8 Ways to Use Generative AI in Customer Service

If you ask any customer service professional, “How have the last few years been?” the answer will be the same: “Overwhelming.”

With ever-increasing customer expectations and a shortage of staff, customer service departments are desperately trying to find an answer to the question: “How can we do more in less time and on less budget?” And the answer to this question is generative artificial intelligence.

Generative Artificial Intelligence and Azure OpenAI

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is currently at its peak of popularity, in particular, thanks to the combined efforts of OpenAI, a leader in this field, and tech giant Microsoft. The result of the collaboration is the Azure OpenAI service, which allows companies to easily create their own and secure solutions based on generative AI models: GPT, DALL-E, CLIP. Such solutions include chatbots, virtual assistants, automated data and speech processing systems, and much more.

Integrating Azure OpenAI into customer support is transforming how businesses interact with their customers, driving efficiency, personalization, and innovation.

In this article, we will look at the 8 ways to use Azure OpenAI in customer support that will not only improve customer satisfaction but also optimize your internal processes. From continuously working chatbots to personalization based on deep data analysis, these technologies are already radically changing the customer service industry. Learn more about these innovations in the materials of SMART business, a company with a high level of expertise in implementing AI solutions.

Generative AI in customer service: 8 use cases

There are many ways to use generative artificial intelligence, in particular Azure OpenAI, in the customer service industry. Therefore, we will focus on the most useful ones for businesses.

24/7 Customer Support

Chatbots based on Azure OpenAI can provide 24/7 customer support. They can answer frequently asked questions, provide information about products and services, and help solve problems, reducing the workload of human operators. This is especially relevant during peak periods such as holidays or sales.

According to various studies, up to 50-70% of customer service calls can be automated, depending on the specifics of the business.

AI chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning models, learn from corporate data, so they understand the context and can provide answers close to human language and in a corporate tone of communication.

Unlike traditional chatbots, AI assistants solve a much wider range of tasks. For example, AI customer service solutions can become guides in user navigation on the site, while personalizing the answers.

For traditional chatbots, you need to think through many complex scenarios, write out each answer. And when the client writes something in colloquial language, slang, or formulates questions in some non-standard way, the traditional chatbot will not be able to answer. At the same time, a chatbot with AI will always understand the context and give the most accurate answer. And the company will need to spend several times less time on its development and support.

Processing and sorting customer requests

Creating tickets, classifying and distributing customer requests, and routing them to the appropriate departments and specialists – AI-powered customer service solutions using Azure OpenAI can help with all of this. The result is a reduction in customer waiting times.

For example, the multinational chemical manufacturer AkzoNobel has reduced customer waiting times by 80% thanks to AI. The figure is astounding, right?

Personalization of experience and offers

With AI, a company can analyze the history of interactions with a customer and provide personalized recommendations. Like how Spotify analyzes our music preferences and provides personalized playlists.

Moreover, AI customer service solutions can recognize the emotional state of customers based on their messages, which allows support operators to adapt their tone and approach to resolving the request. This approach increases customer satisfaction and promotes loyalty.

Automation of routine tasks

Updating order information, changing account settings, processing returns, transcribing conversations, translating voice into text and vice versa, summarizing requests or a short briefing of all previous interactions with the client – AI customer support software can handle these and other routine tasks. Therefore, operators will have more time to solve more complex requests.

AI customer service solutions developed on Azure OpenAI are easily integrated with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, which ensures automatic updating of customer profiles with useful information. In the future, the data can be used in marketing campaigns and optimization of customer service processes.

Assistance to operators

A situation familiar to many in the customer service industry. There is a large knowledge base, and the operator must quickly navigate it and find answers or sometimes some documents. But what to do when the operator is a beginner and is simply trying to search the database by keywords specified in the request?

Now imagine an AI mentor who understands the context and who can find the right answer and file in seconds, even if the request is not well-articulated. The result is reduced customer waiting times, faster onboarding of new employees, and increased productivity across the entire department.

