When was the last time you went to the store physically to return or lodge a complaint for a product you didn’t like? Can’t remember right? Digital chat support has made our lives simpler than we ever imagined. The Chat feature is being used extensively for both professional and private uses. It has become the most popular communication medium in today’s digital world.
Customers today are looking for instant resolutions and a chat feature that is available 24/7 can level up your game. If you are reading this far, you might be wondering about the debate between live chat vs AI bot. In this blog you will understand both so you can make the best decision for your business.
What are chatbots and AI chatbots?
Let’s go to the basics and understand what a traditional and AI chatbot mean. The essential feature that makes them different depends on their ability to handle tasks assigned to them. Traditional chatbots also called rule-based bots functioned on decision trees and predefined scripts. The user had to fill in certain FAQs and chatbots were programmed to give expected outputs to queries asked. A major setback for these chatbots was that in case the user asks a different question apart from script feed in the chatbots, it fails.
Now, let’s understand what an AI chatbot is.
AI chatbots are advanced versions of chatbots that use modern technologies like natural language processing (NLP), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and machine learning. They are capable of learning on the go, which means with every interaction they become smarter and more intelligent. This feature allows AI chatbots to detect the intent behind the customer interaction and create responses accordingly. And unlike traditional chatbots, they don’t need constant manual updates making them popularly used for most businesses today. Don’t believe us yet? Let’s look at some statistics on AI chatbots.
- According to 2023 Grand View Research the global chatbot market is estimated to touch 27,297 million dollars by 2030, this will enable enterprises to significantly reduce their operating costs.
- In the recent Gartner webinar, they predicted that 80% of customer service and support organizations by 2025 will be applying GAI to improve customer experience and agent productivity.
- And as per BCG’s 2022 survey of global customer service leaders 95% plan to serve their customers by AI chatbots in some or the other part of the customer journey within the next three years.
What is live chat?
Live chat is form of digital communication channel where businesses interact with their customers in real time. As the name suggests, live chat focuses on human involvement to answer questions of customers. In this customer support executives work during their shift hours and solve customer questions and apart from shift hours customer queries or concerns remain unattended.
Some of the advantages of live chat include:
Accurate resolutions and high satisfaction rates:
Customers might be able to get their answers, but they are limited to shift hours. Live chats win the show as customer executives remain updated with all types of changes happening in the business. So, the live chat experience can be the more preferred option for the user as they get a personalised in-depth answer to their unique problems. With this customer are more likely to become satisfied with the product or service, which further leads to an increase in repeat buys and more revenue.
AI Chat Bot Vs Live Chatbot
| Feature | Live Chat | AI Chatbots |
| Human Involvement | Requires human to solve all type of queries ranging from simple to complex queries. | AI chatbot don’t require human to solve all type of quires. AI bots are smart enough to categorize different queries and escalate it to human agents as when required. |
| Availability | Live chats being human agents are only available for customers during shift hours. | These are available 24/7 to provide customer support making it an ideal option to global customers. |
| Cost | High cost incurred may involve cost of training staff, monthly salaries and support infrastructure. | The initial set up might be a bit higher but after that it has a overall lowered long term cost. |
| Suited for | More suitable for businesses where human required to perform high-value customer interactions and complex problem resolution. | More suitable for handling simple inquiries, providing quick information and lead qualification. |
| Productivity | Live chat bots can be a major productivity hamper when it comes to handling volumes of load. | AI chatbots are proving to be a game changer in enhancing productivity and handling load of customer queries so human agents can focus on deliver quality experience and complex query resolution. |
Leading Customer Support With Chat
AI is constantly evolving, and so are AI chatbots, which are becoming more intelligent. AI chatbots now use NLP to understand customer intent and provide more contextual responses. However, live chat is also evolving. With the introduction of features like video chat and co-browsing functionality, live agents can provide more personalized support in specific use cases. Some of the features that live chat and AI chatbots add on when used together include multilingual support, instant and personalized responses, and proactive customer handling. Selecting one or both requires a comprehensive business process evolution and industry expertise. Want to learn more about chatbots? We are here to guide you!
