Avaya has partnered with artificial intelligence and advanced analytics provider Afiniti, to improve contact centre performance using artificial intelligence (AI).
Afiniti is a charter member of AI Connect, a consortium of companies established by Avaya last year, dedicated to supporting and promoting the interoperability and value of AI and machine learning within enterprise communications.
The partnership between Avaya and Afiniti involves integrating Afiniti enterprise behavioural pairing software with Avaya's contact centre platform.
According to Jim Chirico, president and CEO of Avaya, Afiniti's AI software enables behavioural pairing that discovers, predicts and affects patterns of interpersonal behaviour of contact centre users, to pair them with the best possible agent. Afiniti's software will be able to modify queues, change the order of calls in the queue, and determine which agents should receive calls, says Avaya.
"With our [Avaya's] broad base of customers already leveraging the AI capabilities our solutions provide, the integration with Afiniti enables them to grow with us and increase the functionality and capabilities of the contact centres for a larger base of customers worldwide."
Chirico says Avaya will create an "AI edition" of Avaya Aura Contact Centre Elite, and this software update will be available in July. Additional enhancements will be available in 2019, he adds.
As part of the alliance, there is a joint go-to-market strategy in which both Afiniti and Avaya sales and services personnel are cross-trained on each other's solutions, he notes.
IDC estimates the worldwide value of revenue and cost transactions flowing through the contact centre in 2018 will be approximately $5 trillion, notes Chirico. Avaya and Afiniti are partnering to optimise this overall market through a combination of Avaya's global market share and Afiniti's addressable market, he adds.
"Every enterprise is looking to get more out of their contact centre, and AI is the next major shift in the way contact centres operate," says Chirico.
"Working with Afiniti provides a 'unique', proven AI offering, and is another example of Avaya investing in transformative technologies to deliver unparalleled contact centre performance to companies around the world."
Zia Chishti, Afiniti CEO, says the partnership highlights the shift in the communications and collaboration marketplaces towards artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies as a transformational tool for large enterprises.
"Our new partnership and native integration with Avaya will accelerate the pace at which our joint clients will drive precisely measurable value to their shareholders and customers."
Businesses are getting deeper into predictive analytics, using AI applications to help streamline call centre experiences for customers and agents, says Mitel.
As early adopters continue honing AI applications for call routing, they will become more widely applied, it says.
Overall, AI will allow more brands to focus on context and anticipatory engagement at the individual level to hone in on the customer 'segment of one', says Avaya. The goal will be to intuitively understand the nuances of each individual consumer as they inevitably change to deliver deeper levels of personalisation, it adds.
A PwC research report, "AI Impact Index", found implementation of AI initiatives in businesses will contribute around $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, making AI the biggest commercial opportunity in today's fast-changing economy.
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