How conversational AI improves the experience of customers

How can companies make conversational artificial intelligence (AI) work in the UAE and the Middle East, where social media is highly used?
The UAE is a key growth market for many brands. And businesses are looking to tap the power of conversational AI. They are keen to deliver convenient yet personalised, omnichannel consumer experiences in real-time, at scale. AI-powered conversational experiences can be delivered via social media and messaging apps – like Whatsapp, Instagram, and so- which are used extensively by mobile phone users several times a day. Many of our customers have seen first-hand how messages sent via popular third-party platforms are more likely to be opened and read, so these are more likely to trigger an action vis-à-vis communication via other engagement channels. Talabat and Bayut are two of our customers far ahead in delivering rich conversational experiences to consumers in the region.

We see many businesses using chatbots, one of the simplest forms of AI-enabled conversational engagement, across marketing, commerce, and support workflows. Chatbots create a human-like, authentic conversational experience for customers while making it engaging at the same time. So yes, we see a rise in the number of businesses looking to implement conversational engagement strategies for growth.

From a consumer’s perspective, the messaging app serves as a single ‘super-app’ of sorts to engage with every business, replacing dozens of other single-brand apps. WeChat is an excellent example of a messaging app enabling all kinds of business-to-consumer interactions in China.

What is the future of WhatsApp and other social media platforms in the retail space, and how will e-commerce sites be affected?
Retailers realise that adding digital experiences can drive faster business growth. And the best way to do this is with conversational commerce. This technology uses popular messaging channels like Whatsapp to communicate with users; there is no need to download additional apps. Using these popular messaging channels – which consumers are already very accustomed to – retailers can deliver personalised shopping advice, recommendations, communication, and experiences at scale. By making a shopper’s journey more intuitive and enjoyable, retailers can improve conversion rates and revenue and profitability per customer.

Many e-commerce companies are already turning to insights-led commerce via AI-enabled chatbots, for example, to create new revenue streams. As a result, these popular messaging channels are fast becoming the new digital storefront for businesses.

How is Gupshup driving the future of conversational messaging?
We are one of the leading conversational messaging platforms, powering over six billion messages per month. With Gupshup, businesses have made conversations an integral part of their customer engagement success.

We remain committed to creating AI-powered, personalised, one-on-one conversations at scale, on messaging and voice channels, for businesses and millions of consumers, across marketing, commerce and support workflows. We are also constantly innovating and growing our product portfolio organically and inorganically.

In the last six months, we have acquired two companies in the conversational AI and communications space – Knowlarity, a cloud communications company, offering cloud telephony, contact centre automation, AI-powered voice assistants and speech analytics solutions; and Dotgo, a rich communication services (RCS) and RCS business messaging (RBM) solutions company.