Aligning Business Needs With AI-Powered Virtual Assistants

Nowadays, executives are interested in exploring how Virtual Assistants or Chatbots with Artificial Intelligence can impact businesses by enhancing the customer or employee experience, boosting sales, or cutting operational costs. 

The public launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022 has certainly stirred significant interest, raising expectations regarding the level and quality of conversational experience expected from such solutions.

The results achievable by complementing the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) capabilities inherent in many existing Chatbot platforms with the power of Generative Artificial Intelligence (e.g., GPT-4) is astonishing.

A recent study by Tidio shows that companies will significantly increase their adoption of Chatbots in the coming years: According to the survey, 43% of micro-enterprises, 60% of small businesses, 80% of medium-sized businesses, and 71% of large enterprises plan to implement Chatbots.

This high level of enthusiasm generated when witnessing a demonstration of the benefits of these technologies can lead to quickly frustrated expectations.

While incredible results can be achieved, we must not lose sight of the fact that technology should be understood as a potential enabler of benefits for your business. Having it is not a benefit in itself. Technology generates benefits when it efficiently addresses a relevant business need.

On the other hand, it’s important to note that although this type of technology may have many applications in your industry, you may not necessarily be able to justify its application in your company. Why? Because for a project to be viable for your company, you must ensure that these 3 conditions are met: 

• It solves something relevant that your customers, employees, or company need

• It is feasible to carry out

• The investment is justified

This is the point where, beyond all the benefits that technology proposes, before making any decision about implementing a Chatbot in your company, it is essential to understand why exactly you need it. To do this, I propose that you formulate and answer the questions you will find below. For each of them, you will find some reflections based on experience that I hope will be useful. This article will help you understand the key points to focus on before selecting AI-powered virtual Assistants for your company.   

What Problem Needs to be Solved using AI-Powered Virtual Assistants?

The starting point for designing a solution is identifying the problem that needs to be addressed. This problem must be relevant enough and be on the radar of executives with the authority to approve the project.  

Some typical problems that arise include: 

• Improving customer or employee experience 

• Increasing sales 
• Expanding customer service coverage 
• Providing immediate information 
• Automating repetitive processes 
• Reducing operational costs 
• Expanding service through new channels 

 If the problem isn’t relevant enough for the executive committee to justify the project, then there is no project.

Do I have resources available to plan and implement the solution? 

In addition to the team you plan to implement the solution, the effort required for proper project planning and preparation is often ignored or underestimated. These activities include : 

• Researching the problem 
• Collecting data to support financial justification 
• Identifying and engaging participants 
• Selecting the provider 
• Approving the budget 

Sometimes, the information needed to present a project for approval is scattered across different areas of the company, making it difficult to obtain and consolidate. In other cases, this information simply does not exist, and it is necessary to estimate it. For example, conversation volumes per month and per channel, the number of queries that are not resolved on time, the most frequently asked questions, response times, and customer satisfaction. 

Due to underestimating the time and dedication required for proper planning, many interesting initiatives are postponed or never approved.

What is the Economic Impact of Chatbot? 

In the current market, a wide range of products and platforms are available, each with its features and variable costs. These costs are usually determined based on the volume of interactions expected in a specific period. For companies facing a high volume of interactions or needing to solve complex problems, investing in a Chatbot can be significant and often requires board approval. 

It is essential to assess the positive impact of adopting the product to justify the need for a project of this nature. This involves analyzing the problem to be solved and the expected results. 

For example, in the customer service field, if agents are overwhelmed by calls, increasing wait times, and decreasing customer satisfaction, it would be prudent to compare the cost of hiring additional agents with the total cost of acquiring a chatbot platform. 

In sales, the cost of lost leads due to late responses, lack of attention to the appropriate channels, or lack of responses outside of business hours could be estimated. 

Experience shows that when there is a relevant problem and awareness at the executive level, justifying the investment becomes a straightforward task. 

Conclusions 

Implementing a Virtual Assistant or Chatbot with Artificial Intelligence represents a significant opportunity for companies to improve customer experience, increase operational efficiency, and generate positive impacts on business results. However, it is essential to approach this process with a clear understanding of business objectives and specific organizational needs. 

The public launch of technologies like ChatGPT has generated growing interest in these solutions, raising expectations about the quality and performance expected. It is essential to recognize that while these technologies can offer surprising results, they should be considered as enabling tools to obtain business benefits, not as standalone solutions. 

When evaluating the feasibility of implementing a Chatbot, it is crucial to ensure that three fundamental conditions are met:  

• Addressing a real need for customers, employees, or the company 
• Having the resources available for planning and implementation 
• Justifying the necessary economic investment 

Clear identification of the problem to be solved, proper planning and preparation of the project, and evaluation of the economic impact are critical steps to ensure the success of implementing a chatbot in a company. This involves a deep understanding of business processes, collecting and analyzing relevant data, and making informed decisions based on expected results. 

In summary, adopting Chatbot technologies can be a valuable strategy to drive digital transformation and improve a company’s competitiveness. However, its effective implementation requires a strategic approach, careful planning, and a rigorous evaluation of its economic and business impact. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. How can AI-powered sales forecasting and demand planning tools enable us to anticipate market trends and customer needs more accurately, facilitating proactive decision-making and resource allocation? 

With its ability to analyze vast amounts of historical sales and real-time data from various sources, such as social media interactions, sales transactions, market trends, and customer behavior, AI-powered tools can accurately predict sales volumes, buying patterns, and customer preferences. 

These predictive models have proven more accurate than human-created predictions, forecasting products and services across different regions, segments, and channels. An accurate forecast improves resource allocation planning, positively impacting costs, stock management, and operational efficiency. 

AI-powered product recommendation engines can be integrated with e-commerce platforms or marketing campaigns to provide recommendations that increase conversions by over 10%.

2. How can a Virtual Assistant be tailored to meet the unique needs and preferences of our target audience, ultimately driving personalized customer experiences? 

Enterprise-grade Virtual Assistants can capture and manage contextual information, providing a personalized customer experience. They can use variables and tags to scope subsequent intent detection, customize dialog flows, or segment audiences. 

NLP capabilities enable more natural, human-like back-and-forth conversations. AI can also identify customer sentiment, adjusting the communication style and subsequent actions required for each situation. 

Some VAs provide a native database to store data about preferences, demographics, behaviors, and pain points. This data can be used in future interactions to improve the quality of the dialog, providing relevant and personalized information. 

Furthermore, VAs come with a set of native integrations with customer engagement platforms such as CRM, CDP, Customer Service, Marketing Automation, or e-commerce, enabling access to comprehensive customer data. These integrations allow the VA to provide personalized assistance, track customer interactions, and offer proactive support based on individual customer profiles. 

3. How might incorporating a Chatbot into our marketing efforts help us gather valuable consumer insights and data to inform future campaigns and product offerings?

Virtual Assistants can be implemented across preferred audience channels such as website chat, social media platforms, mobile apps, and voice assistants simultaneously, ensuring consistent responses and a personalized omnichannel experience. They facilitate communication with immediate and accurate responses, available 24/7. 

During the customer journey, they capture relevant user information using digital forms and extract data points from user interactions through NLU capabilities. Each data point can be stored in a CDP or CRM for later use in personalizing messages, generating recommendations, and segmenting future campaigns. 

Campaigns’ calls to action can be directed to a VA to automate the upper part of the sales and marketing funnel. The VA provides information about products or services while storing relevant leads in the CRM for future use. Some VAs also have the capability to send outbound messages containing alerts, OTPs, information, or marketing content.

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