Over the past couple of years, I’ve been actively working on my AI directory project, learning everything I can about this fascinating technology. I learnt a lot in this journey. Today, I want to specifically chat about AI in customer service – a topic I’ve been exploring by talking to all sorts of companies that are either using AI for customer support or building their own AI for customer support.
AI is reshaping customer service. You might not know but chances are you already talked to a bunch of AI customer support agents! AI isn’t here to replace human interaction entirely, but it’s becoming a powerful teammate in the customer service game. I will also share the story of a startup that used AI in customer support and the fun fact is human support agents are working side by side with the AI. Here is a case study that I’ve published in my newsletter (with minor changes):
A short detail on Customer Support
Customer support, in simple terms, is the support instructions or answers you receive when you have a question or issue with a product or service (yeah I know you know). Imagine you buy a new pair of shoes online and wonder if they come in a wider width. Or maybe you’re stuck on an error in your pc or laptop. Customer support is there to guide you through these situations.
Traditionally, customer support happened through phone calls, emails, or even face-to-face interactions at a store. But the industries are ever growing. Most businesses have websites. Millions of interactions occur every single day, across countless businesses around the world. This is why companies are actively building AI system to aid customer support.
Current Trends and How AI Helps
Imagine you’re browsing a new online clothing store and have a question about a dress. Maybe you want to know the exact measurements, if it comes in different colors, or what the return policy is. In the past, this might have meant waiting in amazon’s customer support portal or sending an email and waiting minutes, or even hours, for a reply. For emails it might even took days, right?
AI chatbots with the help of LLM (Large lanuage model) can understand your questions and answer these frequently asked questions (FAQs) in a flash. They’ve been trained on massive amounts of customer service data, so they can understand your question and pull up the relevant information about the dress, the return policy, or anything else on the website. AI can answer these questions much faster than a human agent could ever respond. Did you check the speed at which chatgpt answers?
For example, E-commerce websites often get a hell lotta questions about product details, sizing, delivery options, warranty information, and the like. AI can handle these repetitive questions with ease, freeing up human agents for more complex issues that require a personal touch. Stuff like refund or return request etc.
But AI’s benefits go beyond just answering basic questions. AI can also be a sidekick for human customer service agents (yes, I said sidekick). For instance, when a customer asks a more specific question, AI can analyze past interactions and suggest a few possible answers for the agent to choose from. This saves the agent a ton of time crafting a response from scratch, allowing them to focus on personalizing the answer and making sure it perfectly addresses the customer’s concern.
But can AI Interect Well with People
The idea of talking to a robot about a customer service issue feels a bit… impersonal. We’d all (me for sure) prefer a friendly human on the other end, right? Well, AI is actually getting pretty good at understanding our human emotions, even through text chats.
Imagine you’re having trouble resetting your password and getting increasingly frustrated. AI, using something called sentiment analysis, can pick up on the tone of your messages.
For instance, the AI might automatically flag your chat for a human agent to jump in. This way, you can get the personalized assistance you need from a real person, without having to explain the whole situation again. Plus, AI is constantly learning how to write more like a human by analyzing massive amounts of text data. The more it interacts with people, the better it gets at understanding our emotions and responding in a way that feels natural and helpful. For example, chatGPT 4 is far better than chatGPT 3.5 (according to benchmarks and my personal exprience).
So, while a robot might not replace a good customer service conversation just yet, AI is definitely walking in that path of becoming a valuable teammate in making sure you get the support you need.
Using AI for Streamlined Efficient Reporting
You know amazon tracks your chats and phone calls to better their services, right? Companies use all sorts of tricks to understand their customers, and one of the biggest tools in their arsenal these days is AI.
Imagine you run a bakery. You get tons of customer calls and emails, but keeping track of it all and figuring out what people really want can be a massive headache. This is where AI comes in as your customer feedback superhero.
AI can store all those conversations, emails, and even social media comments. Then, it gets to work analyzing them. It can figure out what people are talking about the most, whether they’re happy or frustrated (think positive or negative comments), and even identify any patterns that might be hiding in all that data.
Imagine you see a bunch of comments about how your scones are a bit too dry. This kind of feedback might get lost in the shuffle without AI, but with its help, it becomes a clear message. You can then use this info to adjust your recipe or maybe offer a little ramekin of cream on the side.
