Over the past few months, artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous. It is the subject of a wide range of discussions, from AI-powered personalized digital marketing and business communications to cybersecurity testing.
In particular, generative AIs like ChatGPT and Bard are always in the spotlight.
But getting caught up in the flood of press coverage about AI, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it relates to your business. That way you can actually use it for your own purposes.
This article details viable strategies for AI, specifically how to harness the power of AI in business communications. Here are five ways to streamline your workflow and make communication more efficient using cutting-edge AI-based tools.
Take advantage of natural language processing
First, consider leveraging natural language processing (NLP). This type of AI model is trained to recognize and process real human spoken and written input. and be kind.
NLP tools are actually already included in many business communication suites. For example, if you have a cloud-based business phone service, chances are high that voice messages or entire conversations will be automatically transcribed. Call summaries are also generated on some platforms. This allows the person reviewing the interaction to get the gist of it without reviewing everything.
Overall, this saves a lot of time. Transcription in particular is a time-consuming process. With the right tools, you no longer have to deal with the tedious task of transcribing meetings and conversations with hapless team members. Instead, you can use AI to document your business communications.
Use AI to automate routine business communication tasks
Similarly, automating routine communication tasks can save a lot of time.
For example, some VoIP phone systems and omnichannel communication platforms come with AI routing and assistants. This means that when you call your customers, they will be able to describe their business in their own words. After that, AI can directly handle mundane things like scheduling an appointment or providing information about a shipment. Alternatively, you can transfer the call to the appropriate available agent.
The bottom line? This cuts down on unnecessary call transfers, eliminates customer frustration, and eliminates endless “press 1 for…” menu cycles.
Conversational chatbots are another great way to leverage AI to take over routine tasks.
Chatbots can communicate with clients 24/7 at a fraction of the cost of human interaction. But availability and price aren’t the only advantages. The ability to easily answer mundane questions, such as providing account updates or answering FAQs, is also a big plus. This allows human agents to handle truly complex problems.
Overall, using AI to automate mundane workflows greatly streamlines communication, improving team productivity and customer satisfaction.
Delegation to AI assistants
Then you can use AI assistants to improve your business communications.
These tools are there to make your team members’ lives easier. A communication assistant takes over the documentation task and ensures that all the information you need is always available.
Let’s go back to the omnichannel communications platform example. Many of them offer AI assistants, which are especially useful when used natively or through integration with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.
For example, one of your agents receives a call from a customer who is having a problem with a product. The AI assistant automatically pulls customer records from her CRM and puts them at the agent’s disposal. All information about your customers will be at your fingertips. For example, you can see the date of purchase or whether the caller has previously contacted customer support. As a result, you can get to work in earnest instead of asking your customer to walk you through the entire journey from the beginning.
Similarly, AI assistants can also provide helpful prompts during difficult conversations with customers. The Assistant transcribes and analyzes interactions in real time, so you can spot heightened tensions through sentiment analysis. It then provides conversation strategy suggestions to members of the responsible team to help de-escalate and resolve the situation.
Leveraging generative AI for creative workflows
Another useful way AI can be integrated into business communications is by leveraging generative AI in workflows that require creative input.
Suppose you need to enter information into your monthly newsletter. Alternatively, you should write a Twitter thread about the results of your latest niche research. Or you want to create an Instagram Story about your latest product.
Generative AI such as ChatGPT, DALL-E 2, Midjourney can speed up these processes significantly.
You don’t have to rely solely on these tools, but they provide a solid foundation to kickstart your creative workflow. In the stressful world of business communication, getting inspiration out of your own pocket is invaluable.
Get detailed insights from AI analytics
Finally, one way AI can be used to take business communications to the next level is through analytics. AI is great at processing large amounts of data and uncovering trends and correlations that humans could never identify.
In short, AI analytics tools can provide rich, detailed insights into customer behavior and agent performance.
With AI, you can fine-tune your personalized digital marketing to acquire and deliver training tailored to your team members’ strengths and weaknesses in customer interactions. In addition, you can optimize resource usage and reduce your overall communications budget.
Final Thoughts on AI for Business Communications
In the future, AI will become the core of business communication.
By adopting the above strategies now, you can keep up with the most important trends and stay ahead of the curve.
Take the time to evaluate the AI tools you have at your disposal today and the AI tools you might want to add and integrate into your workflow. This may take some time and resources, but it will be worth it in the end when it comes to facilitating communication.
Featured Image Credits: Photo by Manuel Guillen Vega; Pexel; Thanks!
