The demand for virtual assistance in today’s business world is necessity driven. Digitization and virtualization have become pertinent for every company based on unprecedented changes in the business and technological landscapes. Earlier, the shortage of options rendered all businesses dependent on the traditional ways. With limited options, organizations were not able to adopt better ways of doing things. However, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has actualized every organization’s opportunities to operate in ways that weren’t imaginable even a decade ago. AI has revolutionized the workplace. One of the breakthroughs of AI is the Virtual Assistant (VA), the most relevant technology in the backdrop of globalization, multinationalism, and competition. With these new norms, AI-driven VAs have made handling multiple tasks at multiple locations across various platforms possible. VAs can comprehend and converse with humans in a way that feels as though there is a human at the other end. Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) enable VAs to learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with minimal human interaction. Smart VAs powered by ML and NLP enable employees to perform multiple tasks with minimal efforts, one of the fundamental reasons for VAs’ success.
Conversational AI for Crisis Management
The current pandemic has further emphasized the need for digital technologies and services. The shift to remote and virtual workforces has affected all organizations across industry domains. AI’s role cannot be underscored enough to prepare organizations to run remotely during these crises or any other unforeseen events. Businesses are digitizing and automating, not just to achieve operational efficiencies as previously understood but also to minimize disruptions.
During the present COVID times, companies faced massive customer demands while working with fewer employees and reduced hours. The shutdown affected the workforce, supply chains, and customers and affected the customer experience badly when it was most required. The situation provides an opportunity to realize how technology is pertinent in combatting the adverse effects during any crisis.
Today we see governments using AI technology to provide immediate assistance to people regarding information and support within the country and outside when citizens are stranded. Government agencies have to interact with airlines to assist necessary travels, and airlines have to help other customers cancel flights due to unforeseen circumstances. Conversational AI alleviates the holdups by resolving issues automatically and transforms customer and employee touchpoints into profound communications.
Omnichannel Customer Service using AI-driven Virtual Assistants
In today’s ecosystem, customers are tech-savvy and have numerous options that shape their expectations toward consistent experiences when using various channels or devices. Organizations must support multichannel customer engagement via web, voice, email within a single interaction, failure to which leads to information repetition and gaps, fragmented communication, and customer discontent. AI-driven VAs make Omnichannel customer service possible through seamless support across multiple touchpoints between a prospect or customer and a product or service provider. The interaction is quick, accurate, and time-independent that no human can deliver. Through omnichannel customer service, companies have satisfied customers and the employees that can focus on more value-adding business activities.
Overcoming Language Barriers
Machine translation has improved considerably over the past five years. According to Google research, Google Translate’s score jumped from a mere 3.6 to a 5, out of 6, in just one year. ML has brought down the language barrier between various languages. The results reflect in global trade, and the first ones that need to catch up are the corporations and businesses that want to benefit from the opportunities and tackle the challenges.
Multilingual VAs help organizations to provide a better customer experience by allowing communication in the language of choice. Overcoming language barriers offer great opportunities in e-commerce. Small sellers can access global markets. According to a Common Sense Advisory survey, organizations that could communicate with international customers were 2.67 times more likely to increase their sales than those that could not. ML-driven VAs can distinguish between various accents and semantics, making conversations more engaging and meaningful.
Conversational AI-assisted Customer 360 view
Customer 360 is a buzz word in the business world for good reasons. The idea is to build a complete and accurate depiction of a customer by aggregating each customer’s structured and unstructured data across an organization. Customer 360 helps an organization recognize a customer or prospect across all interaction channels to provide the best, relevant, and engaging experience.
The role of conversational AI is crucial in this journey. The best way to understand a customer or a prospect is to converse with him/her meaningfully. Gathering and storing information and providing intelligent and personalized experience every time is an integral part of the 360 view journey.
Intelligent VAs help to ensure that organizations have recent and accurate data about a customer collected when they prefer to interact. When the same customer revisits, the previous information is already available for a starting point, and the customer gets a seamless experience. Collection and grouping of customer information help develop customer behavioral models for more accurate insights and predictive analytics and mapping. Merging data across channels provides a thorough understanding of customer journeys.
Conclusion
The use of AI across various spheres of human life suggests that we are taking leaps toward the digital and automated future. Industry experts are unanimous of the opinion that technology is transforming how businesses operate. AI-assisted solutions drive this change seamlessly and ensure effective, accurate, and timely resolutions like never before.
Conversational AI delivers opportunities and outcomes during boom and uncertain times. The need for AI-based solutions is becoming more and more relevant, and the ones that recognize and leverage the current trends are the ones that will stay on top.