Imagine customers spamming you with questions about your products on Instagram or other socials; it’s going to be challenging. In addition to repeating the same answers again and again, it’ll be hard to reply them on time. That’s because it’s not possible to stay active 24/7. For this purpose, we recommend using conversational AI.
Conversational AI in the form of virtual assistants and chatbots can be a knight in shining armor for businesses. So, if you want to know about conversational AI and its applications in different industries, we are sharing the details.
Conversational AI – What Is It?
This technology is popular for recognizing the text as well as human language to understand the intent and context. As a result, it responds as a human would. In particular, it can mimic conversations. Google Assistant and Amazon Echo are two common examples of conversational AI.
It’s different from conventional chatbots because conversational AI doesn’t work with a script. With chatbots, they are trained to say a specific thing according to the prompts and keywords. Instead, conversational AI can learn new data and information through machine learning. It also uses reinforcement.
It uses an immense amount of data, NLP, deep learning, and machine learning to ensure human-like interactions. It can recognize the text and speech to understand the intent. Moreover, it can comprehend and respond in hundreds of languages. As a result, it responds like humans, so people have a conversational experience.
5 Most Important Components
It combines ML and natural language processing. There is an all-time feedback loop, which improves the quality of results. In addition, it improves the AI algorithms. To ensure seamless results, there are five components, such as:
Natural Language Processing
With NLP, the systems can understand the human language (text or speech) and respond in a similar way. It can easily comprehend the meaning of different words and interpret the sentence structure. Also, you can easily use it even using slang, idiom, and metaphors.
It uses machine learning because it helps train the computers for a better understanding. The algorithms use huge databases to learn the relationship between different words. Moreover, it can learn how different words are used in different scenarios.
Machine Learning
It allows systems to learn new data on their own without extreme programming. The ML algorithms keep becoming better and improve the results as they train on more data. It does a great job at identifying patterns in the data. Lastly, it’s used to make models on how different systems work.
Text Analysis
It helps extract relevant information from the data. It can break down the sentence into different parts, such as object, verb, and subject. On top of everything, it understands multiple words in a sentence, such as adjectives and nouns.
As a result, it can fully understand the purpose of the sentence and identify the relationship between words. Last but not least, it can understand the sentiment or emotions in the text, along with the topic.
Computer Vision
It allows the computers to understand the pictures and interpret them. For this purpose, it can outline different items in the picture, along with their position and orientation. Also, it can identify the relationship between multiple objects. Many people use computer vision to understand the emotions of different people and items in the pictures. As a result, understanding the context becomes a breeze.
Speech Recognition
The last component of conversational AI is speech recognition. It can understand the human speech in the audio form. For instance, it can understand different sounds in the sentence, along with the syntax and grammar.
It is suitable for converting audio into text form to make sure the meanings are easily understood. Moreover, it’s apt for understanding emotions in a video and seeing what the context is.
How Does it Work?
This technology uses five different technologies to work. The combination of these technologies helps create a huge database by collecting information from user input. In addition, it will help make predictions by identifying patterns. So, with this section, let’s have a look at the step-based instructions.
- First of all, you provide text or audio inputs to the tool (conversational AI).
- This input is interpreted. If the input is in the form of texts, NLU (Natural Language Understanding) is used to understand the purpose behind the words. On the other hand, if the input is audio-based, ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) is used.
- After the input is fully interpreted and analyzed, Natural Language Processing works to give a response.
- Last but not least, the outputs and inputs are analyzed to understand the intent. As a result, the answers become better and more accurate.
3 Types of Conversational AI
AI has taken over the world, which is why it can be seen in different forms. One can customize the apps to meet their requirements, whether you are an individual or running a business. In fact, imagine having your own little assistant (digital, of course). As a result, the interactions will become easier and error-free. Also, it can help automate different business processes. So, let’s see how different types of conversational AI can be used.
Virtual Assistants
As the name suggests, these are voice-based apps that work with voice commands. Siri and Alexa are the biggest examples of virtual assistants that also work with voice commands. They can receive the voice commands and work on them.
Chatbots
They are usually used in the CS industry. That’s because they can use the conversational flow system to speak like humans. To illustrate, it makes it easier to answer the prompts and give support to the customers.
