The trend of integrated AI customer service centers is also spreading to small and medium-sized businesses.

The “Integrated AI Customer Center for SMEs” recently launched by The White Communications (TWC) is attracting attention.

As digital transformation accelerates, the customer service landscape is rapidly changing. In particular, rising labor costs, difficulties securing customer service personnel, and issues with uniform customer response quality are leading to a reevaluation of existing customer service operation methods. A "subscription-based AI-based customer service operation model" that can be implemented without large-scale upfront investment is emerging as a new alternative.

In the past, AI customer service centers were largely the preserve of large corporations. This was due to the initial cost of hundreds of millions of won, the requirement for separate IT infrastructure, and the need for AI development personnel. However, the recent emergence of SaaS-based AI customer services offered on a monthly subscription basis is creating an environment where even small and medium-sized businesses can operate AI-based customer service centers without financial burden.

Transforming AI Customer Service Without Massive Investment

Existing on-premise customer service systems require high initial costs and long-term contracts, including server infrastructure construction, solution license purchases, custom development, and maintenance personnel. In contrast, subscription-based AI models offer the following distinct advantages: minimal initial deployment costs (monthly subscription fees), immediate cloud-based implementation, operation without separate AI development staff, and a gradual feature expansion structure. Companies can selectively apply necessary features, such as chatbots, callbots, consultation assistants, real-time summarization, VOC analysis, and automatic tagging, tailored to their specific needs. A key strength is the ability to flexibly expand functionality to meet rapidly changing service environments, minimizing IT investment risk.

Reduce customer center operating costs by up to 50%

The biggest benefit of AI-based customer service is cost savings through improved operational efficiency.

According to industry sources, repetitive and simple inquiries often account for 40-70% of all consultations. If AI were to automatically handle these areas, the workload on counselors would be significantly reduced, allowing them to focus on more complex and high-value-added consultations. This could reduce customer center operating costs by up to 50% by increasing the rate of automated processing of simple inquiries, increasing the number of cases handled per counselor, reducing call and post-processing times, automating consultation summaries and records, and establishing a 24/7 response system. This also allows the same staff to serve more customers. In industries with high counselor turnover, this also has positive effects in terms of reduced training costs and work standardization.

"The latest AI technology that continuously evolves at the same cost."

Another competitive advantage of the subscription-based AI model is that it automatically reflects the ongoing evolution of technology. Existing on-premise systems required separate development projects and additional costs for functional enhancements or AI model upgrades. However, with the subscription-based SaaS model, platform-level technological improvements are applied simultaneously to all customers. Companies can leverage the latest AI capabilities without additional costs, reducing the burden of technological gaps and securing long-term competitiveness.

"Small and medium-sized businesses will also begin to adopt AI-based customer centers as a core operational strategy."

An official from The White Communications said, “The recent interest of small and medium-sized enterprise customer centers is not simply the introduction of AI functions, but rather the improvement of actual operational performance and innovation of cost structures.” He explained, “The integrated AI customer center is an operating model that integrates chatbots, callbots, consultation assistance, summaries, and VOC analysis into a single subscription structure, and can be expanded in stages without separate large-scale investments.”

He continued, “Going forward, the AICC market will shift beyond simple technological competition and focus on integrated SaaS models that can demonstrate actual operational efficiency and performance.” He added, “Small and medium-sized enterprises will also begin adopting AI as a core operational strategy rather than an option.”

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