Webex AI delivers real-world benefits that transform customer and employee experiences

On By Aruna Ravichandran6 Min Read

AI that lives up to the hype

Last year, Webex introduced the AI Assistant and purpose-built tools that utilize Generative AI. These enable businesses to deliver next-generation experiences to their customers that take work and collaboration to new heights.

We know that the early adopters of our AI assistant saw both realized and potential improvement and benefits with its transformational audio and visual AI across Webex Contact Center, Cisco collaboration devices, Control Hub, and the Webex app. Now, we’re sharing more in-depth information on these results.  

The findings are clear: AI is not just a potential game-changer for the workplace; its impact is both measurable and substantial. Webex AI adopters are delivering personalized customer experiences, streamlining workflows, and enhancing productivity, all while realizing significant gains in efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Productivity boostsImproved collaborationEnhanced efficiencies Increased customer satisfaction
Up to 8 hours 
of employees’ time saved per week.
80% 
experienced clearer, distraction-free communication. 
81%  
had significantly more effective meetings. 
3X 
faster agent response times using suggested responses. 

Table of Contents

  1. AI bridges the customer experience gap
  2. AI delivers tangible benefits for work and collaboration
  3. AI powers intelligent office experiences
  4. Security and manageability in the era of AI
  5. Conclusion
  6. Methodology

AI bridges the customer experience gap

The customer experience landscape is undergoing a dramatic shift. A recent research report by The Futurum Group revealed that only 25% of customers were very satisfied with their last customer service engagement, and 94% of people have abandoned an interaction due to a poor experience. However, with AI features available at every step of the customer journey, Webex Contact Center customers are surpassing customer expectations and improving agent wellbeing.

Agent effectiveness

AI-powered features in Webex Contact Center help agents solve customer problems faster:

  • 80% will be able to reply to customers more accurately. 
  • 88% say they can get up to speed on customer issues quickly, even after a dropped call.   
  • 93% will be able to get up to speed with customer history and context faster.  
  • 80% experienced clearer, noise- and distraction-free conversations.  
  • 80% cite that burnout detection features lead to more efficient, stress-free conversations with proactive alerts and timely breaks.

Improved customer satisfaction

Webex Contact Center AI features help improve overall customer satisfaction:

  • 60% say customer satisfaction scores will improve. 
  • 1 in 3 anticipate a 10% reduction in call handling times. 
  • 3X or faster agent response times, predicted by 70% of respondents. 
  • 68% say AI-driven wellness alerts will influence agent wellbeing and company loyalty. 

Business benefits

Customer Experience leaders anticipate numerous business benefits: 

Process and efficiency gains

The most important customer experience problems that Webex AI will help solve, according to the survey, are:

  1. Intelligently routing customer inquiries to the most suitable agent in seconds.  
  2. Assisting with handling routine customer inquiries and transactions, freeing up time for more complex tasks. 
  3. Analyzing vast amounts of customer data across different channels in seconds.  
  4. Offering personalized and proactive customer service based on predictive insights.  
  5. Analyzing customer interactions in real time to detect sentiment.
  6. Effectively communicating with customers in their preferred language.

Webex AI is improving the experience of customers and customer-facing personnel for countless organizations. Explore our latest innovations and features available in Webex Contact Center, including: 

AI delivers tangible benefits for work and collaboration

Hybrid work requires unique tools to enable successful collaboration for people working from an office, at home, or anywhere else. The Cisco AI Assistant for Webex plays a key role in bolstering productivity and improving communications.

Organizations leveraging these advanced AI features are witnessing significant improvements in meeting effectiveness and enhanced wellbeing for both remote and hybrid employees.

Employees increased productivity, saving valuable time throughout the day, allowing  them to focus on high-priority tasks:

Beyond time savings, these AI tools facilitated better communications and collaboration among team members:

With Webex AI, there are benefits for every workstyle. For instance, Sebastian Leuser, Solution Architect at Deutsche Telekom, shared his thoughts on his favorite Webex AI feature:

“I have been a long-term fan of Webex AI features such as noise removal and virtual background. However, since I started using messaging summaries, I have found a new favorite. Messaging summaries provide me with a quick overview of the discussions happening within a Webex space, allowing me to focus on the conversations that are important to me. I was amazed by the quality of the summaries from the very beginning.” 

