AI for workforce management: Uses, benefits, and challenges

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It seems like everybody is talking about artificial intelligence (AI). Adoption of this technology continues to increase dramatically, with 65% of organizations regularly using generative AI.

While AI is gaining steam across the board, AI-powered solutions have found a lot of focus and popularity in customer support. According to our research, 70% of support teams planned to leverage AI in 2024. And, from chatbots to call routing to data analysis, much of the conversation about AI focuses on customer-facing use cases for these AI tools.

But this is important to note: While AI can improve your customer experience in many meaningful ways, it can be just as powerful in improving your employee experience. That’s one of the many benefits of AI workforce management.

How is AI used in workforce management?

Before you can understand how AI is applied to workforce management, you first need to understand the basics: what exactly is workforce management?

Workforce management (often abbreviated WFM) is the process of developing systems to ensure you have the right agents in the right place at the right time in your contact center. It involves developing forecasts and understanding your employee availability so you can use that information to manage your resource allocation and make better staffing decisions.

AI for workforce management automates aspects of this process so you can improve your workforce planning and management while also increasing your operational efficiency. Put simply, rather than manually reviewing historical data or creating accurate forecasts, AI uses large datasets and machine learning to do some of the work for you.

That’s the gist, but there are a lot of different applications of AI for workforce management. Here’s a closer look at some of the most common ones.

Forecasting

By analyzing historical data, market trends, and external factors like economic conditions or industry shifts, AI algorithms can predict periods of high or low demand for your support team. This gives you a clearer idea of how many agents you need to meet that expected demand.

Predictive analytics

Reacting to changes isn’t enough to run an efficient and effective support team. Today’s workforce managers need to be a step ahead. Predictive analytics help by anticipating workforce trends like employee turnover, staffing shortages, or changes in productivity.

Scheduling

AI-driven workforce management tools can analyze employee availability, workload patterns, and demand forecasts to create optimized schedules for your support team.

Performance reporting

AI can generate real-time metrics and reports on employee performance so that you can track productivity, identify trends, and offer detailed feedback to help agents improve.

Employee engagement

AI tools will analyze employee feedback and sentiment to suggest initiatives to help you improve morale and engagement. Additionally, more strategic workforce planning means agents are less likely to feel stressed and spread thin. Less burnout and better work-life balance help improve your employee engagement and retention.

From reviewing data to creating schedules, effective workforce management can be a pretty tedious and time-consuming undertaking. AI-powered workforce management software will automate routine tasks and streamline workflows so you can make better, faster, and more informed decisions that benefit your team and your overall user experience.

What are the benefits of adopting AI for workforce management?

It’s normal to be a little wary of AI’s role in customer support. But, reservations aside, adopting AI for workforce management offers several compelling benefits that are more than worth the AI hype:

Increased efficiency: From automating repetitive tasks to making it faster and easier to surface the insights you need, more efficiency and productivity are some of the biggest advantages of AI.
More accurate schedules: AI can quickly and easily analyze call volumes, agent availability, and historical trends to generate accurate forecasts and optimize agent schedules accordingly.
Lower operational costs: Accurate forecasting and staffing mean you can maintain your service quality while also reducing unnecessary labor costs. While AI workforce management solutions have a price attached, a good one will lead to cost savings.
Proactive problem-solving: With predictive analytics and access to a huge breadth of data, you can identify and address potential issues (like understaffing or workload imbalances) before they snowball.
Better agent retention: 88% of call center professionals agree that burnout is one of the industry’s biggest challenges. More intelligent scheduling and workforce planning means less stress and burnout for agents — which translates to better employee satisfaction and increased retention.

All of the above benefits are enticing, but they all ladder up to the biggest benefit of all: an improved customer experience. AI for workforce management helps you make speedy and accurate staffing decisions. And, having the right agents in the right place at the right time means shorter wait times and more helpful support for your customers.

What are the challenges of using AI for workforce management?

Much like any other advancement, AI in customer support isn’t without its potential hiccups. Here are a few challenges and downsides to be aware of as you explore using AI for your own workforce management:

Data privacy: For AI to function well, it needs a lot of employee, customer, and organizational data. That can introduce concerns about data security and privacy, particularly if you work in an industry with strict compliance requirements.
Evolving regulations: Similarly, AI is relatively new — which means regulations and ethical considerations are rapidly changing. When you decide to use AI, it’s your responsibility to stay up-to-date on regulations and address issues related to AI transparency and accountability.
Data bias: AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on. If your data contains biases (which is surprisingly common, with 65% of organizations struggling with data bias), AI can perpetuate or even worsen those biases.
Complex implementation: Deploying AI for workforce management will require an investment in time and resources. Plus, it can be met with resistance from agents who feel uneasy about technology replacing humans on your team. From integrating AI with your existing systems to providing thorough training to addressing concerns, the implementation process can be challenging and time-consuming.
Cost barriers: While many AI solutions promise eventual cost savings, they can be expensive to implement and maintain. Smaller companies in particular might struggle to see significant ROI from AI investments.

And, when it comes to your customer experience, the jury is still out on whether AI is a benefit or a barrier. Customers' perceptions of AI in customer support are quickly changing but, according to a recent Gartner survey, 64% of customers still admit that they’d prefer companies not to use AI in their customer service interactions.

Fortunately, AI for workforce management focuses primarily on back-of-the-house tasks and functions that your customers don’t directly interact with. Using AI for your workforce planning and management can be a great first foray into the world of AI, without immediately pushing this technology onto your end users and customers.

How Assembled can help

Ready to take the leap into AI for workforce management but aren’t sure where to get started? Assembled Assist is an AI-powered solution designed to simplify your operations, enhance your agent productivity, and elevate your customer experience. You’ll find:

Automated ticket resolution: With generative AI, you can automatically resolve tickets in a single touch (while always adhering to your custom style guide for a cohesive experience).
Suggested replies: Assembled Assist will auto-draft replies using an integrated knowledge base and your brand voice. Need to modify a reply? You can do so in just one click.
Streamlined workflows: Build smarter workflows with seamless integrations and customizable automations, so you and your team can spend less time on repetitive tasks.
Actionable insights: Access clear data visualizations and real-time insights to make better business decisions about staffing, agent development, and more.