All Things CX – February Edition: The potential of ChatGPT for CX

The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) has always attracted a lot of public attention and speculation. However, in recent weeks, this interest has reached a new dimension. Now, everyone can use and experience AI.

For instance,?Microsoft?sees tremendous potential for AI in their search engine and presented new features for Bing and Edge that use ChatGPT’s AI models. Microsoft’s clear objective is to use AI in order to answer users’ questions directly and in detail using AI.

Google?was maybe a bit too quick in also trying to showcase how they leverage AI in their search engine. When Google introduced their latest innovation, “Bard” at the “Live in Paris” event, it was not entirely free of errors, to say the least.

No matter how these initial approaches in the “search field” may differ, entrepreneurs should keep a close eye on the development of the foundational technology.?Ryan Bennett, co-founder of the digital experience agency Cylogy, believes that generative AI, such as ChatGPT, will undoubtedly influence the world of digital customer experiences:

“ChatGPT will likely impact the digital customer experience world and act as a catalyst for trends already in place.AI-powered services have steadily been improving in the background over several years, and the recent viral nature of ChatGPT means that more of us — and crucially senior management — are now more aware of how much AI has evolved and of its relative potential.”

AI has undoubtedly reached a new maturity level of commercial readiness that will revolutionize our efficiency, creative output, and knowledge management.

The next stages of conversational AI

With the advent of chatbots and virtual assistants based on a large language model (LLM), customers can interact with businesses more naturally and conversationally. This has been a significant step towards better CX across the entire customer journey.

However, implementing these new bots will not be without challenges. As the first-generation chatbots have already shown, success cannot be taken for granted.

Despite their versatility, many first-generation chatbots struggle to understand complex requests and questions and have a limited ability to maintain context during an interaction. This has sometimes led to a rigid customer experience as chatbots are often limited to a finite number of interactions. Previous chatbots were often limited to specific tasks and could only provide pre-programmed responses. ChatGPT can respond to an original request and perform conversational tasks rather than just responding to specific keywords and questions. This makes it more flexible and adaptable.?

By integrating various conversational styles and tonalities, companies can use LLMs to make their content more engaging for customers. As by the very definition of AI/ML, LLMs also learn, grow and adapt based on customer interactions, continuously improving the quality of their responses and overall CX.

Dan O’Connell, Chief Strategy Officer at AI-powered customer intelligence platform Dialpad, believes that LLM-based chatbots like ChatGPT can enhance customer engagement in several ways. “They can be used in a variety of ways to save time and append records but also to effectively identify topics, action items, and map sentiment,” said O’Connell.

Implications for customer communication

In July 2022,?Gartner?predicted that chatbots would become the primary customer channel for a quarter of all companies by 2027.

However, the use of AI in sensitive conversational situations has often fallen short up to now. For example, as recently as January, GPT-3 was used to generate answers for the mental health app Koko. The artificial empathy generated by the technology led to criticism from users.

The app’s co-founder,?Rob Morris, explained in a Twitter thread that the start-up had consequently removed the AI from its system: “Once people learned that the messages were co-created by a machine, it didn’t work. Simulated empathy feels weird, empty.”

Although AI may not yet be able to adequately serve in areas that require emotional intelligence and human sensitivity, I do see it as highly relevant for the future of customer interaction.

Using AI in customer dialogue is particularly appealing to companies because it can automate processes and provide customers with a smooth experience at a faster pace. And while users were hesitant to interact with chatbots a few years ago, user acceptance has also increased with further development in recent years. Based on an?Uberall study, 80% of customers would already use chatbots if they were offered.

ChatGPT and other high-performance models will play a critical role in customer interactions in the coming years, according to?Juniper Research. A recent report by the analyst firm predicts that AI-driven chatbots will handle up to 70 per cent of customer conversations by the end of 2023.

This highlights the growing importance of AI in optimizing the customer experience and streamlining interactions. There are many opportunities for businesses to use this technology to improve marketing strategies, deliver personalized services, and increase efficiency overall.

But as soon as customer data is gathered and processes, it also requires a high level of trust for the customers. Disclosing when, where, how, and why AI is being used by companies is crucial to maintaining consumer trust.

Accelerated workflows

Additionally,?CX Today?points to the potential of generative AI for the future of intra-company collaboration. For example, employees within the company could use ChatGPT as a collaborative tool for brainstorming and exploring new ideas to improve the customer experience. Senior Editor?Charlie Mitchell?sees another fascinating use case for ChatGPT in how it transforms software engineering: “It has significant potential to accelerate digital transformation programs. Indeed, it allows developers to make software faster, debug code quicker, and write in languages they didn’t know. Moreover, if the developer has simple code comprehension queries, they can perhaps ask ChatGPT for the answer and extend their skills even further.”

That is the very reason these innovations are so business-relevant for companies. In our fast-paced world, it is more important than ever to be able to respond quickly and effectively to customers’ demands and needs.?

What is your view on the readiness of generative AI? Which use-cases are you already deploying in your company? I look forward to reading your thoughts.