By Mark Say, – Originally published by UKAuthority. Thurrock Council has launched a voice activated AI assistant, initially to help residents obtain information on council tax. It is part of a programme to expand the use of AI working with Outsource Automatio...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by Cover. Very few businesses operating today don’t have a customer-facing piece of technology. Whether that’s an actual product, an app, or even just e-commerce and customer service functionality on their websit...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by Gadget. The emergence of AI agents is poised to bring profound changes to the contact centre industry. With companies such as Microsoft, AWS, Google and Salesforce all releasing autonomous agent capabilities acros...

By Arthur Goldstuck, – Originally published by Business Live. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will cast a large shadow over next week's World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos. as world leaders grapple with its transformative impact on jobs, economies...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by TechFinancials. Ask most people how they feel about getting a sales call and they’ll tell you how annoying it is. That annoyance only increases if they pick up the phone and can tell that a virtual agent is maki...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by IT-Online. For millions of South Africans, there are few things more frustrating than dealing with a government department or state-owned enterprise (SOE). Whether it’s asking when you can expect your UIF paymen...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by IT Online. Tourism is vital to the South African economy, accounting for 8,2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 9,2% of employment, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. By 2030, t...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by IT-Online. Despite being the coal face of business-consumer contact, call centres have long struggled to offer personal customer experience. Virtual agents may finally solve the problem, combinin...

By Staff Writer, – Originally published byTechFinancials. Soon every contact centre will have both human and virtual agents working directly with customers. The introduction of AI-powered virtual agents is not expected to impact the number of jobs in South Af...

By Ryan Falkenberg – Originally published by IT-Online. If you’re a CEO or even a high-ranking executive, you’re probably confident you know everything (or almost everything) about your business. But no matter how much time you spend pouring over reports,...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by IT Web Africa. For most people, Black Friday is a chance to buy that must-have item they’ve had their eye on for months. It’s also a massive day for retailers. Outside of the week or two before the start of th...

By Ryan Falkenberg, – Originally published by IT-Online. Advanced intelligent automation (IA) virtual agents shift the burden of repetitive, rules-based queries and work away from human agents. This should not be seen as a threat to South Africa’s call cent...