While much of the fear mongering is based on hearsay and outright speculation, there certainly are legitimate concerns.

However, businesses and consumers have more than enough reason to believe — and trust — AI’s ability to add significant value to their processes and lives.

Customer communication management (CCM), infused with complementary AI, has literally shifted the goalposts for what businesses can achieve with personalised, accurate and compliant customer communication at scale.

On the other hand, screaming headlines work people into a state. Rumours have surfaced that Sam Altman’s departure from OpenAI, before his return amidst the furore, was linked to concerns among OpenAI board members that significant breakthroughs in artificial general intelligence (AGI) had been made, and that Altman was rushing these into production without sufficient safeguards for society at large. The stuff of horror movies.

AGI refers to an advanced form of AI that can perform many activities as well as, or better than, humans. Many followers of AI think that AGI is closer than we may believe.

Let’s be clear: the real reason behind Altman’s departure is not known, and may be unrelated to AGI. It is also important to highlight that AI experts are divided on whether true AGI is imminent, or even likely.

I would suggest that even if the output of AI approximates that of the human mind, such as when Deep Blue stunned the world when it beat a reigning world chess champion, there is a critical difference between the approaches used by AI compared to those used by humans.

Sophisticated AI algorithms such as Large Language Models (LLMs) do not understand the meaning of concepts in the way humans do.

Computer algorithms tokenise words into numbers from the outset, which means they don’t imbue words with meaning in the same way as humans.

The AI Talk: Breaking Down ChatGPT and Google Bard – Which One Speaks Your Language?

More generally, for AGI to become a reality, there will need to be significant advances in AI’s ability to understand the meaning and context of patterns in the data, and not just detect them.

The question, then, becomes: What does any of this mean for businesses who wish to leverage the power of AI to improve their business processes and customer service?

As a point of departure, it’s interesting to read the views of Kevin Scott, Microsoft CTO, referring to Microsoft’s AI tool for its Office suite, in an article in the New Yorker.

“The Office Copilots seem simultaneously impressive and banal. They make mundane tasks easier, but they’re a long way from replacing human workers. They feel like a far cry from what was foretold by Sci-Fi novels. But they also feel like something that people might use every day,” he is quoted as saying.

The article goes on to say that if Scott, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Chat GPT CTO Mira Murati get their way, then “AI will continue to steadily seep into our lives, at a pace gradual enough to accommodate the cautions required by short-term pessimism, and only as fast as humans are able to absorb how this technology ought to be used. There remains the possibility that things will get out of hand—and that the incremental creep of AI will prevent us from realising those dangers until it’s too late. But, for now, Scott and Murati feel confident that they can balance advancement and safety.”

This is a sound approach. What about the rest of us? Businesses have a responsibility to serve their shareholders, but also their customers and society more broadly. Treading a thoughtful line in the release of AI functionality to the market requires regular consideration of the benefits and potential risks.

It is crucial for business leaders to support the notion of good corporate citizenship in how they serve customers and develop products.

Regulation will play a massive role.  It appears as though EU lawmakers have concluded marathon discussions to put in place a regulatory framework for AI.

The framework will probably maintain a list of all AI models deemed to pose a systemic risk, and providers of general-purpose AI will be required to publish summaries of their algorithms and the content used to train them.

The EU is leading the global regulatory response to AI and could become the blueprint which other governments may follow.

If we cast our gaze back towards CCM, GhostDraft’s use of AI is specifically focused on supporting the generation of documents to capture contractual agreements between companies and their customers quickly and accurately. CCM is an absolutely crucial part of modern customer communication.

Gone are the days when document automation was sufficient. The smart and calibrated use of AI is a great example of how technology supports a transformative evolution of businesses’ capabilities to create mass communication that’s personalised, compliant, well-designed, dynamic and fast.

If a company cannot communicate clearly, quickly and accurately to its customers, it will lose them.

GhostDraft uses AI for design and development of communications templates and generative AI to analyse sample data, informing the structure and production of future documents.

It is enhancing the readability and completeness of key customer documents and forms, so that customers can feel comfortable about their business interactions.

It is clear that AI can improve customer service and interaction and it can make more relevant recommendations to customers, ensuring that they receive products and services tailored to their needs.

In addition to this, using AI can deliver cost efficiencies to businesses, which can then translate into more accessible and affordable services for customers. These benefits engender trust.

