AI is a powerful tool for customer experience solutions, and the results it can achieve relatively quickly are worth serious attention from any business interested in staying competitive.
By Bruce von Maltitz, CEO of 1Stream
The flipside to this is that the incredible results AI can deliver hinge on having a solid knowledge base behind it. In short, if your backend isn’t sorted, AI won’t rescue organisations’ customer experience.
As more businesses rush to automate, it’s worth pausing to keep in mind that AI is only as good as the information it draws from, which means the information your business uses to answer questions, solve problems, and ultimately, serve customers, matters more than ever before.
Of course, a great chatbot can respond to customer queries instantly. But in a scenario where it doesn’t understand the question or can’t find the answer, the end result is a frustrated customer. The same principle holds true for customer care agents. Even the most experienced team member can only hold so much company information in their head, and without access to reliable, up-to-date information, they can be just as limited as the bot.
The challenge for most businesses is that information lives everywhere. In emails, spreadsheets, manuals, policy documents, call notes, and in people’s heads. Trying to build AI on top of this scattered environment is no small feat, but it does illustrate why bringing disparate information together into a structured knowledge base is foundational to successful AI implementation.
What a knowledge base really is (and why it matters)
Think of your knowledge base as the collective memory of your business. It’s a critical support tool for bots or agents, but its role is actually much bigger: a business’s knowledge base becomes the central hub that helps organisations stay consistent and customer-focused.
In fact, the very concept of a knowledge base is evolving. Traditionally seen as a static repository of documents, FAQs, and policies, today’s most effective knowledge systems are dynamic, AI-powered engines that continuously learn from real interactions. By analysing historical customer conversations, which include the thousands of questions agents have already answered, businesses can surface valuable patterns and insights.
This unstructured information, once difficult to access or apply, is transformed into intelligent data that supports both automation and human agents to deliver faster, more consistent responses and service across every channel. The result is AI that works smarter and employees who are more empowered.
CX questions and opportunities
Many businesses leap into automation without first defining what they’re trying to improve. Someone decides, “We need a chatbot,” and suddenly a tool is deployed, but without the processes, systems, or data to support it. The truth is that technology alone can’t fix fragmented journeys or inconsistent service. Before investing in AI, organisations should ask the following: What are the real customer journeys we want to support? Do we have the information to power those journeys? Is our data centralised, consistent, and up to date?
Without a doubt, the CX opportunity is here now. AI is ready and customers are ready for AI. But to unlock the full value, your backend needs to be just as smart as your tech. It starts with good data. It scales with structured knowledge. And it succeeds when human and machine work together rather than apart.
Organisations looking to build CX systems that are AI-ready and future-ready, need partners who understand this balance. The good news is, building a structured knowledge base does not have to be a monumental task. 1Stream’s approach is to build fit-for-purpose CX ecosystems that are powered by an intelligent knowledge base, which is created by analysing your company’s existing data.