APPLICATIONS
“ When done right , virtual assistants are a rare type of technology that can improve the customer experience whilst radically reducing costs ”
MICHAEL CONWAY PARTNER AND AI & ANALYTICS
PRACTICE LEADER AT IBM CONSULTING
Now , businesses are seeing the value in prioritising empathetic , human-led strategies that can provide comfort , and the innate human skills that a transactional AI chatbot simply lacks .
“ It ’ s true that consumers primarily like to speak to live agents , however , there are instances that the request is a simple one and a chatbot can direct the consumer to the right resources on a website , or send a text to the consumer that helps resolve an issue quickly ( i . e . reset your modem , code to log in to an account ), which helps accelerate the resolution of simple requests ,” says Shankar . Interestingly , Desai explains chatbots should never be used to replace a customer service team , instead , the technology should be a complementary tool and the business benefits are too immense to ignore .
“ From a business perspective , the benefit comes from the technology freeing up agents from performing routine and transactional tasks so they can focus on more complex enquiries . If the nature of the enquiry is assessed and funnelled correctly , chatbots can be part of ensuring that a customer ’ s interaction with a business is a positive experience .”
Echoing this , Conway comments : “ Ultimately , it ’ s about building an AI-led experience across the channels customers are using to provide what they need , where they are , when they need it .”
Stressing the importance of AI to the success of chatbot technology , he concludes : “ We ’ re starting to also see virtual assistants proactively reaching out to help customers in real-time . For example , if your card gets declined in a supermarket , the assistant might ping you to check if it ' s really you and then suggest ways to solve the problem , such as moving money from your savings account to your current account .”
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