"Technology which focuses on creating customer self-service experiences and can provide meaningful data to organizations to help them understand what customers use to service their own issues, when do they leave the self-service point of interaction and convert to another channel, what channel is it that they convert to and what can be done to improve the overall omni channel experience."
- Brian Zotti, Senior Vice President of Operations and Services, i CAN Consulting, United States

"As it has in recent years, automation will keep reshaping customer service in terms blending artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent agents (IA). Done well, they complement each other, with self-service segueing into a live agent when necessary. Right now, self-service works just fine for simple or routine requests, say less than a half dozen clicks, key strokes or voice commands. It’s when things become complex, where more sophisticated responses are required, that the value agents bring is appreciated. And being human, they are attuned at understanding nuances and reading situations where greater care is needed."
- Kimber Houlne, CEO, Working Solutions, United States

"We see AI/cognitive technology maturing to an extent where it will have a profound impact on contact centers in the coming year. AI/cognitive technology enhances other digital solutions such as self-service, chatbots, and analytics, thereby increasing the gains that can be derived out of these solutions. Customer data available to enterprises is expected to increase manifold due to the emergence of new sources of information such as social media and IoT. It will become challenging to generate meaningful insights without leveraging AI/cognitive solutions for both structured and unstructured data."
- Shirley Hung, Vice President, Everest Group, United States

"Database systems that relates to storing and maintaining customers basic and private information, is more so than ever at the risk of breach. Social platforms such as Facebook and others have had their share of breaches, butt more the contact centre industry. Security and measures for database privacy and its importance cannot be compromised thus the values of this must remain the forefront of any future planning, strategy and process. Technological security is a critical impact area, a core area of focus not only in the next 12 months but beyond as well."
- Irine Lopez, Director, ILO Simple Solutions Sdn Bhd, Malaysia

"In 2019 there will be a major shift in how analytics is used to look for more useful and actionable insight from customer data. Whilst sentiment analysis can be a useful tool, there are issues with its accuracy and it doesn’t predict anything on the whole. As Forrester and others have also noted, machine learning and AI text analytics will become a more powerful, alternative tool. This is because it classifies customer data by using actionable concepts and intent markers rather than basic keywords, giving a much clearer picture of the customer experience.

In 2019 there will also be more emphasis on contact centre data as a valuable source of unsolicited Voice of Customer data. Currently it’s a black hole and rarely analysed effectively, usually with very poor classification. Machine Learning can unlock complex sets of omnichannel interactions to understand what and why customers call, making it a key focus for contact centres in 2019."
- Dan Somers, CEO, Warwick Analytics, United Kingdom

"Social Media, will indeed help the industry in every possible way to analyse new trends.
Cloud computing will help in Improving business collaboration due to a standardized system between the BPO company and the client."
- Minnat Hashmi, Director, iTech Solutions, India

"Bots (but, I think the bots are far from meeting the expectations of customers at complex customer services, as much as contact center, and this may be a recognization of contact center's importance.)"
- Utku Büyükaksoy, Director, Erişim, Turkey

"The technology that is showing the most promise in the contact center industry is artificial intelligence. It can be used to improve forecasting, routing, predictive analytics, customer self-service, operational effectiveness, and first contact resolution. These drivers will continue to build momentum in 2019 and beyond as leaders begin to demonstrate paradigm-shifting solutions, similar to what the industry experienced with the adoption of IVR technology."
- Andrew Shockney, President, What Box Consulting Group, United States