Senti AI, a local artificial intelligence (AI) company, in collaboration with Google Cloud, is aiming to help contact centers manage call volumes as demand for support services in multiple sectors and industries continues to rise.

Ralph Vincent Regalado, founder and CEO of Senti AI, said that since contact center companies helped keep the country’s economy afloat amid the pandemic, ensuring that the industry is up-to-date and ready for the worst is “obviously the next step.”

“We’ve seen companies struggle to keep up with the demand since last year,” Regalado said. “It has cost them a lot: agents are burnt out and they’re struggling to keep up with calls. If we have the capability to alleviate the problems and make things easier, then why not?”

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Regalado emphasized that the Philippines has the technology to address these challenges noting that while some countries were the first to adopt AI, it is the ability to perfectly serve the needs of its users that matter most.

“In this case, as a country rich in multiple languages, we’d need a solution that understands Filipinos best,” he said.

Google Cloud

Last April 22, Google Cloud recognized Senti AI as a breakthrough partner out of over 30 partners they currently have in the Philippines. Senti AI is also one of the first companies in the Philippines to be recognized as a conversational design and contact center AI (CCAI) integration expert for Google Cloud.

“We’re pleased to work with Senti AI to help enterprises leverage Contact Center AI to deliver AI-driven customer service interactions and increase customer satisfaction,” said Ferdie Saputil, lead, Google Cloud in the Philippines.”

Senti AI and Google Cloud’s CCAI project helped a leading Philippine bank manage its rising call volumes months into the general community quarantine last year. Senti AI’s Google Cloud-powered voice AI solution, Voix, allowed the bank’s voice bot to handle low-level and repetitive queries, leaving more complicated customer concerns for human agents to address.

Senti AI’s CCAI expertise is already on top of its Machine Learning (ML) and ML Application Programming Interface expertise.

The company also received recognition as Google Cloud experts in providing services for the Financial Services and Global Public sectors for its work with the Department of Health (DOH) and the Manila City Government.

AI as reinforcement, not replacement

Despite the rapid digital transformation organizations have gone through in the past year, Regalado said that AI is not here to cause job displacement for millions of contact center employees.

“What we’re aiming for is to have companies — regardless of the industries they’re in — to achieve better results and provide better services to clients through the help of AI,” he said. “Adopting AI technologies does not mean getting rid of human agents. What we need is to retrain and upskill our workers so they can seamlessly work hand-in-hand with technology,” Regalado said.

“Chatbots and voice bots are very much capable of handling repetitive tasks, so this means humans can focus on more meaningful and impactful work. We owe it to our contact center agents to make sure they don’t get left behind in our pursuit for progress,” he said.