The ROI of Conversational AI For IT Teams

When analyzing the costs of implementing and running a conversational AI that can provide IT support, organizations must consider number of factors. This article will explore some of the things that can help executives make an informed decision and measure the impact their investment will have on the IT team, employees, and customers. 

Remind me, what is conversational AI?

To understand conversational AI, we must first look at why it exists. As businesses grow, they become more complex–teams become larger, new tools are introduced, and new processes are put in place. As a result, both customers and employees require an increased level of support. Whether it’s resetting an SSO password, or getting access to the right software licenses, it becomes imperative to resolve these requests quickly to keep users happy and productive.

The idea behind conversational AI is that users are better served when technology is able to accurately understand their needs, and respond in a customized way without the need for human intervention. Traditional support chatbots answer with limited feedback to users, derived from pre-written scripts by IT teams to address common questions and problems. These responses are not personalized, and in many cases do not fully solve a user’s problem. Ultimately, users end up more frustrated as they attempt to re-word their questions to the chatbot or give up and reach out to a support agent.

Through the power of artificial intelligence, a conversational AI assistant is designed to realize true human-like conversations with users by leveraging advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. This technology has the ability to understand the intent behind what a user is saying and provide a useful response in a matter of seconds. Furthermore, users are no longer put through the rabbit hole of bad chatbot responses and long wait times for agents.

The real-world ROI of using conversational AI

Although ROI will vary company to company, common trends exist between all implementations. Here are the most notable pillars that enterprises realize from artificial intelligence based support:

1) Conversational AI is a scalable support solution

With digital transformation efforts growing ever more important, more and more businesses are turning to AI to help improve their customer experience and productivity. This means that the number of inquiries received by IT support teams are also increasing. Conversational AI is a scalable solution that can help support teams meet the demands of a growing business by providing an easy and effective way to get support assistance. With increased traffic volumes, the AI serves as a great ‘first line of defense’ for support teams and will scale at ease. As a result, many common questions and problems can be resolved by the AI, while the capacity and scope of IT support teams are broadened without additional headcount. 

2) Automation increases productivity and reduces operational costs

Businesses that use conversational AI tools can increase their overall productivity and reduce costs in all areas of a company by making it easier for employees to find the information they need, when they need it. This means more time spent on projects that drive revenue and less time wasted on administrative tasks such as research or troubleshooting. Ultimately, the goal should be to get employees working smarter, not harder, in order to accomplish more in less time. This is possible with fast and reliable IT support!

Additionally, IT support teams are often under pressure to deliver great support to users as quickly as possible, and they’re always looking for new ways to streamline their processes to improve productivity. The automation of many routine tasks frees up support teams to focus on more complex problems, and allows them to spend less time handling mundane tasks. In IT support this could look as simple as a user needing a password reset - frequent tickets that often take up IT support teams' time are now automatically resolved from the conversational AI assistant within a matter of minutes.

Password reset example

Cloud MSG’s conversational AI assistant resetting a user’s password directly in chat. This task is completed within minutes without live agent intervention.

3) Reduction in IT support call volume

Investing in a conversational AI solution has immediate, substantial savings through reduced call volumes to in-house or outsourced support agents.

For example, according to data published by BMC, the average support desk ticket costs $15.56. This number further increases when service desk agents have to get on the phone to resolve an issue. Now, imagine if you could auto-resolve 70%+ of these tickets with conversational AI. For IT organizations dealing with thousands of tickets, this would result in massive savings. Not to mention, the quality of support from these interactions delights users and drives up satisfaction rates.

Wrapping up

It is evident that IT support demands are growing, and traditional methods are falling short for users and support teams. IT executives cannot ignore the potential savings, dramatic reduction in resolution times, and improvements to the user experience.

Considering implementing conversational AI within your IT team? Book a free demo with one of our AI assistant experts!