From artificial intelligence to the growing popularity of video conferencing, cloud communications is as prominent as ever. In this blog post, we’ve gathered five of the biggest predictions of the future of cloud communications. Let’s take a look!
1. Artificial intelligence will become our personal assistants
We’ve all gotten used to asking Alexa to check on the status of a package or read our unread messages. Artificial intelligence is about to become a lot more skilled and functional.
As AI becomes more sophisticated and better integrated with cloud tools, it will become a fundamental assistant for us. One of the best parts of AI is that it works in the background without us even knowing. It learns to identify what you need before you even know you need it. Creepy, or convenient?
For cloud communications in particular, this might include capabilities such as automated meeting summaries or sentiment analysis for phone agents that uses previous conversations with customers to identify phrases and responses that drive desired actions—and then recommends the right words to agents in real time (1).
2. SMBs will use AI to provide enterprise-level customer service
While organizations of all sizes will likely take advantage of the features and capabilities of AI, they may be particularly impactful for SMB’s. Small to medium size businesses may not have the resources to streamline customer service the way larger companies do.
AI is capable of solving problems and implementing solutions much faster and more effectively than us humans, so for smaller organizations that might be struggling to keep up with inquiries, smarter capabilities can help advance and scale service with minimal cost and effort (1), saving both time and money.
3. Virtual meetings will overtake in-person meetings
When the pandemic first began, video-calling on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet didn’t seem like the best option. Many people compared it negatively to having in-person conversations and meetings. It was a difficult transition for some, but now it’s the new normal. Hybrid work is at an all-time high, and with Covid-19 still lingering, video conferencing is undoubtedly here to stay.
Today’s video communication features have come a long way and have many new benefits since introduction. Virtual meetings are getting smarter and better, with newly-enhanced features to better engage its users. In terms of accessibility and productivity, no matter how big or small the virtual meeting is, they’ve stepped it up.
Live transcription, virtual whiteboards, perceptive meeting controls for hosts, and the ability to join meetings from anywhere around the world are just some of the enhancements that the virtual-meeting industry is seeing its users benefit from.
4. Workers will rebel against too much monitoring
Let’s be honest – tracking capabilities these days can be kind of creepy. If you have a conversation about going on vacation and make online searches related to it, you’ll start seeing ads. Popups for the best priced flights and hotels will soon hit your screen. It’s so easy to track peoples’ online activity, and although it’s becoming increasingly more “normal,” that doesn’t mean people are happy about it.
Tracking is typical and routine for many cloud solutions these days, but not all workers are comfortable with it. It can feel intrusive to be constantly “spied on,” especially during work hours, and major privacy concerns can arise. Insights such as how many hours a person is actively working throughout the day, visibility into their engagement in certain meetings or presentations, and gathering other specific measurements are all becoming more and more prominent for employers, but nothing short of invasive in the eyes of employees.
Just because you can measure it, doesn’t mean you should measure it. Workplace researchers have long recognized that trust is critical to employee engagement and performance. Over-monitoring, meanwhile, sends the opposite message, and creates the risk of potential worker backlash (1).
5. Business leaders will train bots
Sometimes AI can be poorly implemented. For example, you could be trying to inquire about something online with the help of a chatbot, without having much luck. Chatbots can be annoying and sometimes are not able to understand the problem you’re trying to solve, despite its complexity or simplicity.
However, bots do have some benefits, but just like humans, they need coaching and guidance to refine and develop their performance. This will unquestionably require some hands-on help from business leaders. This could mean reviewing bot conversations with customers and teaching the bots which responses return the best results.
Cloud Communications Movement
After all is said and done, one thing is certain: virtual communication is here to stay, as is artificial intelligence. Not only are these the foundation of many remote jobs nowadays, but they will only continue to grow from this point on. It’s guaranteed that AI will continue to advance and expand in today’s digital world of cloud communications. Your best bet is to educate yourself on the everchanging knowledge cloud communication entails, and stay up to date with the latest trends and changes in the industry.