, making the process of answering a question on that topic more efficient. Efficiency is key for experts because it allows them to respond to a vast number of questions accurately in short amount of time. Directly’s support automation platform helps companies tap into their expert users as a means to improve customer support and the overall customer experience.
Our model uses different types of questions with varying complexities for different types of experts, and experts level up when they get certified and have the ability to answer more sophisticated questions. The experts also train the AI to extract intent within customer support questions so accurate answers are served. Historically, we would’ve needed scores of data scientists to do this. Now, all we need are subject matter experts.
One testament to the quality of experts came in the form of an “AHA moment” at Microsoft. The tech giant was receiving an overwhelming number of inquiries and needed a way to respond efficiently and accurately.
“When we were able to light up a network of domain experts and build the incentives in, those experts were able to take a large swath of those unanswered questions and answer them in a couple minutes,” Antony explained. “At the end of the day, it’s (all about) the customer’s experience. Do they get the answer they want? Are they satisfied with that experience?” By changing the way people work, we can transform the overall customer support experience – it’s our goal to give them an incredible experience, as opposed to the experience they’re used to.
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