On the other hand, we already know that AI doesn’t understand context the way humans do. It doesn’t understand nuance, hope or fear. If we allow AI to have unfettered access to run business activities, it will miss things, and that is where customer trust will be damaged. In fact, the term “AI hallucination” refers to instances where AI tools identify patterns in the data which are actually non-existent or nonsensical.

There are practical ways this can be addressed over and above regulation. Businesses can restrict chatbot scope to simpler questions, and the routing of complex or nuanced business functions to humans. Giving users more control is also important.

Businesses can do this by offering users control over their data and the extent to which AI is used in their interactions, and by allowing users to easily opt in or opt out of AI-driven features.

When AI practitioners are building and training models, they would do well to record and selectively audit AI recommendations, and use this to refine their models.

Responsible businesses, meanwhile, should communicate clearly to customers how AI is being used in their products or services in a way that is understandable to non-technical users.

Take a moment and reflect on how your interactions with banks and insurance companies have changed over the past few years. For many years, we had become accustomed to hearing the phrases fourth industrial revolution and digital transformation.

In hindsight, we can see what these mean because the way we, as consumers, interact with organisations has changed.

Make no mistake, banks and insurers are under increasing pressure to keep up with our new demands.

They are working tirelessly to manage the shift towards online services, the ever-increasing need for speed to market in a hyper-competitive landscape and the need for flexibility in customer interactions.

Adopting a modern Customer Communications Management (CCM) platform is a strategic imperative for organisations seeking to thrive in these dynamic market conditions.

Modern customers expect seamless online experiences. Speed to market has become a critical success factor, necessitating agile and responsive communication strategies.

Flexibility is no longer a luxury but a prerequisite, given the diverse channels and touchpoints through which customers engage with financial institutions. All these changes, in the context of current market conditions, demand a paradigm shift in how organisations manage and deliver customer communications.

At its core, CCM is the linchpin that holds together a customer-centric approach in the digital age. Modern CCM platforms offer predefined communication templates, ensuring consistency and compliance across various communication channels.

They empower organisations to generate user-friendly communications, enhancing customer experience and fostering loyalty.  The output of these templates can take the form of personalised client agreements, contracts, letters, statements or other customer-facing documents.

These functionalities are one thing, but they need to seamlessly integrate with underlying customer processes and systems to streamline operations and provide scale to personalised interactions. In essence, modern CCM platforms that can do this have become the conduit through which organisations can not only communicate effectively but also enhance the entire customer journey.

In the context of new technology popping up almost every month, there may well be skepticism about investing in yet another shiny tool. This is where modern CCM differs. It is not just a technological upgrade; it’s a move with tangible business benefits. In essence, the business case for CCM implementation is not just rooted in technology; it’s a strategic imperative for organisations aspiring to exceed customer expectations.

Timely communications become a hallmark, enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction. Reduced costs, achieved through streamlined processes and the elimination of manual interventions, contribute to the overall efficiency of operations. The accuracy inherent in modern CCM not only aids in managing risks but also builds trust with customers. The ease of maintaining communications templates ensures adaptability to evolving regulatory requirements and market dynamics.

This is not to say that there aren’t costs associated with CCM implementation. There are, and while significant, they are outweighed by the long-term benefits. Business disruption costs are a temporary consideration that should be carefully managed through a well-thought-out implementation plan – which means that a South African organisation working with a dynamic CCM partner, preferably headquartered in the same country for responsiveness, is crucial.

Adopting a modern CCM platform need not be daunting. The ease of integration, coupled with smarter methods for migrating existing communications templates, ensures a smoother transition. Businesses can manage the change impact by embracing a phased approach, allowing for incremental adjustments without compromising daily operations. This comes to the fore when working with industry specialists.

In our experience, and across our various integrations, it has become apparent that modern CCM stands as a beacon guiding banking and insurance institutions towards a state where communication is not just a transaction but an experience that fosters lasting relationships and sustained business success. In today’s competitive landscape, this is worth its weight in gold.

The advent of a hyper-connected, digital world has changed the way businesses and their customers interact. Far from just “leveraging” some digital tools to make life easier for customers, it is fair to say that the modern consumer insists on interacting with companies on their own terms, and on the channel of their choice.

And with more choice than ever before, consumers are accustomed to simplicity, convenience and ease of use.

In light of this reality, it’s no surprise that the term customer experience (CX) has become increasingly important and features very highly on a business’s priority list. Businesses are being forced to tailor and reinvent their product offerings.

The difficulty arises when businesses such as banks or insurers need to communicate with thousands of customers.

Customers, especially in our digital age, hate friction, and so when designing CX, especially with regards to customer communication, businesses have little choice but to make the communication fast, accurate, relevant, clear and concise, well-designed and personalised.

