As businesses face an increasingly complex and dynamic marketplace, artificial intelligence (AI) integration has rapidly become a key player in digital in innovation and transformation. Every business should think about ways to leverage AI to save time and keep pace with the competition, but it can be a daunting prospect to face alone.
That’s why we recently interviewed our very own Patrícia Mendes, Stefanini’s Product Leader for Sophie and other AI’s in EMEA to provide useful advice for businesses considering using AI and chatbots to accelerate their business transformation.
What Value does AI add to Businesses?
It is widely understood businesses must adapt quickly to remain competitive in a world which is innovating at great speed. Companies can gain a significant competitive advantage by automating repetitive tasks and freeing up employees to focus on more strategic, high-value work. Mendes commented:
“AI is the future – or the present actually. It sounds simple, but the first thing businesses need to do is to accept change; embrace new solutions and trust in them as they’re definitely here to stay.”
Conversational AI has emerged as a particularly powerful tool, providing businesses with the ability to interact with their customers and employees in a new, natural, intuitive manner.
Mendes emphasises the value AI adds through automation, outlining two main guidelines:
“AI can be used in two main areas:
- To drive improvements: Identify gaps where you could do more with less and how you can then scale your operations.
- To avoidance certain activities: AI can help you recognize what you shouldn’t be doing, like repetitive tasks.”
Conveniently for businesses considering how to implement AI to the best effect, AI can actually be used to identify the two points above! Using a solution like Stefanini’s own AI Assistance product for consumers, businesses and workplaces, Sophie.
What or Who is Sophie?
Sophie is the world’s premiere omni-channel virtual assistant! This conversational AI upscales all digital processes through cognitive computing with a focus on self-adaptation, with both interactive and contextual automation. This creates a model of self-learning and human-like interaction with customers.
What are the Benefits of Conversational AI like Sophie?
Mendes emphasises that “conversational AI can save people time. Users and customers can get support any hour of the day, any day a week quickly and conveniently. It creates a great external interface for your business’ customer service and supports your teams reach their full productivity!”
Sophie and other AIs can support businesses in:
- Taking over operational burdens
Sophie is a virtual assistant, and customers can interact with her seamlessly through various channels, including web, mobile, and voice. She can also assist users in triggering workflow, training, and auto-escalation.
- Improving customer experiences
Sophie’s natural language processing capability allows her to understand customers’ needs and respond in a human-like manner, enhancing the overall customer experience.
She can also integrate with most business and enterprise applications to offer an integrated end-to-end, single-screen user experience.
- Driving cost efficiencies
An advantage of conversational AI is its ability to automate processes and reduce operational costs. This not only increases efficiency but also reduces the risk of errors and improves the accuracy of data.
Repetitive tasks such as answering customer queries, scheduling appointments, and processing orders can all be automated with conversational AI.
What are the Challenges associated with Integrating Conversational AI?
There are two angles that offer the most challenges to businesses implementing AI, the data they can support it with and company-wide cultural buy in for change.
Access to data is crucial for the technology to deliver its full potential. Businesses must have access to accurate and relevant data to train their conversational AI systems effectively.
Mendes emphasises the importance of businesses to embrace change, stating:
“AI is the future and we need to find ways to accept it, nurture it and develop it for all our sakes! With the time saving opportunities it offers, it benefits everyone. From ChatGPT to LLMs, we need to be open to changing how we operate. Companies who can communicate how AI integrates with the business and drives opportunities and benefits for everyone will see better commitment to it and better results.”
Employees should be encouraged to embrace change and new technologies, even if that means demystifying some of the misconceptions surrounding them! Leaders can expedite this process by investing in the necessary training and infrastructure to support these new systems.
How can Stefanini Support Your Needs?
Mendes explains how Sophie is a powerful tool with multiple applications, “Sophie is an ally for providing fast support. Together with our customers, we co-create use cases and scenarios that will bring value to the company and of course, to its users. From IT, to HR, Customer Support.”
No two Stefanini automation solutions are alike, and we help you create a bespoke solution designed to meet your exact needs. That could mean developing a Consumer-facing assistant solution, a Business-facing assistant, a Workplace assistant and more.
Ready to innovate your business operations and embrace the future of AI? Find out more about Sophie today.
