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Qodea’s Jason Theakston explores how retailers can embrace AI to improve the customer experience, build trust and increase brand loyalty.
Chatbots have been a familiar part of our online shopping experience for years. We all recognise that sudden ‘ping’ followed by a little animated character popping up in the corner of our screens. Sometimes they find the answers we need; oftentimes not.
‘AI agents’, or AI-enabled chatbots, are a game-changer. Instead of providing basic answers to a finite set of common questions, AI agents can completely personalise the customer experience. They not only answer common questions like conventional chatbots, they can also handle orders, process returns and offer tailored product recommendations by analysing customer interactions and search patterns.
How can your AI agent help you today?
Can you remember the last time you bought a product online and then received a product recommendation for something completely unrelated? Or even the exact same thing you’ve already bought from the same website?
AI can completely refine the way retail websites offer product recommendations. Cloud based solutions like Google Cloud AI can enhance product discovery and recommendations by analysing customer interactions and search patterns.
The shopper will receive far more relevant search results and personalised product suggestions, based on a detailed understanding of what they are likely to want (and not want).
This will not only improve the shopping experience, but also increase the likelihood of a sale. It’s therefore a win-win for shoppers and retailers alike.
Personalise, personalise, personalise
No two shoppers are the same. Conventional chatbots however, take a ‘one size fits all’ approach to answering customer queries online. For some customers, this can be frustrating, especially for those who may need a bit of extra help to find what they are looking for.
Here, once again, AI can make a real difference.
”An AI agent’s conversational tone and responsiveness can be continuously refined,”
An AI agent’s conversational tone and responsiveness can be continuously refined, ensuring it sounds less like a robot and more like a human that genuinely understands what the shopper wants and needs.
With 46% of customers expecting a personalised experience whilst shopping online, this isn’t something that retailers can afford to overlook.
Harvesting conversions, but most importantly intent, is a very quick and powerful way to build a service in an agile responsive way to your customers’ needs, providing insight into how the AI agent can better engage with customers, using language and tone that resonates with different demographics.
AI - getting it right the first time
As with any game-changing new technology, it’s vital to get the foundations right. In a recent cross sector survey, we found that 79% of business leaders worry that innovative technologies like GenAI are ‘changing the game’, leaving them feeling unprepared.
In much the same way that a human sales assistant needs induction training, your AI agent must be thoroughly tested before it is rolled out to ‘meet the customer’.
”your AI agent must be thoroughly tested before it is rolled out to ‘meet the customer’”
This will avoid it giving inaccurate, irrelevant or even inappropriate responses which can leave frustrated shoppers taking their business elsewhere. Major brands spend millions over the years to build a brand, but that could be undone by an uncontrolled AI agent.
Testing an AI agent, however, is limited by the vast array of potential questions a customer might ask. A solution is to create personas using GenAI, allowing retailers to simulate a wide range of user interactions, each with their own unique conversational style and queries.
For example, a retailer might generate personas such as a tech-savvy millennial seeking the latest gadgets, a budget-conscious parent looking for bargains, or an elderly customer with very limited tech literacy. Each persona can interact with the AI agent differently, helping to refine and personalise responses and testing the system’s accuracy.
AI agents can analyse the intent of your audience through their interactions which can help to build more tailored customer journeys.
By continuously refining AI agents through AI-driven testing with diverse personas, retailers ensure their digital assistants are delivering effective support to customers. Safe in the knowledge they’ll receive accurate information and personalised recommendations, customers are likely to keep coming back.
Jason Theakston is Client Partner (retail) at Qodea, Europe’s largest Google Premier only transformation partner