The prize for those who get this right is quicker access to new revenue streams, and an opportunity for increased market share.

However, many businesses, such as insurers, banks, medical schemes, legal and financial advisory firms, must also manage and reduce risk. The inevitable impact of this has been to slow down innovation.

In light of the changes in customer behavior, businesses need to find ways to adapt to these new digital-first customer requirements, while continuing to meet their fiduciary responsibilities.

Digital transformation can be a hugely disruptive journey because of the complexity of changing systems, structures and processes. However, digital transformation should not be seen not as a massive, once-off investment, but instead as a journey of small, incremental steps.

Simply speaking, open APIs allow computer systems to talk to each other. They are widely supported and are relatively easy to work into existing IT ecosystems. In essence, this means that new and separate digital functionality can be layered on top of existing legacy systems without the need to redesign and “bake” new code into the existing back-end.

But how can knowing this help with CX?

A critical lever in improved CX is the development – incrementally, if necessary – of a digital platform for customer interaction, and ensuring that this platform can talk to back-end systems.

It is important to note the distinction between needing to rebuild or change a core legacy system, and working with a modern agile platform that can easily talk to any back-end system –  which is at the heart of a modern customer communication management (CCM) system.

A modern CCM platform, despite being able to deliver fast, accurate, personalised and well-designed communication to thousands of customers, must go a step further if CX is a priority for a business.

It must provide the flexibility to make refinements and course corrections to product rules, contracts, rates, pricing, sales, marketing messages, and even processing operations.

Here, we are not talking about a platform that requires IT staff to spend days, weeks and months coding and configuring changes into the back-end system – that would defeat the point of a good, modern and relevant CX. We are talking about a platform that allows business users sitting in the front-end of the business to make the changes quickly and easily without breaking the workflow.

A modern CCM that has CX as part of its DNA needs to have four important functionalities:

Customer-facing solutions

It must provide a personalised interface to the customer, usually through a browser or app. It must guide customers on a simplified interaction journey.

It must be able to present and gather information, and it should support e-delivery of documents and live interaction so that customers can have a conversation.

Employee-facing solutions

Business users also need a simple interface which can help them navigate the digital process. These interfaces are usually designed to reduce touches, increase collaboration between team members, and speed up business activities.

Importantly, there must be an opportunity to embed process automation in support of the digital process. IT users, on the other hand, need tools to easily map into back-end systems.

Content solutions

These are solutions which package the content delivered to customers in a way that is personalised for their specific needs. The content should be online-enabled and have the ability to include multimedia, with live links to other useful content and interactivity options.

Content should be data-rich. In other words, it should be using data to deliver personalised customer experiences, and conversely accumulate data from the customer interaction to enhance future decision-making.

Platform solutions

The first three functionalities need to work with a core system that has a simplified integration layer that communicates with the back-end systems.

It needs to be cloud-enabled for easy deployment and maintenance, and the system must allow for changes and innovation with little or no actual code.

Fast-tracking customer experience

CX is crucial to a modern business environment, and it works hand-in-hand with employee experience. This means that any organisation that seeks to bolster its customer experience needs to invest in platforms or solutions that empower and enable employees in a meaningful way, one that has a direct impact on the type of experience they give to the customers.

Over and above this, appreciating that in our digital world businesses need to communicate with hundreds and even thousands of customers instantaneously, there really is no alternative but to invest in a modern CCM platform, especially where old-paradigm document automation does not do enough in the way of improving customer experience.

Businesses would do well to consider investing in an industry standard, cloud-based CCM platform that enables organisations to engage with their customers through a leading suite of easy-to-use document creation, automation and distribution tools, which are fully integrated into core back-end systems, so that customers get fast, reliable, accurate, personalised communication on a medium of their choice, and on their terms.

FACTS about GhostDraft

GhostDraft, launched in Cape Town in 1984, was one of the pioneers of the document automation industry.

It has evolved today into an agile cloud-based solution that delivers advanced customer communications management (CCM) capabilities. The unique architecture is flexible, scalable and deployed through Microsoft Azure for rapid implementation.

GhostDraft’s intuitive technology is easy to implement, maintain and use, helping businesses in all industries to become self-sufficient and successful. GhostDraft endeavours to help companies build lasting connections with customers, making it easy for teams to create, deliver and manage communications, so they can drive engagement, efficiency and compliance.

