November 1, 2022

Conversational AI for the Telco Industry

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Many industries slowed way down during and in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. However, artificial intelligence was something of an exception to this rule. In fact, the market for artificial intelligence around the world is expected to continue to grow by more than 20% every year.

That growth is driven partially by the need for artificial intelligence to cover the work that people were not able to do during a pandemic. Of course, this industry growth is also the result of technological advancement.

Modern artificial intelligence chatbots for telcos provide an impressive customer experience. Conversational AI lives up to its name, and it allows companies to automate customer interactions in a seamless, omnichannel, and integrated manner. 

So what is conversational AI, and why is the industry exploding the way it is? Read on to learn all about the most important things to understand about what conversational AI is and what it might be able to do for your telecommunications company!

What Are Conversational Chatbots?

Conversational chatbots are the result of recent advancements in artificial intelligence. These chatbots are much more sophisticated than traditional chatbots. They have the word conversational in their name because they do not sound stilted and artificial like older chatbots.

This represents a breakthrough and a revolution. All kinds of industries have huge lists of tasks that they need conversation-level AI to help them with.

Chatbots are already starting to improve customer service and sales in many industries. There are chatbots for banking as well as for offices in the medical industry and in many others.

Although they are already popular, it is probable that they will become even more so as time goes on. At this point, the question is not whether companies will use chatbots, it is when they will do so.

Even if the sophisticated chatbots of today do not convince some companies, the even more advanced chatbots of tomorrow will. And those companies that refused to use chatbots will have a much more difficult time staying afloat as their competitors use them and consumers demand immediate, omnichannel and efficient support.

How Do AI Chatbots Work?

Many people are shocked to hear about the advancements in chatbot technology. They cannot believe how natural a modern chatbot can sound until they see it for themselves. But how is it that modern chatbots are able to achieve this?

One of the biggest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence for customer service is natural language processing powered by semantic engines. They have multiple layers that allow AI systems to learn how people use language in the real world.

This also means that AI systems can learn many different kinds of ways of speaking. That includes learning many different languages as well as regionalisms, informal language, slang, and emojis.

The end result is that chatbots are able to skillfully navigate a simple conversation. As long as there are not too many possibilities for the AI to consider, it can often make the right choice when it has to respond to a message.

That is exactly what is required for a chatbot to become conversational. And that is why conversational chatbots are now sweeping the telecommunications industry along with many others.

The Benefits of the AI Revolution for the Telecommunications Industry

In the past, using robots for customer service was hit and miss. It was efficient, but it was full of flaws and bugs. Many companies were unsure if the disadvantages were worth the advantages. However, more advanced AI chatbots have changed everything. 

Provide Customers With Natural Interactions

Modern chatbots can establish natural conversations with customers, understanding typos, misspellings, regionalisms, emojis and even voice notes. 

They also respond in real time, 24/7 and adapt automatically to any channel such as web chat, WhatsApp Business, Facebook Messenger, or Instagram.

And they can do all of this while displaying a striking level of realism. In fact, many people do not even know when they are talking to a chatbot. When chatbots first became conversational, companies were shocked to find out that many people did not realize they were having conversations with a computer.

Integrate Across Platforms for Transactional messages

One of the great things about modern AI systems is that they can perform simple tasks with incredible speed. Just as it is more efficient to use a calculator for complicated arithmetic, so it is more efficient to use an AI system to retrieve messages from many different platforms.

Telcos, just like banks or retailers, manage transactional information such as account status, available balance, and billing information, and it is important to be able to automate interactions that contain this sensitive data as well. A conversational chatbot that is not transactional cannot be resolutive and efficient. 

Customers want to get answers to frequently asked questions, but they also want to be able to ask about their current balance or even purchase extra internet usage, and a chatbot should be able to answer both kinds of questions.

Conversational chatbots can integrate to multiple platforms to retrieve personalized data for each customers, delivering transactional information immediately and automatically. They can then consolidate all of that data into a single platform, allowing you to manage customer inquiries from one place.

And when they need to hand off a customer to a human agent, the live agent can join the conversation in the same platform, making the transfer easy, smooth and transparent. In this way, agent will not have to worry about the same kind of busy work that they used to. Even when a chatbot hands a customer off to a human agent, the chatbot can often collect important information first.

This means that by the time a human agent is dealing with a customer, they already have the routine information they need. You can also have your chatbots invite customers to check common troubleshooting solutions.

Related Article: How To Use Chatbots For Marketing

Learn and Evolve Continuously

One of the amazing things about chatbots is that they learn continuously from each interaction. They gather information from the conversations they established with users to find patterns, learn new ways of saying things, and adopt new words.

Truth is, the longer you use your chatbots, the better the quality of the work that they will do.

Analytics to Better Know Your Customers

Chatbots can also collect and organize data about your customers. Just like it was mentioned in the previous point, chatbots can gather information from each interaction to generate insights on how to assist them better.

Better understanding your customers means providing them with products and services that they will value more, customizing interactions to fit their needs, and enriching your chatbot with valuable information to make it more resolutive.

For instance, chatbots can let you know which questions are not being answered correctly, which ones need human intervention, and which ones are working just fine. They also provide metrics such as customer feedback, average support time, and retention rate.

Combined, this means that AI chatbots can help everyone involved with your company. They can help business leaders understand customers better, they can reduce busy work and monotony for employees, and they can provide better and more timely service for customers.

And as well as they do all of these things at first, they can learn to do them even better with time!

Improve Your Customer Experience With an Artificial Intelligence Chatbot

Current conversational AI chatbots for telcos provide excellent security along with a great customer experience. Artificial intelligence is changing the telecommunications industry. Learning to make the most of these tools will help your company stand out from its competitors in the industry.

To learn more about how AI chatbots work, you can book a demo with our team today!

Are you looking for new ways to improve your CX?

Our customer service solutions powered by conversational AI can help you deliver an efficient, 24/7 experience  to your customers. Get in touch with one of our specialists to further discuss how they can help your business.