General
Aug 21, 2023

AI Сhatbots vs Traditional Chat Bot in Customer Service

When it comes to customer service three things matter - personalization, accuracy, and timing.

Never business has been so customer-oriented, right? Social networks, review platforms, etc. make brands build complex omnichannel strategies to track and influence buyer’s behavior from the first steps on a website to reaching out for support.

Customer service became one of the basic parts of online experience. That’s why the last wave of CX transformation significantly affected the scope responsible for customer retention. Helpdesks and best ai chatbots became an integral part of support agent workflow. But with the achievements of 2021 in conversational AI here come some changes.

Customer Support Challenges

When it comes to customer service three things matter - personalization, accuracy, and timing. Support agents should be able to find a solution for every issue service or product users face despite its complexity, formulation, or user's attitude in a matter of seconds. But looking from the business side it comes to staffing, scheduling, and constant employee training.

According to the State of the Customer Service, 53% share negative experiences with support teams. So companies need to do everything to ensure that the brand is presented properly and meets customer expectations. Not to forget about regular integration of software into workflow that couldn't always optimize all the processes even if combining multiple tools.

Traditional Chat Bot for Customer Service

That's why online chatbots became a real game-changer for the scope. They help reduce response time and ease customer onboarding minimizing initial awkwardness. Simple-to-install widgets for years enable initial interaction on millions of websites and apps.

Here we're talking about so-called traditional or rule-based chatbots. They communicate through pre-set rules - each input leads to a predefined answer. Such chats sometimes even don't look like conversations but rather like an interactive form for filling.

But such chat bot apps lack the ability to solve some typical and, of course, specific issues without complex algorithms and a wide knowledge base. It makes them less efficient than an experienced support agent with proper tooling. Not to forget about losing a human-touch approach that's crucial in today's marketing.

AI Chatbots ChatGPT Era

Last year the classic chat bot assistant got a powerful AI-based competitor. ChatGPT really disrupted the industry and made companies like Salesforce, Freshworks, and other providers of customer support chat software to come up with hi-fi updates to their suites.

Such achievement is part of the development of conversational AI or the ability to identify, grasp the sense, intent, and sometimes even attitude and suggest proper responses for an initial speech or text message.

The main difference is that advanced AI chatbots can provide answers to even complex issues, search knowledge bases, provide agent assist, and evolve with the validation of their work. They also can suggest how the knowledge base should be extended and generate responses using a brand voice.

Another difference is that they aren't just company-customer conversational service. They can come as add-ons to popular helpdesks, CX apps, etc. partly or fully automating agent workflow. And this is one of the core benefits for omnichannel customer support.

Agent Assist vs AI Chat Bots

One of the main cons of using either traditional or Chat GPT AI chatbots is losing the ability to control any conversation in real-time - otherwise, it doesn't make sense to use them. That's why the market demanded tools that could serve support agents without replacing them. And it got it.

So-called agent assist services are based on generative AI technology, easy to scale, and can be integrated into different communication tools. It suggests user-based customer support chat responses that positively impact overall customer experience.

ChatGPT for Customer Support

The latest release from OpenAI became a real-time-saver for customer service departments. The technology enabled the creation of tools that simplified search and extension of knowledge bases, ticket classification, and communication with clients - both direct or via chatbots. 

Let's take a look at market offers to see what actual possibilities ChatGPT helped to open:

Freddy AI

Generative AI tool by Freshworks is here to deliver personalized customer and employer experiences and boost productivity of HR and support workers. it provides:

Self-service. Allows providing quick responses to clients boosting customer retention.

Copilot. Get help from AI chatbot online with insights, repetitive tasks, and information.

Insights. Improves decision-making with custom recommendations and data visualization.

Einstein GPT

ChatGPT-based solution for Salesforce and Slack is based on an already created and widely used AI model that delivers predictions in Customer 360. It enables:

Task generation. Auto-scheduling for meetings, emails, and other interactions.

Dynamic content. Generates replies, knowledge base articles, and personalized content.

Client insights. Provides smart summaries, user actions, etc. in Slack.

Fin

AI chatbot Intercom is based on GPT-4 and already existing resolution bot. It allows:

Rephrasing. Makes more naturally sounding info from a knowledge base.

Auto-updating. If any changes are made to articles replies will be updated shortly.

Training. Provides answers based on specific customer data.

Ada

AI customer service platform that used the latest LLMs to improve productivity of support teams via workflow automation and optimization. It helps with:

Auto resolutions. Answers customers in diverse channels timely without extending staff.

Custom approach. Uses metadata, profile, and chat history insights automatically.

Strategic planning. Plans, measures, and improves KPIs and other metrics.

Ioni

Among the above examples, this AI chatbot app is distinguished by its possibility to be integrated with the majority of popular helpdesks, CXMs, and knowledge bases. It also features:

Auto replies. AI generates and suggests a grammatically correct reply using a brand voice.

Dynamic knowledge. Extend and search across all sources on-demand automatically and fast.

Ticket classifier. The tool prioritizes and labels tickets based on content and characteristics.

Find out more about ioni abilities by signing up for a free demo.

Summarizing there's no real competition here. AI chatbot GPT technology will replace traditional chatbots in the near future gradually evolving in accuracy, integrations, and security.