How Can You Balance Human And AI Resources In Telemarketing?

Telemarketing has changed significantly over the years as digital technologies such as the internet have added new means of communication, as well as extra opportunities to gather useful data to compile leads and assess strategies. But AI adds another new factor.

The use of AI in various fields can be controversial, perhaps inevitably so, as it is in its infancy and therefore it may take some time to fully work out where and how it can best be used, while refining the technology itself.

Concerns about the technology range from fears of poor quality content (so-called ‘AI slop’) to fears of AI turning against its human creators, a theme first explored in the Terminator films of the 1980s.

Against that, it has been demonstrated to have benefits as a means of streamlining and enhancing processes, such as in medical diagnostics.

A key question is what role AI is starting to play in life sciences telemarketing now, as well as what it may do in the future. And, because so much of the concern about AI is whether it will complement human functions or replace them, what will the ideal balance be?

Can Functions Be Easily Divided Between Humans And AI?

Among those seeking to answer the telemarketing question, ICR Evolution suggested AI can offer the following:

• Identifying behavioural patterns and adapting approaches accordingly
• Handling frequent questions and making simple calls, while humans take on more complex queries.

However, it also noted that there are some things only humans can do:

• Provide personal empathy
• Swift problem solving

Therefore, it argued, the two do need to be balanced.

Does AI Have Some Clear Advantages Over Humans In Marketing?

Some arguments for AI having a larger role take a particularly enthusiastic view of its potential, including a wide array of functions that may be beyond human capacity, particularly that of any individual.

According to Jotform, these benefits include:

• Better call prioritisation for human agents, who can focus on more promising calls such as following up leads.
• 24-7 availability
• The capacity to handle multiple interactions at once
• More efficiency, as AI does not need to take a break

In both of the above instances, the focus is on splitting tasks between those that AI can deal with through means of greater efficiency and availability, often filtering out the worst prospects and least promising leads.

This will free up humans to concentrate on the best prospects and offer personalised, empathetic service to advance leads and also to help nurture relationships with potential repeat customers.

How Many Downsides Does AI Bring In Marketing?

However, not everyone is quite so positive about the use of AI. Marketing expert Neil Patel has claimed there are seven major disadvantages in using AI in marketing, based on feedback and survey data from the marketing sector.

Some of these are specific to digital marketing, such as concern that SEO may be neglected. But others may have wider ramifications across different forms of marketing. These could include:

• There may be some legal or ethical concerns, including possible future disruptive legal changes that could force firms to massively overhaul their use of AI.

• The use of incorrect and out-of-date information
• AI speech patterns can still sound ‘unnatural’ or ‘robotic’
• The risk of over-dependence on the technology
•  A lack of personalisation

However, these concerns come with caveats, as not all marketers regard them as huge downsides. For example, only nine per cent were worried about AI posing a lack of personalisation.

The biggest concerns were about the quality of content being diluted (the AI slop issue), which may be more of an issue for content marketing than telemarketing.

Mr Patel suggested marketers should establish plans for mitigating any problems they feel AI could pose, which may be one practical way of avoiding some concerns from becoming too much of an issue.

Clearly, for telemarketers, a problem that cannot be ignored is the possibility that information is inaccurate and out-of-date, as this is necessary to target the right potential clients.

For instance, if a potential user of a new life science innovation has altered their business focus so that the particular product you have to offer is no longer relevant, you could end up wasting your time contacting them, something up-to-date information could prevent.

Will The Future Change What AI Can Do For Telemarketing?

Because AI is in the early stages of adoption, it is likely that in the future it will be much better at ensuring information is accurate, avoiding producing ‘slop’ and offering new means of enhancing the work that human agents do.

However, until this settles down and the advantages and disadvantages of using it become fully apparent, it makes sense to take a balanced approach that seeks to use it in ways that are known to be beneficial, while providing vital human voices and decision-making.