Unpredictable is the best word for 2020. Even though entire organizations were affected by the global pandemic, customer service operations often felt the pressure most directly—with sky-high expectations for doing more with less. Customer service teams were expected to reduce first response times (FRTs), increase customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores and perform well on other common KPIs. The bright side: they emerged more resilient and resourceful than ever before. Although the year still holds some uncertainty, uses of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has already helped to write a new playbook for customer service operations in 2021 and beyond. Across industries, these solutions have paved the way for a more efficient experience for customers and agents alike. To help you effectively leverage the newly accelerated world of automation, our experts at Unbabel have created an eBook guide to using AI and machine learning (ML) to improve customer experience while lowering operational costs. You can download the eBook here. Below is a taste of what you’ll get. Top AI Trends in Customer Service In the past, higher customer service demand often meant hiring a larger staff. This is especially true of multilingual support, which has historically required different approaches to making it work, from business process outsourcing (BPO) to hiring local agents in desirable markets. In 2020, however, the shift from outsourcing to AI adoption accelerated rapidly, in turn ushering in higher-quality, industry-changing customer self-service opportunities. Find out how customer teams quickly scaled their operations to more markets – even those with a low volume of customer inquiries – while maintaining, and often lowering, operational costs. Best Practices & Case Studies This year, many organizations dealt with office closures and many other unexpected human resource constraints. In these situations, AI and machine translation (MT) have helped customer service teams expand their multilingual capabilities — and fast. How did they do it? And how can you leverage these advances for your organization? We share tips from companies such as the No. 1 global search engine for travel (who saw their CSAT score soar 22% while lowering operational costs) and actionable hands-on advice to build successful customer service strategies for your team. A Playbook for the Future Incorporating AI technology and launching a language operations function is all about empowering customer service agents to do more with less. While successful customer experiences are a win, customer operations leaders also want to reduce staff turnover and improve overall efficiency within their teams. To help organizations get ahead of these trends, we examine six customer service AI trends for the future that will allow customer experience leaders to provide an elite experience while increasing operational efficiency. From smarter ticket sorting to AI-enabled command centers to proactive in-app communication, it’s the essential guide to the ongoing transformation of customer service. Perhaps the most indelible business lesson of 2020? Unpredictability is inevitable, but the right proactive strategies can help organizations weather future challenges on the horizon.