Guide

A buyer’s guide to conversational AI

Unlock the future of customer service with AI-driven virtual agents

The conversational AI market is filled with noise and finding a solution that is the right fit for your organization can be a challenging process.

So, where do you start? From choosing the right technology to identifying the perfect implementation strategy, you need to learn how to cut through the hype.

This guide will help put you on the path to a virtual agent that not only delivers a marked return on investment, but also genuinely delights your customers to the point that they return to your brand, happy and willing to engage with the next frontier of customer service again and again.

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Discover the 5 essential steps to enhancing customer interactions with conversational AI

In this comprehensive guide you’ll uncover the necessary knowledge to arm yourself in making informed decisions when it comes to conversational AI.

You’ll learn how to identify conversational AI solutions that deliver tangible results and what questions to ask in 5 key categories:

  • Identifying compelling use cases
  • Picking the right technology
  • Outlining a winning implementation strategy
  • How humans fit into the picture
  • Future-proofing customer experience

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Guide

A buyer’s guide to conversational AI

Unlock the future of customer service with AI-driven virtual agents

The conversational AI market is filled with noise and finding a solution that is the right fit for your organization can be a challenging process.

So, where do you start? From choosing the right technology to identifying the perfect implementation strategy, you need to learn how to cut through the hype.

This guide will help put you on the path to a virtual agent that not only delivers a marked return on investment, but also genuinely delights your customers to the point that they return to your brand, happy and willing to engage with the next frontier of customer service again and again.

‍

Discover the 5 essential steps to enhancing customer interactions with conversational AI

In this comprehensive guide you’ll uncover the necessary knowledge to arm yourself in making informed decisions when it comes to conversational AI.

You’ll learn how to identify conversational AI solutions that deliver tangible results and what questions to ask in 5 key categories:

  • Identifying compelling use cases
  • Picking the right technology
  • Outlining a winning implementation strategy
  • How humans fit into the picture
  • Future-proofing customer experience

‍

We have gathered insights and predictions from leading analysts and publications (including, Gartner, Forrester, Accenture, Deloitte, J.D Power, Forbes and more) and combined them with our expertise from successfully launching 250+ AI-powered chatbots across more than 10 industries to forecast a roadmap of where the key advances in conversational AI will be as we continue to move into the new decade.

52% of companies stepped up their adoption of artificial intelligence in 2020 as a direct result of Covid

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56% of companies say that conversational AI is driving disruption in their industry

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77% of customers say chatbots will transform their expectations of companies by 2024

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Here are the 10 chatbot trends to watch for in 2022 and beyond

#BroadScopeVirtualAgents

1) Scalable tech will be critical for automation at the enterprise level

'Gen 1’ chatbot projects will be replaced by broad-scope virtual agents that have a deeper knowledge framework. This will allow for enterprises to scale customer service and internal support to once unheard-of levels, while still maintaining consistent accuracy levels of 90%+.

#ChatFirst

2) Automated chat will become the primary channel for customer sevice

Maximizing a chatbot’s value will come down to its ability to be at the center of a brand’s customer service strategy. This ‘chat-first’ approach is dependant on leading-edge Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and the ability for a chatbot solution to deliver accuracy at scale.

#SelfLearningAI

3) Companies will build smarter chatbots, much faster

Self-learning AI is poised to blow up the chatbot space by making it possible to leverage exisiting company and general search data to build AI-powered virtual agents in a matter of days, instead of weeks or months.

#AITrainers

4) Conversational AI retains the human touch

Employees in the new digital age will look to AI not as a scary technology designed to replace them, but as an invaluable tool to enhance and augment how they work. These ‘AI Trainers’ will translate their customer service expertise into highly-effective chatbots with no need for technical know-how.

#NLU

5) Proprietary algorithims will replace off-the-shelf models

As the need for enterprises to scale their customer service and internal support offerings increases, off-the-shelf chatbot solutions will begin to show thier weaknesses. Proprietary Natural Language technologies will become the new norm, allowing virtual agents to understand and action on complex requests while keeping false positives to a minimum.

Download the full guide to learn how chatbot trends will impact customer experience

You’ll learn:

  • How the adoption of conversational AI is on the rise across key industries
  • The reclassification of chatbots on Gartner's Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence
  • The impact of COVID-19 on customer service and conversational AI
  • Game-changing technology trends
  • Key conversational AI predictions, 2022-2026
download the guide

But wait, there’s more!

#VoiceBots

6) AI will bring automated phone support into the 21st century

Chatbot vendors will branch out into providing voice services that leverage the Natural Language capabilities of their existing chatbot platforms. This will allow for more complex transactions via voice and a blurring of the lines between chat- and voice-based virtual agents.

#VirtualAgentNetworks

7) Chatbots will work together to provide better service

Virtual agent networks, designed to connect together a range of broad-scope chatbots via unified interface, are an innovation that Gartner recognizes will have a potentially significant market impact for large public and private sector organizations going forward.

#AIAssistedHumanChat

8) AI Chatbots will augment human workers, not replace them

Companies on the leading edge of the internal automation revolution will begin employing AI chatbots to empower departments like IT and HR, as well as customer service support staff, to increase opeational efficiency and boost employee productivity.

#NextLevelIntegrations

9) Chatbots will become less informational and more transactional

By interacting with API integrations, chatbots will move away from being purely informational, to becoming proactive tools that empower self-service and act as a front-end for powerful systems like Robotic Process Automation and co-browsing.

#NLU

10) Chatbot design will become increasingly evidence-based

Evidenced-based design will become a key part of informing how the next generation of chtabots function. Vendors will need to offer more than just the best technology, instead providing deep analytics tools and comprehensive e-learning material so that companies can create the most dynamic automated interactions possible.

Download your copy and discover the latest chatbot trends shaping the future of customer service