Meet the Xerox Virtual Customer Care Agent

WDS, a Xerox (NYSE: XRX) company, which offers transformational customer care technology, has introduced an intelligent, virtual customer care agent that can understand, diagnose and solve customer queries in the same way a human agent would, claims the company.

Drawing on artificial intelligence research from PARC, a Xerox company, and the Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE), the virtual agent technology represents a leap forward in how machines learn and how they understand and react to natural language.

The new WDS Virtual Agent manages customer care interactions by analyzing data and learning from its human colleagues. Silently listening, it detects how human agents diagnose customer problems and offer solutions.

In doing this it quickly develops the intelligence it needs to understand and solve customer queries itself, without having to be programmed.

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“Because many first-generation virtual agents rely on basic keyword searches, they aren’t able to understand the context of a customer’s question like a human agent can,” explains WDS’ Nick Gyles, chief technology officer. “The WDS Virtual Agent has the confidence to solve problems itself because it learns just like we do, through experience. The more care data it’s exposed to, the more effective it becomes in delivering relevant and proven responses.”

According to the company, the WDS Virtual Agent provides a way for organizations to tap into the terabytes of data that exist in contact centers. Customer sentiment, described symptoms, problem types, root causes and the techniques agents use to resolve customer problems; it’s all data that has long been waiting to be put to use.

Coupled with Xerox’s existing expertise in the delivery of outsourced customer care solutions, comprising more than 160 global sites and over 50,000 agents, the launch of WDS Virtual Agent will enable the company to help its clients manage the increasing flow of customer care traffic and data across multiple channels.

Delivered as a cloud-based solution, WDS Virtual Agent can be adapted to suit a brand by adjusting not only the avatar but also the response tone and manner. This gives an automated machine a personality that an organization’s customers will recognize and trust, says the company.

WDS Virtual Agent will be available in the fourth-quarter of 2014.

In the picture above: A brain depicting WDS, A Xerox Company, Virtual Agent. Using artificial intelligence from the Xerox research labs, it learns from its human colleagues to deliver a better digital customer care experience.