AI in Helpdesk Guide: Implementation & Use Cases

The impact of AI in helpdesk is an important conversation to have in 2024 because not all superheroes wear capes, but they do upgrade themselves from time to time.

Helpdesk is a centralized support service designed to handle all internal and external support queries related to a product or service. Main activities involve answering questions, providing information and troubleshooting issues to ensure user satisfaction and retention.

Helpdesk software handles ticket creation, tracking and resolution through the combination of automation, live agents and self-service tools. Three out of four CEOs believe organizations using AI in helpdesk will gain a competitive advantage.

What exactly could be the advantage? Is there any way AI can transform your helpdesk and turn your agents into super-agents who exceed their key performance indicators and service level agreements?

Well, this blog has an answer, but before we explore the impact of AI, let’s understand what AI is in the helpdesk.

What is AI in helpdesk?

When you bring AI into the mix, you put your helpdesk on steroids.

AI in helpdesk refers to integrating artificial intelligence technologies like natural language processing and machine learning to boost your helpdesk with automation, predictive analytics and personalization. It improves the efficiency of your agents, automates routine tasks like summarizing call transcripts, fine-tunes message responses with the right tone and context and much more.

Learn more: Are Helpdesk and ServiceDesk the Same?

Five benefits of artificial intelligence in helpdesk

In a traditional helpdesk, agents manage ticket flow and monitor customer-agent conversations manually, working through every single ticket one by one. Agents had to go through the ordeal of retrieving information manually, which led to high workloads and stress. For the customer, it resulted in long response times, poor service and inefficient issue resolution.

Implementing AI in helpdesk changed the whole customer service game as organizations reaped five major benefits from it:-

1. Better ticket sorting and routing

With the help of automated categorization, AI analyzes keywords and severity to categorize support tickets automatically.

It maintains a well-organized inbox by sorting, tagging and routing tickets into manageable chunks for accurate assignment and reduces average hold time by swiftly directing tickets to specialized agents based on their expertise.

2. Summarization of request tickets

AI rapidly provides concise ticket summaries, identifying key issues, case history, related products, urgency and past actions, passing full context to the next agent in the queue. It saves time by summarizing lengthy customer-agent conversations, ensuring efficient handling of high ticket volumes.

3. Sentiment analysis for customer feedback

AI conducts sentiment analysis, discerning emotions and tones in customer feedback. It identifies and highlights critical customer experience issues, enabling proactive resolution and deepening understanding of customer needs. It leads to improvement in products, services and customer relationships.

The best part?

AI becomes better at sentiment detection over time by learning from past cases and refining its algorithms.

4. Multilingual support

By leveraging automatic language identification, AI identifies and translates languages in tickets, offering personalized support in multiple languages. It facilitates clear communication, eliminates language barriers and expands global reach for enhanced brand awareness and customer satisfaction.

💡Pro tip: The best helpdesk software possesses smart routing by which tickets are assigned based on the skill and expertise of agents. For instance, a Deutsch-speaking customer is automatically routed to a Deutch agent or an agent adept in Deutch and English for better interaction and faster resolution.

 5. Error-free, compliant responses

AI assists agents in delivering professional responses by refining ticket replies, adhering to brand standards and employing techniques like rephrasing, tone moderation, translating and grammar correction. Efficient AI solutions ensure compliance through AI-powered tracking, approvals and easy-to-create frameworks and parameters.

Using AI customer communication, it selects the most suitable canned response, conveying messages effectively through trained AI models.

Learn more: The Complete Guide to Helpdesk Automation

How to deploy AI in helpdesk

To derive these five incredible benefits, you need to learn how to deploy AI in helpdesk. You can do that by following this step-by-step guide:-

1. Define objectives

Outline the goals of deploying AI in the helpdesk, whether it's improving efficiency, reducing customer response time or enhancing customer satisfaction (CSAT).

2. Assessment of needs

Identify specific pain points in the current helpdesk operations where AI can bring significant benefits. This could include automating repetitive tasks or improving first contact resolution.

3. Select the right AI solution

Selecting the right AI solution starts with the alignment of objectives but goes beyond that. You need to take into account multiple factors and ask yourself the below questions before making a choice.  

Ensure the chosen solution addresses these criteria, and you will find yourself an impeccable AI helpdesk.

