The AI-Native Advantage: Three Key Takeaways from Our Conversation with Forrester

It’s no secret that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping our world at a rapid pace, but in industries driven by consumers, care must be taken to deliver a positive experience whether the customer is interacting with AI or a human. This is especially true in the healthcare industry, where digital leaders must balance these exciting new technologies with patient expectations, while also maintaining compliance with health privacy laws.

To unpack the new standard AI is creating for digital patient experiences, we recently hosted a webinar that explored what it means to be “AI-native” and how healthcare professionals can gain a competitive edge by embedding AI at the core of their contact strategies. The webinar featured a conversation between Max Ball, Principal Analyst at Forrester and author of The Forrester Wave™ on conversational AI, and Vijay Verma, VP of Product at TeleVox.

Below are three key takeaways from their conversation:

The Three E’s of Customer/Patient Experience

Max started the discussion by outlining Forrester’s CX Index score, which measures how successfully a company delivers customer experiences that create and sustain loyalty. He noted that customers are looking for three things when evaluating their experiences:

Effectiveness – Hos effective was the brand at meeting the customer needs?

Ease – How easy was it to work with the brand?

Emotion – How did interacting with the brand make the customer feel?

When a company gets each of those things right, it drives customer loyalty factors including retention, enrichment, and advocacy. However, when those things go astray, the difference is staggering. For example, if a customer feels appreciated by the brand, 88% will continue doing business with the brand, but that number drops to just 29% when the customer feels angered by the experience. If they feel respected, 85% will recommend the brand compared to only 17% who will recommend the brand if they feel annoyed by their experience.

Voice Still Matters

Despite the rise in automated tools, there is absolutely still a role for human interaction, and in many cases, it comes down to meeting customer expectations. For example, if the inquiry is simply to pay a bill, more than 70% of consumers are happy to simply do so through a self-service portal with no human touch needed. But as the stakes go higher, such as resolving a technical problem or solving a billing dispute, more than 85% would prefer to speak with a human representative.

But even these human interactions don’t exclude the advantages of automation. As Max explains, automation can still “validate someone, know who they are, understand what they want” before they get to an agent, and then the agent is armed with information that makes the experience shorter and more efficient, creating a win-win for both the customer and the company.

Generative and Agentic AI Will Define the Next Era of CX

Research shows that 75% of new contact centers will integrate generative AI for both voice and chat by 2028. Vijay outlined four key features that will impact modern contact strategies in the near future:

• AI at the Core – Remove the rigidity of intent-based workflows and deliver flexible automation, seamless integration, and a unified omnichannel experience. As Vijay succinctly put it, “technology has evolved, and we should use technology to solve problems.”
• Adaptive Customer Journeys – Leverage AI intelligence and Insights360™ to deliver highly personalized experiences, tailoring every interaction. This personalized experience is no longer reserved for elite members of airlines; every business has the power to create a warm experience for customers.
• Radical Time to Value – Go live in weeks, empower business users, and scale high impact workflows without IT bottlenecks. “We can reduce barriers and solve for business problems at a higher scale at a higher speed.”
• Voice-led, Human Centric – Leverage natural, empathetic interactions at scale, starting with voice and extending everywhere customers are.

In short, generative and agentic AI, combined with the power of voice, will lead to better conversations and better actions.

Are you Ready to Experience the AI-Native Advantage?

The shift toward AI-native contact strategies is accelerating. Businesses that embrace this transformation today will be positioned to deliver faster, more personalized, and more empathetic patient experiences tomorrow.

See how our AI-native platform composes patient experiences at the speed of business at connect.televox.com/demo.

You can watch the full webinar here: Watch Now: Exclusive Insights from Forrester’s AI Expert on the Future of AI and Patient Engagement