10 Use Cases for Conversational AI in Insurance
The insurance industry is rapidly adopting conversational artificial intelligence (AI) tools like chatbots and virtual agents to improve customer...
Customers need digital support around the clock. Businesses can turn to intelligent and automated solutions to support today’s demands, with significant growth in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. Modern technologies, such as intelligent virtual agents, help companies deliver a positive customer experience.
An intelligent virtual agent (IVA) is an AI-enabled communication tool that generates personalized responses to users. IVAs are intuitive and can understand natural-language requests through natural language understanding (NLU) or natural language processing (NLP). NLU and NLP are learning algorithms that try to identify and grasp various patterns and make decisions or predictions independently, relying on collected data and sometimes human input.
Many customer service managers ask for some type of AI solution, but understanding the differences between intelligent virtual agents and other solutions such as chatbots, voicebots, and intelligent voice response (IVR) software is an important first step. Outlined below are some key differences to paint a clearer picture.
Chatbot |
A chatbot is any program that can communicate with a user automatically without help from an agent. They can interact via voice or text. Simple chatbots have limited capabilities. They are rule-based and task-specific. A simple chatbot poses questions based on predetermined options. The customer can choose from the options until they get answers to their query. The chatbot will not make any inferences from previous interactions with customers. These chatbots are best suited for straightforward dialogues such as inquiring about a business’ operating hours. |
AI Chatbot |
AI chatbots simulate near-human interactions with customers. These advanced chatbots can have free-flowing conversations and interpret intent, language, and sentiment. These chatbots require programming and robust data to help it realize the context of interactions. |
Textbot |
Textbots are simple or AI chatbots that emulate human interaction via text inputs. Common simple textbots are programmed to analyze the input and follow scripted prompts to automate actions for the user. The most common example is a “live” support chat that helps automate first response for support requests, recording critical information and providing instructions matching the detected case. |
IVR |
Briefly mentioned above, IVR software is an automated phone system technology that interacts with callers and gathers information based on how the caller navigates a call menu. It does not use AI. Callers navigate menu options through spoken responses or by pressing numbers on their phone. IVR software routes the caller to specific departments or specialists. Some may consider an IVR to be a simple voicebot. |
Voicebot |
When discussing voicebots, people usually refer to an AI-powered chatbot tool that uses IVR software. A caller can speak to the bot, communicating via verbal language. AI identifies key aspects or markers in the caller’s speech and responds with audio in near-human form. |
IVA |
An intelligent virtual agent is an AI-enabled communication tool that generates personalized responses to users. They are usually used to communicate via speech but also work in text channels. IVAs process natural language requests using NLU or NLP and understand situational context, allowing them to handle a more complex range of questions and interactions. IVAs also more closely resemble human speech and can understand queries with spelling and grammatical errors, slang, or other potentially confusing language, much like an agent. IVAs are technically chatbots, but they are so advanced that people distinguish the two in general conversation. |
IVAs are a powerful resource for contact centers to improve customer experience. Contact centers act as the front door for businesses because they support large numbers of customers that need answers to similar types of questions or solutions to problems.
IVAs manage demand in ways almost indistinguishable from an interaction with a human agent, which creates significant benefits for both your contact center and your customers.
Mosaicx, an AI-powered customer service platform, lets you create intelligent virtual agents that efficiently and accurately solve customer inquiries by automatically moving a customer to the “next best action” to resolve their query. We continue to innovate Mosaicx to stay on the cutting edge of modern AI, ML, and predictive intent technologies. As such, our customers receive the latest IVA capabilities. Our solution is flexible, easy to use, cost-effective and secure.
Businesses that want to evolve their communications and improve customer experience can benefit significantly from IVAs. As they do, they will keep pace with modern workplace landscapes, stay competitive, increase brand loyalty, and shore up revenue.
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