While the concept of customer communications management (CCM) is well established in some markets such as the US, it is not yet so widely known or understood in South Africa, where we still tend to talk about the more limited notion of document automation.

This is a pity, because when businesses appreciate that a modern CCM platform can enhance their customer experience, streamline their communication processes, and ensure fast, accurate and personalised messaging to their customers, they always sit up and take notice.

This is in no way an indictment on local businesses. C-suites are understandably wary of the massive cost and time implications of new system implementations that sometimes don’t work as they should alongside legacy systems. But this is where the conversation should start: Modern CCM ecosystems have a very light footprint and don’t need to be baked into the code of their big back-end systems. That on its own is a groundbreaking paradigm shift.

Let’s take a glance at classic legacy document automation. These systems were generally one-dimensional – they solved one problem, such as how to deliver a high volume of bank statements or insurance policies. Many businesses will recognise this type of system capability.

In terms of architecture, they were intricately tied into back-end administration systems. In other words, the IP and logic around document creation were baked into the software code of big mainframe-based back-end systems.

This is where the first evolution towards a more modern CCM platform occurred. People wanted flexible, easy implementation that does not have to be molded tightly into the business’s back end. And so, modern systems such as GhostDraft have become full platforms in and of themselves; their own ecosystem, so to speak. This solved the first challenge: How to move away from massive implementations to simple, flexible solutions.

The second big evolution occurred with the introduction of natural language processing – the drag-and-drop coding of documents, or low-code solutions instead of heavy scripting.

This evolution wrested control of document design out of the IT department’s hands and placed the power firmly in the hands of business and marketing users.

Let’s be honest, IT folk hate having to “pixel push” on documents – they want them to work, and tend to care less about margin widths, fonts and colours. However, business and marketing users are responsible for protecting the integrity of an organisation’s corporate identity.

Modern CCM systems make it exponentially easier for business users to design and implement their documents – completely separate from back-end scripting.

Lastly, once CCM systems became easier to implement and put power into the hands of business users, the next evolution was inevitable. Instead of being one-dimensional in terms of the problems they solve, today’s leading CCM platforms are multi-dimensional. The solutions they provide are informed by the demands of modern customers who want a broad range of communication that is interactive, looks good, is digitised, readable, accurate and clear.

A modern CCM solution, therefore, is not one piece of software solving one problem, rather it is a full basket of different tools that are plugged into any back-end system using flexible APIs.

A business leader may well think: Great in theory, but what does this look like in practice?

One of our GhostDraft customers uses the platform to automate the production of wills and deceased estate management correspondence. The platform enables them to publish automated intelligent two-way interactions that gather relevant information The questionnaire is dynamic, with a built-in calculator to determine whether the estate will be liquid at the time of death.

This is important, because if it is not, the executor will need to liquidate assets to meet obligations before anything can be bequeathed. However, with the dynamic system, the company can raise a red flag for the customer and alert a relevant financial advisor with an opportunity to upsell a life-insurance product.

The system therefore automates the production of wills and also automates notifications to upsell products that the customer actually needs. This intelligence is built into the system.

Another one of our life insurance customers has built a function into its online portal to enable its own customers to request employee benefit statements. This insurance carrier previously had an army of workers that would produce these statements on a one-on-one basis. However, now when their customer clicks the button on their Web portal, GhostDraft takes over the automated workflow: intelligently requesting information, generating the statements, and then delivering them through a relevant channel.

Today there is a natural coalescence between CCM and customer experience management (CXM).

They are not the same thing, but they work naturally together. This means that if you are concerned about the experience of your customers then you appreciate that you must be channel agnostic.

As such, modern CCM systems need to embrace omnichannel delivery capabilities. An email is one thing, as is a printed-out document, but CCM platforms must also provide solutions that can encrypt output documents, load them into secure, password-protected microsites in the cloud, and send recipients a URL in a text or WhatsApp message.

As the concept of CCM becomes increasingly well-known, businesses would do well to seek out industry-strength platforms rather than one-dimensional pieces of code.

The key lies in engaging vendors that embody the type of intelligent ecosystem discussed in this article, along with ease of implementation, built in modern cloud-based architecture with flexible APIs and workflows.

Modern CCM turns customer communication into a strategic, intelligent engagement opportunity with the most valuable stakeholders in a business, elevating it beyond just the one-dimensional automation of documents.

Modern enterprises largely acknowledge that in the hyper competitive digital world, customers have options and remain loyal out of choice. With this in mind, it is crucial for businesses to invest in modern and agile communication tools. However, many enterprises are delaying this crucial move as they have either extended the life of their legacy systems or are enduring painfully long implementations. 

