EnablingaworkforceofCognitive
AgentsthroughTelephony
BrianPulito(IBMSeniorTechnicalStaffMember– Real-TimeCommunicationsArchitect)
email:[email protected] twitter:@brianpulito linkedin:brianpulito
10/19/16
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TheOpportunity
“IVRisthemosthated
managementinventionofmodern
times,despisedbyeveryone
includingthemanagerswho
eagerlyinstallitintheir
businesses.”
source:theguardian.com
10/19/16
Artificialintelligenceissetto
extendautomationbeyond
routinetaskssuchasbookkeeping
orbanktellingintolower-skill
jobsthathavetraditionally
requiredpersonalinteractions
andsituationaladaptability.
source:qz.com
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ValueProposition
•
Callcenteragentstaketimetotrain,costingupto$10percall
•
Almost70%ofissueresolutionsoccurthroughvoice
•
IVRshave51%satisfactionwithcustomers,andcost20cpercall
– 7.3%ofcustomerswhouseIVRsconsidercompetitorsaftertheirexperience
•
Cognitiveagentscanprovideabettercustomerexperiencewhilehandling
morecallswithouttransferringouttoaperson
SourceforIVRcostsandsatisfaction:https://www.forrester.com/report/Vendor+Landscape+Interactive+Voice+Response+Solutions/-/E-RES121396?objectid=RES121396
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Usecase1:CognitiveSelf-ServiceAgent
Transferoutto
agentwhen
necessary
Customercalls
support
Cognitive
Voice
Gateway
CallroutedtoCognitive
GatewayviaSIPTrunkor
SessionBoarderController
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SpeechToText,TextTo
SpeechandConversation
servicesorchestratedby
gatewaytotalkwith
customer
4
Self-ServiceAgentDemonstration
WatsonServices
Conversation
(Dialog,NLC)
SIP
SIPTrunk
10/19/16
RTP
CognitiveVoice
Gateway
SpeechToText
TextToSpeech
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Usecase2:CognitiveAgentAssistant
SBC
Customercallssupportand
isconnectedwithanagent
SBCforksmediatothe
CognitiveGateway
Cognitive
Voice
Gateway
10/19/16
Agentusesreal-timecognitive
feedbacktohelpcustomer
SpeechToTextusedtoconvert
streamstotextthenanalyticsusedto
providereal-timefeedbacktoagent
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WebBrowser
AgentAssistantDemonstration
Agent
Desktop
AnalyticsviaWatson
NLC+Retrieve&Rank
MQTT
Broker
PowerMedia XMS
(Transcoding)
WebRTCGateway
(WebSphereLiberty)
Transcribed Text
published over MQTT
SIPREC
WatsonSpeechToText
10/19/16
CognitiveVoice
Gateway
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Customer (RTP / G.711)
ForkingSBC
Agent (RTP / G.711)
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Self-ServiceAgents
AgentAssistants
Pointofsaleagent
Pointofsaleagentassistant
Pre-screeningagent
Real-Timetroubleshooter
Creditcheckingagent
Agentcoachesandtrainers
Supportagent
Healthcarediagnosticassistant
Bookingagent
Transcriptions
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EnterpriseTelephonyIntegrationwithCognitive
ContactCenter/IVR
EnterpriseNetwork
AICloud
Services
CognitiveVoiceGateway
SessionBorderController
SpeechTo
Text
TextTo
Speech
CustomService
Orchestration
CustomerSpecificAPIs
(forPHI,PCIandPII)
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Conversation
(Dialog+NLC)
Hybrid-Cloud
SolutionPattern
9
EnterpriseTelephonyIntegrationwithCognitiveAgent
• Complianceresolvedthroughonpremise(hybrid)deployment
• Solutioncomponents
–
–
–
–
–
CognitiveVoice(SIP)Gatewayinstalledonpremise
CustomProxyforenterpriseAPIintegrationinstalledonpremise
AIservicescanruninthecloud(e.g.IBMWatson)
CustomerSessionBorderController
CustomerAPIsforworkingwithPHI,PIIorPCI
• IntegrationviatheSessionInitiationProtocol(SIP)
– SupporttransferusingaSIPREFERmessage
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AdvantagesovertraditionalIVRs
• Understandsnaturallanguage,agentsareconversational
– Feweropt-outsmeanslowercontactcentercost
– Canhandledeeper,morecomplexconversations
– Canhandlemultipleintentsinasinglecall
• DeepAnalyticsleadtoimprovedKPIs
– Allaspectsofsystemcontributetoanalyticprocessing.Forexample:
• Barge-incorrelationpointstoareastofocustrainingandimprovements
• Opt-outscorrelatedtopointsinconversationleadtoimprovedflows
– Systemcanlearnandimproveovertime
• Improvetimetoresolutionovertime
• Improvetranscodingofspeechtotextbyaddingtocorpusovertime
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Challenges
•
DomainspecificAItrainingincluding:
– Languagemodels(e.g .corpus)
– Acousticmodels(e.g.accents)
– NaturalLanguageClassificationandConversation(e.g.intents,dialog)
•
IndustryCompliance(requireshybriddeployments)
– ProtectingPCI,PIIandPHI
•
Humandatacollectionviavoice
– lastnames,complexIDs,dates
•
IntegrationwithEnterpriseSystemsofRecord
– Requiresonpremisetesting
•
ContactCenterIntegration
– SharingcontextbetweenCognitiveAgentandLiveAgentafteranoptout
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Usecase3:CognitiveIVRIntegration
TheMRCP2.0standard
allowsforreuseofexisting
IVRsolutionsandextends
thelifeintothecognitive
world.
Transferoutto
agentwhen
necessary
MRCPIVR
Gateway
IVR
IVRproviderslike
Avaya,CISCO,Genesys
andBlueworx
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CallroutedtoCognitive
GatewayviaMRCP2.0from
theexistingIVRprovider
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SpeechToText,TextTo
SpeechandConversation
services,integratedwith
IVRapplicationserver
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Alternatesolution:IVRintegrationusingMRCP
• MRCPstandsforMediaResourceControlProtocol(RFC4463)
• DecomposesIVRservicessuchasSpeechRecognitionandSpeech
Synthesis
• SupportedbymostofthemajorIVRvendor(e.g.Avaya,Cisco)
• Advantages:
– MakesIVR/ContactCenterintegrationeasier
– Integrateswithexistingoperationalinfrastructure
• Disadvantage
– Doesn’tsupportacloudmodelwell
– Moredifficulttogettoaninitialprototype
– RequiresacontactcenterthatsupportsMRCP
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Omni-ChannelCognitiveAgents
WhatsApp
FacebookMessenger
Slack
Twitter
UsersconnecttoBOTs
hostedintheCognitive
EngagementCloud
10/19/16
SpeechToText,Dialogand
TextToSpeechservices
orchestratedtotalkandchat
withcustomer
Cognitive
Engagement
Session
Userscanalsointeract
withBOTatalater
pointintimethrough
alternatechannels
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ThankYou
10/19/16
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