The majority of businesses (70%) across the UK acknowledge that failing to get on-board with artificial intelligence (AI) now will cost their organisation for the next decade. In fact, just 17% of UK businesses have a fully implemented AI strategy. That’s according to a survey of business leaders in the UK conducted by Vanson Bourne and sponsored by Avaya.

Because of this worry around being left behind on AI, over half of UK organizations (55%) want to adopt more solutions integrating AI-based technologies, but are unable to achieve their aspiration due to knowledge gaps.

These knowledge gaps can partly be attributed to over a quarter (27%) feeling that they don’t understand AI because of inaccurate reporting on its capabilities. A fifth (20%) of respondents also claim that the over-reporting of AI scare stories is also leading to a lack of understanding.

Even those organisations that have successfully navigated this potential stumbling block are held back by resource constraints; 35% of UK organisations lack the in-house skills to facilitate adoption. Given these challenges, it isn’t surprising that nine out of 10 UK businesses concede that their organisation has work to do if it is to get the most out of AI.

Gregg Widdowson, Customer Engagement Solutions Leader at Avaya UK and Ireland, said: “Many of our customers across the UK and Ireland come to us to discuss how they can deploy AI intelligently, and today’s research highlights the challenges UK businesses are facing. They are stood at a cliff edge looking down into the water wondering if they will sink or swim with AI.”

“Not jumping in at all may be the most costly decision that they can make, but the decision needs to made very carefully. We often advise customers not to employ AI for AI’s sake. It can be tempting to see it as a means to simply save money over and above the more strategic ways in which AI can provide best-in-class business processes and customer experiences.”

With customer experience more important than ever before, Widdowson suggests focusing on those applications of AI that can have a measurable positive impact on the customer journey as the best place to start. This means integrating AI into the contact centre.

UK businesses agree on this point; 91% of UK respondents said that effective AI can transform the performance of their contact centre. Indeed, 45% are at least half-way through their strategy for rolling out AI in the contact centre, with 96% using AI to some degree.

“AI can be so much more than chatbots,” continued Widdowson. “It can also be used to employ guided help, by handing off interactions to the best equipped human agent by matching the agent to the customer based upon to behavioural pairing or sales data. Whatever the use case, the best lesson organisations can learn with AI is to make their initial excursion a very narrow one. By keeping the purpose of AI very clearly defined, the route to success will be quicker and more attainable.”

About the Research:

AI: The De Facto for Contact Center Experience is a new research report conducted by Vanson Bourne and sponsored by Avaya, that looks at AI in the contact centre, including the current status of implementation, practical implications and the benefits and challenges of AI. The global survey interviewed IT and business decision makers in Spring 2019. 200 of the total 2,800 respondents were from the UK.

The full report is available now. For additional information regarding Avaya’s capabilities and assets, please visit www.avaya.com/ai-research.

About Avaya

Businesses are built on the experiences they provide, and every day millions of those experiences are built by Avaya (NYSE: AVYA). For over one hundred years, we’ve enabled organizations around the globe to win – by creating intelligent communications experiences for customers and employees. Avaya builds open, converged and innovative solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration – in the cloud, on-premise or a hybrid of both. To grow your business, we’re committed to innovation, partnership, and a relentless focus on what’s next. We’re the technology company you trust to help you deliver Experiences that Matter. Visit us at www.avaya.com