A recent study by researchers at Stanford Digital Economy Laboratory and MIT Sloan School of Management, which was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that OpenAI’s GPT, a large language model and the foundation of ChatGPT, significantly increased the productivity of Philippine contact center agents by 13.8%.
The research reviewed 3 million chats from 5,179 agents working with a Fortune 500 software firm, who primarily provide technical assistance to US-based small business owners globally. Out of the total number, 83% were operating from the Philippines. The AI assistant was implemented and supported agents by offering real-time responses to customer queries. The majority of deployment was completed between the period of November 2020 and February 2021.
The research team additionally gauged the agent proficiency by analyzing their call efficiency and resolution rate along with surveyed customer satisfaction. While overall productivity increased by 13.8%, the highest productivity improvement (35%) was observed among the least experienced and skilled agents. Furthermore, it was noticed that agents with 2 months of experience were as productive as those with 6 months of experience, who were not using the AI.
Notably, sentiment analysis of customer-agent chats demonstrated satisfaction of the customers, further attributing to improved retention of agents and agents upgrading their effectiveness at a much faster rate than before.
Although the study results are beneficial, it is to be noted that it does not encompass the long-term impacts on wages, skill demand, job design and customer demand. Furthermore, the effectiveness of AI depends on the working environment, along with its stability and the pace of changing technology. A related ethical question that arises is whether the high-skill workers should be monetarily compensated for the valuable data they provide for the AI systems.
OpenAI is a non-profit focused on artificial intelligence, which is dedicated to conducting research and development for the benefit of science and humanity. The company is funded by a myriad of global investors from many countries like US, UK, Canada, and Philippines. Elon Musk and Sam Ales are some of its most noted founders. OpenAI continues to deliver groundbreaking AI technologies to its customers, setting the industry standard for AI-powered innovation.
