Artificial intelligence, robotics driving contact center automation

By Bob Violino, Mar 15, 2017

The global unified communication (UC) as a service market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 25% between 2017 and 2021, according to market research firm Technavio.

The increasing leveraging of enterprise and consumer technology such as solutions to communicate effectively with customers will fuel the demand for unified communication, the report said.

In contact centers, the emergence of artificial intelligence and robotics technology will help contact centers automate the contact center process. The rise of machine learning technology, cognitive computing, and behavioral analytics will fuel the demand for UC in this market segment, Technavio said.

In enterprise collaboration, vendors are offering solutions that enhance the collaboration among employees, suppliers, and clients and are simple to deploy, less expensive, and more powerful. The different technologies that are used by companies include email, unified messaging, calendaring, instant messaging, mobile UC, and voicemail.

“The companies in the global market are investing in the integration of collaborative applications such as email, voicemail, and unified messaging to initiate automation in various business processes,” said Amrita Choudhury, senior industry analyst for enterprise application research.

The introduction of cloud-based services for UC systems are gaining more popularity than on-premises enterprise collaboration and communication systems in the global market, Choudhury said.

The implementation of enterprise telephony will help reduce telecommunication costs. The emergence of UC as a service also helps small and mid-sized businesses to implement advanced UC systems through the pay-as-you-go pricing model.