AI Virtual Assistants Will Be Key In Providing Exceptional Customer Experiences

AI virtual assistants today have changed the way we look at personalization, brand building, and consumer engagement.

It all began with voice assistants that helped us to do everything from ordering our favorite products to controlling our homes and appliances.

Now, it has occupied a prominent position in the customer experience space – voice assistants have transformed themselves into AI-driven virtual assistants.

AI Virtual Assistants use technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, artificial emotional intelligence, and machine learning algorithms to understand and respond to spoken or typed inputs.

With advancements in natural language processing (NLP), emotional intelligence, and contextual awareness, AI virtual assistants improve customer experience, meet user needs, and enhance productivity. 

AI virtual assistants play a huge role in enhancing customer experience across industries. Before we look at the use cases, let us look at a brief history of the evolution of AI virtual assistants.

Evolution of AI Virtual Assistants

• In 1952, Bell Laboratories introduced Audrey, the first voice recognition software. Audrey was able to recognize numbers via speech.
• In 1962, IBM introduced the Shoebox, which was capable of understanding and responding to 16 words in English.
• In 1970, DARPA and the US Department of Defense developed S.U.R, or the Speech Understanding Research, which led to Carnegie Mellon’s ‘Harpy’ speech system in 1971 that could understand over 1000 words.
• In 1990, Dragon developed ‘Dragon Dictate’ and shortly later ‘Dragon Naturally Speaking’ – they advanced the ability to understand human speech significantly.
• In 1996, Bellsouth started the voice response revolution with VAL (Voice Activated Portal). This led to the birth of an Interactive Voice Response system that created the response side of the voice assistant equation.
• In 2008, Google launched a voice search app, bringing speech recognition to mobile devices.
• In 2011, Apple launched Siri, which was the first voice-enabled digital assistant. After that, Microsoft introduced Cortana, Amazon introduced Alexa, and Google Assistant came home too.

Today, voice assistants, including Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung Bixby, and Siri, have reached an astonishing 8 billion devices.

While the numbers are staggering, these voice assistants have become things of the past. They have evolved into AI-driven virtual assistants. They not only offer assistance but also provide intelligent collaboration.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) reports that AI virtual assistants can increase employee productivity by up to 25%, contributing to significant cost savings.

Let us look at some of the use cases that AI virtual assistants power.

Retail E-Commerce

I buy extensively from Amazon, and I have been doing this for ages now. In fact, the entire family buys from Amazon.

About 50% of the purchases I make on Amazon are based on the recommendations and suggestions I receive from Amazon, which is powered by the AI virtual assistant.

How does the AI virtual assistant do that?

It analyses data from past purchases and browsing history to provide me with the best suggestions and personalized recommendations.

This promotion extends to promotions and discounts that enhance the buying experience.

Besides, AI virtual assistants help with customer service extensively. Most of what I want gets answered automatically by Amazon.

When I need to talk to an agent, it allows me to pick the option of receiving a call back from them. While doing this, I also mention the product or the issue for which I am requesting a callback.

This allows the agents to prepare and give me a call, which the AI virtual assistant aids. This helps in faster resolution.

Look at these statements:

• Inspired by your recent shopping trends
• Sponsored products related to this item
• Frequently bought together

Wouldn’t you be happy to receive such personalized recommendations and support?

Entertainment

Just like Amazon, I am going to take the example of the poster boy of entertainment, Netflix.

Look at these statements:

• Customers who watched this also watched
• Recommended movies for you
• Similar movies to what you are searching

How often have you seen these suggestions on Netflix?

Would you agree that you have ended up binge-watching based on these suggestions?

Are they random suggestions?

They collect your data and run them through AI, ML, and deep learning engines (AI virtual assistants) before these are distilled and shown to you.

Let me give you an example that will make you understand this better.

Assume that I am a fan of Al Pacino, and I type ‘Al Pacino Movies’ in the search. The next time The Godfather movie comes up in my suggested watches, Netflix will show Al Pacino in the thumbnail and not Marlon Brando.

This is how well Netflix uses your data to personalize your offerings.