AI doesn’t stop at just understanding the feedback, though. It can also help you make reports that make sense of it all. These reports can show you the big picture – what are people loving, and what are they not so crazy about? With this knowledge in hand, you can make changes to improve your products, services, or even your customer service approach.
Top AI Tools Used for Customer Service:
As a founding member of a leading AI tools directory, seekme, I’ve been actively browsing, researching and ranking AI tools. I’ve ranked thousands of AI tools and hundreds of which are for customer support. Here’s my list top ones’ so far:
1. Zendesk AI (personal recommendation)
Zendesk AI is a powerful AI-powered customer service solution that leverages natural language processing and machine learning to automate routine tasks, provide intelligent routing, and generate personalized responses. Businesses across various industries, from ecommerce to SaaS, use Zendesk AI to enhance their customer support operations and deliver exceptional experiences.
2. Aisera
Aisera’s AI Customer Service solution combines conversational AI and automation to resolve up to 80% of customer support requests without human intervention. Powered by enterprise-grade language models, Aisera’s AI chatbot and virtual assistant can handle complex queries, provide accurate information, and seamlessly integrate with a company’s existing systems. Aisera is widely adopted by organizations in the high-tech, retail, financial services, and healthcare sectors.
3. Salesforce Einstein
Salesforce Einstein is an AI-powered suite of tools that empowers customer service teams to work more efficiently and provide personalized support. From analyzing customer sentiment to automating routine tasks and generating intelligent responses, Einstein helps businesses deliver faster, more consistent, and more satisfying customer experiences. Salesforce’s robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform makes Einstein a popular choice for companies of all sizes.
4. Hiver
Hiver is an AI-driven customer service platform that combines intelligent automation, collaborative features, and powerful analytics. Its AI-powered chatbots can handle common inquiries, route tickets to the right agents, and provide real-time insights to improve customer service. Hiver is particularly useful for small and medium-sized businesses looking to streamline their customer support operations.
5. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a comprehensive customer service platform that integrates AI-powered capabilities to enhance agent productivity and customer satisfaction. Its AI-driven features include intelligent ticket classification, automated responses, and contextual knowledge base recommendations. Freshdesk is widely adopted by businesses across various industries, from ecommerce to IT services.
A Personal Experience
While building seekme, I had the pleasure to meet awesome peeps building and implementing AI and LLMs. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Sarah, a mutual friend and CEO of a company that works on fitness tech. We discussed their innovative approach to customer service, which seamlessly blends human expertise with the power of AI.
Sarah was enthusiastic about the impact AI has had on their customer support. “We’ve implemented AI chatbots to handle basic inquiries like troubleshooting steps or FAQs,” she explained. “This frees up our human agents to tackle more complex issues and provide personalized support.”
What truly impressed me was Sarah’s emphasis on AI’s learning capabilities. “The beauty of our AI is that it constantly evolves,” she said. “With every customer interaction, the chatbot learns and refines its responses. It even analyzes conversations handled by our human agents, allowing it to better understand the nuances of customer queries.”
This constant learning loop ensures the AI stays up-to-date and provides increasingly accurate information. Sarah gave an example: “Initially, the AI might have struggled with a question about a specific fitness tracker feature. But by analyzing past interactions where human agents addressed that topic, the AI can now confidently answer that same question itself.”
The key takeaway from our conversation? AI isn’t meant to replace human interaction in customer service. Instead, it acts as a powerful teammate, handling routine tasks and empowering agents to focus on building relationships with customers.
“We view AI as a tool that enhances the overall customer experience,” Sarah concluded. “By streamlining processes and allowing agents to personalize their interactions, AI helps us create a happy and loyal customer base.”
Here’s the bottom line: AI isn’t here to replace the human element of customer service. Instead, it’s here to empower both customers and customer service agents with faster and well directed answers. By taking care of the mundane tasks, AI frees up human agents to focus on what matters most: building relationships and providing exceptional, personalized service.
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PS: I am building seekme.ai. I was able to discover the awesom world of AI while working for seekme. I shared this case-study in my newsletter last week. We share insights and updates on AI. We send case studies helpful for enrepreneurs and businesses. Subscribe here
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