The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Where Everyone Wins

For example, with AI, if a call comes into a business, the automated attendant can direct the call to the right person based on previous activities. That means more efficient call processing and a better experience for your customer. In today’s competitive environment that can be the difference between your business thriving, rather than just surviving.

A human touch for today’s challenges

Bot functionality is available today, however, we may not always be aware of it. It’s in our communications systems and it touches us everyday in our online activity. While bots can replace repetitive tasks, they can’t, on their own, provide the intelligence that communications systems require. My team and I, working in partnership with IBM, are at the threshold of what bot and AI integration can mean for technology, solutions, and business models. We believe that combining communications capabilities with a cognitive engine can open a world of possibilities to address today’s real-world challenges. Industries clearly stand to benefit from the opportunities and efficiencies this technology will bring. For example in a smart city solution new cloud-based services can address citizen security, and intelligent communications can provide improved emergency response management for complex situations.

Together, with IBM, we are taking those capabilities to the next level by leveraging the IBM Cloud and IBM Watson to deliver cognitive communications. These capabilities include smart bots, advanced natural language interaction, and facial/video pattern recognition to provide cloud-based services that will improve your customer experience. We believe that together with IBM’s cognitive engine, we can deliver a smarter, more personalized approach to productivity and collaboration, all with a human touch.

Moving forward

We know that digitalization and transformation doesn’t happen overnight, and one size doesn’t fit all. Enterprises come in a variety of shapes and sizes, they can be simple or complex, and with that comes the need for flexibility. That’s where a hybrid solution can come in. Working with your existing infrastructure, until costs have been recuperated, and augmenting your business with consumption-based cloud services presents a low risk, winning solution.

We also know that security remains at top of mind for most enterprises. While bots and AI contribute to improve business processes and customer experiences, it is imperative to ensure that security and privacy are maintained along the way. A robust security strategy ensures user and device profiles are defined at the access level. This guarantees that the right policies, including departmental and applications access, as well as quality of service (QoS) and performance levels, are assigned for users and devices.

As we move into a human-centric era, cognitive communications will be able to adapt to behaviors, expectations, and preferences. Successful implementation will require removing barriers to adoption, and ensuring that everyone in the enterprise is onboard, involved, motivated and trained. Natural language interaction will help ensure workers are quickly understood by new tools. Voice commands will interact with natural language bots to help people with daily needs and issues. Advanced services will revolutionize campus, stadium and healthcare environments, airports and train stations, as well as the hospitality industry. Streamlined processes and improved efficiencies will let enterprises do more with less, respond quicker, and win against the competition.