Text-to-Speech
These are the software solutions that convert text into audio and sounds. For this reason, they are suitable for launching new audiobooks from scratch. Also, they are suitable for transcribing the webinars. In fact, Google Maps is a good example as you type the destination and it gives directions in audio form. It can improve the accessibility for users.
Industry Applications of Conversational AI
Conversational AI is slowly becoming a part of every industry. However, to give you an idea about its application in different industries, we are sharing some details.
Telecommunications
The telecom industry is incomplete without call centers. On average, they handle two billion phone calls on a daily basis. So, using AI in these centers can help save money and time. For instance, businesses can leverage conversational AI to provide practical insights and recommendations (it’s a great help for call center agents). To illustrate, the customer queries will be interpreted and analyzed so the customers can get an accurate reply. Moreover, the queries can be used to understand the sentiments of different customers, so the reply is relevant.
Finance
This AI technology is also improving the customer service experience at different finance institutions. To begin with, simple tasks can be automated, including but not limited to refund and payment management. It’s one of the best tools for detecting fraud because it quickly identifies anomalies in the system. It analyses the activities, experiences, and behaviors. On the other hand, when it comes to the insurance industry, the claims can be made more efficient by talking to the customers.
UCaaS
This is the unified communications as a service, which offers collaboration and communication services in the cloud. Conversational AI can help with conference calls in this industry, audios and videos. For instance, neural machine translation and speech recognition are suitable for video conferencing. That’s because it can help make meeting notes and translate foreign languages. As a result, the communication will be smooth. Businesses can use virtual assistants to schedule meetings.
Healthcare
Healthcare has become more accessible through conversational AI, which improves the patient experience. For instance, the ASR models are apt for transcribing the physician’s notes and understanding the consultations. In addition, it can be used to understand clinical documents by transforming audio into text forms.
The NLU is used in chatbots, which helps choose the right insurance plan. Also, it helps onboard the patients and schedule their appointments. Moreover, it works best for extracting relevant information for unstructured data. This helps make accurate and on-time diagnosis.
Last but not least, the TTS models are being used for people with visual and learning disabilities. That’s because it can read information from different websites and leaflets. This makes the process easier for patients.
Retail
It can help understand the queries of customers and provide relevant answers. In addition to answers, it also offers recommendations to the customers. Customers can use voice commands to shop online, which helps clear the gap between virtual and physical shopping.
Last but not least, Natural Language Processing can be used to get customer feedback through sentiment analysis. As a result, the retention rate of customers will be higher, leading to repetitive sales.
Lead Nurturing
Conversational AI can help nurture the leads. That’s because it can understand the right time when potential leads should be taken to the next step of the funnel. For instance, it reads the past shopping patterns of the customers and recommends them products accordingly. This keeps the customers engaged throughout.
HR
Conversational AI technology is also suitable for the HR industry. It can help them onboard new people on the team. Furthermore, the HR tools and automated systems will help automate the payroll process. The automation will free up time and improve productivity. Moreover, it improves the workflows and prevents errors (only accurate information).
Revenue Growth
While AI conversation can help respond to customers, it can also help improve revenue growth. For instance, when a business knows what customers might be interested in, it will create room for revenue generation. This is possible because conversational AI provides data related to customer interactions.
These interactions and data can help research the available revenue opportunities. In addition, the businesses can determine potential opportunities for revenue generation.
Performance Monitoring
Conversational artificial intelligence can also help monitor performance. This is because it can analyze the customer interaction and see if the customers are leaving your platform satisfied. For instance, businesses can understand the drop-offs and see which agent is working most productively. As a result, you will have a lot of information to refine the business processes.
IoT Devices
Our homes are getting smarter as the use of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant is increasing. All these are IoT devices that use automatic speech recognition. It helps them have proper conversations with the users and work on their commands. Having said that, businesses can use these devices to collect data. For instance, the healthcare professionals can use IoT devices to collect vital signs and other information.
The Process of Creating Conversational AI
To create your own conversational AI, businesses need to think about how their customers are interacting with them. Also, they’ve to think about the common questions. Once you’ve this information, the AI can be used to connect customers with relevant information. However, it’s a lengthy process, and we have the steps to share with you.
