It’s no understatement to say that advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming entire industries overnight. As these technologies revolutionize music, gaming, shopping, entertainment and work, our understanding of what machines can do is being reshaped.
One area in particular that holds promise for improved interaction and bottom line results for businesses is customer service. Savvy executive leaders and operations managers are exploring how generative AI tools can improve their interaction, engagement and business with customers and prospects.
At its core, generative AI refers to a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses primarily on machines’ ability to generate new content autonomously. Unlike traditional AI, which primarily relies on predefined rules and data, generative AI uses advanced algorithms and deep learning techniques to produce original content.
The content generative AI creates is everywhere – music, images, videos, podcasts and written word are all being produced by generative AI technology.
This technology is promising, but has room to improve. Generative AI works by mimicking humans’ creative processes. Yet at its core, it is copying what talented individuals create. The true power of AI, at least presently, lies in the ability for people to use it to scale content creation efforts.
Humans play a crucial role in refining and shaping generated content, and AI serves as a powerful tool to boost human creativity and productivity. And, there is real concern over regulation that is needed to prevent the widespread circulation of deep fake photos and other content that can deceive humans and affect the outcome of political elections and business decisions.
It will be imperative for both governments and business leaders to work together to strike a balance between harnessing the potential of AI and ensuring it is used ethically.
The reason people like AI is because it makes things easier and more intuitive. There’s a virtual tsunami of power and profitability that accompanies a brand’s ability to make things easier and more convenient for consumers.
As generative AI is transforming content creation, it can also revolutionize the effective delivery of personalized marketing. Its true promise lies in its potential to make one-to-one marketing a reality. By leveraging the power of creative machines, generative AI has the ability to improve customer satisfaction, increase operational efficiency and enhance brandy loyalty.
Think of generative AI as an elixir that makes life easier for you and your customer. It can provide a broad view of what your customers want and tell you upfront whether the experience with a new product or service launch or marketing campaign will be positive or negative.
Personalized customer interactions, intelligent virtual assistants, automated customer insights, and customer feedback analysis are four examples of how generative AI is currently being used to enhance the customer journey.
#1: Personalized Customer Interactions
By analyzing vast amounts of customer information, generative AI algorithms can understand customer preferences, anticipate needs, and deliver contextually relevant recommendations or solutions.
Research tools around sentiment tracking scrape the universe of social media and provide a thorough understanding of brand perception that can be segmented by zip code and tailored to specific products.
It’s now possible for a company to learn in a fraction of the time it may have taken just years ago where positive sentiment exists in highest amount around IV hydration therapy, for example. This improves the effectiveness of ad campaigns by telling marketers where their dollars will carry the most bang for the buck.
For example, a chatbot powered by generative AI can engage in natural language conversations, providing personalized product recommendations or troubleshooting guidance based on the customer’s specific requirements or issues.
Amazon’s Recommendation System is a real life example of this technology at play. Amazon uses generative AI algorithms to provide personalized product recommendations to its customers. The ability to digest purchase history, browsing behavior and preferences improves the quality of the recommendations offered and results in improved engagement and higher sales.
#2: Intelligent Virtual Assistants
With natural language processing capabilities, virtual assistants can understand and respond to customer queries accurately and efficiently, saving both time and resources. Moreover, generative AI enables virtual assistants to learn and improve over time, becoming more adept at handling complex customer interactions.
Google Assistant is a prime example. It answers questions, provides information, sets reminders and performs tasks through natural language interactions. The result is customers’ needs met with an experience that feels fast, easy and satisfying rather than like a frustrating waste of time.
#3: Automated Customer Insights
By analyzing customer conversations, sentiment analysis, and feedback data, generative AI algorithms can gain a deeper understanding of customer preferences and pain points. It can identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement.
This data-driven approach empowers companies to make informed decisions, optimize their customer service strategies, and proactively address customer needs.
Airbnb leverages generative AI to analyze customer feedback and reviews. By extracting insights from customer comments, the AI system identifies recurring themes, sentiments, and areas of improvement. This enables Airbnb to enhance its services, address customer concerns, and provide a better experience for its users.
The benefits of AI for improving the customer journey are clear: it can enhance personalization, deliver tailored experiences, improve response time, provide around-the-clock customer support for a fraction of the price, offer accurate sentiment analysis, and scalable customer service solutions.
Most importantly, it can efficiently handle routine inquiries, freeing human customer service representatives for more complex tasks that require more research and personalized solutions.
Instead of fearing generative AI, embrace it as a means for improving your understanding of what needs to be delivered to delight the customer. We know data is the past, present and future of marketing that delivers results. It’s what we need to connect with consumers in more meaningful ways.
At OBI Creative, we use every tool at our disposal to drive results for clients. We challenge ourselves and our clients to interrogate our processes and look for ways to leverage the power of generative AI to delight the customer and deliver on marketing efforts.
Connect with me now to see how our team of data-based marketers can help you achieve your goals.