Potential effects on the economy, health care, the world of work, society: we now hear about generative A.I. on a daily basis, and all indications are that interest in this topic will intensify in the coming months.
A study conducted McKinsey (“The economic potential of generative AI“)in June 2023, shows that as much as 75 percent of the value that the use of generative intelligence could provide is oriented to four areas, among them marketing and sales.
Ability to generate creative content, support customer interactions, and more: let’s take a closer look at the real impact generative A.I. can have in the customer relationship.
But, let’s proceed in order.
- Generative A.I.: what it is and why it is important
- Customer experience trend: evolution under the banner of A.I.
- Beyond content: generative A.I. and customer experience
- Artificial intelligence and customer experience: generative or conversational approach?
Generative A.I.: what it is and why it is important
The term “Generative A.I.” refers to a type of evolved artificial intelligence that goes beyond automating tasks and solving complex problems and calculations, in that through the use of machine learning and deep learning techniques it is able to generate new content.
Text, images, audio and video content: generative A.I. models learn from existing content to generate new content, starting with a simple text input (prompt) in which the user describes what he or she wants.
ChatGPT is, without a doubt, one of the best known tools using generative intelligence for new content creation, but there are many others such as DALL-E and Dream Studio for image generation.
As we can well understand, the effect due to the use of generative AI models and tools is truly disruptive, so much so that it has significant consequences in many areas. Of course, risk is always around the corner, and one of the biggest problems related to generative A.I. comes from its misuse and uncontrolled use (deepfake).
Customer experience trend: evolution under the banner of A.I.
In a context in whichartificial intelligence is evolving rapidly, becoming more and more a part of our daily lives (think of the rapid spread of ChatGPT), models and tools related to the customer experience are adapting rapidly, so much so that it is precisely in the relationship between brand and customer that A.I. applications are finding the most use.
An interesting white paper published by CoreMedia (“Navigating the future: Maximizing the top 7 trends in customer experience“) reports howartificial intelligence and generativeA.I. will have a significant impact on strategies aimed at enhancing the customer experience, so much so that they will be the most effective “weapons” companies have at their disposal to stand out in an increasingly competitive market and environment.
Here then are the seven trends to watch out for in this 2024:
- immersive customer experiences through the use of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies;
- interactions through the use of chatbots and virtual assistant programming;
- increased conversational Automation of services and processes involving the areas of customer service and customer support;
- creation of more relevant content in line with users’ interests and expectations for more effective customer engagement activities;
- personalization of the customer experience throughout the user’s entire customer journey and at every touchpoint;
- seamless and fluid cross-channel and cross-device customer experiences through the creation of holistic and updated real-time unified customer views;
- technological evolution under the banner of “humanity” in order to enable companies the ability to instill empathy and create emotional resonance in customer relationships.
Beyond content: generative A.I. and customer experience
While in marketing, new content creation is the use of A.I. that has had the largest following for the time being, the investments that are being made suggest that this will not be the only area of use.
In a special way, generative A.I. is bound to have a positive impact in many aspects affecting the customer experience that go beyond content generation.
Here are some of them:
- Customer support services at the purchasing stage (personal shopper);
- Customer care services and post-purchase support services;
- creation of sales agent support materials in line with the company’s sales offer and the needs expressed by the potential customer.
Broadly speaking, the use of generative A.I. solutions in the customer experience area mainly concern:
- Personalization of content and interactions to support engagement and retention activities;
- Reduced operating costs resulting from the introduction of automated and optimized processes.
Artificial intelligence and customer experience: generative or conversational approach?
Speaking of artificial intelligence in customer experience, it is worth noting how two different approaches can be brought to bear: Generative AI and conversational AI.
While the former, as we have seen, mostly refers to the creation of new content, it is the latter that has a crucial use especially in customer care services as its application manages to amplify and improve the same service of operators.
In a context of enhancing and personalizing the customer experience I.A. generative and conversational are two approaches that can be leveraged synergistically to improve interactions with users and customers both in terms of the personalized content creation aspect and the actual relationship management aspect.
As the I.A. landscape is confirmed to be evolving ever more rapidly, it is crucial for companies to choose technology solutions, such as Blendee, that allow them to take full advantage of precisely the benefits of using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms in the customer experience, both in terms of advanced audience profiling and segmentation and real-time on-site and off-site personalization activities.
