Introduction

Digital Humans bring a human-like, emotionally connected customer experience to the highly automated digital world. Let’s explore how a digital human could become your new colleague and what your organization should prepare for while considering the implementation of a digital human into the workforce.

Is Digital Human the Solution You Need?

Digital humans have become one of the best tools to provide instantaneous information through voice-driven interaction while delivering a more personal conversation than a chatbot without the need for human intervention. In general, people find digital humans more engaging than only voice assistants [¹], companies have recorded a significant increase in user satisfaction compared to a chatbot [²], and more than two-thirds of people are willing to disclose personal information to digital humans – in person-to-person interactions, the willingness to open up is comparably lower according to the current research [³].

Digital Humans thus provide the human approach clients are seeking as well as a response speed that matches their expectations. Organizations and their contact centers are, at the same time, able to take care of more interactions in the same period of time without having to increase the number of employees. Additionally, virtual assistants in the form of Digital Humans and therefore the customer experience processes themselves, are easily integratable with the forthcoming AI tools that will further increase satisfaction of your clients with more precise and complex interactions without raising your operational costs [⁴].

Consider Potential Barriers

Before implementing a digital human, you should, however, consider the questions of desirability, feasibility, and the potential value of such an investment for your organization. There might be potential barriers, including financial determinants, environment suitability, and client and employee readiness, preventing the digital human from being the most suitable solution for your company. It is important to make sure that the given tool will be advantageous for your clients, customers or patients while not being perceived as a threat for the workers, volunteers, or other members of your organization. For instance, Wendy, a digital human introduced at a Dutch care service provider Omring, has proved to be a valuable addition to their organization as she was able to answer general questions about Covid-19, using validated sources, such as the RIVM website. The introduction of Digital Human to the Omring’s ‘team’ has thus simplified an otherwise time-consuming process for patients, while allowing the organization’s members to focus on supporting patients with more complex questions.

Understand the Benefits

Depending on your objectives, Digital Humans will bring a whole set of benefits to you and your organization from saving time for your employees and allowing them to focus on less repetitive tasks, to enabling your customers or patients to become more independent and receive support when other staff members are not available. Data privacy issues will be more easily avoided than when working with volunteers, language barriers will be eliminated, and your patients or customers will become more open when disclosing sensitive information. The Swedish prototype digital therapist Betsy and the related research is a great example of potential benefits digital humans can yield. She has succeeded in creating an emotional connection with patients and has shown the potential for digital humans in the healthcare industry [⁵]. Further studies conducted in the United States have subsequently confirmed that the rate of disclosure to a virtual therapist is twice as high, compared to the chat and real humans [⁶].

Explore Existing Enablers

Your organization might already be halfway there towards successfully implementing a digital human. You might already possess all the necessary information, have an existing chatbot functionality or a GCP environment. In terms of a client base, both highly digitally savvy customers (or patients) and those with low literacy levels represent a desired target group since digital humans provide a simplification of otherwise more complex digital world while they are attractive for people keen on technological developments.

Additional signs suggesting an introduction of a digital human will be beneficial for your organization include a regular use of standardized forms, calls for stronger brand experience or a need for more human-like interactions and connections at scale.

However, none of the existing enablers are prerequisites for implementing a Digital Human in your organization. At Deloitte, we work together with our clients on identifying how a Digital Human can be the right fit for them as we deep-dive into our Design Sprint process. As a result, a Digital Human prototype can be finalized for your organization in less than 8 weeks.

Conclusion

Importance of a Design Sprint

Digital Humans present a tremendous opportunity for organizations seeking to enhance customer experiences and increase efficiency. To ensure a successful integration of Digital Humans into the workforce, it is crucial to engage in a comprehensive Discovery Design Sprint process that is tailored to meet your organization’s unique requirements. This process involves identifying departments that could benefit from a Digital Human, prioritizing use cases, and developing value propositions in partnership with key stakeholders. We will collaborate to determine the emotional and physical characteristics of each Digital Human for every use case, and present the top value proposition to department heads for selection. Finally, we will create a draft prototype based on the winning proposition, test it with real end-users to gather feedback, and make necessary improvements. By taking these steps, organizations can confidently integrate Digital Humans into their operations and enjoy the benefits of improved customer satisfaction

Curious to hear more about our Discovery Design Sprint? Our next article will delve into the topic in more detail! This is the starting point of a comprehensive series, in which we will zoom into how to make your organization ready for a Digital Human, the impact of ChatGPT and similar technologies on the use and the implementation of Digital Humans as well as many other exciting topics. We encourage you to follow along, stay connected and become a Digital Human expert yourself!

Footnotes

1. UneeQ. (2021). What are Digital Humans? A Giant Leap in Brand & Customer Experience. The Global Standard for Digital Humans. Accessible from: https://insights.digitalhumans.com/what-are-digital-humans. ↩

2. Bellan, R. (February 14, 2022). Are Lifelike Humans the Future of Customer Experience?. TechCrunch. Accessible from: https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/14/are-lifelike-digital-humans-the-future-of-customer-experience/. ↩

3. Lucas, G. M., Gratch, J., King, A., & Morency, L.-P. (2014). It’s only a computer: Virtual humans increase willingness to disclose. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 94-100. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.04.043 ↩

4. Deloitte. (2020). Next Generation Customer Service 5 Trends shaping the future of customer care in 2020. Accessible from: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/nl/Documents/technology/deloitte-nl-next-generation-customer-service-433846-next-gen-service-point-of-view-article-3.pdf. ↩

5. Berglund, H. (December 29, 2021). Chatboten Betsy ska erbjuda terapisamtal. SVT. Accessible from: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/chatboten-betsy-ska-erbjuda-terapisamta. ↩

6. Jones, C., Miguel-Cruz, A., Smith-MacDonald, L., Cruikshank, E., Baghoori, D., Kaur Chohan, A., Laidlaw, A., White, A., Cao, B., Agyapong, V., Burback, L., Winkler, O., Sevigny, P. R., Dennett, L., Ferguson-Pell, M., Greenshaw, A., Brémault-Phillips, S. (2020). Virtual Trauma-Focused Therapy for Military Members, Veterans, and Public Safety Personnel with Posttraumatic Stress Injury: Systematic Scoping Review. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth, 21, 8(9): e22079. doi:10.2196/22079 ↩