Capgemini - AI-enabled customer interactions more than double since 2018

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone mainstream when it comes to customer interactions, according to a new report from the Capgemini Research Institute. More than half of customers (54%) have daily AI-enabled interactions with organizations – a significant increase from the 21% reported in Capgemini’s 2018 research on the subject. The report, ‘The Art of Customer-Centric Artificial Intelligence: How organizations can unleash the full potential of AI in the customer experience’, reveals the factors that have significantly contributed to AI adoption among customers, including:

·         increasing customer trust in AI;

·         an increase in human-like AI interactions; increasing customer concerns arising from COVID-19;

·         and organizations stepping up their AI deployments

AI capabilities have been evolving, but COVID-19 has accelerated adoption of these tools and made intelligent machines part of our new normal lives, both now and in the future COVID-19 has accelerated customer adoption of non-touch AI-based systems, such as voice assistants and facial recognition – a shot in the arm for AI adoption.

Capgemini Research Institute surveyed customers across twelve countries in April and May 2020: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. It also surveyed 1,060 business leaders from large organizations with at least $1 billion in 2019 annual revenue across a range of sectors and countries. In addition, the Institute also conducted in-depth interviews with industry executives and two virtual focus group discussions with end-customers.  

Key Highlights India as well as Globally

• Over 55% of Indian customers  surveyed are having daily AI-enabled interactions in 2020 compared to 46% in 2018. Globally in 2020 this number stood at 54% compared to 21% in 2018
• 36% of Indian customers prefer AI-only engagements while researching and browsing  and 26% of Indian customer prefer AI Only engagement while making a purchase. Globally  over  41% of customers prefer AI-only engagements while researching and browsing  and 26% of global customer prefer AI Only engagement while making a purchase 
• More than 8 out of 10 Indian customers (about 82% of Indian consumers)  expect to increase touchless interactions during COVID-19 crisis while Over 77% of global consumers expect to increase touchless interactions during COVID-19 crisis
• About 80% of Indian organizations have  stepped up AI deployments and have between 30% to 50% of customer interactions AI enabled comparatively about 80% of global organizations have  stepped up AI deployments in 2020
• Customer satisfaction from AI interactions has dropped across countries including India: 90% of customers in India are not satisfied with the interaction with AI while globally  69% of  customers are dissatisfied.
• The value that Indian customers received from AI interactions were not as per expectations, although higher than the global average – about 47% of Indian customers were marginally satisfied with their interaction with AI compared to 45% of global consumers who in 2020 indicate that AI interactions were not as per expectations