Last Updated: November 2024
AI-based art generators have been gaining popularity lately. It is fascinating to see applications of AI growing as the day passes.
On the other hand, some use cases of AI have existed for some time now — the oldest of them being — AI customer service.
AI for customer service has been prevalent since the demand for personalized customer experience existed. As a result, almost every organization is turning to AI customer service to improve its support efficiency and customer experience.
AI in customer service brings a new paradigm for the future and is crucial for customer relationship management worldwide.
This article will explore the know-how, benefits, and applications of artificial intelligence for customer service. Read till the end to discover some exciting examples of AI in customer service.
Artificial Intelligence & Its Types
The first customer service revolution took place in the 1990s and inspired customers to talk to brands and businesses in entirely new ways. Fast forward to 2022, AI is available in multiple forms and has many use cases in various industries. It is divided into two broad categories:1. General AI
General AI is something we see more often in movies. This type of AI can learn tasks on its own and is capable of doing whatever humans can do.2. Narrow AI
Narrow AI is a part of our day-to-day lives — you can find it in smart devices like phones and computers. They’re intelligent systems that perform specific tasks without being programmed. Example:- Speech and voice recognition systems like Siri or Google Assistant
- Medical AI scanning MRI results
- Vision recognition systems in self-driving cars
AI in Customer Service
AI enables support teams to interact with customers in a personalized manner and provide exceptional customer support. Chatbots can help with multiple tasks like collecting feedback, registering queries, reminding customers of items in an abandoned shopping cart, etc. AI enables a 24/7 availability around the globe and holds the fort when support agents are unavailable. AI also contributes to customer service through data collection and analysis. AI can assist support teams in easily making sense of large amounts of data. It helps gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, response time, support, churn rate, etc. It is obvious that AI in customer service has wide applications. But how exactly does it improve customer experience? What are the benefits of incorporating artificial intelligence in customer service? Let’s find out.Benefits of AI Customer Service
AI customer service has several advantages and helps with any daily task a human support agent performs (virtually). Let’s look at some benefits of artificial intelligence for customer service:- Handles large volumes of data
- Pinpoints customer needs and expectations better
- Reduces average response time
- Offers proactive customer support
- Adapts to changing situations and make your organization more agile
- Makes performance tracking easier and reduces employee burnout
- Predicts future trends in the market
- Gives your support teams more time to focus on complex problems
- Improves lead generation
- Helps you cut costs and save on budget
AI for Customer Service: Use-Cases and Examples
With AI-powered tools and their widespread application, e-commerce businesses couldn’t ask for more in terms of customer satisfaction. Let’s explore the seamless integration of customer service & artificial intelligence;1. Chatbots
Chatbots are the most common use cases of artificial intelligence customer service. Chatbots can help you handle routine questions and answer FAQs about delivery dates, order status, return status, or anything else derived from an internal database. It also cuts the overall operational costs for companies and improves their experience.2. Agent Assist
Agent assist technology can help save the agent’s and customer’s time, decrease average handle time, and reduce the cost. It uses AI to:- Interpret what the customer is asking
- Search knowledge-base articles
- Display relevant information on customer service agents’ screens when they’re on call
3. Self-Service
Organizations that utilize self-service benefit across multiple metrics like increased revenue, reduced costs, improved customer satisfaction, improved agent experience, etc. According to a study, AI-powered self-service can help improve revenue by up to 4%. AI can effectively identify the most common requests you can involve in your self-service. Besides, AI-powered self-service tools offer more options and provide the ability to communicate with a more natural tone.4. AI-Based Automation
Companies can automate multiple agent tasks based on robotic process automation. You can automate bots to perform many tasks; some of them include:- Updating records
- Managing tickets/incidents
- Escalating issues
- Registering queries
- Providing proactive outreach