Companies are spending billions of dollars on chatbot AI apps.
Chat GPT. Microsoft CoPilot. Google Gemini. Human. Llama. Nvidia.
These products, platforms, and companies are getting a lot of attention this year. And fair enough. These AI innovations (and many others) form the backbone, model, and infrastructure of what will be a tsunami of AI applications that will profoundly change the way we do business in the coming years.
But what about this year? 2024? Where is AI really making a difference? Where is the money being spent, and what is the real return on investment for companies using that money? This is where customer service chatbots come in. If you are considering investing in AI for your business, you can reap the rewards here.
From a business perspective, AI software will soon drive self-driving cars, operate robots, fly drones on their own, spot store thieves, make smarter decisions than humans, and use perceptive powers. It is said that you will have it. And I believe this will someday be true. Once developed, tested, matured and used, they will become the killer apps of tomorrow. But not now. Today is different. These AI technologies are still in their infancy.
Today’s killer AI apps for business are customer service chatbots. Big companies are putting money into it. That's where software companies are investing. And that's where businesses of all sizes should focus their efforts.
These are not pre-2022 chatbots. Something that requires specific commands and can only be responded to in a very precise, robotic, and narrow way. These are limited, and unfortunately there are many such chatbots (try filling out a prescription using his CVS on your mobile device, for example). But thanks to generative AI, things are rapidly changing.
Create presentations faster with Microsoft CoPilot. Google Gemini can perform faster and more accurate searches. TSA allows you to pass through the gate with facial recognition. The Alexa-powered speaker understands when I ask for the time. My girlfriend's Xfinity remote can call up the latest episode of “Curb” on command. All of this is great, but like Blackberry, it pales in comparison to the AI capabilities that will arrive as soon as tomorrow.
47% of companies responding to Gartner's survey said they focus their AI efforts on “customer-facing” activities, the highest percentage compared to all other uses. A survey of AI decision makers conducted in March by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz found that about 60% of AI decision makers use AI for knowledge management and customer service, also for other applications. It was found that the usage rate was the highest among the Deloitte reported last year that approximately 80% of contact centers are actively engaged in some stage of AI implementation. Many of these efforts are starting to see the light of day today and are functioning like humans. Even better.
For example, I previously wrote about Klarna, a buy now, pay later platform that licenses OpenAI's large language models to build chatbots that do the work of 700 customer service representatives. Ta. Bank of America announced that its chatbot Erica has had over 1.5 billion interactions. Starbucks has introduced a new chatbot to help customers choose and order coffee. Marriott's AI-powered virtual concierge offers a voice-enabled chatbot that fooled me the last time I called to make a dinner reservation. This is AI being deployed today for great ROI. And large companies are spending a whopping $18 million per company this year on AI customer service applications, mostly driven by chatbots. This is based on a survey of approximately 70 companies. Overall, companies are spending billions of dollars on AI chatbots.
When large companies invest this kind of money, the technology itself eventually becomes a commodity, lowering costs and allowing smaller organizations to take advantage of its benefits. And that's exactly what's happening with chatbots in the customer relationship and service management space.
Within the past two years, software leaders like NICE, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk, and even marketing platform HubSpot have launched AI-driven solutions that help small and medium-sized business customers answer queries, analyze data, and predict outcomes. announced chatbot capabilities independently or in partnership. , recommend products and services, train and advise agents, and overall get answers to customers faster than ever before.
The average person does not have access to (or at least we do not have access to) AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) technology that literally gives inanimate objects consciousness, sentience, and human understanding. Our current AI is still in a very early and rudimentary stage.
However, one mature AI area that has proven ROI in the real world is customer service chatbots. So if you're a business owner or manager looking to invest in AI this year, that's a good place to start.