Do you know that the success of Netflix originals is 93%?

The AI visual assistants engineer content creation with the data gathered from the viewing habits of their subscribers. The success of Stranger Things and Bridgerton were predicted to succeed much before they hit the screen.

Travel

You travel regularly to Mumbai, and you prefer to stay at a particular hotel. The flights that you take are typically in the evenings.

Your AI assistant understands all of this data, and it populates your feed with choices similar to what you prefer but at a lower cost or with better features.

Would you love that?

This is precisely what AI assistants enable in the travel industry.

AI assistants recommend the perfect destinations, stays, and activities.

Imagine you love taking beach holidays. Then, your AI assistant would suggest a new tropical island, affordable beach resorts, and fun activities like snorkeling and surfing while keeping it within budget.

Have you received a message from your travel partner that you can book an Uber from the airport for a fixed fee, irrespective of the time you land at the airport to your hotel destination?

I have and that’s an offer that I don’t pass up as they give me steep discounts every time. That’s the power of your AI assistant, which makes your travel easy.

Real-World Examples of AI Virtual Assistants

H&M

H&M uses AI chatbots to help customers find products, offer size recommendations, and provide customer support.

It has helped automate 70% of support queries and has considerably reduced shopping cart abandonment rates.

Bank of America

Erica, Bank of America’s AI virtual assistant, helps users manage accounts, pay bills, set budgets, and receive spending insights.

Would you believe that more than 10 million customers use Erica?

Mayo Clinic

As a patient, you can input your symptoms using Mayo’s AI assistant and receive preliminary diagnoses and recommendations. Besides, you can schedule an appointment to meet with a specialist.

It helps offer 24/7 access to healthcare and reduces wait times for consultations.

KLM Airlines

Have you heard of BlueBot?

It handles flight bookings, provides travel updates, and assists with common queries via messaging platforms.

It helps manage over 16000 daily customer interactions, freeing up agent’s time.

Duolingo

The AI tutor that Duolingo uses helps personalize your language learning based on your progress, offers real-time feedback, and encourages consistency through gamification.

It helps millions to access affordable and effective language education.

What Are the Benefits of Using AI Virtual Assistants?

24×7 Availability

It doesn’t matter what time of the day it is – your customers can reach you through AI assistants.

You can provide round-the-clock assistance to your customers.

Instant Response

AI assistants can handle routine queries very easily without the need for you to wait. About 70% of the queries are transactional in nature and fall under the routine categories. With AI assistants, you are able to provide instant responses to 70% of the queries.

Cost-Efficiency

When AI assistants handle common and routine queries, you are able to automate 70% of your support requests, needing fewer people to handle customer support.

This saves costs, which in turn can be used for other CX activities.

Scalability

With AI virtual assistants, you don’t have to worry about scale. They can handle thousands of queries at the same time without making your customers wait to interact with an agent.

This makes it easier for your customers to reach irrespective of the time of day or the season.

Multilingual Support

With AI assistants, you can truly provide global support by adding as many languages as you want without large investments.

Should You Consider AI Virtual Assistants?

You should definitely consider AI virtual assistants if you identify yourself with the following statements:

• My customers demand instant, personalized, and seamless interactions.
• I handle high volumes of interactions on a daily basis.
• My agents feel the fatigue of handling common, repetitive, and transactional queries.
• I want to drive a higher ROI for my customer experience function.
• I value customer experience as my biggest competitive differentiator in the market. 
• My customers require support 24×7.
• I want to empower my customer service teams with technology.
• I struggle to provide consistent and accurate responses across all customer touchpoints.
• I want to offer multilingual support to serve my customer base worldwide.
• I have to address my customer queries during seasonal spikes and surges.

As AI continues to evolve, these virtual assistants will become even more sophisticated, easily integrating into our daily lives and businesses.

AI assistants are set to transform the customer experience industry as they offer personalized, intuitive, and efficient solutions across industries.

Should you use AI or not? That is no longer a question.

The question here should be, “What to AI, and how fast should you get on the bandwagon?”