Find the FAQs
FAQs are frequently asked questions, and they work as a foundation for conversational AI. That’s because they help determine the primary concerns and needs of the users. Also, it will limit the query calls for the CSRs. You can ask the customer support team to share the commonly asked questions by customers.
Create Goals According to FAQs
The FAQs help set the goals or what the businesses want to achieve. Once you’ve the goals, you can use the AI tools. You’ve to teach the tools how the customer might ask these questions. We recommend adding multiple variants of the same question so the tool can provide timely help. Also, it’s important to invest in chatbot analytics tools, so you can collect data and see how customers are responding to the tools.
Use Goals for Building a List of Keywords & Nouns
The goals can be used to build a list of keywords and nouns as well. You can get help from customer support teams to understand the common words customers use.
Make a Dialog
Last but not least, you have to create an example dialog with customers. It will help the tool understand what type of questions the customers might ask and how they should respond. With time, you can add more keywords and data to make sure the responses become more accurate.
Benefits of Conversational AI
Now that you’ve the answer to “what is conversational AI and how it works?” it’s time to learn the benefits. This section includes the benefits of using conversational AI, such as:
Save Time
There are times when customers have to wait in queue to get answers to their queries. This is not a satisfactory experience for your consumers. However, with conversational AI, quick replies become a reality. Their queries will be catered to without overwhelming the customer support team. This clears up time for the team to work on complex issues.
The best thing is that it minimizes the waiting time. Also, it can handle multiple customers at once, which isn’t possible for human teams. As a result, the customer support will become more efficient.
Better Accessibility
It’s not humanly possible for businesses to be 24/7 available for their customers. So, when you use AI tools for social media platforms, the customers won’t have to wait. For instance, if a customer messages outside the regular working hours, the chatbots and virtual assistants can attend to them. In fact, it makes customers feel heard and cared for.
Assist with Purchasing Decisions
It’s a reliable way of solving the support tickets. In addition, it can help encourage sales. For instance, machine learning can help create a customized experience for customers. As a result, the tools will be able to recommend a product according to customer’s liking. It makes the customers feel seen. Also, it helps increase the sales.
Elimination of Language Barriers
There are no language barriers when you use communicative AI. The virtual assistants and chatbots already have language translation tools. It allows them to detect different languages and interpret them to generate a response. In particular, it ensures that everyone gets answers to their questions, irrespective of the language. In simpler words, it makes the business more welcoming.
Challenges of Implementing Conversational AI
While this AI technology is already making waves, it’s still in the infant stage. It’s only recently that businesses have started adopting it. For this reason, there are still many challenges that businesses struggle with.
Security & Privacy
This technology depends on data to respond to the customers. For this reason, there is potential for security pitfalls. There is a need to develop highly secure and private systems. As a result, the customers gain trust in businesses.
Language Input
This is the biggest pain point. We say this because there are different accents and dialects, which impact the response. In addition, if the tool doesn’t have a relevant script or if someone uses slang, the tool might struggle. Lastly, the AI tools cannot add emotions or change their tone according to the customer’s queries.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is conversational AI known as brain as well?
It is known as the brain that helps the chatbots and virtual assistants. There are multiple technologies that work together to offer error-free communication.
What’s the most suitable example of this AI?
We name Google Assistant and Siri as the examples. Both of them are chatbots that help people with their queries. In addition to homes, these bots can help finance, and medical institutes collect data quickly as well.
Are chatbots and conversational AI tools same?
No, they aren’t the same. That’s because conversational AI uses tools that help computers have a proper conversation with the users. On the other hand, a chatbot only provides scripted answers and cannot improvise.
What do you mean by conversational AI tools?
These tools are responsible for simulating the human conversations. This is because it uses NLP, which understands the human language.
Why should we use conversational AI?
It can help businesses create personalized interactions with customers. In addition, the businesses can provide 24/7 assistance to the customers while reducing the operational costs and time.
The Bottom Line
Conversational AI is shifting the dynamics of different industries. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it’s empowering businesses to make their products and services more accessible to customers. In fact, the brands are using it to nurture leads and increase revenue generation. However, there is exponential room for growth, so let’s see how things improve with time.
