Enthusiastic experts have no doubt at all that artificial intelligence will prevail. But leaving the rose-colored AI glasses aside and assuming the viewpoint of customers and employees, obstacles beyond the technology itself become evident: Currently, there are three problems preventing the widespread acceptance of artificial intelligence.

Many see the capability of chatbots to engage in dialog as their biggest potential in customer service applications. To this day, however, smooth communication with a machine via free text without loss of context is not possible. Nevertheless, bots already now provide added value for customers if their existing dialog skills are combined with technical processes carried out autonomously by the bots to solve customers’ issues. Telecommunication companies can benefit from this option to generate a positive customer experience outside of call center business hours.

Companies with happy customers are more successful: Nowadays, a positive customer experience is as important as the quality or the price of a product. Customer service can greatly contribute to a good customer experience – and, supported by machine learning, it can make customers happy.

This year, they will be more important than ever: We identify the customer service trends for 2019, from direct messages to customer service bots.