Often, knowledge workers are distracted by many things.
It is estimated that a goldfish can hold an attention span of up to nine seconds, whereas an average human attention span is only 8.25 seconds.
Your smartphone rings with notifications as you work on your presentation for a quarterly meeting. After responding to your emails, your colleagues plan a party.
How can organizations ensure their employees remain focused and undistracted?
One effective solution is through the use of AI assistants.
They are tireless workers, always available, don’t mind repetitive tasks, and excel at answering FAQs. AI Assistants provide a seamless communication solution, resolving support queries swiftly and around the clock.
While AI assistants are incredibly useful, but in order to maximize their potential we need a chat interface or platform such as Slack or Microsoft Teams. Chat platforms like Microsoft Teams have been growing exponentially since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Currently, Teams is used by over 320 million people worldwide, with over 6.22 billion messages exchanged annually. 91% of Fortune 100 companies have adopted Teams.
As Microsoft Teams becomes more popular, the question arises:
How can AI automated conversational assistants be seamlessly integrated with Teams?
Conversational AI Assistants are seamlessly integrated in Microsoft Teams through a conversational interface, they interact with users and grasp conversation intent and context. They use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to make meaningful responses to users.
Furthermore, you can automate tasks, answer FAQs, customize experiences, integrate applications, and enhance collaboration.
Let’s take a look at some of their workforce support benefits.
How Conversational AI Assistants can support your workforce?
1. Cost reductions in IT support
As a result of improving First Contact Resolution (FCR) times, Conversational AI Assistants reduce support costs significantly. A chatbot can handle simple queries, while complex problems still require expert IT support. It uses artificial intelligence and decision trees to diagnose and route issues efficiently.
- Improved ticket handling
- Intelligent query deflection
- Routing only complex queries to support agents
2. Reduced IT support errors
Often, support agents are faced with repetitive tasks that can lead to errors and fatigue. Conversational AI Assistants can reduce errors through:
- Automating repetitive tasks like password resets
- Offering step-by-step troubleshooting guidance
- Providing the most up-to-date information from the knowledge base
“Unlike humans, Conversational AI Assistants don’t make mistakes.“
3. Auto-Resolution of Mundane Tasks
AI assistants help employees automate tasks like resetting passwords, unlocking accounts, and requesting assets, so they don’t have to contact the help desk. This results in:
- Streamlined processes
- Improved efficiency
There are several advantages to using bots in MS Teams when it comes to Customer/IT support. However, what are some practical uses for these Conversational AI Assistants?
- Task Automation
Using an AI assistant, you can schedule meetings, set reminders, update status reports, conduct surveys, and conduct polls. Teams save a significant amount of time and effort when these tasks are automated. For example, vTech Solution Inc uses an AI assistant to automate aspects of onboarding new employees, providing them with personalized greetings, instructions, and FAQs.
- HR Assistance
TuVA HR, An AI Assistant for HR support, assists employees at vTech Solution with various HR queries, such as accessing policies and submitting expense reports.
- Project Management
In order to facilitate collaboration among team members, organizations deploy AI Assistants within Microsoft Teams.
For instance, Clarus communication, which deployed TuVA IT with MS Teams channels, keeps team members informed and streamlines communication by facilitating the creation, assigning, and managing of tasks directly within MS Teams channels.
- Sales Enablement
With AI Assistants, sales teams get real-time sales data and insights, improving performance. They receive personalized sales recommendations, access to customer profiles, and crucial insights by integrating with their CRM platform.
Despite Microsoft Teams’ versatility, there may be challenges when implementing these AI assistants.
Here are some common integration obstacles with AI assistants:
- User adoption and training
Teams must be able to interact with AI assistants within the Teams interface, which requires effective adoption strategies and training initiatives.
- Capabilities of AI assistants
It may be difficult for AI assistants to access external data sources or perform complex tasks with MS Teams as it restricts access to certain APIs and functionalities.
- Security and Compliance
The security and compliance standards adopted by Microsoft Teams pose a challenge when integrating AI assistants. Companies must ensure that AI assistants comply with all relevant regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA.
- Scalability Concerns
In MS Teams, AI assistants may be subject to scalability issues due to the high number of concurrent user interactions they handle.
While these challenges are notable, the benefits of integrating Conversational AI Assistants into MS Teams far outweigh them. As such, organizations should seriously consider integrating chatbots into their Teams environment.
Getting the most out of Conversational AI Assistants:
- Put the user experience first Make clear instructions a priority so that users can interact with the system seamlessly
- Transparency is key Make sure users understand the AI Assistants’ abilities and limitations
- Focus on what you need Consider developing a custom RPA or choosing a platform that meets your specific requirements
- Make improvements based on feedback Maintain regular monitoring of usage and gather feedback to improve user satisfaction and refine responses
- Evaluation of impact Measure effectiveness using metrics like engagement, sentiment analysis, chat ratings, and etc.
Final Say,
Deploying AI Assistants into Microsoft Teams offers numerous benefits for workforce support, including reduced costs and improved efficiency.
Organizations can improve collaboration and productivity by understanding the challenges and following best practices.
We have built best-in-class AI Assistants for your teams to take Instant action and automate workflows across multiple enterprise applications.
Request a demo today!