Security concerns resulting in ‘cautionary’ AI adoption in customer service

A new survey finds that a key barrier to the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the customer service sector lies in security concerns, with ad-hoc unregulated AI usage on the rise across enterprises. Commissioned by CommBox, an enterprise-grade omnichannel, AI-powered customer experience platform, the survey gathered insights from over 1,000 consumers and 250 managers in customer-facing roles to help assess current attitudes towards the technology, as well as adoption levels across the sector.

The findings show that brands are opting to adopt a cautionary approach - while 45% of customer service teams say they have deployed AI in some form, just over 1 in 10 brands (15%) have been able to deploy AI ‘extensively’. This is largely driven by concerns about security (32%), which is closely followed by fears surrounding implementation costs (31%) and internal pushback (32%).

Numerous security-related concerns have risen to the top of the agenda since AI adoption rates skyrocketed. For example, ‘Shadow AI’, or the unsanctioned or ad-hoc use of AI within an organisation outside its IT governance, is a growing concern as tools become more widely accessible. This is coupled with concerns around ensuring information isn’t being exposed to AI, shared, or used to train AI, as well as data storage and whether AI providers hold the information. Failure to address and alleviate these issues means the service sector risks stalling on its initial adoption rates, warns CommBox.

Dvir Hoffman, CEO at CommBox, commented: “As the buzz around AI has grown, we’ve seen rapid adoption and interest within the sector. We’re now coming towards the end of this initial wave, where issues such as security are now front of mind. This is particularly the case for larger enterprises, which have stricter guardrails in place when compared to small and medium-sized organisations, where employees can’t just download the latest AI tool without due diligence. Things like ‘Shadow AI’ and data storage are a growing issue for enterprises, so transforming customer engagement while maintaining compliance must now become the focus if the sector is to keep pace with adoption elsewhere. As a service provider, we ensure that we’re compliant with the latest, most stringent global security regulations and boast ISO, SOC2 and GDPR compliance”

While enterprises are adopting with caution, customer service leaders remain bullish about the prospects that turning to AI could have in addressing some of the friction consumers are continuing to experience. This includes using the technology for advanced sentiment analysis of customer queries (39%), personalising recommendations for consumers (37%), improving the automation capabilities of your chatbots (37%), improve customer and employee ability to access knowledge (36%) and pre-empt and anticipate needs of customers (33%).

To feel the full spectrum of what AI can offer for customer service, enterprises must find a way to balance the transformation of customer engagement through easy-to-deploy solutions, while maintaining data protection and compliance. That is, there shouldn’t be a trade-off between security and simplicity. For those adopting AI-based tools, seek partners that allow them to streamline operations, such as automating routine inquiries and tasks, while ensuring that the data it’s collecting is protected, handled, and stored with the highest level of safety and complying with all regulatory requirements. This includes SOC2, ISO, GDPR compliance, as well as strong guardrails around data storage, model training, and data encryption.