🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
If someone asked two different people what they thought about ChatGPT, the first person might say that it is a scary technology that will replace humans, while the other could respond with a laugh, saying that it won't last a year. The truth is almost always in the middle, and companies must avoid carelessly deploying or outright dismissing this technology. Instead, business leaders must determine how and where to implement generative AI to enhance the customer experience (CX).
ChatGPT and Generative AI Vs. Traditional AI
Traditional AI is more analytical, examining data trends and detecting patterns. And in a typical customer service interaction, an AI-powered chatbot doesn't necessarily create an answer. Instead, it searches for one and presents the customer with the best choices from several ranked options.
ChatGPT, or generative AI, gradually curates the best answer based on similar statistical analysis by leveraging large language models (LLM). An LLM is a language model consisting of a neural network with many parameters (typically billions of weights or more), trained on large quantities of unlabeled text using self-supervised learning. In a customer service environment, generative AI will use an LLM to provide a synthesized and authoritative-sounding response. Essentially, it creates a derivative of all available sources, such as a painting, design, software code, or written word.
While generative AI can provide the user with a quality answer, brands must consider the value of a one-sentence response versus a well-crafted paragraph with bullet points—particularly in a customer service setting. Sometimes, being succinct is more optimal. The longer answers of ChatGPT might not fit perfectly with some applications.
Moreover, generative AI is not a complete replacement for all other forms or types of AI, nor does it render them obsolete. However, for many use cases, ChatGPT, the archetypical example of the new generation of generative AI, especially the most recent GPT-4, is far superior to the various chatbots in use today.
Leveraging Generative AI to Enhance CX
If deployed thoughtfully, ChatGPT and other generative AI solutions can automate repetitive customer interactions, helping businesses save time and money. It also frees teams to focus on more value-added tasks while permitting customers to resolve their issues and answer questions quickly and conveniently, ultimately improving CX. Plus, when combined with workflow automation software, ChatGPT can retrieve data from multiple enterprise proprietary sources, further elevating customer interactions.
There is considerable interest in having generative AI serve as an assistant or tool in the customer service contact center. Today's chatbots are inefficient; usually, they only gather customer information and eventually pass the caller along to a live agent. These interactions are too narrow and rigid. Alternatively, generative AI, working with proprietary customer and third-party data via workflow automation software and an AI that can detect sentiment and tone, could provide a much more dynamic and helpful experience that emulates a real conversation, driving meaningful outcomes.
From a design perspective, generative AI is being integrated into various low-code and no-code workflow builders, allowing companies to instantly generate a process flow, complete with triggers, SMS messages and emails. Additionally, consider how quickly ChatGPT can write ten different apologies to a customer or introductions to a new contact. Rather than rehashing the same email or SMS messages, generative AI allows people to work easier and faster, eliminating monotonous exercises while keeping customers engaged.
Furthermore, generative AI can accelerate and enhance lengthy discovery sessions for B2B brands. While these meetings are critical to gaining new customers, they can be tedious and time-consuming. With the right information, generative AI could facilitate 50 discovery sessions simultaneously. Plus, the synthesis capabilities can study the customers' requirements to, over time, create more helpful discovery sessions. Similarly, companies can leverage the data from past customer interactions to improve those generative AI models most relevant to their industry vertical and CX practices.
Potential Dangers Of Poor Implementation
Despite generative AI's many benefits, especially concerning CX, there are dangers to poor implementation. Companies must carefully consider how they will design and employ their AI strategy. For example, generative AI can sometimes make convincing but wrong statements. Brands can build the proper guardrails and leverage continuous testing to minimize these errors.
Also, enterprises that use generative AI must avoid the bad habit of tricking customers into believing they are speaking or corresponding with a human being. Deliberately fooling users creates a trust issue and will erode CX. However, businesses can still impress people with their technology's capabilities. Be upfront, telling customers that they are interfacing with a machine. And always leave room for the customer to escalate to a human being should they have a particularly unique or complicated question or issue.
A report from Juniper Research foresees that AI-powered chatbots will handle up to 70% of customer conversations by the end of 2023. Not all of these AI-led interactions will use generative AI. Determine which type of AI is most applicable for a specific use case. Does there need to be a synthesized result? Is detecting and monitoring involved? Perhaps a blend of several AI tools, like the contact center example, would be most appropriate.
ChatGPT: A Game Changer
When ChatGPT first came out, few naysayers wanted to dismiss ChatGPT as a fun gimmick. Not many of them are doing that today, only a few months after its launch. Recall that voice-over IP was once a "toy" before it overtook the entire telecom world. As Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, said, "We are at the iPhone moment of AI," and perhaps even the early days of the internet when it first captured the public's imagination. Of course, businesses should keep a level head and remember that ChatGPT is still a wild frontier; the full breadth of its benefits and capabilities have yet to get established. Nevertheless, innovative brands will monitor this technology closely and react accordingly to enrich CX.