New user onboarding

A company can use generative AI to help new users install and configure a new product. Thus, an AI-powered chatbot can initiate a conversation immediately after a user logs into the platform for the first time. It greets the customer and provides step-by-step instructions to get started. AI customer support software also offers video tutorials, answers frequently asked questions, and helps with account creation. This ensures a convenient introduction to your product.

Analytics and customer insights

A significant potential of AI customer service solutions based on Azure OpenAI is in data analysis. Thus, generative AI, by analyzing large amounts of data in real time, is able to identify trends and anticipate future customer needs.

For example, the system may notice a trend where customers contact the call center two weeks after purchasing a product because they have questions about its installation. Having detected this, the company can proactively contact customers and offer more detailed instructions or a call with a technician. This way, you can solve problems and identify anomalies even before the customer contacts you.

AI can help you understand how different customer segments interact with your brand and create more effective business strategies. For example, based on data, artificial intelligence categorizes customers into several groups: new customers, regular customers, or those interested in certain product categories. You can then automate the creation of email campaigns with personalized offers and promotions for each category.

For example, American Express uses OpenAI to analyze customer communications across different channels: social media, phone, and email. In this way, they identify problem areas and take proactive measures.

Filling gaps in the knowledge base

Analysis of AI customer support tickets will help identify gaps in the company’s available materials that lead to customer requests.

The AI ​powered customer service solutions will automatically recommend writing new articles or updating old ones to solve these problems. A proactive strategy will ensure that the knowledge base is up to date, which in turn will reduce the number of support service requests, because customers will be able to find the information they need on their own

By the way, AI technologies will greatly speed up the search in the database and documents.

AI in customer service: key benefits in numbers

Implementing Azure OpenAI for customer service has several benefits, confirmed by studies.

Increased request processing speed. According to IBM, using chatbots and AI solutions in customer service can reduce service costs by up to 30% and increase the efficiency of request processing by 40%.

Relieving staff. A Forrester report notes that automating routine tasks with AI reduces the need for human intervention by 50-70%, allowing specialists to focus on more complex tasks.

Improved service quality. According to a Salesforce study, using AI in customer service can increase customer satisfaction by 20-30%.

Efficiency and cost optimization. A Gartner study shows that by 2025, up to 80% of interactions with customer service will be automated thanks to AI.

Why is implementing AI solutions based on Azure OpenAI more effective with SMART business?

The future of customer service is AI, and 78% of customer service specialists agree (HubSpot research).

But how can you make AI work most effectively for your company? Which solutions are right for you? How long does it take to train AI assistants personalized for your business models? And how can you do it all with a minimal budget?

The best option is to turn to experts in the implementation of technologies based on artificial intelligence. SMART business has been helping Ukrainian and European companies with innovations for over 15 years. You will not have to expand the staff of developers or distract valuable specialists from key tasks. The SMART business team will take on the development and implementation of AI solutions based on generative artificial intelligence using GPT models, guaranteeing:

Speed ​​of Azure OpenAI implementation: The team will create an AI solution for you with calibrated accuracy within a timeframe starting from 80 hours.

Professional prompt engineering: Our specialists will personalize and teach your AI assistant to generate high-quality answers to all possible requests. It will communicate in the “language” and tone of the brand that your consumers are accustomed to.

Unlimited customization options: SMART business specialists will implement all your wishes, creating a unique solution for you thanks to the most modern approaches in the field of AI.

No contractors: SMART business experts take on not only the development and implementation of AI assistants, but also further project management. You can always turn to specialists for advice or consultation and initiate the necessary improvements to the solution in the process of scaling your company.

Security and relevance of the solution: Enterprise corporate security and regular updates from Microsoft.

Want to learn more about specific cases and how AI-based innovations can improve customer service? Register for a free webinar from SMART business today.