Leveraging the Power of Conversational AI across Industries

The sudden lockdowns in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in remote work, and remote learning, leading to a quantum leap at both the organizational and industry levels. With the absence of the ability to go out physically, people had to turn to technology and interface with systems for their requests that led to the increased significance of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and conversational AI, which together deliver seamless customer service. In fact, it is the AI domain that recorded the highest number of patents in 2020.

As per a study by Deloitte, the global Conversational AI market will reach almost US$14 billion by 2025, with the growth at a CAGR of 22% between 2020 and 2025.

Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the set of technologies behind automated messaging and speech-enabled applications that offer human-like interactions between computers and humans. It uses machine learning to talk with users in a way that feels natural and personalized. It entertains user requests by converging three separate technologies – artificial intelligence, messaging apps, and speech recognition.

The technology simplifies a request into its essentials to identify people, actions, and objects. It does all this while interpreting the conversation as a whole. It offers personalized interactions, faster replies, improved customer service, and easy purchase flow for customers, however, it also helps the business boost lead quality, reduce support costs, increase customer loyalty, and gain more sales.

Conversational AI is a ground-breaking application that is witnessing rapid adoption across industries. For instance, the e-commerce industry has shifted gears to Conversational AI. The customer experience has been transformed to a different level altogether. With Conversational AI, e-commerce companies can capture and qualify leads faster, save time, provide cross-platform support, and above all, make more profit. Some of the other sectors that have reaped the benefits of Conversational AI include:

• Automating HR support and driving employee engagement.
• Driving revenue growth and optimizing manpower with Conversational Banking.
• Enhancing customer engagement across various channels.
• Revolutionizing customer service by automating email support.
• Knowledge bot to improve agent productivity.
• Rewriting the rules of engagement.

In a report that includes data collected from conversational AI vendors, Deloitte revealed that conversational agents handled 250% more volume of interactions across industries. As a result, 90% of companies witnessed faster complaint resolution, and 80% recorded a rise in the volume of calls processed by Conversational AI. The Conversation AI has made it possible for the companies to provide customers assistance 24/7, resulting in the scaling up of the businesses.

The industries hugely impacted by Conversational AI include education, healthcare, mass media, food and beverage, and finance. Since 2020, academic learning has progressively become mobile, and educational institutes are adopting diverse techniques to boost student experiences by executing various tech solutions. AI technology is constantly bridging the gaps in the teaching & learning process and helping to deliver personalized and efficient education to all.

After the Covid-19 outbreak, educational institutions started to adopt virtual admission, virtual classrooms, and virtual examinations. Similarly, it’s shaping the future of banking & finance, healthcare by bringing everything at your fingertips. In the future, there will hardly be any sector that will be untouched by the benefits of Conversational AI. Every industry has different reasons for adopting Conversational AI.

For Example: In the healthcare sector, where even a minute mistake during manual entries can pose a threat to the patients. To avoid any untoward incident, hospitals and clinics can deploy Conversational AI for complete front-offer automation. The bots will also help manage the patients’ medical history, update their records, and notify patients about prescription refills.

In the education sector, edtech platforms can adopt the chatbot-based model of learning by integrating WhatsApp APIs into their solution and using the messenger function to deliver small chunks of information and materials to students studying from home. The shift to WhatsApp was inspired by both device (tablet/PC) inequity highlighted by the viral outbreak, as well as the ubiquity of WhatsApp among Indian households across all socioeconomic backgrounds. The app’s user-friendly interface further made it the ideal solution to deliver education to quarantined students while also enabling their parents to monitor and participate in the learning progress of their wards.

On the other hand, industries like e-commerce, manufacturing, travel, and hospitality have to deal with customer queries and operations all the time. The Conversational AI e-commerce companies have wholly transformed customer experience. Similarly, in the manufacturing and travel, and hospitality industry, handling customer queries, and operations manually results in delayed responses and inefficient processes. But deploying AI makes tasks about sales, marketing, support, etc., automated using AI chatbots. Conversational AI platform enables offering personalized product advisory, automating those customer queries that are repetitive and enhanced productivity.

Lastly, AI technology continuously closes the gaps in learning and teaching and helps deliver personalized and efficient education. After the Covid-19 outbreak, educational institutions started to adopt virtual admission, virtual classrooms, and virtual examinations. In the coming years, we will witness a wide-scale adoption of Conversational AI across segments. With the advent of technology, we will see Conversational AI managing more complex queries and helping businesses grow by leaps and bounds.

(The author is Co-founder and Managing Director at ConveGenius and the views expressed in this article are his own)