Maintaining a seamless and personalised customer experience has become a key strategic challenge. With the rise of generative AI and advanced digital tools, there is a strong temptation to seek performance solely through automation. However, the customer experience is not merely about automated workflows: it is also shaped by those moments when human interaction makes all the difference.
In the CX Armatis & Vous episode, Christian Garcia, Deputy Director of Development at Franfinance, highlights a key concept: intelligent automation. In his view, striking the right balance between what is automated and the need for human involvement in the most complex management tasks will be one of the major challenges for customer journeys in the future.
What is intelligent automation?
Intelligent automation is not about replacing humans with machines. It aims to simplify and speed up repetitive or predictable interactions, free up advisers so they can focus on complex, high-value-added cases, and make the customer journey smoother and more consistent, even at scale.
This approach draws on technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation. It analyses data in real time, understands the context of enquiries and tailors responses accordingly. It applies to all channels: telephone, email, chat, digital apps and customer portals. Solutions such as SquAire Interaction provide a concrete example of this approach: centralising interactions, automating responses and managing them in real time from a single AI-enhanced platform.
The aim is simple: to ensure that every interaction is relevant and effective, regardless of the volume.
Customer journeys that prioritise independence
Christian Garcia emphasises the importance of integrating automation directly into customer journeys, particularly for financial services or credit access, where certain steps can be automated to speed up the process, self-service options enabling customers to carry out certain tasks themselves without compromising on quality, and intelligent tracking of enquiries using systems capable of recognising the nature of a request and proposing the most appropriate solution.
This approach to customer empowerment lies at the heart of the current CX transformation. The case of BPCE Financement and Armatis provides a concrete example of this: an AI-driven orchestration engine designed to personalise every customer interaction, resulting in a 30 per cent increase in turnover, whilst maintaining a service that is 100 per cent based in France.
Three operational levers for rolling out intelligent automation
For marketing, customer experience and customer relations departments, intelligent automation is based on three key pillars.
Map out repetitive interactions. Identify areas where AI can deliver real benefits without compromising the user experience. This is an essential prerequisite for any technological roll-out; start with the use case, not the technology.
Put people where they make a difference. Reserve human intervention for complex or emotionally charged cases. An adviser trained in handling sensitive situations can defuse a situation that a bot can only make worse. Our article ‘AI and customer relations: should we automate or humanise?’ explores this tipping point in detail.
Continuously measure and adjust. Monitor satisfaction metrics, first-contact resolution rates and the effectiveness of automated workflows. These levers do not necessarily require new technologies, but rather rigour in management and discipline in the design of customer journeys. Live chat and conversational AI provide an ideal platform for this type of real-time measurement.
AI delivering a premium customer experience
When implemented effectively, intelligent automation increases customer satisfaction by providing fast, accurate and personalised responses; boosts operational efficiency by automating repetitive tasks; enables advisers to focus on creating value; and fosters customer engagement through tailored self-service options.
This hybrid model – AI for simple cases, human-assisted solutions for complex ones – is also championed by Martin Dufourcq, Managing Director of Armatis Technology, in his analysis *Customer Relations: Is AI the Only Thing That Matters?*: the challenge is not to automate everything, but to find the right level of integration to benefit both the customer and the adviser.
Armatis supports its clients in this process by jointly developing hybrid journeys where technology and people work together. Discover our expertise in customer experience.
Conclusion
Intelligent automation is not an end in itself, but a means of improving the customer experience whilst optimising human resources. Striking the right balance between AI and humans will be one of the major challenges of the coming years, and this balance cannot be imposed; it must be built together, interaction by interaction.
To find out more, watch the full episode featuring Christian Garcia on ‘CX Armatis & Vous’.
This article was originally published on Armatis’s LinkedIn page.
