Contact centers have emerged beyond phone calls and offer a single interface to connect with customers via multiple channels today. By leveraging cloud, they offer seamless engagement solutions to customers anywhere in the world. Artificial intelligence is now being embedded into contact centers to take the communication process to a completely new level. With innovations in technology, contact centres are significantly shaping customer experience and creating new opportunities for organizations globally. In an in-depth conversation, Chaitanya Chokkareddy, Chief Information Officer, Ozonetel, throws light on the technological advancements in contact centres and the road ahead for the company and the industry.

Analytics Insight: Kindly brief us about Ozonetel Communications, its specialization and services.

Chaitanya: Ozonetel Communications pioneered cloud telephony in India in 2007. Way back in 2009, we launched Kookoo, India's first cloud communication platform. Few of our first clients such as Big Basket, Zomato & Practo are all powerful success stories today and we created some of the customer service tools that moulded their success. We are committed to pioneer AI-driven contact centers. We believe the old model of running contact centers is coming to an end. AI will be embedded in the different spheres of a contact center.

Analytics Insight: With what mission Ozonetel was set up?

Chaitanya: Ozonetel has been set up with the primary objective to "Make complete business communication seamless, intelligent, cost-efficient and easily available ". Our main USP is that Ozonetel is a leading cloud telephony player in the world who owns the whole stack. We manufacture our own hardware (PRI cards) so that we can have complete control over the quality we deliver to the clients. And now we are one of the very few companies who has made AI the core of our contact center engine.

Analytics Insight: How are disruptive technologies like AI/Machine Learning impacting innovation in contact centers?

Chaitanya: This year, we are working on disrupting how contact centers are going to work by introducing AI into the mix. And, this is just not another buzzword. We have completely reworked our stack and AI/machine learning is the core of all our modules now. We will be releasing the new modules one by one. We will bring in AI into contact centers with features like Speech Analytics, Sentiment Analysis for analyzing customer moods, Natural Language Processing and Smart Assistant Widgets.

This will open up new verticals and markets for Ozonetel and will firmly entrench Ozonetel as an innovator in the cloud telephony space. We revolutionized telephony by introducing Kookoo as the first cloud telephony platform in India and now we will revolutionize contact center space with AI avatar of Kookoo.

Analytics Insight: What is the edge Ozonetel has over other players in the industry?

Chaitanya: As far as we know, no one in India is using AI as a core in the contact centers. Additionally, we are using a proprietary algorithm to power our AI and not a regular deep neural network built on Tensorflow etc.

Analytics Insight: How does Ozonetel 's rich expertise help uncover patterns with powerful analytics and machine learning?

Chaitanya: Last year we handled 2 billion calls from 30 different verticals. More than 50000 agents login daily to our platform. This allows our systems to observe a lot of patterns. For example, patterns in inbound and outbound agent performance. Our systems can uncover patterns in call failures so that we can detect which routes are performing better. We can also uncover patterns in the daily operations of a contact center which will allow us to alert supervisors about exceptional scenarios.

Analytics Insight: Kindly share your point of view on the current scenario of the AI in contact center industry.

Chaitanya: AI in contact center industry is still at a grassroots level and most contact center products include AI just as a buzzword. Machine learning concepts are applied only in the speech domain as far as contact centers are concerned. We believe that the scope of AI is much more in the contact center space. AI has to be the core engine which powers the entire contact center including call routing, queue management, workforce management, speech analytics etc.

Analytics Insight: How is Ozonetel helping contact centers improve customer experience by introducing AI tools?

Chaitanya: The main advantage that AI provides to contact centers is in its continual learning on all aspects of a call center. Currently, we help contact centers monitor agent quality, help customers in their self-service options and improve agent performance using AI.

Analytics Insight: What is your roadmap for the AI-driven Contact Center market in 2018?

Chaitanya: Recently, we have unveiled our first three AI modules:  Speech API, Kookoo Intent and Smart Assistant tools.

1. The Speech API will translate voice to text and improve CX. A common use case is that it lets your customer speak out their menu selections, answer surveys, give verification details and access ticket details far more naturally.

2. Kookoo Intent will be used for Speech Analytics, Sentiment Analysis and data mining. Speech analytics will give an instant analysis of customer sentiment, keyword search, agent performance and greeting detection—as soon as a call is completed. Sentiment analysis will be used to judge customer mood during calls and keyword search will improve data mining options and get real-time insights.

3. Kookoo 2.0's Smart Assistants will be able to create targeted, tailor-made customer experiences. Predictive layers will match customer history, customer journey, current urgency and customer sentiment. Based on agent history and expertise, it will ensure best–possible matches. Throughout the call, they will assist the agent with information needed to personalize the call. They can even judge sentiments in real-time and suggest barge-ins if needed.

Analytics Insight: What are some of the challenges faced by Ozonetel today?

Chaitanya: The main complexity comes from integrating with the various telecom technologies in the Indian market and making sure your system is up even when the infrastructure is flaky. Telephony is a real-time system where even one second counts, so we have to make sure that there are no delays in the software.