Conversational AI: Everything you need to know

Every time you ask Amazon Alexa to play a song or ask a question to Apple Siri, you are engaging with conversational AI. Such interactive solutions are pervading all spaces like entertainment, customer service, personal life and more. Conversational AI wasn’t a big deal for years, until the last 4-5 years. Once our mobiles got paired with virtual assistants like Cortana or Siri, people recognized it’s potential. Now, it is hard to imagine our lives without it.

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Conversational AI is a technology that automates conversations, human-like interactions, and other speech-based solutions. It encompasses solutions like virtual assistants, chatbots, voice bots, and virtual agents. Conversational artificial intelligence uses data structures, machine learning, natural language processing, and speech-intent awareness to decode speech or texts.

Conversational AI is that force that drives real-time understanding of human language. Through deep learning, it unveils the context and emotion behind a speech or a text. Upon decoding the content, it generates an appropriate response, enabling a complete human-like conversation. With context recognition, it makes the conversation more natural and human-like. For example,

Caller: What is the temperature in London

Voice bot: It is 10 degrees Centigrade

Caller: Ok, that’s great. What about New York?

Voice bot: Oh, it is 17 degrees Centigrade

Note, that the caller did not mention the temperature of New York but the bot understood the context.

Conversational AI is an amalgamation of two components that is machine learning and natural language processing. Both the components complement each other to power the self-learning capacity of algorithms of artificial intelligence.

1. Machine Learning:

It is a field of AI study that ensures that a machine can sustainably perform tasks without constant human intervention. In other words, a set of structured data is fed to the computer and it gets trained using supervised, unsupervised, or reinforcement algorithms. As the data model gets trained, the machine can detect and predict different patterns/features and act accordingly.

2. Natural Language Processing:

It is a process of analyzing language. It investigates the language or speech to understand what the user is trying to convey. It derives the intent behind it and creates an appropriate response. NLP has four processes to deliver this task: input generation, input analysis, dialogue management, and or also reinforcement learning.

Scripted Bot (Rule-based)	Conversational AI
Responds to specific keywords, originally fed.	Learns on the go due to the deep learning process.
Performs based on manual rules set by the developer.	Can recognize varying patterns in language and responds spontaneously.
Needs to be trained for every possible customer speech.	Learns automatically through real-time interactions.
Doesn’t scale easily	High scalability

 

Conversational AI is a beneficial option for customer service. It can take on a lot of supporting and conversational processes and reduce your employee head-count on a few places. It is inherently cost-efficient and will work round the clock with no breaks. Let’s discuss its many benefits:

1. No waiting time:

No one wants to wait and especially when you are reaching out for customer service. The traditional way of customer service will make you wait in queue no matter whatever channel you seek for. So, many customers are opting for self service. Conversational AI based bots are the best option for such customers. No more need to wait and get your issue resolved at the earliest.

2. Cost Efficient:

Customer support agents take up a lot of cost in any organisation. It is difficult to afford support round the clock without spending heavy bucks. This is where conversational AI is a revolutionary product. It can provide customer assistance across different channels without any breaks. This 24x7 availability is a great win for assisting customers globally.

AI-driven solutions like chatbots, virtual agents, voicebots or conversational IVR can take over many day-to-day primary customer requirements. In case of a difficult customer-related scenario, these bots can seamlessly bring in an agent to look after the case.

3. Consistent Customer Experience:

Agents are after all humans with emotions of their own. Their responses to every customer are never consistent and might lose a customer or two. It is a risk that contact center owners always consider. To avoid this mishap, deploy conversational AI. As most customer interactions are related to seeking information or primary assistance, the AI can consistently respond immediately and ensure that resolution is met. The experience is consistent with no room for error or flying emotions. And they will never get overloaded and there is no attrition!

4. Increased Revenue:

Customers now seek information readily. This mobile-ready generation of consumers wants information as soon as possible or it might detach them from the purchasing process. The only answer to this is conversational AI. As it can be accessed swiftly, it has more success in fetching information than human agents. It can deliver heaps of information in a fraction of second, on any device the customer wants. This sense of ready-support, will keep your audience hooked and help them move forward in the purchasing journey.

Conversational AI can convert intent into revenue through dedicated customer assistance at every step of their journey. You can personalize the bots to meet your branding requirement and influence the customer towards brand loyalty. With growing customer interest, you will see a potential rise in sales and retention.

Conversational AI is a critical solution today in every industry. It can play a role in any field be it sales, marketing, or support. Its immediate readiness and capacity to mimic human interactions, makes it a pivotal component in contact centers. Conversational AI is growing and is an essential part of customer service. This trend is here to stay and evolve and its better to be a part of it. You can experience conversational AI when you interact with the chatbot Zeni waiting for you on this page. Experience it!