Forethought sees better customer support via OpenAI-powered SupportGPT

San Francisco-based customer service AI and support company Forethought has launched SupportGPT, a generative AI platform that automates workflows, allowing customer service teams to focus on more value-adding tasks.

The move is part of a general industry surge to streamline customer support with the latest generative AI technology. Call centers are now an AI target, with Gartner analysts predicting potential savings of up to $80 billion by 2026 if call centers switch to AI-powered chatbots.

Forethought seeks to combine OpenAI’s technology with its own proprietary generative AI capabilities to streamline the customer support experience. It will take customer support to a new level, according to Deon Nicholas, CEO and cofounder at Forethought.

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“This will move the industry toward a “Level 5” AI customer experience. That means coherent, human-centered responses from systems like ChatGPT, combined with the efficiency and accuracy of Forethought, all fine-tuned on our customers’ data,” Nicholas said.

The new capabilities of SupportGPT include human-like empathetic conversations, automated workflow discovery, complete agent responses, gap detection and content generation. 

As well, bot creation will be more readily available to end users. That is because Forethought has introduced the SupportGPT Playground, which allows individuals to train their own SupportGPT bot using their help center in a matter of minutes.

For Nicholas, the OpenAI endorsement comes after years of tracking the AI trendline. He founded Forethought in 2018 to pursue AI specifically designed for customer service support automation.

Like many, his first foray into customer service began with a retail position.

His first job was as a merchandiser in customer service at a local pharmacy called Shoppers Drug Mart. During his high school years, he developed an AI-based learning tool that helped him read and understand his history notes and quizzed him before tests. Nicholas’s interest in AI-based learning continued into his college years, and ultimately he founded Forethought with a primary focus on customer support. Today that means using generative AI powered by large language models (LLMs) to enhance the customer support experience at every stage.

Today, the platform helps automate answers to common questions across channels with generative AI (Solve), instantly enrich cases with sentiment and intent, then prioritize and route (Triage), ramp agents faster and empower them with relevant knowledge and suggestions (Assist) and optimize with recommended workflows, content and analytics to maximize ROI (Discover).

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