The world has seen an incredible surge in technological advancements in recent years. The convergence of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and artificial intelligence (AI) is at the forefront of this revolution. As the adoption of VoIP continues to expand, so does the potential for AI to revolutionize how we communicate.
In this article, we explore the potential of AI in VoIP applications and its implications for the future of communications.
Impact of AI on VoIP today
The modern conception of AI has been around since the 1950s, but it wasn’t until recently that AI passed into an essential phase in its development: its entry into mainstream life. Although AI solutions in many fields have existed for over twenty years, they may not have been dubbed “AI” solutions at the time.
These were not just experimental applications, but rather solutions widely used in various production systems.
Faster computers, access to increasingly larger amounts of data, and improvements in algorithm efficiencies have exponentially accelerated the progress of AI development. In particular, according to some, 2015 was a milestone year for AI, with the number of AI projects within Google alone increasing from several dozen to over 2,700!
By 2017, 20% of surveyed companies stated they had “incorporated AI in some offerings or processes.” Between 2015 and 2019, the number of academic publications on AI increased by 50%. AI has been around for a while, actively taking part in technological systems and services of all types.
But it has only been during the past few months that the development of this technology has reached the mainstream, obtaining a critical mass that makes it newsworthy to the general public. Why now? Well, we’ll leave that for a future article. For now, let’s focus on how this technology is expected to be used, including with VoIP systems in particular.
AI capabilities that can benefit VoIP
In previous articles, we discussed how AI is creeping into video collaboration solutions and business phone systems. Within the next few months and years, AI is expected to make even more significant inroads into multiple areas of VoIP operation systems.
These include natural language processing (NLP), sentiment analysis and predictive analysis, and voice biometrics for authentication and authorization.
NLP is a branch of AI that enables computers to understand and interpret human language. With NLP, users can give voice commands to control VoIP applications, such as making calls, sending messages and scheduling meetings.
Such capabilities are already a reality today. In the near future, more advanced NLP systems will be able to respond to callers of a contact center, helping to deliver high-quality, first-level support for technical and administrative issues.
Sentiment analysis will play a crucial part in evaluating contact center effectiveness. Sentiment analysis is a type of AI that can assess emotions and attitudes expressed in a conversation, obtaining information about the service quality that goes well beyond what is actually said.
With sentiment analysis, enterprises can monitor caller satisfaction at a deeper level, identify problems before they are verbally expressed, and preemptively improve their services.
Predictive analytics for call routing and problem resolution is another unique call center capability that AI will soon deliver. AI algorithms can use historical call data to predict the reason for the call and route it to the most appropriate agent or department.
AI can do this dynamically before the call is answered and during the initial dialog. This can lead to more efficient call handling and improved customer service.
Voice recognition, in conjunction with AI, can be used to deliver an additional layer of security when applied to authentication and authorization. In the future, we can use AI-based voice recognition systems to authenticate users using voice biometrics.
Such a system can analyze the user's unique voice characteristics and use them to identify the caller. This type of application typically operates more effectively when used with wide-band codecs, which capture a more accurate representation of the human voice and allow for improved voice biometric identification.
Conclusion
Like many other cutting-edge technologies of today, VoIP is on the cusp of a revolution, thanks to the tremendous potential of AI. As we look further into the future and as AI continues to evolve and improve, we can expect even more incredible advancements in the world of VoIP communications. AI can transform how we communicate, providing new and innovative ways to connect with others.
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