CXone Mpower Autopilot

CXone Mpower Autopilot is a full-service, data-driven intelligent virtual agent A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent.. It handles voice and digital Any channel, contact, or skill associated with Digital Experience.interactions The full conversation with an agent through a channel. For example, an interaction can be a voice call, email, chat, or social media conversation. in the place of live agents. Autopilot virtual agents understand human language and respond to contacts naturally. They can switch topics, understand context, and answer questions with human-level comprehension. Autopilot virtual agents can fully resolve issues via self-service, limiting escalations to live agents.

Autopilot virtual agents use CXone Mpower XO artificial intelligence (AI). XO comes equipped with over 30 years of interaction data. Autopilot uses that data, along with your organization's interaction data, to build conversation flows. These flows include lists of possible utterances What a contact says or types. and appropriate responses. Using AI, Autopilot virtual agents continue to learn from interactions to improve and add to these flows.

Autopilot virtual agents can also:

Identify tasks that agents may need to perform to resolve a contact's issue.
Identify back-end tasks that Autopilot itself can do, such as fetching a contact's data.
Proactively send messages to contacts based on their identified needs and interests. Watch this demo video for an example of this feature.

Edward Ferrars is speaking with Autopilot, the virtual agent for Classics, Inc. He tells Autopilot he wants to pay the balance from his latest book order. Autopilot begins the conversation flow for payments. It fetches his billing information and finds two credit cards. It asks Edward which one he wants to use. He answers "Credit Card A," but then changes his mind and says, "Actually, use Credit Card B". Autopilot changes the credit card selection.

Edward then asks for help changing his password. Autopilot switches to the conversation flow for that intent.

Autopilot remembers Edward's first intent The meaning or purpose behind what a contact says/types; what the contact wants to communicate or accomplish. was payment. It switches back to that conversation flow. It asks Edward if he'd like to remove Credit Card A from his billing information. He answers "Yes," and Autopilot removes it.

How Virtual Agents Work

The beginning of the conversation is different for voice and text virtual agents:

For voice virtual agents, contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. call a phone number and reach your organization. The contact may be connected directly to the virtual agent, or they might need to choose an option in an IVR Interactive Voice Response. Automated phone menu contacts use via voice or key inputs to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both. menu. The contact's utterances What a contact says or types. are transcribed Also called STT, this process converts spoken language to text. into text so the virtual agent can use them.
For text virtual agents, contacts start a conversation using a chat window. The location of the chat window varies depending on the digital channel Various voice and digital communication mediums that facilitate customer interactions in a contact center. you use. For example, it might be located on your website or the contact could start the conversation using a third-party service, such as Apple Messages for Business. The contact's utterances What a contact says or types. are already in text format, so they don't need to be transcribed Also called STT, this process converts spoken language to text.. They're passed on directly to the virtual agent.

The virtual agent analyzes the contact's utterances to understand the purpose or meaning behind the words. This is known as the contact's intent. The virtual agent sends an appropriate response as text. The virtual agent's response is synthesized into audio by a text-to-speech Allows users to enter recorded prompts as text and use a computer-generated voice to speak the content. service. Transcription and speech synthesis can happen in CXone Mpower or, in some cases, in the provider's platform

The method of sending a response depends on whether it's a text or a voice virtual agent:

Voice: Requests and responses are sent back and forth between the virtual agent and the contact. CXone Mpower stays connected to the virtual agent service throughout the conversation, but does not participate in it. CXone Mpower waits for the signal that the conversation is complete or that the contact needs transferred to a live agent. This is the SIP Protocol used for signaling and controlling multimedia communication sessions such as voice and video calls. backchannel method of connection.
Text: Requests and responses are sent via Virtual Agent Hub and the script with each turn. This option allows for customization of the virtual agent's behavior from turn to turn.

At the end of the conversation, the virtual agent sends a signal to the script. It can signal that the conversation is complete, or that the contact needs to speak with a live agent. If the conversation is complete, the interaction ends. If a live agent is needed, the script makes the request. The contact is transferred to an agent when one is available.

When the conversation is complete, the script can perform post-interaction tasks, such as recording information in a CRM Third-party systems that manage such things as contacts, sales information, support details, and case histories..

Components of an Integration

Setting up Autopilot requires the following components:

CXone Mpower: CXone Mpower must have a configured voice or digital chat-based channel Various voice and digital communication mediums that facilitate customer interactions in a contact center. to use with the integration.
Virtual Agent Hub in CXone Mpower: Virtual Agent Hub holds the configuration information for connecting to your virtual agent A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. provider, such as service account credentials. This includes choosing the options you want to use for transcription Written form of all or part of a voice or digital interaction., if your integration requires this service.
Studio scripts: You need at least one script that includes a virtual agent Studio action. The action must be configured with the connection information for your virtual agent. The point of contact for the channel you're using with the integration must be configured to use this script.
Autopilot: You must have an Autopilot virtual agent fully set up and configured. For Autopilot Amelia, this must be done in the Amelia management console.

Voice Biometric Authentication

You can use voice biometrics to authenticate contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. with an Autopilot voice virtual agent. This method uses voiceprints to authenticate contacts over the phone. Every person has a unique voiceprint, just as they have unique fingerprints. It only takes 0.5 to 3 seconds of normal, conversational speech for a voice biometric service to determine if the caller is who they claim to be.

Contacts need to enroll to use voice biometric authentication. As a part of the enrollment process, they must give your organization permission to record their voice and use it for authentication. When you use this method with a virtual agent, you must configure and train your virtual agent to handle this intent The meaning or purpose behind what a contact says/types; what the contact wants to communicate or accomplish. during an interaction.

You can use the Omilia voice biometrics miniapp that's available on the Omilia platform. This option allows you to use Omilia anti-fraud features with your Autopilot virtual agent. These features include a block list for known fraudulent contacts and the ability to detect ANI Also known as caller ID. Listed phone number of an incoming voice call. spoofing and the use of recorded voices to try to trick the system.

Autopilot Integration with a Knowledge Base

You can integrate Autopilot with CXone Mpower Expert or any third-party knowledge base (KB). Autopilot can then use information from your KB articles to help answer your contact's questions on voice or digital channels. Autopilot can provide your contacts with the following from your knowledge base:

A response composed of information from one or more KB articles.
Links and images within KB articles.
Links to full KB articles.

How the virtual agent uses the knowledge is up to you and how you configure the conversational flow in the virtual agent's settings in Autopilot. If the contact doesn't find the information helpful, Autopilot forwards their interaction to a live agent.

Key Facts about Autopilot

You can learn about setting up Autopilot virtual agents in CXone Mpower.
You can use CXone Mpower Recording to record Autopilot voice interactions.
Autopilot text virtual agents require Digital Experience and work with chat-based digital channels Various voice and digital communication mediums that facilitate customer interactions in a contact center..
Using Autopilot with voice channels requires setup assistance from NICE. Contact your Account Representative to learn more.
Autopilot is different from Autopilot Knowledge and Autopilot Voice Biometrics. Autopilot Knowledge provides a CXone Mpower Bot Builder bot access to CXone Mpower Expertknowledge bases A website that stores troubleshooting articles.. Autopilot Voice Biometrics provides voice biometric authentication for interactions The full conversation with an agent through a channel. For example, an interaction can be a voice call, email, chat, or social media conversation. with virtual agents A software application that handles customer interactions in place of a live human agent. and IVRs Interactive Voice Response. Automated phone menu contacts use via voice or key inputs to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both..