Dive Brief:
- Brands such as Staples, Autodesk and The Weather Company are all making use of IBM Watson’s artificial intelligence for conversational chatbots deployed in a variety of ways according to a company press release.
- Staples is creating a seamless customer ordering experience across devices on its website as well as Facebook Messenger and via a Slackbot. The Weather Channel is serving its audience with customized weather content on Facebook Messenger.
- Autodesk, a B2B company, is using Watson for real-time customer service and support for its cloud-based offering, increasing ticket resolution time by a dramatic 99%.
Dive Insight:
AI technology such as chatbots is big news in the tech giant world, meaning marketers now have an array of choices to consider when building an interactive and personalized customer engagement strategy.
IBM has long been a leader with its Deep Blue, and now Watson technology. Google has been very active in spending R&D budget on AI, and Facebook has invested in some of the most effective facial recognition AI tech available. Late last month Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon and IBM partnered to create the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, a group that promotes public understanding of AI while creating standards and best practices for all AI developers in the field.
Conversational bots are one of the latest ways AI is impacting marketing, allowing brands to create interactive experiences on company websites or messaging apps that automate processes that require a certain amount of questions and answers on both sides but can largely be handled by an intelligent agent. And given Autodesk’s impressive results on resolving customer service tickets with Watson, chatbots look to be an effective use of AI.
