Four Ways AI Is Improving the Customer Experience

As one of the leading trends in technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to gain popularity among marketers and sales professionals, and has become an essential tool for brands wanting to deliver an exceptional and hyper-customized customer experience.

The availability of AI-enhanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Data Platform (CDP) software has significantly reduced costs previously associated with the technology.

A report on the future of work indicated that 39% of IT leaders are currently using AI or machine learning, 33% said they expect to use Artificial Intelligence in the next three years and 19% are confident to use it within five years.

Four Ways AI Is Improving the Customer Experience

1) AI Facilitates a Better Understanding of the Customer

The combination of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to collect and analyze social, historical and behavioral data enables brands to gain a much more accurate understanding of their customers. Unlike traditional data analytics software, AI continuously learns and improves from the data it analyzes and is able to anticipate customer behavior. This enables brands to provide highly relevant content, increase sales opportunities, and improve the customer journey.

CRM platforms such as Salesforce have integrated Artificial Intelligence to provide functionalities such as real-time decision-making, predictive analytics and conversation assistants, among others, that help sales teams to more easily understand and engage their customers. CDPs like Amperity have also integrated AI into traditional customer data platform elements to unify customer data and provide real-time and decision functionality for marketers, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of what users want, how they feel and what they are likely to do.

2) Real-time Decision-Making and Predictive Behavior Analysis

Real-time decision-making is defined as the ability to make a decision based on the most recent data available, such as that of the current interaction that a customer has with a company.

Real-time decision-making can be used for more effective marketing to customers. An example of this is identifying customers who use ad blockers and providing them with alternative information unit components that can continue to attract them. Another is personalized recommendation, which are used to present more relevant content to the customer. By using AI and real-time decision making to recognize and understand a customer’s intent through the data they produce, in real time, companies can present hyper-personalized and relevant content and offers to customers.

Predictive analytics refers to the process of working with statistics to make predictions. Because AI can analyze large amounts of data in a very short time, it uses predictive analytics to produce actionable insights in real time that guide the next interactions between a customer and a business. This is often referred to as predictive engagement and requires knowledge of when and how to engage with each customer – something AI is very good at.

Artificial Intelligence and predictive analytics can go beyond historical data alone, providing deeper insights into what has already happened and what can be done to facilitate a sale through related product suggestions, making the CX is more relevant and more likely to generate a sale, in addition to offering the customer a greater emotional connection with a brand.

3) AI Chatbots Come of Age

According to a 2020 MIT Technology Review Survey of 1,004 business leaders, customer service (via chatbots) is the leading AI application being deployed today. 73% of respondents indicated that by 2022, it would continue to be the leading use of Artificial Intelligence in businesses, closely followed by sales and marketing with 59%. A recent report indicated that 54% of customers indicated they have daily AI-enabled interactions with businesses, including chatbots, digital assistants, facial recognition, and biometric scanners, and 49% of those customers found AI interactions to be trustworthy, compared to just 30% in 2018.

AI chatbots offer personalized assistance to customers, but they are not a substitute for human contact. In this way, companies should view chatbots not as a replacement for humans, but as a complement to the workforce to help employees be as efficient as possible.

Organizations must strike the important balance between self-service and human interaction to deliver the most convenient CX possible. For example, AI-powered chatbots are a valuable tool that can save businesses costs while allowing customers to solve less complex queries on their own.

Chatbots and all autonomous customer experience ‘bots’ have the potential to solve many transactional problems, often related to information discovery. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has made it easier for users to answer simple questions that rely on complex data.

A cloud communications platform provider AI-based chat is not just about customer service. For example, by analyzing customer history, a chatbot can create a proactive personalized offer for him and, depending on the channel, he can also share images and photos of products or links. Chatbots can be used to predict when a customer may need a new service and offer it proactively.

Today’s chatbots can jump from topic to topic, and even channel to channel, like starting a conversation on the brand’s website and then transitioning to WhatsApp. Thus, with the help of conversational AI, consumers can connect with brands on the same channels they use the most. Smart bots and virtual assistants greet them instantly, answer their questions and transact and, if necessary, connect them with agents with all the contextual data they have collected during the course of the conversation.

4) AI for Hyper-Personalization

Hyper-personalization combines Artificial Intelligence and real-time data to deliver content that is specifically relevant to a customer. Consumers and brands are embracing conversational AI because it provides personalized experiences that are also much faster and more convenient than traditional ways of interacting with businesses. Along with a more personalized experience, Artificial Intelligence can also help eliminate pain points in the customer journey.

A major source of frustration for customers is repeating information they have already shared, such as reconfirming a phone number or having to re-explain a problem to multiple agents. As brands embrace hyper-personalization tools, conversational AI connects to user conversation histories, making them much more personalized.