Companies are increasingly adopting conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offer a better customer experience. In fact, it is predicted that the global AI market value is expected to reach $267 billion by 2027.
When implemented right, Conversational AI chatbots offer a variety of benefits to customers compared to traditional chatbots. Popular voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, and text-based chatbots that you interact with on chat customer support, are powered by conversational AI.
But what benefits do these bots offer, and how are they different from traditional chatbots.
Let’s dive deeper into conversational AI – their difference, benefits, use cases, and much more in the coming sections.
What is conversational AI?
Conversational AI is a technology that enables chatbots to mimic human-like conversations to interact with users. This technology leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP), Speech-to-Text recognition, and Machine Learning (ML) to simulate conversations.
A traditional chatbot can also simulate conversation with the users, but they are restricted to linear responses and can resolve only specific tasks. With NLP and ML, conversational AI chatbots can engage in small talk and resolve customer queries with less to no human intervention.
What is the key differentiator of conversational AI from chatbots?
Both traditional and conversational AI chatbots can be deployed in your live chat software to deflect queries, offer 24/7 support and engage with customers.
But the key differentiator between conversational AI from traditional chatbots is that they use NLP and ML to understand the intent and respond to users. They are powered with artificial intelligence and can simulate human-like conversations to provide the most relevant answers. Unlike traditional chatbots, which operate on a pre-defined workflow, conversational AI chatbots can transfer the chat to the right agent without letting the customers get stuck in a chatbot loop. These chatbots steer clear of robotic scripts and engage in small talk with customers.
Freshchat conversational AI chatbot
Here are a few feature differences between traditional and conversational AI chatbots.
| Traditional Chatbots | Conversational AI chatbot |
| Works on pre-defined conversational flows | Works on NLP and ML |
| Button/keyword-focused navigation | Intent-focused navigation |
| Scalability is limited. | Easily scalable and improves with time. |
| These bots only understand text inputs and commands. | They can understand text and voice inputs and commands. |
| Does not support omnichannel capabilities and can only be integrated with the chat interface. | Can be integrated with multiple channels, including websites and voice assistants. |
| The resolution rate will vary depending on the keyword input by customers. | Delivers consistently high resolution rate. |
How does conversational AI work?
Let us break down the functioning of conversational AI technology.
Receives Input: The end-user feeds information via text or voice.
Analyzes Input: Here, the input, be it text or speech, is analyzed with Natural Language Understanding (NLU), a part of NLP or Speech recognition, respectively, to understand the input and intent.
Initiates Response: With Natural Language Generation (NLG), Conversational AI generates a response to the input.
Post-response refinement: Once a response is sent out, it uses Machine Learning (ML) to analyze the input data to refine responses with time for accuracy.
What are the benefits of conversational AI?
1. Improved customer engagement
Conversational AI doesnt depend on pre-defined flows to resolve queries. Instead, it can understand the intent of the customer based on previous interactions, and offer the right solution to the customers. These bots can also transfer the chat conversation to an agent for complex queries. This saves your customers from getting stuck in an endless chatbot loop leading to a bad customer experience. Additionally, they can proactively reach out to your customer to offer support. This boosts customer engagement and brings down bounce rates.
2. Personalized support
80% of customers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience. Conversational AI bots have context of customer data and conversation history and can offer personalized support without having the custom repeat the issue again. Since they have context of customer data, it opens up opportunities for personalized up-selling and cross-selling.
3. Better agent efficiency
Conversational AI bots can handle common queries leaving your agents with only the complex ones. This saves your agent’s time from spending on basic queries and lets them focus on the more complex issues at hand. Conversational AI lets you stay on top of your metrics with instant responses and quick resolutions.
4. Break language barriers
29% of businesses state they have lost customers for not providing multilingual support. Conversational AI bots are multilingual and can interact with customers in their preferred language resulting in customer satisfaction.
5. Available 24/7
Deploying a conversational AI chatbot lets you offer customer delight 24/7. They do not have working hours and are available round the clock to offer instant resolution to customers. If a customer reaches out with a complex issue after your business hour, these chatbots can collect customer information and pass it on to the agent. This leaves no customers unattended.
What are the top use cases of conversational AI?
- Customer Support: Chatbots are extensively used in customer support. A conversational AI chatbot can resolve your common queries and deflect incoming support tickets. With quick response and resolution rates, these AI chatbots can enhance your customer experience and ease agent bandwidth.
- Sales and Marketing: Leave no leads unattended, with conversational AI chatbots. These bots are available 24/7 and can collect customer data and pass it on to the next available agent. This saves you from losing out on prospects and leads.
- Agent Training: These AI chatbots can also be used to quickly onboard, train and assist your agents. They can pull up the right information and resources and offer it to agents to help them do their job more effectively.
How to pick the right conversational AI solution for your business?
→ Scalable: Conversational AI should have the ability to learn from customer input and improve over time.
→ Cost-effective: Conversational AI should reduce your support costs by resolving customer issues precisely without hiring more agents.
→ Omni-channel capabilities: Conversational AI technology should facilitate easy integration with messaging channels like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple Business Chat, and more to offer unified support.
→ Instantaneous: Conversational AI should be able to deliver instant and precise answers to customer queries.
→ Data-driven reporting: Conversational AI technology has multiple functionalities. But it should also have reporting capabilities to understand its performance and train it to help reach your business goals.
Freshchat for conversational AI
Freshchat’s conversational AI chatbots are intelligent and are a perfect ally to your support team and your business. With our no-code bot builder, you can integrate your chatbot with your live chat software within minutes. It not only deflects but detects intent and offers a delightful support experience. Get started with Freshchat now.
