There’s been enough discussion about the business impact of COVID-19. But there’s another side of the story that’s less discussed—how governments communicated with concerned citizens during the pandemic while providing personalized engagements.

Enterprises can learn a thing or two and use conversational AI for various applications, from effectively addressing customer queries in the absence of human agents to driving higher operational efficiency through improved collaboration.

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What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI is an umbrella term used to define the broad set of technologies that drive automated messaging and speech-enabled applications. It offers human-like interactions between computers and humans and makes machines capable of understanding and responding to human language.

Conversational AI can recognize speech and text, understand intent, and respond in a way that mirrors human conversations. Using advanced artificial intelligence/natural language understanding (NLU), it can elevate the customer experience by blurring the lines between humans and machines. As a result, customers no longer feel encumbered by primitive chatbot technologies that fall short due to their narrow scope and computing limitations.

While chatbots have gained popularity, conversational AI is much broader and can be offered over text and voice. It allows you to go beyond simple chatbot responses and empowers you to perform a host of activities, such as blocking credit cards, upgrading data plans, filing insurance claims, and much more - directly from the chat window. Conversational AI can engage audiences with experiences that can truly be called conversational experiences.

Conversational AI vs. chatbots

Chatbots and conversational AI are two terms that are often used interchangeably. However, there is a big difference between the two. What is the specific difference between chatbots and conversational AI?

Chatbots are natural language text interfaces that are navigated by predefined linear flows. They primarily consist of canned, linear interactions based around pre-determined flows of conversation. Due to their limited scope, chatbots don't have learning capabilities. As a result, every interaction with chatbots may seem more or less the same, because the chatbot will not have grown or learned from successive conversations.

Conversational AI, on the other hand, performs multi-turn conversations and executes judgment-intensive tasks just like humans. Since chatbots failed to deliver on various industry-specific use cases, businesses turned to conversational AI platforms. Unlike chatbots, conversational AI has machine learning and deep learning capabilities, which allow it to learn, process, and transact with a contextual understanding. It is much broader in scope with its natural language processing (NLP) capabilities and can be offered over text and voice across a range of devices.

How businesses can use conversational AI

Lead generation

Conversational AI can analyze massive customer data sets to help you simplify the process of identifying your ideal customers. This allows marketing teams to optimize their time and focus on non-mundane activities.

Customer data analysis

Conversational AI can automatically gather insights such as key data points, purchasing patterns, and customer habits. It can store information on the types of questions being asked and the complexity of those questions, allowing you to be better equipped for upsell conversations.

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Customer engagement

A lapse between form submission and sales contact can have a direct impact on whether your leads are converted into customers. By using Conversational AI-powered chatbots, you can engage leads in real-time, reach out to at-risk customers, and provide them with targeted messages and other personalized offers.

Email marketing

Conversational AI can help digital marketers by shooting personalized email marketing campaigns based on user behavior. Marketers can implement rule-based AI technology to send emails that get triggered only if the customer carries out certain actions. You can also personalize content, which can further help marketers improve their email campaigns and maximize their results.

Social media outreach

Conversational AI-powered chatbots can help businesses scale their social media efforts by delivering personalized content, answering customer queries, and automating customer outreach. It can simplify social listening by conducting sentiment analysis through monitoring new comments, likes, and messages, and respond in real-time by asking questions about the audience's needs.

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