Artificial intelligence — AI for short — has already changed the way businesses operate. It integrates information from massive datasets and drives research and development initiatives as well as marketing automation. Its role in streamlining manufacturing and production is well-known.

But AI is also transforming the way companies interact with customers. That’s good news since the ability to consistently deliver an excellent customer experience is critical for companies in today’s hyper-competitive economy. Here are five ways AI is changing the customer experience:

1. Improving search engine results: People understand that search results are processed by computer programs, but the inner workings remain a mystery for most. A major part of Google’s search engine results is processed by RankBrain, a machine-learning AI system. With this approach, people get a broader choice of information for their search term. It’s a basic example of how AI improves the customer experience, but it’s critical for search engine optimization and marketing purposes — and it makes life easier for billions who are searching for information.
2. Routine problem-solving in customer service: We’re not at the point where an AI bot can replace a human being, but AI programs are already solving customer service problems, focusing primarily on routine issues. Chatbots are now able to answer standard customer inquiries. Some companies are even using chatbots to make recommendations for restaurants, services, gifts, etc.
3. Personalized recommendations: Apart from chatbots making general recommendations in a customer service scenario, AI is crunching data and applying a personal touch when it interacts with humans. Because AI can analyze huge datasets from individual customers and similar accounts, it can use predictive analytics to make accurate estimates about customer behavior.
4. Better user experiences and interfaces: Where they were once function-focused, apps are now using AI to expand capabilities and directly improve user experiences and interfaces. Forward-thinking developers are using AI to take the user experience beyond graphics and explore new ways to communicate, including text and voice, to create a more holistic experience.   
5. Superior customer insights: AI that helps businesses identify and highlight correlations in customer information is obviously beneficial for companies. It enables them to understand what their customers value and meet emerging demands. That’s why so many companies are making unprecedented investments in AI-powered business intelligence tools. But these same AI tools help customers too, enabling more targeted offers and delivering relevant content.

There are some incredibly exciting developments on the horizon as the IoT expands and AI tools become more advanced. Some AI solutions have already developed a rudimentary emotional intelligence that companies can deploy to independently analyze customer responses and automatically respond.

Natural-language processing advances are making AI-generated text sound more human every day. And now, there’s even an AI system under development that is becoming capable of recording patient information in everyday language and providing treatment plan recommendations, including links to where clinicians can obtain additional information.

The bottom line is that AI is evolving rapidly. It is already doing many routine tasks. It parses data, identifies opportunities, recognizes patterns and delivers insights. AI has long been considered a transformative development for business operations. But as these five points demonstrate, AI is changing the customer experience too. 

About the Author

Titir is a seasoned analytics professional. He brings more than 14 years of progressive experience in the “Business Transformation and Advisory” role, supporting fortune 500 clients across financial services, CPG, Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare, Industrial Products, Mining etc.   

He passionately believes that combining advanced analytics with powerful technology is the future of business decision making.

At Absolutdata, Titir plays a strategic role driven by his passion. He is responsible for developing cutting-edge next generation solutions and products, and has been instrumental in launching the company’s NAVIK suite of products, creating new solutions and services based on big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Prior to Absolutdata, Titir was leading Analytics service delivery teams in GE Capital International Services.

He is fairly active in collaborating with industry thought leaders and is frequently invited to keynote or speak in various settings on topics related to analytics, marketing and product management. Outside of work, Titir is very interested in how different societies and cultures have developed across the world.