Google is bringing AI to the call centre

Google is spreading its AI expertise into new areas with the release of a new series of tools.

The company has revealed it is hard at work developing a new AI system to take the pain out of dealing with call centres.

The new Contact Center AI, which was revealed at Google Cloud Next last night, acts as the first human-sounding voice a customer encounters when making a call. The AI agent will then attempt to solve the customer's problem, however if the user wants to speak to a human agent, it can be transferred.

The contact centre call could possibly link in with a consumer-facing chatbot on a company's website, meaning the AI system would already be up to speed on the customer's problem before they start the call.

Google AI

“AI is empowerment, and we want to democratize that power for everyone and every business—from retail to agriculture, education to healthcare,” said Fei-Fei Li, Google AI chief scientist.

“AI is no longer a niche in the tech world —it’s the differentiator for businesses in every industry. And we’re committed to delivering the tools that will revolutionize them.”

Li added that the system is now set to undergo testing with some of Google's top AI partners, in order to iron out any issues before hopefully rolling out the platform soon.

Contact Center AI bears a striking similarity to Google's Duplex service, unveiled at I/O earlier this year. The smart voice assistant is able to carry out tasks such as scheduling appointments through the use of natural conversation - although there are still a number of concerns over how Duplex will actually work.

Via The Verge

Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.