Whether working remotely, in-office, or on the go, Webex AI improves collaboration and enhances the work experience like never before. Explore our latest innovations and features available across the Webex Suite, including:

AI powers intelligent office experiences

As many employees return to the office for at least a few days a week, traditional office setups are proving ill-equipped to support modern hybrid work. The role of the office has evolved from a mandatory place to work to a destination where employees engage in collaboration, ideation, training, and community building. However, with the rise of hybrid work, not everyone will be in the office at the same time, and only 42% of employees believe their office is prepared to support hybrid work.

To create an immersive experience that makes everyone feel like an equal participant, workspaces need collaboration devices equipped with AI-driven audio and video intelligence. Cisco devices, with NVIDIA technology built in, are providing cutting-edge collaboration experiences, effectively bridging the gap between in-office teams and remote colleagues.

AI-powered collaboration devices have proven instrumental in boosting meeting effectiveness:

  • 81% reported significantly more effective meetings.  
  • 80% cited increased productivity, presentation quality, and collaboration abilities. 
  • 71% of remote workers felt a greater sense of inclusion during hybrid meetings. 
  • 86% experienced a significant reduction in fatigue and enhanced focus during meetings involving remote, in-room, or on-the-go participants.

Niklas Mortensen, Managing Direct at Designit, sees the effect of AI-powered devices firsthand: “Collaboration across studios has become much more of a thing. It was not that we didn’t do it before, but now, borders don’t really matter anymore, because we can all collaborate and work remotely, and clients also see this.”

With audio and video intelligence built into each device, Cisco devices can help transform the workplace experience by bringing AI-powered capabilities to every workspace.

Security and manageability in the era of AI

The IT experience

We’re thrilled to witness how Webex customers are utilizing AI Assistant to enhance hybrid work and deliver innovative customer experiences, but what can it do for the teams responsible for evaluating and implementing solutions and troubleshooting issues?

When it comes to IT, there are also substantial time savings: 73% of IT Admins expect to save up to 8 hours a week through AI-powered search. By embedding AI into Control Hub, the single-pane-of-glass management platform, IT can spend less time troubleshooting and problem-solving and focus on the more strategic role of improving the experience for every employee.

Security you can trust

We also know that every organization has concerns when it comes to implementing AI. According to a recent research report by Dimensional Research, the top concern is security.

At Cisco, we recognize the critical importance of AI governance and the responsible implementation of AI technologies. AI Assistant meets industry-leading security standards, ensuring end-to-end, secure AI solutions for our customers. For more details, please visit Cisco’s Trust Portal.

Conclusion

These results demonstrate that AI is not just living up to the hype; it’s transforming the way we work and interact. By seamlessly integrating AI into every interaction, we are enabling organizations to achieve unprecedented levels of productivity, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. Embrace the future of work and customer engagement with Webex AI and experience the tangible improvements it can bring to your organization.

Learn more about Webex AI and stay tuned for more exciting updates at WebexOne 2024!

Methodology

The survey of users in Webex AI and AI Assistant Early Access Programs (EAP) was conducted among 1000+ users from customer organizations and 500+ users from Cisco employees participating in the EAP. The survey was 6-12 minutes in length and was deployed globally between May 1, 2024, and May 21, 2024. The survey was completely anonymous.

Users were asked about their experiences with Webex products, with questions tailored to their usage. For any questions about their experiences related specifically to any one of the Webex products (e.g., Webex Suite, Webex Contact Center and Cisco collaboration devices), respondents were only branched to these questions if they reported using the products.

Markets surveyed include:

Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, USA

About The Author

Aruna Ravichandran
Aruna Ravichandran SVP, Chief Marketing & Customer Officer, Cisco Collaboration Cisco
Aruna Ravichandran is the SVP & CMO for Webex by Cisco.
Learn more

Topics


More like this