In recent weeks, artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, has been making headlines for its memorable responses and distinct ability to write impressive content. At around the same time, Microsoft made a stunning announcement that they will incorporate the AI chatbot into their search engine. In Asia Pacific, chatbots have already been popularised on ecommerce platforms and consumer-facing applications, and experts are predicting that their utility is expected to grow further. According to Global Information Inc, the region's chatbot market will grow at a CAGR of 26.5 percent between 2021 to 2027, due to increased industrialisation and adoption in customer service activities.
Chatbots are already rooted in the Asia Pacific and are poised to grow further in market share, but to truly understand this technology, a closer inspection of the hype is necessary to see if it holds up.
The Benefits Chatbots Bring To Businesses
The biggest advancement of chatbots would be the development of natural language processing and the ability to comprehend nuances within enquiries. This would enable the chatbot to provide specific answers to enquiries, with robust application in help centres or knowledge centres through conversational enquiries. Such capabilities would result in efficient and comprehensive self-service capabilities for customers, with the extremely complex enquiries left to a specialised group of human agents.
The elimination of help and knowledge centres, and the assignment of human agents to specialised tasks enables the business to save costs and development times. Chatbots will also be able to provide around-the-clock assistance at a quicker pace, saving the business even more on human resources. Additionally, the ability of the business to scale its chatbot during peak or seasonal periods would be easier compared to temporary hirings. Essentially, this has provided the business with greater flexibility and nimbleness in the area of customer service.
The biggest advancement of chatbots would be the development of natural language processing and the ability to comprehend nuances within enquiries.
What About The Downsides?
Early adopters may be easily impressed with chatbot technology. However, chatbots, similar to any other emerging technology does come with their disadvantages. Firstly, overreliance on advanced AI-based logic in chatbots as the all-in-one solution could blind IT leaders to the limitations of the technology. While data analytics can help identify areas where chatbots could be improved and add more value, chatbots such as ChatGPT have greatly illustrated this gap in technology from ordinary chatbots. This may result in the enterprise overinvesting in such technology instead of adopting a more practical approach.
To prevent this scenario, the business needs to be successful in identifying key areas to insert human engagement, hence, a data-driven approach is required. By outlining metrics and setting a monetization value for human counterparts, the business would have the data to evaluate the performance of their chatbots objectively. Proper quantification of metrics and value will also eliminate guesswork and help the business to better evaluate the cost of integrating chatbots. The business should also look into areas where human engagement is superior and consider the potential branding opportunities to develop stronger brand relationships and extend their customer lifecycles through them.
Secondly, the current generation of chatbots, with their limitations, is still prohibitively expensive for most organisations. A bigger organisation would be able to access more sophisticated technologies while smaller businesses are stuck with traditional bots. A two-tier chatbot system needs to be avoided as this means it could potentially lock out small and medium businesses from investing in other areas of transformation and digitisation. Access to technology needs to result in powerful, easy-to-use cloud-based solutions that are flexible and affordable.
"AI chatbot technologies will provide businesses with the impetus to come on board when adoption comes hand-in-hand with clear and quantifiable return-on-investments."
Conversational AI Is All About The Experience
AI chatbot technologies will provide businesses with the impetus to come on board when adoption comes hand-in-hand with clear and quantifiable return-on-investments. Apart from ROI, AI chatbot developers that can address concerns about poor experiences and make integration and in-house development simple for the enterprise would also spur adoption.
While businesses stand to gain from improved ROI from chatbot deflections and lower development times from NLPs, the more important matter is how these chatbots can deliver on customer experiences. While chatbots such as ChatGPT have successfully impressed sceptics, developing AI at the business level needs to be more practical - in time and costs, and achieve a sustainable service level. At the end of the day, businesses seek to deliver superior customer experiences and chatbots need to be part of a seamless solution instead of creating more challenges for the enterprise.
Marketing With AI
Chatbots that could autonomously engage prospective and existing customers in a conversational nature has the potential to increase the technology's use case in consumer marketing. Data from prospective or existing customers could be used to manage sales-related conversations from start to end. This is truer when sales conversations in the business follow a more consistent pattern. Data also provides the opportunity for personalised marketing through diversified omni-channel engagements.
Technologies that can deliver a seamless experience across any channel - be it self-served or agent-assisted will ultimately win in the mind of the consumer. Positive customer experiences breed loyalty and keep the consumer coming back, allowing the business to turn engagements into a revenue stream. Businesses that are savvier in harnessing technology will be more intelligent in their customer engagements, making it easier to retain existing customers and win new ones.
