Customer care communications have been kick-started into an artificial intelligence application world because of a slew of calls about COVID overwhelming traditional call center operations, according to IBM. And it hasn’t just been tech companies morphing over to the AI alternatives.

“[COVID] created a lot of problems for organizations,” said Brian Loveys (pictured), director of offering management for customer and employee care applications at IBM in the data and AI division. “When the pandemic hit, immediately call centers, contact centers got flooded with calls.”

Loveys spoke with John Walls, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during IBM Think. They discussed the accelerated pace of conversational AI. (* Disclosure below.)

It’s not just phone, and it’s not just external communications

Getting the right data to insert into conversational AI is one of the principal ways IBM will be able to participate with an organization who is looking to accelerate digital transformation through AI, according to Loveys.

“You need a lot of the underlying information architecture to do that, right? You need the ability to collect the data; you need the ability to organize the data; you need the ability to build out these models or analyze the data,” he said.

He was referring to integrated platforms that IBM has on hand that he reckons are ideal for a customer service project, including those inspired by a COVID-driven informational request inundation from the public. Watson Assistant (IBM’s conversational AI) and Watson Discovery, which is its document processing AI, is among the products that could be implemented. AI search is also something he thinks folks should consider.

IBM also deals with lesser-known AI transformations.

“It’s not just really around customer service,” he said. Lead qualification and the automation of information collection can be part of conversational-style AI modernization — so, not just for phone calls.

Additionally, “it’s not always external customers. Oftentimes, it can be [for] employees,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Think. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE