The world now is seeing a whole new AI-powered era, and customer care across the globe is no different. AI chatbots are making big changes in the customer service sector and have taken over big global industries, such as healthcare and e-commerce.
According to Market Insiders, the chatbot market is expected to reach $9.4 billion in 2024. The expansion from 2.6 billion USD in 2019 to 9.4 billion USD in 2024 represents a CAGR of 29.7 percent.
With this massive growth comes global awareness. Many companies are now learning to offer better customer experience with the help of AI chatbots. One of the biggest examples is Alibaba, the e-commerce giant in China.
In this blog, we will delve into the newest global tech developments, the function of chatbots and AI in customer care, and how conversational AI improves customer experience in China.
Top 6 Global Customer Service Trends with AI Chatbots
1. Accelerating AI-powered Automation
In 2022, customer service automation enabled by AI undoubtedly made a big splash. Using artificial intelligence by customer support teams surged by 143% in 2022 with good cause. AI’s incredible multitasking, query and sentiment-understanding, and real-time personalization capabilities profoundly impact the global customer service industry.
Concepts of automation, such as interactive voice response (IVR) systems and chatbots, date back to the early 1990s. But with AI and automation working together, we can achieve responsiveness and reliability that isn’t achievable with humans alone.
2. Creating Unique and Tailored Experiences
Intelligent chatbots are revolutionizing customer service across the globe by allowing for more personalized interactions and experiences. With the right analysis and integration, chatbots can come up with important data that can be used to build unique profiles for each user and tailor product recommendations.
When brands offer personalized service, customers feel more valued and connected to it. Chatbots learn from previous interactions, which increases consumer engagement and satisfaction. Being addressed by name or given product recommendations based on past purchases makes customers loyal business supporters.
3. AI Performs Better Predictively
Our expectations for AI-driven customer care will likely be met with improved predictive skills. Customers may have better experiences and be more satisfied overall if AI improves its ability to anticipate their needs and behaviors.
By analyzing a customer’s actions and past purchases, AI is able to forecast when they will most likely make a purchase. Using this data, customer service representatives can engage with customers at the most optimum time in their trip to provide solutions tailored to their specific needs, such as a discount or a personalized product recommendation.
4. Increased Focus on Data Collection and Use
Personalizing customer service relies heavily on data collection and utilization. Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence allows you to automatically gather customer data as they go through your customer journey and utilize it to create personalized, individualized customer care.
According to Gartner, the next two years will increase the use of digital analytics, sentiment analysis, and machine learning to analyze customer data. The goal is to make better action plans with insights from this data and make educated decisions.
5. Proactive Client Service Helps Beforehand
Popular companies are already taking the initiative to serve their customers better. When you provide proactive customer care, you address your clients’ problems and meet their demands before they even arise. Building trust with clients and converting them into devoted brand champions is a fantastic goal to strive for.
Still, most companies wait to do something until consumers come to them with complaints. Troubleshooting can become challenging sometimes, which can make customers unhappy. This is why anticipating consumer problems and offering solutions before they arise is always a smart move!
6. Digital Self-Service Means Huge Savings
Harvard Business Review says over 80% of American customers expect companies to offer self-service options. In particular, younger generations are more likely to try troubleshooting problems independently before contacting customer service.
Customers save time, and you can support more people at a reduced cost per interaction using self-service channels. With massive cost reductions and increased efficiency, brands are now seeing exponential growth in the average percentage of satisfied clients.
How Global AI Chatbot Trends are Changing Customer Care in China – Alibaba Case Study
In September 2023, generative AI services were first made available to the public by Baidu Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., two of China’s most prominent tech companies. Baidu pioneered China’s tech industry when it released its Ernie Bot broad language model to the public.
The launch took place after receiving the regulatory green light from the government. Before, only corporate clients could gain access, or an application was needed.
Since the premiere of ChatGPT by OpenAI Inc., China’s nascent AI industry has invested one billion dollars into the field; thus, this is a major milestone for them.
Alibaba and AI-Powered Customer Care
Regarding customer care, let’s take the example of the giant Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, which uses AI Chatbot trends to enhance its customer experience.
Alibaba handles a lot of customer service inquiries daily. The inquiries might originate from either end users or merchants on Alibaba’s bidirectional platform.
Customers could be dissatisfied with the goods they bought from Alibaba sellers or have queries about the platform. Retailers may have inquiries on platform features or end-user customers.
All things considered, due to resource constraints, Alibaba cannot engage with consumers purely through human service interactions.
With over two million daily interactions, Alibaba’s AI chatbots handle client engagement like never before!
About 75% of Alibaba’s online consultations and 40% of phone hotline consultations take place on Taobao’s bidirectional platform, with over 10 million lines of talk every day.
According to initial data, the company has saved over one billion RMB (~US $150 million) each year by replacing human contact center agents with AI chatbots and increased customer satisfaction by 25 percent.
More than eighty apps associated with Alibaba use its five AI chatbots. These apps include:
- Taobao
- Hema
- Xianyu
- Fliggy
- Lazada.
Alibaba developers spent a whole year crafting the first AI bot. Even while they have to improve each bot constantly, the process has become considerably more efficient, and today, it takes just one month for Alibaba’s developers to create a new AI bot for its platforms.
Furthermore, Alibaba finally realized that its customers love these AI chatbots. They appreciate the efficiency with which these AI-powered chatbots help with customer service inquiries. The company now understands the need for regular client testing to know to which extent AI robots can serve customers.
Conclusion
In 2023, consumers showed higher expectations for customer care departments than the previous year. Most global brands understood and catered to these high expectations with the help of AI-powered chatbots to keep their customer base loyal and regular.
With the support of AI, big brands can provide outstanding customer experience that prioritizes service and value at every step. Because of this, AI-based voice and chatbot assistants are becoming increasingly important for customer service by big names like Alibaba.
The biggest Chinese e-commerce platform, Alibaba, is a great example of how AI brings massive business growth. With a major increase in response time and client satisfaction, the platform can cater to more satisfied clients from all across the globe.
With the acceptance of AI chatbots at a global level, the future of customer care seems promising!
Author: Greg.B
Executive with 25 years of proven success in call center management and revitalizing business units. Proven career record of producing multimillion-dollar profits through pinpointing operational inefficiencies and encouraging the revitalization of employee morale and corporate culture change.