Gone are the days when managing customer queries and relationships exclusively relied on the physical presence of live agents manning phones and desks. Now, technological advancements have shifted toward digitally driven customer engagement models. However, intelligent businesses realize that digitally driven engagement doesn’t mean excluding human agents from customer interaction. Companies increasingly recognize the importance of seamless, efficient, personalized customer experiences aided by technology with humans in the loop to maintain competitive edges.
Humach (humans + machines) is a customer experience (CX) solutions provider that uses AI-certified agents and digital assistants to streamline customer interactions across multiple channels. For over 35 years, the company has been a leader in CX solutions for contact centers and a pioneer in the AI and automation space for the last ten years. Now, amidst the rapidly evolving digital and AI-driven landscape, Humach was ready to evolve its solutions.
Humach recognized the challenges of preventing unsatisfactory call outcomes and efficiently addressing growing consumer demands. These obstacles included maintaining consistent quality across diverse channels, scaling rapidly during peak times, and providing highly contextual resolutions quickly enough to satisfy modern consumers’ expectations. Addressing these pain points required a sophisticated blend of artificial intelligence and robust infrastructure to deliver real-time insights and automated yet empathetic interactions. The company sought trusted advisors to help advance its technology platform, mAI Pilot, by integrating human touchpoints with machine intelligence to deliver superior customer experiences across various industries.
To tackle its evolving needs, Humach sought assistance from IBM Silver Business Partner Innovative Solutions, known for its excellence in generative AI applications and solutions. Together, they crafted a comprehensive conversational language module (CLM) framework powered by Innovative Solution’s GenAI service Tailwinds and IBM® watsonx AssistantTM on Amazon Web Services to revolutionize human-machine communication dynamics.
“We leverage watsonx Assistant's front-end interface and robust API to develop AI-driven solutions, that understand customer intents and seamlessly manage system flow to different operators and teams,” states Travis Rehl, CTO of Innovation Solutions. “This level of AI-Agent customization enables Humach to deliver more intelligent, efficient, and personalized customer service experiences at scale.”
Hosted on Amazon Web Services Cloud, Humach solution also incorporated speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) functionalities facilitated by Deepgram, and running smoothly on powerful NVIDIA GPU-equipped servers. By deploying watsonx Assistant alongside AWS Cloud Services, Humach ensured enhanced data processing speeds, improved accuracy rates, and heightened cybersecurity compliance levels that are essential for sensitive user data protection.
Additionally, the Weaviate indexing engines, that are incorporated in the solution, enable swift query resolution from vast datasets. This allows digital and live agents to offer precise, timely feedback informed by large volumes of historical and current inputs. Innovative Solutions was pivotal in bridging technical gaps and optimizing resource allocation effectively. The extensive suite of IBM tools granted Humach unprecedented agility, enabling rapid deployment cycles aligned closely with evolving market trends. Moreover, IBM’s reputation bolstered stakeholder confidence, helping to reliably secure transactions amid escalating regulatory scrutiny in the industries Humach serves.
Upon successful deployment, the new AI-enhanced ecosystem yielded tangible improvements almost immediately. Humach customers lauded increased responsiveness, noting reduced wait times and higher incidence of accurate issue resolution upon initial contacts.
Bruce Sharpe, Chief Product Officer at Humach states that, “Tailwinds with watsonx Assistant on AWS has been an incredible tool for our organization.” He continues, “It led to an 18% increase in overall customer satisfaction and a 20% increase in call automation efficiency.” The incoming request automation uses the intuitive, natural language understanding capacities embedded within watsonx Assistant modules, and the automated routing systems intelligently streamline incoming traffic. It frees up critical bandwidth that was previously consumed by routine tasks. Now, these tasks are adeptly managed autonomously. As a result, live agents can further progress customer experiences by addressing questions and concerns in the moments that matter.
Additionally, the scalable designs in the AWS hosting environments empower dynamic adjustments to effortlessly accommodate fluctuating demand spikes, while sustaining optimal service standards irrespective of load variations. Beyond the numerical advantages are profound qualitative shifts that transform organizational culture. It fosters a deeper alignment among cross-functional units that collectively strive toward common goals firmly underpinned by state-of-the-art tech innovations. “The enhancements to the mAI Pilot platform enable our team to rapidly prototype new ideas, validate concepts, and quickly identify AI's business value,” says Sharpe.
Ultimately, embracing futuristic methodologies powered by Tailwinds and watsonx Assistant solves existing problems while propelling Humach onto trajectories promising sustained excellence far beyond the immediate horizons envisioned. Rehl asserts, “The partnership between Humach and IBM is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible AI-enhanced customer engagement.”
Humach (link resides outside of ibm.com) (humans + machines) redefines customer engagement, sales and support. By blending the expertise of human contact center agents with machine learning and digital agents, Humach provides businesses with unparalleled customer experiences and streamlined transactions. Focusing on Fortune 2000 companies and venture-backed start-ups, Humach aims to transform how businesses engage, acquire and support their customers.
Innovative (link resides outside of ibm.com) believes in helping every customer leverage the power of data and the cloud to drive growth. Recognized as an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and an IBM Silver Business Partner, Innovative uses its cloud expertise and proprietary AI technology to help businesses migrate to and manage their IT infrastructure in the cloud. With an army of experts and the Innovative Cloud Runbook utilizing the leading platforms and technologies, Innovative gives businesses of every size the confidence to grow in the cloud.
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