By Implementing Virtual Employees, Work is Made Easier for Humans

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has led to the entry of so-called digital employees into the workforce, who can offer numerous advantages in a company’s operations. Many experts say that there are also pitfalls when integrating digital employees into business processes, but it seems that there are more advantages than disadvantages with such ’employees’. According to the current specification, there are four main types of digital employees, from virtual agents performing specific, one-time tasks for companies, to influencers and virtual companions providing emotional support and creating personal, even romantic relationships with users. In any case, some new digital people are already around us. They are sales assistants who never sleep, multilingual presenters and trainers, and influential figures on social media promoting various brands, and the only thing they have in common is that they exist in digital form in a series of zeros and ones.

But how are such employees integrated into the company’s operations?

According to research conducted by Gartner, there are currently about 17 million people employed as agents in contact centers worldwide. Since labor costs account for up to 95 percent of contact center costs, companies around the world are increasing their investments in AI and chatbots. The same research predicts that by 2026, one in ten interactions with agents will be automated, an increase from an estimated 1.6 percent of today’s interactions that are automated using artificial intelligence.

– For companies like ours, which provide business process outsourcing services for numerous industries, the implementation of these solutions is extremely interesting because they can operate independently or complement human customer support staff – says Tomislav Iveta from Significo.

However, there are some threats as well as certain advantages to employing such digital individuals. Iveta cites legislative bans and restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence as threats, as well as GDPR compliance, while he lists the availability of service from 0 to 24 and personalized communication as advantages.

Significo, as an external partner that takes over partial or complete communication of a certain company with its customers or clients, also uses tools that free up the time of live employees so they can address the most complex inquiries.

– Conversational artificial intelligence can currently automate part of the interaction with contact center users through voice and digital channels. Until full automation of interactions across all communication channels is achieved, we use available tools complementarily with the work of our employees as it frees their time to address the most complex inquiries – says Iveta.

He adds that they are always open to testing new solutions aimed at improving the service and quality of service they provide to clients in order to automate repetitive tasks and develop personalized communication.

Virtual Employee vs Chatbot

Although often used as synonyms, it is necessary to distinguish between the terms Virtual Employee and Chatbot. Virtual employees use artificial intelligence (AI) to understand and respond to user requests in real time. The development of virtual employees varies depending on the industry and size of the company; however, it is important to emphasize that this technology is not reserved only for large companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as startups that potentially do not have large budgets for customer support, can increase customer satisfaction by utilizing available solutions based on artificial intelligence development.

– Nowadays, customers choose the time they want to communicate as well as the communication channel and expect an immediate response to their inquiry. The development and implementation of Virtual Employees enable customer availability with lower investments and are linked to customer satisfaction levels. More than 90 percent of customers will spend a larger amount if companies provide the option for customers to choose their desired communication channel – says Iveta, adding that for companies that base their business on brand development, the use of large language models (LLM) is indeed a ‘game changer’ in terms of consumer expectations and future implementation of chatbots for customer assistance.