AWS has announced a series of generative AI-oriented upgrades to its contact center and customer service offering, Amazon Connect.
Connect was launched in 2017, promising to offer businesses a simple-to-use, cloud-based contact center that would help them achieve better customer service outcomes at a lower cost.
Unveiled ahead of its re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, AWS introduced an AI-powered segmentation tool for Connect that will help contact center managers leverage generative AI to optimize self-service resolution rates, evaluate agent performance, and maintain data privacy.
The AI customer segmentation tool can scan customer databases to identify and create customer segments according to specific criteria using a natural language interface. These segments can then be used in combination with trigger-based campaigns that are tailored to specific groups of users who might be interested in a particular product or service.
For example, one prompt asked the segment AI assistant to “find my premium customers who started a hotel booking for 3 or more nights within the last hour but did not complete the booking”. The tool will then show roughly how many profile matches there are for that query, and allow the user to create and tailor the segment according to those parameters.
AWS also announced that Amazon Q, Connect’s generative AI customer service assistant unveiled earlier this year now supports end-customer self-service interactions across Interactive Voice Response (IVR), typically used in call centers.
This means Amazon Q in Connect can interact with end-customers, such as helping them complete actions including booking flights, applying for loans, or scheduling doctor appointments.
Amazon Q also now supports customer Q&A use cases, fielding customer queries and asking follow-up questions to provide further assistance.
The tool will also know when to transfer customers to human customer service agents, AWS noted, stating that if a customer requires additional support they will be transitioned to a human agent while preserving the full conversation context.
Amazon Q in Connect features a new customizable guardrail, allowing customers to natively configure safeguards according to their use cases and responsible AI policies.
Contact center administrators will be able to adjust company-specific guardrails in Amazon Q to filter illicit responses, prevent leaking sensitive PII, and mitigate incorrect or erroneous responses as a result of hallucinations.
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Administrators will have the flexibility to configure these guardrails and selectively enforce them to different contact types, AWS added.
AWS also announced native integrations in WhatsApp for Business to enable customers to receive support over WhatsApp in addition to existing Amazon connect channels which include voice, SMS, chat, and Apple Messages for Business.
Major CRM platform Salesforce will also be getting native integrations for Amazon Connect, with companies now able to use a single workflow system for both Amazon Connect and Salesforce channels.
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