Imagine the frustration of dealing with the aftermath of a minor fender bender—the hassle of dealing with the insurance company, trying to figure out how to submit a claim, waiting on hold to get help from an agent, then scheduling repairs at the auto shop, coordinating payment, and finding an alternative transportation method in the meantime—all while handing your regular, everyday responsibilities. Just the thought is exhausting. Now, imagine a future where an AI-powered virtual concierge manages the claim process on your behalf, navigating the complexities that come along with it. The AI works in the background, submits photos of the damage, files the claim, coordinates with your preferred body shop, and books a rental car that is delivered to your door — all without any need for your ongoing involvement. The AI works in the background, submits photos of the damage, files the claim, coordinates with your preferred body shop, and books a rental car that is delivered to your door — all without any need for your ongoing involvement.
While AI technology is evolving quickly, it can be hard for consumers to see how we’ll get to the level of automation described above when some of today’s chat and voicebots leave consumers frustrated and disappointed because they hit their design limitations.
However, while today’s bots aren’t always living up to customer expectations, they’ve paved the way forward for more effective, useful and powerful customer experiences in the future.
The Evolutions of Chatbots
Today, the way bots communicate has been designed by a human who pre-programmed their behavior. Bots rely on Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand and communicate with consumers. That is why bots are usually limited to simple tasks like canceling orders, managing returns or updating passwords. Additionally, there can be a large disparity in their sophistication from one organization to another. Some bots are designed with customer context and intelligence, but others aren’t set up as carefully and lack the ability to connect information for cohesive experiences, which can lead to consumers being trapped in irrelevant heaps of pre-programmed responses, forcing customers to wait until open business hours to eventually communicate with a human agent.
Currently, most organizations are operating at early levels of automation. Bots are handling a sizable portion of initial customer engagement, tackling simple tasks such as order status or FAQs, while routing more complicated tasks to human agents. As AI continues to advance, we’ll see the technology move past automation and begin to personalize and optimize customer experiences in new and powerful ways – easing common customer pain points and reimagining how they interact with brands.
With the arrival of generative AI the next generation of bots has arrived. These virtual agents are able to handle more complicated tasks, including troubleshooting and product inquiries. They will pair customers’ historical context—enabling them to acknowledge specific situations—with organizational knowledge and capabilities. As virtual agents become more adept at solving increasingly complex issues and are better at understanding human language, consumer perception will shift and some consumers will actively seek virtual agents as a means to engage with an organization.
Trained to model a given organization’s best agents, virtual agents will be equipped to provide great outcomes for customers and handle post-interaction administrative tasks such as case summaries and follow-up actions, to ensure more efficient and effective service across all conversations. Customers will no longer have to suffer long wait times, or deal with bots not sophisticated enough to resolve their issues without human aid or empathy. Meanwhile, human agents’ time will be freed up, enabling them to focus on customers most needing their support.
Soon we will experience the next stage of their evolution as more sophisticated methodologies are deployed that can extract emotion and sentiment from what people say, granting these empathetic virtual agents the ability to be much more effective communicators. Able to better understand the intricacies of human language, they’ll not only deliver more natural feeling conversations but also assess a customer’s emotional state and adjust the interaction accordingly. As it becomes more natural to converse with an empathetic virtual agent, more and more customers will prefer connecting with them over a human agent, especially when discussing sensitive or potentially embarrassing topics.
At this stage, the majority of customer service interactions will be handled by AI. However, anytime the interaction becomes too complex or emotionally charged, the empathetic virtual agent will involve and transition the conversation to a human agent.
AI Concierges Make Asynchronous Support a Reality
As AI accelerates the pace of CX innovation, empathetic virtual agents will evolve into personal virtual concierges that anticipate customer needs and automate virtually all experiences. These powerful personal virtual concierges will be able to navigate even the most complex customer requests and provide highly personalized, empathetic, human-like support. As a result, employees can focus on the most sensitive or unique customer conversations that still require the human touch while the vast majority of customers will enjoy zero wait times and asynchronous support.
Instead of having to leave a chat open or stay on hold, as we do today, customers can trust that personal virtual concierges will work on solving their issues asynchronously and will report back when the issue has been resolved. Take for example that fender bender—you’ve finally gotten your car back from the shop, but your insurance company has made an error and rejected your claim. Rather than sitting on hold trying to reach a live agent to remedy the mistake, your virtual concierge will handle the dispute—and, once done, let you know your claim has now been approved.
The chatbots we’re familiar with today are just the tipping point for more profound implementations of AI to come in the future. Chatbots have already shifted the way businesses operate and interact with their customers, but in the not-so-distant future, next generation AI will dramatically transform how customers interact, build relationships, and navigate customer service issues with the brands they love.
About the Author
Dr. Peter Graf is the SVP of Strategy at Genesys. In his role, he is responsible for developing, communicating, sustaining the Genesys strategy. Prior to joining Genesys in 2017, Peter held a variety of executive leadership positions in strategy, development, and marketing throughout his more than 25 years in the global enterprise software industry, most notably as an Executive Vice President at multinational software corporation SAP. Peter earned a doctorate in artificial intelligence from Saarland University and a master’s degree in computer science and economics from Technical University of Kaiserslautern in Germany.
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