Shahar Chen, CEO and Co-founder of Aquant, a company focused on delivering generative AI solutions to transform the service industry.
Service leaders in the manufacturing industry face unprecedented challenges. The retirement of seasoned technicians has created a significant skills gap, while the increasing complexity of products demands a higher level of expertise and efficiency from service teams.
This sets off the service quality ripple effect: machines break down, costs soar, lives are endangered, customers churn and revenue plummets. As a service leader, you’re under tremendous pressure to break this relentless pattern and embrace AI for service.
Why AI Is Crucial
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a vital component of modern service strategies. High-performing service organizations leverage AI to enhance workforce proficiency, streamline operations and deliver superior customer experiences. AI has the potential to revolutionize service operations, making them more agile and responsive to ever-changing customer demands.
But the market is flooded with AI tools that offer generic, unreliable answers that only exacerbate service quality problems. Many leaders could benefit from an intelligence platform that has been rigorously tested in the field, vetted by experts and personalized to deliver the most accurate solution for each unique service challenge.
The Growing Need For Personalized AI
The concept of “brain drain”—the loss of valuable knowledge and expertise as experienced technicians retire or leave the workforce—is multifaceted. This issue is compounded by messy data, unique service challenges and the constant evolution of the service landscape. Service leaders are under immense pressure to find a solution that not only delivers precise, reliable answers but is also tailored to fit the skill set of every user—from field technicians and contact center reps to your end customers.
Why Personalized AI?
Unlike generic AI, personalized AI is designed to adapt to the specific needs and contexts of your service organization. It can:
• Improve Productivity: By providing technicians with accurate, contextually relevant solutions, personalized AI enhances efficiency and effectiveness.
• Enhance Training: AI-driven training tools can accelerate the onboarding process for new technicians, helping them acquire necessary skills more rapidly.
• Boost Customer Service: Personalized AI can deliver tailored responses to customer inquiries, improving satisfaction and loyalty.
• Support Decision Making: AI assists in making informed decisions by analyzing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns that human operators might miss.
• Optimize Spending: By predicting maintenance needs and potential issues, AI helps reduce unnecessary expenditures and optimizes resource allocation.
Overcoming Data Challenges
Data is the root of your AI engine, powering your solution. Many organizations worry about their messy data, but even the messiest data can be the ticket to a proactive and predictive service model. Here are a few common data challenges.
• Disconnected Sources: Data is scattered across systems, paper records and the minds of your field force.
• Different Data Types: Video, text and notes require a comprehensive approach to handle, which may feel overwhelming.
• Complex Machinery And Documentation: Understanding the structure and relevance of documents is crucial.
• Missing Context: Lack of specific business and service nuances.
Every organization deals with data issues. But you need to start somewhere. By starting with whatever data you have, collecting, cleaning and utilizing it, you can embark on your AI journey.
Creating Intelligent Boundaries With AI
For AI to be effective, it must understand your service documentation structure, know what’s important and create “intelligent boundaries.” Most AI systems provide surface-level suggestions based on historical data, which may not always be correct. Incorporating expert knowledge and creative problem-solving is essential for addressing unique service challenges.
The Role Of Expert Knowledge In AI
Relying solely on structured data, like service manuals and documentation, is not enough. The nuanced understanding and contextual insights that experts bring are invaluable. Integrating SME (subject matter expert) knowledge into AI bridges the gap between data-driven recommendations and real-world expertise. This approach not only improves service outcomes but also ensures that valuable knowledge is preserved and utilized effectively.
Personalized AI Solutions For Unique Service Challenges
Service is personal, and your AI should be, too. Every service challenge is unique, and generic solutions often fall short. Personalized AI addresses these challenges by tailoring its recommendations to the specific needs and contexts of the issue at hand.
When vetting personalized AI solutions or building a solution, the following tenets are vital.
• Contextual Awareness: Personalized AI systems must understand the context of service issues, considering factors such as asset history, service environment and specific customer needs.
• Tailored Recommendations: By analyzing detailed data and incorporating expert knowledge, personalized AI should provide relevant recommendations tailored to the specific user.
• Dynamic Adaptation: Personalized AI should continuously learn and adapt to new information, ensuring its recommendations remain accurate and up-to-date.
Scaling For Success: Continuous Improvement
Committing to continuous improvement is essential for maintaining a high-performing AI system. Regularly updating, retraining and refining AI models ensures they remain effective and aligned with your organization’s goals. This ongoing process enhances AI performance and helps your service organization stay competitive.
Ready to get started? Begin with the following.
• Start with whatever data you have.
• Capture the knowledge of your experts.
• Invest in personalized AI tools that understand your service organization.
• Commit to continuously training your AI model.
Leveraging personalized AI can take your organization’s service delivery and customer experience to the next level. It starts with a thorough analysis of your existing service data. By utilizing AI-powered analytics and dedicating resources to continuously train your model, you can organize your data and uncover valuable opportunities.
The era of the service department as a cost center is over. With personalized AI, you can not only improve profit margins but also transform your department into a significant revenue generator.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
