The role of AI in employee experience and the future of work

Much has been discussed and written about the benefits of AI in customer experience (CX), especially generative AI and chatbots, but less so about AI in workforce management.

Even though people are warming up to the concept of AI as their assistants and not their replacements, employees in various functions still worry about having their jobs taken away. For instance, nearly half of customer service agents in APAC worry that AI will replace them, according to the latest Zendesk CX Trends Report.

There’s so much more to explore when it comes to the possibilities of AI in the workplace, the best practices and pitfalls, and steps business and technology leaders need to take to prepare and transform their workforce to meet the needs of the future. 

To demystify AI in workforce management, how it can be properly implemented to benefit both business and employees, and the evolution of agent and admin roles, we sought out some insights from Matthias Goehler, General Manager, Workforce Engagement Management (WEM), CTO Office, Zendesk.

Even as customer service evolves to become AI-first, humans will play a vital role in supervising the AI to ensure accurate, ethical and responsible usage. While AI excels in eliminating large amounts of manual, repetitive work, it can never truly replace the human touch. Retaining the essence of human connection remains important, so business leaders keen on leveraging AI in their workforce need to approach it with thoughtful optimism.

AI holds much promise for companies, but leaders need to be thoughtful in its applications within the business. Implemented incorrectly, AI can actually detract from the experience and add friction to a process. That’s where finding the right balance between innovation and the human touch will pay dividends in the long run.

Why is workforce engagement management so important?

MG: The benefits of well-executed workforce engagement management (WEM) are far-reaching, impacting the broader organization beyond just the support team. It helps businesses improve employee engagement and retention.

By creating a culture of continuous feedback, which encourages active learning, WEM solutions help businesses engage employees better. Receiving feedback can also boost morale and motivate employees to take ownership of their performance. With more effective scheduling, leaders can reduce the frequency of understaffed shifts and, consequently, reduce burnout and turnover.

Another key benefit of WEM is its impact on customer experience and support quality. It’s no secret that happy employees make for happy customers. A study by Culture Amp found that engaged employees bring in 43% more revenue for the business. That means investing in employee engagement actually translates to tangible business outcomes.

When it comes to support quality, WEM solutions that come with Quality Assurance (QA) tools can help identify cases needing careful attention, trends in escalations and recurring product issues that result in customer churn. These valuable insights help businesses pinpoint gaps in their customer experience and product offering, and fosters better collaboration across departments. 

Finally, effective WEM enhances team productivity and operational efficiency, thereby reducing labor costs in the long run. WEM solutions give team managers better visibility into where agents are spending their time, how productive they are, and whether they adhere to schedules. These insights allow them to make adjustments in real-time to improve efficiency.

By leveraging workforce forecasting data, managers can better identify staffing needs, evenly distribute workloads and avoid over- and understaffed shifts. When these are managed effectively and consistently, WEM helps to lower labor costs and resource waste.

Leaders who recognize the need for strategic workforce management – 88% of them in APAC according to our CX Trends Report – are collaborating with external partners to facilitate this, and they’re seeing results. 75% of those who already use more strategic tools report a positive ROI. When businesses pay attention to WEM, they are better able to balance employee engagement, performance and development, which ultimately strengthens customer relationships and improves business outcomes.

Where do you see AI playing the biggest role in managing the workforce?

MG: With the speed and complexity of interactions today, businesses need workforce engagement tools enhanced by AI to keep up. Where AI really shines is in eliminating high volume, repetitive work, and we’re seeing more use cases across the key elements of workforce engagement management, specifically in workforce management, Quality Assurance (QA) and performance management.

When it comes to workforce management, AI can help predict future staffing needs based on past data. Its ability to analyze vast amounts of data in real-time means it can evaluate market trends to anticipate industry-wide changes in customer demand, analyze historical data to identify seasonal changes, anticipate skill gaps, and prepare for unexpected workforce changes to put in place succession plans.

AI-enabled workforce​​ forecasting allows leaders to know future inbound volume and the required staffing, and automatically schedule the entire team based on these forecasts. Armed with these insights, business leaders can run their teams with greater precision, cutting down on inefficiencies that will save the company time and money.

Another key element of WEM is Quality Assurance – the practice of reviewing customer conversations to improve performance and increase customer satisfaction. Most companies can only manually review two to five percent of all their support interactions. However, with AI-powered QA tools, they can automatically evaluate 100% of customer interactions, including those with AI agents, and identify opportunities for coaching and training to improve performance. It can even prioritize conversations with the most learning potential to give the QA process more impact.

Working hand in hand with workforce management and QA is performance management. Real-time and historical reporting informs managers of agent performance and productivity, as well as potential issues like customer churn risks before they become bigger problems. Getting such intel automatically with the help of AI allows managers to mitigate problems before they even start. 

For business leaders looking to be more strategic about their workforce planning, where do they start?

MG: A good place to start is assessing the current state – what does the team work on? What tasks do the agents perform? How are the teams structured? The answers to these questions will help shape how a business adopts WEM. They’ll allow leaders to define their objectives and KPIs, which act as the North Star and help measure progress.

Once that’s done, leaders can create a plan based on forecasting insights. Involving the current workforce and key stakeholders is good practice to ensure plans are realistic and achievable. Those on the frontlines have valuable insights into the day-to-day realities of their roles, challenges and ideas for improvement. Besides having a different perspective, engaging the broader team encourages teamwide buy-in and commitment to adhering to the plan.

Finally, it’s important for leaders to recognize that this process is a continuous, living process with each step helping to inform the next. Regularly assessing KPIs, processes and objectives helps ensure everyone stays on the right path.

Ultimately, empowering the workforce is the cornerstone of elevating the overall customer experience, and AI-powered WEM helps business leaders put the right people in the right place at the right time, creating a foundation that supports a virtuous cycle of high-quality customer service, robust agent development and customer loyalty.