What makes a great conversation? It’s a difficult question, because so much of what makes a conversation seamless, enjoyable, and natural is innate to us as humans. We want to be understood by our conversation partner, to be able to connect, find common ground, intuit complex meaning and convey emotion, empathy, and sincerity. For a long time, it was widely believed that no tool or technology would ever be capable of capturing the essence of a good conversation – an interaction which relies on something intangibly human.

But this view is changing. In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital interactions, conversational AI has emerged as a powerful tool that can provide enriched, human-like interactions. Through automated messaging and voice-enabled applications, conversational AI has the potential to transform how businesses connect with customers, improving both marketing and sales functions and enhancing the overall customer experience.

Here are the eight key elements to an AI chatbot that can make interactions between brands and customers feel remarkably human:

Showing empathy

While technical and functional capabilities are important, the ability to show empathy can help create more meaningful customer interactions and start a conversation off on the right foot. Recreating real empathy is a difficult task, but by utilising sentiment analysis and opinion mining, advanced AI chatbots can discern whether a customer’s message conveys positive, negative, or neutral feelings. When faced with disappointed customers, these chatbots can convey a feeling of empathy, or even apologise before redirecting the request to a human agent.

Understanding intent

It’s crucial that an advanced AI chatbot can recognise the intent of customer queries. By employing advanced intent recognition algorithms, chatbots can accurately discern the purpose or goal behind each message. Whether customers seek information, make reservations, or troubleshoot issues, these chatbots can grasp their intent, leading to higher accuracy in responses. Consequently, businesses enjoy greater customer satisfaction, which ultimately leads to reduced costs and increased customer loyalty.

Maintaining context

As AI chatbots have grown in sophistication, they have been able to maintain context throughout conversations. These chatbots are able to analyse users’ previous messages, consider the ongoing dialogue, and produce more contextually relevant responses. By considering context in this way, conversations become more natural and authentic, with customers able to rely on their own words and phrases. A real-world example of where chatbots can add value in this way is within an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Based on previous conversational history or data, chatbots can inform a job applicant about a new opportunity.

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Proactive interactions

Passive customer service is a thing of the past, with advanced chatbots now able to initiate proactive interactions with users. In practice, for example, this could involve chatbots sending out messages to collect feedback after a customer makes a purchase. These proactive interactions foster greater engagement and ensure businesses stay connected with their customers at critical moments – even aiding businesses in creating more meaningful and personalised marketing or sales journeys.

Understanding nuances

Language is diverse and nuanced, and it’s important for businesses that their customers are understood, no matter their dialect or use of colloquialism. Through Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and extensive training on diverse datasets, chatbots can interpret colloquial language, slang, and informal expressions with accuracy. This capability ensures that customer interactions remain natural and frictionless.

Usefulness

The value of advanced AI chatbots extends beyond text-based interactions. With the ability to work with images, videos, audio, and other attachments, these chatbots can perform complex tasks that were previously limited to human operators. For example, a user filing an insurance claim can benefit from passport recognition via a chatbot, expediting the claims process and enhancing the user experience.

Convenience

The seamless integration of AI chatbots with systems and databases empowers them to access relevant information and perform actions on behalf of the customer. From retrieving product details to checking order statuses or even initiating transactions, these chatbots facilitate a streamlined and efficient customer journey. For marketers, this is significant: better customer journeys and seamless business-consumer interactions can contribute to improved brand equity.

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Logical dialogue

Behind the scenes, chatbots employ sophisticated dialogue management techniques to make informed decisions during conversations. With predefined decision trees, flowcharts, or decision-making algorithms, these chatbots can determine the most appropriate responses and actions in real-time. This logical dialogue ensures that customers receive accurate and relevant information.

Going further, it is important to consider user personas. The best practice here is to use a combination of Large Language Model (LLM) and goal-oriented architectures where the logic of conversation is based on the channel capabilities and user preferences. There are different types of user persona: one loves texting and longreads, while another might prefer a one-button solution. The best conversation is when a chatbot is suitable for different personas and knows how to handle the dialogue depending on the channel and use case.

With these eight key elements, AI chatbots are reimagining the stale and static customer interactions of the past. Today, businesses are striving to offer their customers even more personalised and seamless interactions. Conversational AI, in the form of intelligent chatbots, plays a crucial role here, bridging the gap between businesses and their customers in novel and exciting ways.

What makes a great conversation is the ability of the participants to connect and resonate with one another. AI chatbots are now equipped to recognise the intricacies of human language and respond in a way that feels natural and engaging. Understanding context, recognising intentions, and adapting to various communication styles are just some of the ways in which these AI-powered assistants can create authentic conversations that benefit brands and customers alike.

By fostering genuine and useful customer interactions in this way, conversational AI is completely reimagining customer communications as we know it.