The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly thrust digital transformation to the forefront of business needs.

A recent article from Mckinsey states that companies that take action early in a downturn are best positioned to accelerate to the top during the recovery. In the 2008 recession, the best-performing companies were those who rapidly adapted to the situation, propelling them ahead of their peers by 20% in terms of cumulative total returns to shareholders. Eight years later, this lead had grown to more than 150%.

Now is the time to take advantage of the new opportunities that present themselves digitally. As the world starts to rebuild and reinvent itself, being proactive and implementing new methods of digital practice is essential to securing a position as a leading business in the new normal.

An ever-increasing rise in digital customer engagement is calling for the adoption of new practices, and smart AI-powered digital employees (chatbots) are the number one solution that industry leaders are implementing - not in a few years' time, but right now - today.

Studies say that nine out of 10 consumers want an omnichannel experience with seamless service between communication methods (UC Today, 2019), and 63% of consumers are satisfied getting service from a chatbot, as long as they have the option to move the conversation to a human if needed, according to Forrester.

It's never been more important to act quickly in the volatile and uncertain environment that we're living in right now.

As more people are forced to interact with businesses online, the channels and methods of doing so need to be evaluated to ensure customers get the best service possible. The use of automation and conversational technology allows businesses to achieve this quickly and at scale.

That's why leading brands like Vector, Mainfreight, and Tower Insurance trust Ambit to deliver Digital Employees to scale their customer service efforts in an unparalleled way.

Always on-brand, available 24/7, and never taking a day off, digital employees are the essential puzzle piece to being able to serve customers with immediacy and scale. Providing the ability to service customers exactly when, where, and how they want.

Ambit's digital employees help to reduce the time to value, lower the cost to serve, show measurable ROI, create actionable insights, and delight the users. The platform collects, stores, and utilises extensive data about customers' perceptions and concerns; businesses gain the ability to better respond to their customer's needs now and in the future.

Digital employees reduce costs too. Research states that every year businesses spend $1.3 trillion servicing customer requests, and by introducing a digital employee, up to 30% of this cost can be reduced.

The best use-cases for digital employees are found by identifying where customers experience the most difficulties and send the most time. Digital Employees alleviate the circa 80% of repetitive queries that take up countless human hours to service. Solving these queries for customers before they ever reach a human, across multiple channels through text, voice, phone or avatar. IBM has cited research that for every second a Digital Employee can shave off average call centre handling times, call centres can save as much as $1 million in annual customer service costs.

Organisations that implement digital employees typically see a 20%+ reduction in enquiry volumes, freeing up staff to focus on more valuable tasks. Mercy Radiology is a company that decided to onboard a digital employee after struggling to handle customer enquiry growth. They soon witnessed that 20% of customer engagement with the bot was being made after hours, which they otherwise would not have been able to serve.

For a personalised demo of how the world's smartest digital employees save time and money, get in touch.