Forward-thinking businesses are investing in search engine optimization (SEO), website engagement, funnels, geofencing, and more – all with the goal of ensuring that when potential customers search for your products or services, they can find you and connect with you.
More than half of U.S. businesses expect some of today's best marketing techniques to be disrupted. HubSpot recently released its “State of Marketing 2024” report, with findings on the use of social media, video, messaging software, and chat to nurture customer relationships.
According to a HubSpot report, 55% of businesses predict that chatbots will overtake Google, Bing, and Yahoo as the go-to source for answers this year. Not in 10 years, but this year. If you've used a modern version of a chatbot, you understand the prediction and excitement.
Today’s chatbots are different from the chat windows of 2022. Today, the term “chatbot” is expanding, or evolving.
Allen Harris writes, “Today, more potential customers use Google, Bing, or Yahoo to find information about a company than visit a website chat window. Companies expect an increasing percentage of former Google users to interact with them through competitor ChatGPT or an upgraded version of the old chat window.”
Chatbots are often used synonymously with the term “conversational artificial intelligence (AI).” A few years ago, chat windows would be recognized as the dialogue box that popped up in the bottom right corner of your computer monitor when you logged on to a company's website. Businesses create a list of frequently asked questions and enter them into an Excel spreadsheet that they pull into the software. Businesses hope that customer questions are similar enough to the questions they have created so that they can provide relevant and accurate answers to customer inquiries.
ChatGPT, Claude, and Llama are known as large language models (LLMs), but they are also examples of chatbots. Today, more potential customers use Google, Bing, and Yahoo to search for information about companies than visit chat windows on websites. Companies expect an increasing percentage of former Google users to interact with them through competitor ChatGPT or upgraded versions of the old chat window.
LLM: Time for a Change
Google is the global leader in search. Google President Sean Downey foresees a looming threat to traditional search. “It's no surprise that the biggest marketing trend in 2024 will revolve around the potential of AI,” Downey said. He adds, “The opportunity for AI is transformative for everyone, including marketers. In fact, more than ever, in addition to connecting people with brands and products, marketers need to be the engine of their own growth.”
Whether your company sticks with pop-up dialogue boxes in 2022 or upgrades to one with LLM, the goal of both is to simulate a human-like conversation to provide specific, curated information and assistance to your customers and prospects. But it won’t be long before your potential customers notice the difference.
You may not be able to pinpoint it, but it’s immediately obvious when you’re looking at an outdated website. It doesn’t look professional. It won’t take long for your customers to notice the difference between a chat window in 2022 and one that runs on LLM. Perhaps the outdated nature of that widget is aesthetically meaningless to your prospects. However, there will be limited engagement between your outdated tools and your customers when compared to human-like conversational AI.
Upgraded chatbots have improved natural language understanding to deliver a premium experience. LLM helps chatbots understand user queries better, allowing them to provide more accurate and relevant responses. Chatbots equipped with LLM can be fine-tuned to company-specific data, directing customers to the right solution faster. These chatbots help businesses qualify leads, capture customer data, and close more deals.
Businesses are increasingly adopting AI-powered chatbots to communicate with potential customers. Chatbots are more effective at engaging customers than traditional chat windows that are limited in answering frequently asked questions.
What's the difference?
While LLM-enhanced chatbots are robust and scalable, businesses should always be aware of the value of messaging apps. The difference between chatbots and messaging apps can be confusing; they are different, albeit related, technologies. Chatbots are automated conversational programs between computers and humans. Messaging apps are primarily designed for communication between human users, often extending beyond text dialogue to video and chat. While messaging apps are much less scalable, LLM-enhanced chatbots can work together to guide prospects to instant meetings with the right salespeople.
Companies like Shopify, Microsoft, Marriott, Bank of America, and Uber use a combination of chatbot and messaging app technologies. If your company wants to join these and many other companies, some popular messaging platform options include LiveChat, Intercom, Drift, and ZenDesk Chat.
