AI in Customer Service

“Instead of focusing on the competition, focus on the customer.” — Scott Cook, Former director of eBay

That’s correct, today every business, product, offering, and service is customer-centric. Without satisfying your customers, you cannot compete in this highly- competitive landscape, irrespective of industry. Offering exceptional customer experiences is key to success.

The growth of AI has set to improve efficiency across industries, especially in customer service. AI-powered customer support not only drives human-like interaction but also helps businesses find what their customers like. This shift towards AI in customer service results in more personalized experiences that are reshaping customers’ journeys with brands.

AI is expected to improve business performance and productivity by 40%. It can solve more problems automatically, boost agent efficiency, and provide reliable support, revolutionizing how brands connect with potential customers and turn them into leads.

It is now your time to understand how AI cards can make a significant difference. In this blog, you will learn different ways to successfully use AI in customer service operations to elevate customer’s experiences. 

What do you Mean By Artificial Intelligence in Customer Service?

AI in customer service refers to implementing AI to improve and automate customer support. It uses machine learning, natural language processing, and other AI approaches to understand and respond to customer queries in less time.

AI systems can process and interpret large amounts of data, including text and voice, offering a human-like interaction. They learn from past conversations, getting better at giving accurate and helpful answers over time.

Game-Changing AI Technologies Used in Customer Service

AI and its different technologies improved brand-customer interaction while generating accurate and human-like responses. 

• AI agents and chatbots handle conversations automatically
• Predictive tools to predict customer churn
• Sentiment analysis to understand customer feelings
• Speech recognition for voice-based support
• AR/VR for interactive experiences
• Accessing information from a knowledge base
• Tools to summarize conversations
• RPA tools like robots, or bots to automate repetitive and rule-based tasks. 

Messe Düsseldorf reduced 65% of repetitive queries by using AI, improving efficiency and customer experience. 

Over time, customer’s perspectives have also changed towards AI agents in delivering instant customer services.

AI in customer services is not confined to just one industry, it is making its impact from fintech to healthcare. For example, AI in also changing the customer experience in healthcare. Patients use AI agents to book or change appointments without waiting in long queues. This helps healthcare support teams focus on more complex questions and issues.

Also read- AI in Healthcare- Transforming the Future of Patient Care

Using AI can benefit your business in the long run, understand how.

13 Businesses Use Case of AI in Customer Support

With our expertise in developing AI customer support platforms, we have gathered these 12 applications of AI in improving customer support.

1. Chatbot-based customer support

Businesses of all sizes use smart chatbots to improve customer service. 60% of online customers switch to another brand if they don’t receive a response in 1 minute. Chatbots help reduce wait times and provide quick responses, offering improved experiences.

Chatbots not only give fast answers, but they also ease the workload for human agents by handling many customer questions with high accuracy and a natural, human-like touch.

2. Helping customers in decision-making

AI’s capability to analyze large information, helps it to provide detailed product information based on customer preference within seconds. AI helps customers make decisions faster as they will get all related information on what they are looking for.

3. Predictive Customer Service with AI

By using machine learning and data analytics, businesses can spot patterns in customer behavior and predict customer’s needs before they even know.

This proactive approach helps businesses address the potential pain points of their customers and offer personalized solutions. For example, a retail company might use AI to track buying patterns and customer feedback. If the system notices that customers often ask about installation two weeks after buying a certain product, the company can reach out to those customers, offering installation guides or scheduling a follow-up call with a technician.

4. DIY Customer Resources 

AI-powered self-service tools, like knowledge bases and FAQs, allow customers to find solutions by themselves. By predicting common customer needs, businesses can provide helpful information, improving the service experience.

60% of customer experience leaders see AI as a game-changer, especially in supporting self-service and providing useful insights.

Managers can focus on AI self-service platforms that learn from customer behavior. These platforms adapt over time, offering smart content suggestions based on past data. The aim is to turn static FAQs into dynamic, intelligent resources that help support customers more proactively.

5. Request routing and personalization

AI improves how customer requests are routed by analyzing customer data. It makes sure requests go to the right agents, speeding up the resolution process. Personalizing based on customer history makes interactions more relevant and efficient.

AI takes routing to the next level. It uses algorithms that consider not just agent availability, but also their expertise, the customer’s history, and estimated resolution time. This makes support teams more effective. Key features include:

• Keyword-based routing: Automatically assigns conversations to the right person or team based on keywords.
• Default conversation owners: If no keyword matches, conversations are sent to a default team member, with the option to change this setting.

6. Automate email responses

AI can automate email responses by analyzing customer inquiries and providing relevant information. This speeds up response times and ensures accurate answers, improving customer service efficiency.

