AI Chatbots: What Are They and How Do They Work?

By Replicant
October 26, 2022

Many people today are familiar with the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) as well as chatbots, but the idea of combining the two may be new. The vast majority of chatbots today are not powered by AI but only an entryway into a limited frequently asked question (FAQ) file. Some may be rule-based, requiring particular keywords to be used in order to find information or resolve the simplest of questions.

AI chatbot solutions are different. They are powered by natural language processing software that can detect multiple customer intents and understand natural human speech. As a result, they can resolve most Tier One customer questions and inquiries with zero wait time for the customer and no live agent interaction.

What is an AI chatbot?

A conversational AI chatbot is a type of technology that is far superior to many basic chatbots. Its goal is to resolve customers’ questions as quickly and completely as possible, not to deflect them to other sources. Using natural language processing, the best AI chatbot can understand a customer’s question regardless of language, accent, or phrasing, as well as a live agent. This delivers a superior customer experience.

How does an AI Chatbot Work?

The most advanced AI chatbot works by tapping into a vast library of customer interactions using multiple pre-built components to make implementation rapid, easy, and affordable in terms of IT resources. Once they are up and running, an AI-powered chatbot can handle repetitive, mundane questions immediately and simultaneously, easily scaling to any needed volume.

Does an AI-Powered Chatbot use machine learning?

An AI-powered chatbot uses machine learning to refine its base of knowledge. For example, Replicant’s contact center automation platform was built using millions of real customer queries and interactions across many industries. Once it is implemented in a specific contact center, it continues to use machine learning to broaden its understanding of that particular business and its customers.

This information is then accessible through our dashboard, providing current data to help contact center managers make adjustments to conversation scripts or other areas that can be improved. Our solution also makes it easy to visualize conversations across channels. With dozens of pre-built components, companies can quickly deploy automation without a significant resource drain on the IT department.

How does Replicant’s solution work?

Our AI chatbot is part of an omnichannel solution. This system fully resolves more than 10 million Tier One inbound questions every month across the hospitality, travel, insurance, financial, retail, and other industries.

Omnichannel solutions improve customer service scores by eliminating wait times, cutting average handle time in half, and providing consistent experiences across channels in any language. Customers are often just as satisfied with the service as they would be witha live agent.

Using this automation process frees customer service representatives from mundane, boring, repetitive questions. Live agent satisfaction means better performance and higher retention rates, which reduces recruiting and training costs for the organization. In fact, TrueList notes that the cost of losing an employee is 33 percent of their annual salary and Forbes reports that a “whopping 71 percent of service agents have considered leaving their job in the past six months and 69 percent are considering leaving customer service roles entirely.”

Learn More

Learn more about the AI chatbot in our omnichannel customer service solution. Schedule a demo today. We bring years of expertise to the table in helping contact centers just like yours with customer service automation that generates significant cost savings and ROI.