There has been a rise in the implementation of Conversational AI as an essential element of businesses after the advent of Covid-19 pandemic. It has changed the way in which people interact with a brand. In the last one year, businesses went through a major transformation to match the expectations of customers and meet their requirements. They are not left with any other option except becoming technically advanced seeing the current situation. The global Conversational AI market size reached USD 4.91 billion in 2020 and is expected to register a CAGR of 22.6% during the forecast period 2020 to 2028.

In fact, five years ago some industry experts had predicted the importance of Conversational AI for businesses. According to them, Conversational AI powered chatbots is as important for a company as having its own website. The strategic importance of Conversational AI is undeniable. “By creating a frictionless user experience that increases customer engagement, businesses can grow brand differentiation with fast, intuitive interactions” says Ankush Sabharwal, Founder & CEO, CoRover.   

Choice of Choosing Channels

Conversational AI allows businesses to deliver a seamless omni-channel retail experience which was not possible earlier. This integration into back end systems and processes ensure that customers can carry out the same kind of activity which they get on a website or calling a call centre without any hassle.

Recently, Italy’s premier online bank adapted Conversational AI in its daily tasks with the help of which customers can wander around the virtual branch and get all the necessary help from assistant. So, it can be said that Conversational AI allows organisations to divert inbound queries away from resource intensive channels to engage with customers on their terms.

Provides Human like Interaction

The interaction process by Conversational AI can be very easy, be it product inquiry, price conformation or submitting any form. With the help of chatbots, everything can be handled easily and it has reduced the burden of customer support staff. Conversational AI has created a smooth experience for the customers and increased brand engagement.

It has enabled the organisations to build an effective customer support system that is available 24/7 and helps the customers in solving their queries from anywhere anytime. Through Conversational AI, organisations collect data of customers which can be further analysed to provide better services to the customer in future.

Analyzing the Data

Conversational AI has features like data analytics through which it can capture and interpret the conversations. Based on those conversations, it can tell the business houses about what customers think about their product, whether they are happy with their services or not. These insights can be proved very helpful for the growth of businesses. On the basis of this analysed data, they can make better decisions by providing a personalized touch to the conversation.  

Another major advantage of data analysis is that the interaction between the brand and the customer enables the companies to save their service costs. Also, the time taken by them to resolve the queries of customers can be reduced over a period of time.

Provides Self Service

Conversational AI provides the option of self service to customers through which they can perform the tasks without depending on anyone else. Virtual Assistants has taken self-service to a whole new level where customers need no human intervention and can get their day to day tasks done with the help of chatbots. The most recent example of this is seen in hospitals where patients can book their appointment; get their reports, date of next visit (if required) all by themselves.

Personalized Experience

Conversational AI helps in offering personalized experience to every user as the chatbots recall the previous conversation happened with the user and hence responds to the query in a more efficient manner. This has become possible because these chatbots make sure that their interaction has human touch associated with it. Virtual Assistants has the ability to offer personalized experience as it has previous conversation data recordings stored in its memory. Because of these data recordings, it knows about the complete information of the person with whom it is interacting such as name, gender, age, location, even some basic habits as well.

The most common example of personalized experience can be seen in online shopping websites where products are served on the user’s screen as per their purchase history or as per the data from their search history.

Multiple Language Options

The most important and highlighted feature of Conversational AI is that it provides language option as per the convenience of customers. Customers can select the language in which they are comfortable, ask their queries and get their answers in that particular language. Experts believe that this language option can take Conversational AI to remote areas as well in the coming days.

The Way Forward

Nobody has ever thought in their mind that in the midst of this unprecedented time of pandemic, there will be an opportunity waiting for business houses. Through proper understanding, keeping the customers priorities in front and meeting their expectations, companies can leverage the Conversational AI in a proper manner and can turn this technology as the backbone of their business.