Front’s Topics, Agent Put AI-Powered Automation Front and CenterFront’s Topics, Agent Put AI-Powered Automation Front and Center
To realize service/support improvements, AI deployments should leverage existing workflows and human expertise, according to Front.
No Jitter Brief:
Today, the customer service platform provider Front launched four new AI tools: Topics, Copilot, Smart CSAT and Smart QA. Agent will arrive this fall. Front’s solution supports multiple channels, and voice through integrations. Currently, Topics and Copilot are available for customer portal and email channels while CSAT, QA and Agent are email-only (Front said it plans to expand them to additional channels).
Topics are AI-generated categories based on analysis of past (and incoming) customer inquiries. Once categorized, Front can analyze trends and route those interactions. Copilot aids human service/support agents by reviewing customer conversations and suggesting editable replies to customers. Smart QA provides AI-powered scorecards and analytics for every interaction. Smart CSAT provides an AI-powered “best guess” of how satisfied customers were on their interactions.
The forthcoming Agent capability leverages a company’s existing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and workflows. According to Kevin Yang, Head of AI with Front. “Our customers know what they want to happen. They would rather codify [those SOPs] once and then just have AI trigger them. Philosophically, that’s how we're approaching the Agent.”
Front’s approach depends on its AI-powered Topics (shown below) classifying and labeling each incoming inquiry. “Within seconds of a message coming in we figure out the topic and label the message,” Yang said. “The two main use cases for doing so are automation and insights.”
Source: Front
Insights allow an organization to see all the reasons why people contact them. Automation allows the creation of rules – i.e., move the message to the priority support inbox, send it to a specific team or person, etc. Yang said that Front’s customers, like many other companies, already have SOPs “encoded” into business processes and workflows, as well as policies for handling customer issues (e.g., shipment status, returns and refunds, etc.).
As the following graphic illustrates, the identified topic (discount request) was automatically moved to the Billing department per a business rule/workflow (the gear icon). Then, Copilot provided a suggested response for the human agent to review and send (the purple text).
Source: Front
Yang contends that combining AI-powered Topics categorization at the front-end of the interaction that link to existing business processes will ultimately drive increased efficiency as well as a workforce realignment. “We see this already with our clients – more people hired into higher skilled roles that require understanding of the systems and the customers and fewer people on the front lines answering routine questions.”
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