Why Use Conversational AI?

Customer demands are at an all time high. Today, customers want faster, more responsive communication. They want more interactive experiences. They want consistent communication across every channel. And they want seamless transitions between channels. At the same time, digital marketing has enabled small businesses to scale their customer bases faster than ever before. The demands are growing, and it can be challenging to meet these demands through traditional resource models.

Enter AI — a properly built and managed chatbot or AI program can handle customer conversations at scale, globally. Typically, AI solutions are used to manage simple customer requests, and intelligently hand off more complex requests to human customer service agents.

Using AI, businesses can serve far more customers without significantly increasing their overhead or overtaxing their customer service teams.

What are conversational AI and chatbots?

Both conversational AI and chatbots are software programs that use machine learning and natural language processing to communicate with humans and accomplish specific tasks.

The main difference between conversational AI and a chatbot is how they communicate.

Typically, conversational AI refers to an artificial intelligence program that people interact with by speaking. Conversational AI is most often used for communicating with customers over the phone, where the AI responds to voice inputs.

On the other hand, chatbots usually communicate and receive inputs through text. Chatbots are most common in messaging apps, like Facebook Messenger, and SMS communication.

Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

Conversational AI solutions can use voice analysis and potentially respond to a broader variety of inputs. However, conversational AI needs advanced supporting infrastructure because it requires real-time media streaming to be effective. Chatbots have slightly lower bandwidth requirements, but are also more limited in their interactions, since they can only communicate via text.

Either one (or both) can be incredibly helpful when used correctly.

Want to learn more about conversational AI — including how different industries can leverage AI, and how to avoid common pitfalls to implement AI effectively? Check out our eBook: Your Guide to Better Leveraging Conversational AI for all the answers.