‘Conversation intelligence’ tools are helping organisations gain insights and streamline workflows, though concerns over privacy, security and accuracy persist, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.
The technology combines AI with natural language processing and machine learning to capture conversations, identify key moments, highlight emerging topics, detect emotion and track sentiment, among other functions. It is increasingly embedded in team collaboration and contact centre platforms.
Gregg Willsky, principal analyst, enterprise technology and services at GlobalData, said the tools address a longstanding blind spot in organisational decision-making: “The central benefit that conversation intelligence brings is the ability to uncover insights, trends, and patterns that would otherwise go ‘missing in action’.
“It is rooted in the belief that conversations are where decisions are made. Thus, capturing conversations and gleaning intelligence from them helps highlight the actions necessary to move work forward or raise customer satisfaction and retention.”
Willsky said the capability has expanded significantly since AI first appeared on collaboration platforms: “When AI first took up residence on team collaboration platforms several years ago, it was relied upon to generate meeting transcripts, summaries, and action items. Today, conversation intelligence tackles those tasks plus more.”
However, GlobalData said the tools are feeding a growing mistrust among workers uneasy about having their conversations captured and analysed. Because the resulting data can be shared with other systems – including CRMs – both within and between organisations, adoption raises compliance, confidentiality, security and privacy questions.
Ensuring the accuracy of the insights generated is also described as a significant, if not insurmountable, challenge.
Willsky added: “Despite their flaws, conversation intelligence tools are not going away and will become more effective as they evolve. However, to optimise their effectiveness, the challenges of accuracy, privacy, security, and the like will need to be rectified. Though imposing, those challenges are not insurmountable.”
Image credit: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay
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