If you’ve ever said “OK Google” to your smartphone or speaker, or asked Siri when your next meeting is, you already know what Conversational AI can do. This subsection of AI (Artificial Intelligence) refers to the things that allow tech to understand what we say, and to have a conversation with us. One of these items is called Natural Language Processing, or NLP. Specifically, this is how computers process and analyze the words we say or write. Conversational AI is also a type of machine learning. In other words, it’s a technology that is always improving because it learns from each piece of information it receives. Both, digital humans and chatbots can improve the experiences for workers and customers as part of Conversational AI.
NTT DATA Business Solutions
How conversational AI is making employees and customers happier
Enterprises and startups are using chatbots and digital humans to boost productivity and create time for more meaningful tasks. Learn how Conversational AI works and the role it can play in your organization.
What is conversational AI?
Why businesses of all types are applying conversational AI
Conversational AI is no longer restricted to the biggest tech giants. In all industries, enterprises, mid-sized businesses, and even startups are using automatic speech recognition technology, chatbots or digital assistants to improve the lives of their customers and employees.
As well as presenting products and answering sales questions, digital humans can make other customer service tasks faster and easier. A ticket clerk at a train station can’t always be rostered to work at 3am, but a Digital Human can be available. Support staff in a tourist information center may find it difficult to help a tourist with limited English skills. However a digital human can have the ability to interpret and communicate in almost any language.
How chatbots are improving the customer experience
In the form of a chatbot or virtual assistant, Conversational AI saves customers from having to navigate a complex website, because they can communicate their needs by text message.
Chatbots can also save lengthy calls to phone support. For example, there are few things more frustrating than a long wait for customer support followed by 20 questions to verify your identity. This is a challenge when businesses grow quickly and can’t always scale their support team to match. This is why many brands are now using bots and voice recognition software to automate their most common support requests without letting down customers. This allows call center support staff to advance to sales positions, where they respond to high quality leads that have been pre-qualified by the same chatbot.
In both environments, as chatbots are a machine learning technology, they become smarter over time. A bigger range of support requests are solved, in less time, resulting in happier customers and more focused employees.
The digital human: the evolution of the AI chatbot
While they’re a practical solution to many problems, text-based chatbots have one limitation. They can’t provide the empathy and connection we get from face-to-face conversation. Micro-expressions, eye contact, body language and dress say much more in a conversation than we tend to think. To begin to solve this problem, NTT DATA Business Solutions developed a chatbot in the form of an animated person. Digital Humans are designed to help us feel more empathy when communicating with a computer, so we can find the information we need with less frustration if it takes longer than expected.
As well as being more natural to look at, NTT DATA Business Solutions’ digital avatar uses face recognition and automatic speech recognition to identify people and interpret their emotions. As we do in our own conversations, it adjusts it’s tone of voice and body language to suit the situation. It even has the ability to remember previous conversations using speech recognition software, which eliminates the tiresome process of repeating information to a bot interface.
On demand webinar: how digital humans revolutionize CRM
Our expert Thomas Nørmark, Global Head of AI & Robotics, introduces you to the world of Conversational AI. Learn how you can become an innovative leader by using the communication skills of Digital Humans and how you can increase your customer service.
How Kia Motors improved its customer service with conversational AI
For Kia Motors, NTT DATA Business Solutions developed the digital human ‘Kia Mia’ which was deployed in car showrooms to engage customers when they arrive and answer complex questions. When there are more customers exploring the showroom than sales staff, Mia is able to start the sales process and provide information faster than a human can.
Digital avatar helps with home schooling
AI technology such as digital avatars can help children and teachers with personalized education. In our example, our AI Learning Helper supports children to become confident readers. The teaching engine helps pupils with vocabularies, pronunciation, and understanding stories. The digital avatar can ask and answer questions and detect emotions.
The solution offers teachers a teaching helper dashboard providing information about the learning profiles and progress of their students.
How conversational AI improves the employee experience
Conversational AI can even help your employees to be more productive. In your workplace for example, shallow tasks like organizing a timesheet, asking HR about your leave policy, or requesting the printer instructions from IT, can easily steal your attention from more important work. Now imagine how this applies to everyone in your team. If you could text with a computer as you might with a colleague, and the computer could complete your task automatically, imagine how much time you could save for more meaningful work. Implementing this across a whole organization can not only be a major boost to productivity. By creating time for deep, challenging work, your employees can find more satisfaction in their roles and have greater loyalty.
But how can your employees benefit from digital humans? Staying professional and upbeat over a long shift can be a demanding thing to ask of your front-line employees. However, a Digital Human can relieve some of your busiest staff and give them the time to work on more creative and productive tasks, which will have a greater effect on the growth of your organization. Digital Humans also reduce the cost of continuously recruiting and training extra employees, and allow your business to scale faster than otherwise. With a Digital Human to support your branch manager, you could open a new location and start serving customers while the recruitment process is still underway. Additionally, by giving your employees more meaningful tasks, you can improve job satisfaction and reduce turnover, saving on hiring and training costs.
Our digital human solution – it.human platform
Digital humans combine machine learning, speech recognition, natural language processing and conversational AI to create an emotional connection. As emotions are a key factor in customer service and driving purchase behavior, it is no surprise that digital humans outperform the traditional self-service portals and chatbots in this task. NTT DATA Business Solutions has developed it.human platform, where customers can create their own digital humans to suit their needs. In need for a digital receptionist? A digital sales clerk? A digital tour guide?
Our digital human platform that is now scalable to scenarios like retail stores, receptions, public sector offices, hotels, airports and many more. Learn more about the features and functions of our human avatar solution.
Start your conversational AI project – co-innovate with us
We don’t believe in using Conversational AI technology simply because it is the latest trend. Innovation is about creating value. At NTT DATA Business Solutions, we focus on solving real problems. We work closely with you and identify innovative ways to make your business more profitable. Based on decades of experience with SAP customers and non-SAP customers, we first establish a trustful partnership. We transfer knowledge from successful SAP projects across various industries and countries to create new ideas for your business. Together, we integrate new technologies into your SAP or IT infrastructure to add value. We optimize and extend your existing processes or develop entirely new products and services for you.
Learn what our experts say about AI
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Dec 04, 2024
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Nov 21, 2024
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Contact us today
Are you searching for answers or would you like to receive more information on Conversational AI?
Get in touch with me today, and let’s discuss where your pain points lie, what you want to achieve, and how we can help you do that.
Thomas Nørmark
Global Head of Innovation