It need not be an either-or discussion. There is no need to sacrifice modern customer communication because of a legacy core system or complex digital implementation.

A modern customer communication management (CCM) system works equally as well with legacy core or modern integrated systems. Beyond this, it gives enterprises something akin to a superpower in competitiveness: Speed to market. 

Before we look at what this all means, let’s look at what CCM refers to. CCM is not well-understood in the market and for many it represents an esoteric afterthought. Nothing could be further from the truth.

According to Celent, one of the leading analysts in the market – especially for CCM and even more specifically for insurance – a modern CCM platform gives businesses the ability to produce and automate documents, the ability to integrate with existing systems, and the ability to create a workflow that automates not just the document itself but the whole flow whenever output is needed. 

That’s a good starting point to conceptualise what we are speaking about. Now, if we zoom into what facilitates speed to market, at GhostDraft we believe it is a basket of tools that includes a natural language template authoring environment, data mapping tools for integration into the business backend, document production automation through flexible workflow tools, and specialised speed-to-market tools to expedite document design, review and testing.

Consider a core system such as SAP in the retail environment or a Policy Admin System (PAS) in the insurance industry. These core systems are fundamental to the running of a business. They are characterised by all the data and information processing systems baked into them. 

With legacy and other core systems, document output was often an afterthought and then baked into the system in a way that it can’t be separated. This is the root of an enterprise’s fear or hesitation to talk about investing in modern communication tools because speed to market becomes complex, if not impossible, when considering changes to the core system.

These businesses have strong core systems with great functionality but an innate inability to make changes quickly. Beyond this, we’ve all heard horror stories about implementations taking years longer than planned.

At GhostDraft we have circumvented this challenge by creating a separation layer between the core system and the CCM system. We do this by creating a data model separate from the backend database and forward-looking documents. Doing this enables us to map data from any backend source and in any format, while enabling a customer to keep document communication outside the core system.

What does this look like in the real world? 

First, it means that companies do not have to contemplate replacing their legacy systems just because they need more modern communications. In the corporate world, the lifespan of legacy systems often gets prolonged because of the mammoth task of migrating to more modern systems.

However, this doesn’t change their pressing need to modernise their communication to be relevant with modern consumers.

The separation layer means we can create document templates with all the business rules related to the production of these templates contained within the templates themselves, rather than in the core system. Changes can be made in the document templates and need not be made in the core system.

While large enterprises embark on IT freezes at various times of the year, typically over the December holidays for instance, to make important updates and changes, what happens when there is a need to be agile, such as a change in legislation, for example? 

One of SA’s biggest banks uses GhostDraft for the production of loan agreements. A few years ago, it needed to implement changes to the legal terms and conditions listed within these agreements. The instruction came from the legal department at 11:30am one morning and affected various aspects of the loan agreements.

The template author was able to make these changes in the templates, create test documents and send them off for sign-off, immediately. The changes were uploaded onto the system and went live by 1.30pm that same afternoon.

Seniors in the bank told us that in the past, changes of that nature – which were baked into the core system – would take between six to eight weeks to implement. Two hours versus two months. The separation layer enables this speed to market. 

However, it’s not just the separation layer that breeds speed. A good data mapping tool that can convert data from any backend source, in any format, into the format needed for modern templates as part of the runtime process dramatically boosts speed to market. When changes are made to the backend database and core system, nothing needs to be changed in the templates. All that changes is the data mapping layer, making IT’s job considerably easier.

Natural language processing dramatically changes the game for business users. A customer once needed to deal with a piece of code that roughly stated: If x = 5 then insert this paragraph, else don’t. People scrambled to find the source, which was a piece of script in the backend database. Today, x = 5 does not exist.

Instead, the actual front-end users work with a natural language instruction that reads: If the house has a swimming pool, insert these terms and conditions, if not, don’t. They can use similarly easy language to make changes to templates.

It is evident that a good CCM platform must have tools that make life for IT users easier – such as an intuitive and powerful data mapping tool, and tools that make business users’ lives easier, such as natural language processing and intuitive design tools. 

Modern CCM facilitates the automated production of personalised communications so that no manual steps are required.

This automation should ideally include the insertion of data from the relevant business system, the document logic and the output delivery to the end customer in the correct format. 

This is the very definition of digital transformation and is all possible without needing to replace a legacy core system. However, once a legacy system is replaced, the CCM continues to function normally as the separation layer and data mapping tool, as explained, take care of the rest.