What It Is, Why You Should Care and How to Do It Right

The term Conversational AI (artificial intelligence) refers to technologies, like virtual assistants or chatbots, that can “talk” to people (e.g., answer questions).

Conversational AI tools function thanks to processes such as machine learning, automated responses, and natural language processing. The goal is for them to recognize language and communication, imitate them, and create the experience of human interaction.

Conversational AI applications are often used in customer service. They can be found on websites, online stores, and social media channels. AI technology can effectively speed up and streamline answering and routing customer inquiries.

Conversational AI primarily works thanks to two functions. The first is machine learning. To put it simply, machine learning means that the technology “learns” and improves the more it’s used. It collects information from its own interactions. It then uses that information to improve on itself as time goes by.

The result is a system that will work better six months after you add it to your page and even better than that a year down the line.

The second is called natural language processing, or NLP for short. This is the process through which artificial intelligence understands language. Once it learns to recognize words and phrases, it can move on to natural language generation. This is the process through which it converses with your customers.

Natural language generation basically means that the AI simulates conversation. For example, if a customer messages you on social media, asking for information on when an order will ship, the AI chatbot will know how to respond. It will do so based on prior experience answering similar questions and because it understands which phrases tend to work best in response to shipping questions.

The theory may sound grueling, but conversational AI chatbots make for a very smooth customer experience. Here’s an example of how you can expect it to look in action:

In an ideal world, every one of your customers would get a thorough customer service experience. But the reality is that some customers are going to come to you with inquiries far simpler than others. A chatbot or virtual assistant is a great way to ensure everyone’s needs are attended to without overextending yourself and your team.

You can’t be available to your customers around the clock seven days a week. Equipping your social media platform with Conversational AI solves this problem. If a customer needs help outside of regular business hours, a chatbot can attend to their issues. It solves a logistic problem and plays into how chatbots can save time, but there’s more to it than that.

Conversational AI can make your customers feel more cared for and at ease, given how they increase your accessibility. The reality is that midnight might be the only free time someone has to get their question answered or issue attended to. With an AI tool like Heyday, getting an answer to a shipping inquiry is a matter of seconds:

Conversational AI can help solve customer support tickets, sure. But it can also assist in making and modifying sales.

One of the benefits of machine learning is its ability to create a personalized experience for your customers. This means that a Conversational AI platform can make product or add-on recommendations to customers that they might not have seen or considered.

Here’s an example of what these recommendations look like in action:

Speaking of assisting customers in making purchase decisions, another benefit of Conversational AI comes back to the accessibility it offers. One of the great upsides to running a business online is the fact that sales can occur at any time. The only thing that can interfere with that are the sort of shipping, sales, or product inquiries customers might have when there aren’t representatives available.

A chatbot or virtual assistant fixes this easily. Because it’s available at all hours, it can assist anybody waiting to get a question answered before completing their checkout. It means those sales come faster – and that you don’t run the risk of customers losing interest in their purchase before completing it.

With Heyday, you can even set your chatbot up to include “Add to cart” calls to action and seamlessly direct your customers to checkout.

An underrated aspect of Conversational AI is that it eliminates language barriers. Most chatbots and virtual assistants come with language translation software. This allows them to detect, interpret, and generate almost any language proficiently.

The result is that no customer service interaction is held back by linguistic differences. It makes your business more welcoming and accessible to a wider variety of customers.

An artificial intelligence tool is great for solving simple problems. But it’s good to know their limits. Not every customer is going to have an issue that conversational AI can handle. Chatbots are assistants to your customer service team — not a replacement. Make sure you have agents on standby, ready to jump in when a more complex inquiry comes in.

You want to get the most out of your Conversational AI. You also want to make sure your customers have as much access to the help they need as possible. The best way to accomplish both of these things is to choose a conversational AI tool optimized for social commerce.

Here’s how brands big and small are using conversational AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants on social media.