AI Is Upending Call Centers. Here’s How to Invest.

Last year McKinsey stated that customer operations could enjoy a productivity uplift of over $400 billion through using generative AI. It’s now the most common use case for AI across all organizations and it’s easy to see why. Every developed market consumer out there knows that the quality of customer service has declined across the board over the years. Good luck getting a human on the phone. If you can, it’s usually Rosie in Manila who – while sweet and kind – follows a recipe-driven approach to solving your problem provided she understands it correctly. At least it’s better than John-in-Mumbai.

The easiest way to introduce AI to customer service is through chatbots because the customer has no idea if there’s a human on the other end or not. (And the younger generation actually prefers this method of communication to voice.) Then once we have AI voice capabilities that are imperceptible from humans – and that’s already here – all B2C frontline customer service operations can be staffed by AI agents. Today, we’ll talk about how investors can capitalize on this major transition for call centers.

A NICE Investment Opportunity

Figuring out the size of the global call center market is tough. Various research firms estimate size at between $100 to $500 billion. Intuitively we know that all companies operate some sort of customer support function and they’re sorely lacking. How often can you ge