Conversational AI in Retail: Top 7 Use Cases

The only constant in retail and logistics is change. Businesses have dealt with more change in the last two years than in the previous two decades. Record-high shipping costs, diminishing returns on online advertising, and a massive increase in the number of channels businesses are selling on are shaking up the way you shop, sell, and ship.

The retail industry is perhaps the most widespread user of conversational AI. Companies like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, and many others have fundamentally changed how customers interact with retailers. According to Shopify, 53% of brands invest in tools that allow them to sell anywhere. This shift in consumer behavior, combined with the increased competition from digitally native brands moving into retail, means it's not enough to use the retail store for acquisition alone. Retailers must build relationships and experiences with their customers that only omnichannel commerce can offer.

Conversational commerce, as the modern interpretation of the loyal relationship between a business and a customer that used to be built, in the physical world, by repeated interactions, has taken a grip over the retail trends. With the help of a conversational AI platform, customers can chat with your company, ask questions, get advice and personalized recommendations, read reviews, and complete purchases. These experiences can be delivered through AI conversational assistants, human agents, or a mix of the two. The AI virtual assistants minimize human workload, improve quality, and significantly cut costs by enabling seamless automation.

Let's look at the following use cases of conversational AI in retail.

Use Cases of Conversational AI in Retail and Logistics

AI conversational agents give clients a more streamlined purchasing experience. Customer service representatives cannot complete this task accurately and quickly around the clock. These AI virtual assistants provide accurate real-time responses to any questions about inventory supply, product recommendations, prices, offer durations, etc. 

Conversational AI bots can comprehend and assess the intent, context, and questions of the users, independent of how it is stated, using Natural Language Processing (NLP). They may then react appropriately. Conversational AI can provide better and more precise answers with each encounter thanks to Machine Learning (ML).

1. AI Virtual Assistants Are Here to Improve Your Customers' Shopping Experience

Customers who want to research online services find AI conversational assistants incredibly beneficial. Customers want to know how the objects they will purchase feel and appear in real life, which leads most individuals to make their purchases offline, making it a noteworthy issue for online retail stores. It's no wonder that 54% of consumers say that, over the next year, they're likely to look at a product online and buy it in-store, and 53% are likely to look at a product in-store and buy it online.

An AI conversational assistant providing customers with verbal clarifications and guidance while they shop will energize and improve their online experience. It will tie up the bond between a brand and its customers.

2. Conversational AI Enables End-to-End Customer Service

Since customers usually get in touch with retailers with a broad range of issues or inquiries, having a helpful and efficient customer service department is crucial. Incorporating conversational AI within your customer service department can automate simple to moderate activities like:

• Order processing: You may automate the order process using conversation flows and integrations with your internal systems and payment processing platforms.
• Making a delivery request
• Order correction 
• Tracking a shipment: Integrate with courier platforms using APIs, SQL, or RPA to enable advanced live order and delivery tracking in discussions.
• Answering FAQs
• Connecting a customer with a live representative when necessary

Conversational AI analytics and metrics help businesses better understand their customers so they can improve the customer journey they give. Investing in conversational AI for your customer service department equips your business with a powerful tool for customer experience analysis.

Additionally, intelligent virtual assistants are easily integrated with your other retail core systems and enable 24/7 availability for fast problem resolution.

3. Customer Behavior Prediction

Companies are adopting AI to forecast how prospects connect and tailor the buying experience, ultimately altering it and boosting retention as pressure mounts on merchants to create relevant consumer experiences.

Additionally, conversational AI will assist shops in more thoroughly identifying client wants by deciphering their intentions. The ultimate goal is to give businesses a complete picture of prospects at every point of the marketing funnel and a detailed forecast of their needs and future behavior. The use of timeliness, loyalty and sales conversion are other expected behaviors.

4. Conversational AI Assistants Help Team Members Get Onboarded Easier

Onboarding procedures for new employees can also benefit from conversational AI. This is especially helpful to ensure that new hires are receiving all the relevant knowledge about their position and that they will rely less on their more seasoned colleagues or management for assistance. Employees will access their conversational AI assistant, ask questions, find solutions, and contact as needed. The traditional onboarding, which lasts for about a week, may not be enough for the new team member to get acquainted with the job, the workplace, and the company culture. A longer onboarding process (about 90 days) has yielded better results, in which Conversational AI will support the trainee with check-ins, tips, tricks, and training sessions to help him find his place and workflow in no time.

5. Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing refers to pricing that adjusts in real time in response to changes in supply, demand, competitor prices, and subsidiary product prices. Most pricing software employs machine learning algorithms to examine historical consumer data so that it can respond more quickly to changes in demand by altering prices and offering real-time price reductions through conversational AI assistants.

6. Automating Mundane Office Tasks - Thus, Saving More Time for Customer Service

Hyperautomation, often known as intelligent business process automation, refers to the end-to-end automation of processes utilizing a combination of robotic process automation (RPA), process mining, and other technologies. Businesses can automate many back-office processes using these technologies, including:

• Tracking and Scheduling: Transportation can be planned, cargo pipelines can be organized, different team members can be assigned to other stations and managed by AI systems, and goods in the warehouse may be tracked.
• Generating Reports: Logistics organizations can use RPA tools to automatically generate the appropriate periodic reports to update managers and guarantee internal alignment. RPA tools make it simple to create reports automatically, evaluate them, and then transmit the results to the appropriate stakeholders. 
• Email Processing and Creation: RPA bots can assess the information in auto-generated reports and email the proper stakeholders based on the content.

7. Efficient Process Management

The benefits of conversational AI extend to management as well. It can handle crowded lines using contactless payment, update inventory stocks in real-time, maintain track of financial expenditure, and extract any errors that may be present while forecasting potential future sources of error in the management process. These tasks would take a lot of time and be error-prone if performed by people.

In Conclusion

Conversational AI is no longer just a trendy term for the future. The technology is now entering a number of significant sectors, including retail, where it promises to bring cost-efficiency and a better consumer experience. These components support the retail industry. 

Learn more about DRUID AI for retail and how it can benefit your business first-hand!