AI can also understand the context of emails. It can categorize and prioritize them, making sure urgent issues are handled quickly. This turns email automation into a useful tool for better customer engagement. Key features include:

• Business hour settings: Define your working hours for better communication.
• Custom auto-replies: Create personalized responses for both working and non-working hours.
• Actionable replies: Include buttons in responses for customers to take actions like booking a demo or reading documents.

7. Automate ticket creation

AI automates the process of creating support tickets by analyzing customer issues and categorizing them correctly. This helps customer service teams work more efficiently, ensuring each request is handled quickly.

AI doesn’t just categorize tickets, it also analyzes the root causes of problems and triggers proactive steps to fix them. This turns ticket creation from a reactive task into a more strategic, proactive approach. The ticket system guides each issue through stages such as “open,” “in progress,” “awaiting customer response,” “awaiting development,” and “closed.” Users can create, view, and export tickets in different formats. Each ticket moves through distinct stages until it’s resolved or closed, ensuring efficient customer support and issue resolution.

8. Voice assistants

Customization is important when it comes to voice assistants. AI can create voice interactions that match your brand’s personality. You can also connect voice assistants to backend systems for solving more complex issues, turning voice interactions into a valuable tool for customer support. This hands-free option makes it easier and more convenient for customers to get help, improving the overall experience.

9. Sentiment analysis for customer feedback

AI sentiment analysis helps businesses understand how customers feel by looking at their words and tone. This helps quickly spot issues and take action to fix them.

Advanced sentiment analysis can also predict how customers might feel in the future, using past data. This helps businesses keep customers happy and improve their experience. Key features of the sentiment evaluator:

• Immediate analysis: Provides quick, accurate sentiment insights after resolving a ticket.
• Sentiment breakdown: Shows if customers are happy, neutral, or frustrated, with clear reasons.
• Cross-platform compatibility: Works across channels like email, PLuG, Slack, and more.
• High accuracy: Ensures reliable analysis with minimal errors.

10. Omni-channel service

Customers need brands that can connect with them across multiple channels and stay consistent. AI can offer a consistent customer service experience across multiple channels, like chat, email, and social media. This omni-channel approach gives customers more flexibility and access to support.

True omni-channel service isn’t just about connecting channels—it’s about making smooth transitions between them. AI helps predict the customer’s preferred channel based on past interactions, ensuring that they move between channels without any hassle and in line with their preferences. Key features include:

• Automatic customer updates
• Syncing tickets with issues
• Managing issues automatically
• Aligning issues with product enhancements

With automatic updates and reminders, businesses can ensure everything stays connected and runs smoothly across channels.

11. Real-time language translation for global customers

AI-powered language translation helps businesses provide customer support in multiple languages. This allows companies to communicate and assist customers in their preferred language, creating a more inclusive and global service experience.

For global support teams, AI does more than just translate. Multilingual support becomes a key advantage in different markets. AI can also understand cultural differences, adapt to customer feelings, and provide localized strategies based on insights.

12. AI-Assisted Quality Control and Training

AI helps with quality control and training by analyzing customer service interactions to ensure consistency and quality. It can spot areas where agents might need more training and highlight successful approaches to use as training examples. AI can measure things like response time, how well issues are resolved, and customer satisfaction, giving valuable insights for continuous improvement.

For example, a telecom company uses AI to analyze customer service calls. The AI checks things like how agents communicate if they follow the right processes, and how satisfied customers are. It then identifies what agents are doing well and where they need to improve. Based on this data, the company adjusts its training to help agents perform better.

13. AI-Driven Customer Journey Mapping

AI-driven customer journey mapping uses AI to track and understand the steps customers take when interacting with a business. It gathers and analyzes data from different channels to create a detailed map of the customer experience, from the first contact to post-purchase support. AI can spot patterns, pain points, and areas for improvement, helping businesses improve how they interact with customers.

Key 9 Benefits of Using AI in Customer Service

When digital CX leaders were asked where AI and machine learning will have the biggest impact within their organization, they highlighted these key areas.

• Helping customers solve problems themselves (45%)
• Getting useful customer insights (44%)
• Freeing up staff for more important work (40%)

So, why AI factor matter?

1. 24/7 Service Availability

51% of customers expect businesses to be available 24/7. AI-powered customer service will help you interact with your potential customers anytime they want. Businesses can integrate AI chatbots to provide continuous support across all time zones, reducing long wait times.

2. Cutting down overhead costs

AI helps lower costs by automating common customer interactions. For example, AI chatbots can handle thousands of queries simultaneously, which can save over $8 billion a year. When used correctly, AI eliminates repetitive tasks so that businesses can use their resources in areas where human creativity is needed.

Note- “If you know how to use AI, you are here to stay”.

