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As industries become more competitive, the way we interact with customers and visitors on our sites and apps also changes. Were you able to help your potential customer during their short visit to your site, or did they leave feeling disappointed? This could be the key to knowing if your business will succeed in the future. This is where agents, especially AI chatbots, come in. But wait! Are we still talking about the old ways of interacting with customers, or do we have a better option? Of course, we do! AI chatbots vs human agents: When will artificial intelligence (AI) come in handy?

The arrival of AI in our lives has greatly changed how we think, act, and understand things. As a customer or visitor, we often expect help to be available all the time, making it easier to navigate and understand what we are looking for. This is where customer service chatbots are helpful, especially those powered by generative AI. Oh wait, you thought I was going to say human agents? No way!

In today’s fast world, AI chatbots offer a quicker and better solution for handling customer queries with faster response times and smooth interactions. These bots use natural language processing (NLP) to create conversational experiences that feel like talking to a human. The debate of AI chatbots vs human agents in customer support has been ongoing, but with the rise of conversational AI, the focus has shifted to how these AI assistants enhance the customer experience.

This article will discuss just that. Let’s settle the battle of AI chatbot vs. human agents once and for all. Read on!

Can AI Chatbots really improve your customer's experience?

One of the main reasons for using AI chatbots in businesses is to improve customer service. But if someone is not familiar with how to use AI customer service properly, they may be unsure about investing in something that affects overall customer satisfaction.

Looking at the numbers, the use of AI chatbots in businesses has increased significantly. Today, almost every e-commerce platform uses AI chatbots to handle customer queries and problems. Gone are the days when we had to wait on the phone for hours to talk to a customer service representative who might not even be able to solve our issue. The debate of AI chatbots vs human agents highlights how AI chatbots are now providing faster and more efficient support.

Now, with AI agents and advanced AI, businesses can provide quicker responses and help customers without delays. While chatbots are available 24/7, they allow human service agents to focus on more complex issues that need the human touch and human intelligence. This balance between AI chatbots and human agents improves customer satisfaction by providing human support when needed.

Although there is a debate about AI chatbots vs human agents, it’s clear that AI in customer service is here to stay. The chatbot vs human discussion often brings up concerns about losing the human touch, but chatbots don’t fully replace human agents. Instead, they work together.

As more businesses adopt AI customer service, the mix of chatbots and human agents offers a better and more satisfying experience for customers.

Large organisations have automated more than 80% of their routine customer interactions using AI Chatbots which has enabled them to utilise their manpower resources for more pressing matters. Besides, customer surveys also reported that most of the time customers want a quick resolution for minor queries or issues for which they prefer AI Chatbots to human agents. Here's what Harrison Tang, Co-founder of Spokeo has to say about customer perception of AI Chatbots:

“I recently conducted a survey among our customers, and the results were fascinating. 70% of our consumers prefer AI chatbots for simple inquiries, while 60% prefer human agents for complex issues. Interestingly, our younger demographic (18-34) is more open to AI chatbots, with 80% embracing them, compared to 40% of those aged 55+.”

All the facts point towards a great outlook for AI Chatbots and their implementation in customer service.

What are the core functionalities of ai chatbots?

AI chatbots. With generative AI and machine learning techniques, these bots can easily understand customer queries through short chats and give the right answers. The use of AI has made these chatbots smart enough to handle a wide range of questions without much manual help.

By integrating AI into the customer service strategy, businesses can use AI systems to handle repetitive tasks, which helps in freeing up human agents to focus on more complex issues that need human emotions and intelligence. The integration of AI and automation into the support strategy enhances customer interactions, making the use of chatbots more effective. An AI agent and a chatbot now have the ability to understand customer needs better, providing faster and more efficient replies. This marks a significant improvement in AI for customer support. Using chatbots this way is becoming crucial for businesses to stay ahead in today’s competitive world. The ongoing debate of AI chatbots vs human agents highlights how AI chatbots are transforming customer support.

Let's took a look at how AI Chatbots’ functionalities affect the interactions between your customers and your business.

Multilingual Capabilities

This is one of the main reasons I prefer AI chatbots and conversational AI over humans. You never know who is on the other side of the screen. What if your customer prefers French over English? Not understanding or speaking the customer's language can make things worse and lead to bad reviews.

Using a chatbot service that replies in the customer’s preferred language gives a sense of personalisation and understanding, which helps build trust. For example, AI4Chat offers multilingual AI chat support that can help customers around the world. AI chatbots can handle different languages easily, which makes an AI tool very useful for businesses.

Even if your business hasn’t gone global, there are many places in the West and other developed countries where people from different cultures make up a big part of the customer base. This is a good chance to solve their unique issues if you use multilingual AI chatbots. These AI tools can handle common questions, reducing the workload for human agents, and allowing human agents to focus on more complex problems. AI chatbots are available 24/7, so they can excel in handling routine queries, while human agents step in when tougher cases arise. This balance between AI chatbots vs human agents helps provide a better overall customer experience.

