Wondering what the future holds for conversational AI? How will AI and machine learning impact future customer interactions? Here’s everything you need to know.

What does the future hold for conversational AI? Can conversational AI successfully mimic human interactions in the future? How will artificial intelligence change the future of sales, marketing, and customer service?

These are some questions industry experts face as businesses embrace automation across industries.

Recent research revealed that as of 2022, 70% of customer interactions involve emerging technology like AI compared to 15% in 2018.

This shows that conversational AI in customer support and other sectors is here to stay. This is evident both in the way companies adopt the use of chatbots and other forms of automated communication.

So, what is conversational AI, how do companies use it now, and what does the future hold for it?

What is Conversational AI?

Artificial intelligence has been adopted in many sectors across the tech world. From tools as simple as video-making software, to full-fledged advanced customer support interfaces.

Conversational AI is a form of artificial intelligence that automates customer communications. Customers can talk to AI, either via text or speech, as they would with human beings.

The technology teaches software to understand conversations and context to deliver human-like interactions.

Conversational AI initially involved chatbots that automatically responded to basic queries instantly. However, machine learning has shifted that dynamic over time. Here’s how.

Conversational AI and Machine Learning

One of the many trends transforming the IT industry, including conversational AI, is machine learning.

Machine learning has over time augmented the conversations to mimic more aspects of human interactions to deliver better customer experiences.

This includes the ability to make predictions about customer needs and the ability to respond to a wider scope of inquiries.

AI technology and machine learning haven’t fully mastered the complex and diverse dynamics of human communication. However, they can still be harnessed to improve customer interactions.

Here’s a look at what that means for the future of conversational AI.

The Future of Conversational AI

It’s clear that conversational AI has done nothing but get better over the years. It’s one of the artificial technology trends your online business needs to embrace.

However, the technology still has challenges that limit its full capacity. Luckily, the future holds more for this technology as innovators constantly work toward fixing these limitations.

Here is how conversational AI will grow in the future.

1. Personalized Conversations

Personalization of conversations by chatbots and virtual assistants increases their effectiveness. Consumers are more likely to take action with personalized communication as opposed to general information.

In sectors such as marketing, personalization can help in generating leads, reducing costs, and improving customer experience.

Also, the future of customer service technology partly depends on the personalization of conversational AI. This is because the more accurate the chatbot responses are, the better the customer experience.

Here’s an illustration of how these conversational agents learn to personalize conversations over time.

Image via Deloitte

2. Advanced Chatbot Training

Depending on what they’re used for, chatbots need to be trained more on how conversational interactions work.

This training could involve using transcripts and FAQs from previous live conversations. This process is done manually and it can get lengthy and tedious.

As a result, the accuracy of AI chatbots and virtual assistants is low and responses may be inadequate.

Part of what the future looks like for conversational AI involves coming up with better training programs for these chatbots. This helps both accelerate the training process and improve their understanding for more accurate responses.

3. Ability to Understand Complex Conversations

Conversational chatbots are currently able to handle short conversations and simple queries. Their operation is currently limited to a question and response setup.

Therefore, their understanding of user intent and other complex conversational dynamics is limited.

This is inefficient and sometimes when user queries are specific, it could be annoying for customers.

In the future of conversational AI, this problem will be addressed. One of the main ways this could happen is by including multiple responses or having a virtual assistant perform multiple tasks in the background.

Machine learning and natural language processing will also help advance the capabilities of conversational AI.

4. Creation of Omnichannel Interfaces

Currently, most conversational AI interfaces are limited to a single platform. For instance, if a customer engages with a chatbot on a website, their conversation would be limited to that website.

If they can’t get help through this single channel and approach the company through, let’s say email, they’d have to repeat their conversation from scratch.

The future of conversational AI promises an integrated system with an all-in-one platform. So, all the information on the interactions customers have with a company is made available from a single source.

For an omnichannel experience, all the systems involved in interacting with customers would have to work together.

Effects of Improved Conversational AI on Customer Experience

With increased advancements in conversational AI, customer interactions with companies will get better. Therefore, any business with digital operations will have a competitive edge with its consumers.

Here’s what that means for their customer experience.

• Customers get quick responses to their queries. With increased consumer expectations for speed and perfection, conversational AI will continue to help companies meet user needs through automation and improved accuracy.
• Improved conversational AI means better customer experience, which means increased customer satisfaction and retention. Furthermore, increased customer satisfaction will increase marketing leads and boost revenue for companies.
• Intelligent AI chatbots can continuously analyze customer information over time and produce insights. Companies can use this information to create more effective chatbots and improve their customer support experiences.
• Better personalization helps widen the scope of customer inquiries that automated conversation interfaces can handle. This would make customer interactions more effective as they’d receive human-like responses that are more accurate compared to robotic ones. 

The future of conversational AI is bright as all of this will be possible and companies will be able to deliver exceptional customer service experiences.

Ready to Embrace the Future of Conversational AI?

What the future holds for conversational AI includes a series of improvements to increase its effectiveness.

As artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies advance, most companies will depend on AI chatbots and other conversational software for their customer interactions.

As such, keeping up with the most recent conversational AI changes will give your business an edge over your competitors. Innovating in more advanced chatbots will be necessary for the future.

As a business with a digital presence, conversational AI ought to be a major part of your business strategy. So, leverage the power of conversational AI and get future ready.

Author Bio – Reena Aggarwal