Check this list of essential helpdesk software features to find a holistic solution for your helpdesk needs.

4. Data preparation

Gather and pre-process relevant data for training the AI model. This may involve historical helpdesk interactions, CRM records, call transcripts and customer data. Understand data leveraging these four key components:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Employ ASR combined with NLP to process user input in text or voice, breaking down queries into words and phrases.

• Intent recognition: Identify the user's intention behind the query, recognizing the varied meanings a message can have in different contexts. 

• Dialog generation and management: After determining intent, use machine learning algorithms to search for relevant information and craft scripts using natural language generation (NLG) technology. 

• Machine learning: Utilize machine learning to continuously improve the AI over time by learning from interactions, adapting to changes in language use and understanding new phrases.

Also Read: Customer Service Analytics – A Comprehensive Guide

5. Model training

Train the AI model using the prepared dataset. Fine-tune the model to understand the nuances of your organization's language, terminology and common user queries.

6. Testing and validation

Conduct rigorous testing to ensure the AI model performs accurately and meets predefined metrics, looking out for common bugs and usability issues like:

a) Limited scalability

Unaddressed scalability concerns can result in degraded performance as the user base expands. Test the system under increased demand scenarios to ensure it maintains optimal performance and response times.

b) Faulty emotion detection

Insufficient recognition of user emotions may lead to inappropriate or robotic responses. Introduce emotionally charged statements to gauge the system's ability to recognize and respond empathetically.

c) Weak ambiguity handling

Difficulty in dealing with ambiguous queries may result in unclear or incorrect replies. Test the system with ambiguous statements or queries to evaluate its capability to seek clarification and provide accurate responses.

7. User interface integration and user training

Implement the AI solution into the helpdesk interface, making it easily accessible for support agents. When it comes to agent training, AI automates quality management by providing invaluable insights into agent performance, live coaching opportunities and improvement recommendations, enhancing the overall quality of support provided by agents.

Interesting Read: 7 Steps to Implement Generative AI in Customer Service

A real-life success story of AI in helpdesk

Now that you know how to deploy AI in helpdesk, why restrict yourself to benefits? Rather, let’s look at how to use it to its fullest potential and throw some light on common applications of AI-powered helpdesks with a real-life success story. 

Telefônica Vivo Brasil, the largest telecommunications company in Brazil, faced the challenge of managing a massive volume of around a million inbound messages per year on social channels. To scale social care efficiently and maintain operational excellence, the company sought innovative ways to incorporate artificial intelligence into its customer service strategy. The goal was to respond to and resolve tickets from social quickly while maintaining a human touch and aligning with the company's vision for digital connectivity.

Solution:

Vivo addressed these challenges through the implementation of Sprinklr Service, a comprehensive AI-powered customer support solution. The following key features were vital in overcoming helpdesk challenges: 

1. Automated routing: Utilizing AI, Vivo automated the classification of messages as engageable or non-engageable, enabling efficient call routing of only critical cases to agents. This approach optimized agent productivity by focusing on meaningful conversations rather than spending time on messages that didn't require a response. 

2. AI agent assist: Leveraging Smart Responses, Vivo empowered agents with quick suggestions for commonly asked questions. This not only accelerated response times but also ensured consistency with Vivo's brand voice and code of conduct, contributing to a uniform brand experience. 

3. CSAT prediction: Vivo employed AI to analyze the sentiment of inbound messages, predicting Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores based on keywords and expressions. This proactive approach allowed the prioritization of cases with lower predicted CSAT scores, enhancing overall customer experience management. 

 Outcome:

Vivo's adoption of AI-driven social media customer service resulted in significant improvements:

• Agents reduced their average response time by 65%. 

• Smart Responses were utilized in 70% of all replies. 

• 23% of cases in 2021 were automatically closed 

• The speed of case resolution increased by nearly 10%. 

• The overall positive feedback witnessed a remarkable 137% increase.

“Sprinklr Service has transformed the way we provide customer service on social channels. We’ve found that perfect blend of AI and human interactions, and our customers are happier.” 

-José Reginaldo, Telefônica Vivo Brasil 

Ready to say goodbye to slow response times and hello to happy customers just like Vivo did? Get a free trial of Sprinklr Service for the next 30 days.