When you compare AI chatbots vs human agents, you can see that AI chatbots provide faster service, and their ability to mimic human interaction makes the experience smoother. When customers are interacting with a chatbot, they may not even realise if it's a chatbot or a human at first. This seamless service improves customer satisfaction.

In cases where a chatbot may face difficulty, the system can pass the issue to customer support agents. By having chatbots follow up on common questions, businesses can reduce the overall workload on human agents in customer service.

Seamless Navigation and Self-service

Tell me you have never been frustrated while finding the customer support option while shopping on e-commerce sites or connecting a call with them. You have, haven't you? What's even more annoying is when you have to explain the entire story to the executive just to be told to wait for a day or two before they get back to you. Well, if the same issue was to be addressed by chatbots, it  would have made the entire thing a breeze. 

In recent times, most of the sites have their chatbot assistants right at the home page which helps the customer to quickly find their desired information and ask questions without having to go through the hassle of connecting with a human agent. This promotes self-service and also causes less frustration compared to what we feel after being told to wait after somehow getting someone to talk to us. Furthermore, when it comes to navigation, using Chatbots gives quite a smooth experience to the customers too as they don't have to switch pages one after the another to find a phone number or email address. 

One does not guarantee that Chatbots will always have the solutions unlike human agents but they will definitely offer the needed help with less time and effort. Besides, Chatbots hardly require a description of the problem since they already have access to the customer's past history and spendings on the site. 

Personalisation That Gets More Customers

AI has already quite a good reputation for its personalisation capabilities. What if these capabilities are embedded in chatbots that represent your brand? Chatbots have a good record of keeping track of customer preferences which helps them make more accurate recommendations. Besides, if you have ever interacted with a chatbot you would know that we can also continue our conversation from where we left off. You think a human agent can do so? Everytime you connect a call some new agent picks up the call and wastes the first few minutes in getting to know your story from the beginning. Sounds like a tedious affair to me. The debate of AI chatbots vs human agents shows how AI chatbots can offer a more efficient and personalised experience.

Besides personalised recommendations, AI Chatbots can also boost your sales. Wait, are you thinking they advertise your products too? No, not at all! Chatbots have a way to initiate conversations that are meaningful and also tailored to the preferences of potential leads if they get the opportunity to dig into their past experiences with other brands through engaging conversations. To be more precise, if you remember the door to door salesman, their most popular trick was to first tap on the deficiencies you had to encounter with other brands and then boom! They have their product to save the day! Well, Chatbots can do that too. 

Available 24×7 But Also Saves Money

Ever had an employee who's present 24×7? Of course not. No, I am not saying customer support agents are nit available round the clock. Many companies do have executives available throughout the day to assist customers but they usually work in shifts which requires minimum two people to switch places after serving a few hours. This in turn is a cumbersome process for the organisation too and requires compensating two employees for the same service. 

However, AI Chatbots have eliminated this issue by seamlessly interacting with customers round the clock. On top of that, Chatbots can also provide an omni-channel support feature without having to spend extra dollars. Overall, AI Chatbots and their maintenance is quite budget friendly if weighed against traditional customer service agents. 

Besides, AI Chatbots can also be a great alternative for customers wanting quick solutions and Instant responses. Take a look at what Alan Noblitt, President of Seascape Capital, LLC says about the efficiency of AI Chatbots:

‘AI chatbots have significantly reduced average response times in customer service. For instance, chatbots can handle inquiries instantly, cutting down response times from several minutes to a few seconds. Statistically, studies show that businesses using chatbots have achieved response time reductions of up to 80%, leading to faster customer satisfaction and efficiency.’

How AI Chatbot and Human Agents Can Work Together to Enhance Customer Service

When we talk about the ethics of AI chat, it’s important to know that AI chatbots and human agents can work together to make the customer service experience better. While chatbots are relatively new, they are good at handling simple tasks like giving quick responses to common questions. This allows human agents to focus on more complex problems that need reasoning and understanding, which AI agents can’t fully do.

Chatbots and virtual assistants are not here to replace human agents, but to help them. This way, agents can resolve an issue faster. Here’s how they can work together:

• Chatbots can help with easy, repetitive tasks, like answering FAQs.
• Customer service agents can take over when the issue is more difficult.
• Generative AI chatbots, powered by artificial intelligence, can talk to many customers at once, making things quicker.
• Human agents can provide better service by offering emotional support when needed.
• Together, they improve the customer support strategy and the overall customer experience.

So, while chatbots can also help a lot in customer service, human agents are still important for giving a personal touch and effective service. By using both, businesses can enhance customer support without taking away jobs from humans. Although chatbots are becoming more common, they can’t replace the special skills that humans bring to customer service.