3. Providing personalized support

71% of customers want personalized service and get frustrated when they don’t get it. AI helps meet these expectations at scale. It tailors content, offers, and recommendations based on the customer’s past behavior, location, and needs. In such a way businesses can create stronger connections, increase engagement, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

4. Providing quick responses to customers

AI can quickly answer common customer questions, reducing wait times and frustration. For example, Bank of America’s virtual assistant, Erica, responds to queries in about 44 seconds on average, handling over 2 million interactions daily. Using AI in customer service helps give fast answers and recommendations, leading to happier customers and faster problem resolution.

5. Providing smooth service across channels

With many apps and platforms available, people want consistency while interacting with their loved brands. It not only helps customers to keep the communication going but also helps brands get a unified view of their customer’s journey across platforms. 

71% of consumers expect a consistent experience across all channels, but only 29% say they get it. AI makes this possible, leading to better decisions and smoother service.

6. Ensuring growth in customer service

AI easily grows with your business. If you have scalable customer queries, AI can handle them all. For support teams, AI can help sort tickets, prioritize urgent issues, and provide self-service options, freeing up human agents to focus on more important tasks.

7. Anticipating customer issues before they happen

AI can predict problems before they arise, making it possible to offer proactive customer service. Using machine learning, AI analyzes large amounts of data to spot patterns that suggest future issues. For example, AI can help customer service teams predict when customers might leave by looking at product usage, feedback, and past interactions. With these insights, agents can take action early to reduce customer churn.

But, how to leverage all benefits, you must start by integrating AI within your customer support operations.

Also read- Cost to Build an AI Customer Service Chatbot?

5 Steps to Integrate AI in Customer Support System

Here you go in just 5 simple steps.

• Identify Tasks to Automate- Look at your current customer service processes and find tasks that are repetitive or manual. Set clear goals for what you want to achieve with AI, like faster responses or handling more inquiries.
• Understand Customer Needs- Map out your customer journey and see where AI can help. Use customer feedback and data to identify common issues that AI can solve.
• Choose the Right AI Tool- Once you know your goals, research different AI customer service tools to find the one that fits your needs.
• Integrate and Test- Connect your AI tool to your existing systems and start with a small pilot program to test its effectiveness. For example, use AI for handling simple inquiries and integrate it with your CRM system. Track performance using the goals you set in Step 1 and adjust as needed.
• Scale and Improve- After a successful pilot, expand AI to handle more complex tasks, like proactive support and personalized recommendations. Keep improving based on the data and feedback you get.

Integrating AI by yourself is challenging. To cut the development cost, you can go for a white-label AI customer chatbot that can be easily integrated into any workflow. So, how should be your AI-powered customer services- explore what you should look for. 

Things to Consider While Implementing AI-Powered Customer Service

Not all AI customer service tools are the same. Here are some important things to consider when choosing the right AI software for your business.

• Budget and resources- Using AI for customer service can be expensive, especially if it requires a lot of manual setup or technical expertise. Look for AI tools that are easy to implement without needing a big budget or a team of developers. This can help your business save money while still delivering high-quality support.

• CX expertise and accuracy- One of the biggest benefits of AI in customer service is its ability to understand customer needs and questions. But not all AI systems do this well. Choose AI that has been trained with real customer service data. This can save time and money compared to having to train yourself, and it ensures the AI can provide accurate support from the start.

• Time to Value- Pick AI software that is easy to set up and test. Some systems take months to get running, but good AI tools should let you get started quickly, without needing developers or a lot of technical work. This way, you can start seeing results much sooner.

• Security- As AI tools handle more customer data, data privacy and security become more important. Make sure the AI software you choose follows strong privacy rules to protect your customers’ data. This will help keep both your business and your customer’s information safe.

The future of AI in customer service

As AI becomes more common in customer service, it’s important to think about how you want to use this technology in the future.

Do you want AI to help create a future where:

• Customer feedback is easily used to improve products.
• All customer interactions, feedback, and product data are stored in one place.
• Customer support, product teams, and developers can work together in real-time without issues.
• Routine tasks like ticket routing and prioritizing issues are automated, allowing agents to focus more on providing care and support to customers.

How OnGraph Can Help Develop AI-Powered Customer Support?

AI has already changed customer service in big ways, and the future holds even more possibilities. With its ability to scale, AI can easily adapt to changes in your business and support new technologies as they emerge. Customers are enjoying benefits like 24/7 support, shorter wait times, and more personalized service, while businesses see improvements in data insights, fewer mistakes, and lower costs.

No matter the size of your business, AI can help you grow and improve. Connect with OnGraph to build your AI-powered customer support system or get it just for $5k with a white-labeling option.

Reach out to our experts and understand how you can improve your customer support with our expert solutions.