Personalize Customer Interaction at Scale with Conversational AI

Most of us have used messaging apps and chatbots on websites to ask questions or get issues resolved. Such apps, assistants and chatbots that automate communication are powered by conversational AI.

As the number of people using messengers on social media platforms and voice-enabled assistants grows, conversational AI will assume greater importance as it enables businesses to create personalized customer experiences at scale by simulating human conversation and natural language through text or audio messages. Gartner predicts that by 2021, AI will be used to handle 15% of all customer service interactions, a 400% increase from 2017.

Engage at scale

Although chatbots and conversational AI are used interchangeably, conversational AI is a wider term, which also encompasses voice bots and voice&text assistants. Chatbots, on the other hand, have a text-only connotation.

At the heart of the conversational AI is words, which form the basis for an interactive, two-way communication. It understands words and sentences to engage with the audience and promotes greater engagement with target audiences. It also provides alternate communication channels to customers that allow them to get instant, personalized response. Since these are device-agnostic, customers can interact at a time and place of their convenience. However, the standout benefit of conversational AI is its ability to personalize the conversation with multiple users simultaneously. This results in lower operating costs and reduced response times—so critical in customer services.

With messaging replacing traditional forms of communications across multiple platforms, websites, and apps, users are already familiar with conversational AI. Since it is helping make communication more functional and secure, conversational AI is enabling users to make purchases through voice interfaces. According to VoiceBot.ai, one in five (20%) consumers have shopped using voice-enabled digital assistants while one in four (25%) users who own smart speakers have used them for commerce.

The way forward

The technology fueling the sophistication of these messaging bots is artificial intelligence. With the democratization of artificial intelligence, more and more companies will be able to develop and deploy affordable yet increasingly complex bots that feature better contextual understanding of the spoken word.

Given the increased market adoption, there is a surge in the number of startups devoted to further developing the messaging bots. Large tech companies are also investing significantly and acquiring specialized startups to strengthen their efforts towards market leadership.

The article has been written by Neetu Katyal, Content and Marketing Consultant

She can be reached on LinkedIn.