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We’ve all been there, interacting with a chatbot that sends you around in circles and doesn’t provide the answers you need. So frustrating. Yet, despite their issues, chatbots are still favored by most consumers due to their 24/7 availability. In fact, research shows 81 percent of people would like more self-service options for doing business online.

However, there’s a problem: chatbots are not very smart. Sure, ChatGPT is likely to make a difference but there are other ways artificial intelligence can raise their IQ and meet the demand from customers.

Here are three ways your organization can add brains to chatbots resulting in happier customers, more business opportunities, and a better reputation.

Help Them Find More Answers

Most chatbots can’t hold contextual information for longer than a few chat bubbles and end up getting lost in the conversation. They are built based on a decision-tree logic, where the response given by the bot depends on specific keywords identified in the user’s input. That’s not comprehensive enough. More than 75 percent of consumers expect customer service representatives to have visibility into previous interactions, yet as little as 15 percent do. A key factor limiting quick access to accurate information is connecting back-end systems of records containing meaningful, actionable content for answering inquiries and commands from consumers. Organizations can use intelligent process automation to connect business systems, retrieve information such as order history, payment plans or policy claims, to deliver data quickly to the customer facing chat app.

For example, some insurers may offer the ability to check the status of a claim via a chatbot. But this skill can be extended to more complex inquiries such as “What documents do I still need to provide?” The more sophisticated chatbots become, the more opportunities there are to interconnect intelligent automation into conversational AI.

Give Them Cognitive Skills

Connecting back-end data to customer-facing chat bubbles doesn’t go far enough when you want a digital assistant with a truly high IQ. To train chatbots to converse like humans, rather than humans trying to communicate like a computer, the ability to process unstructured data becomes vital.

This is where you need document AI skills to transform the unstructured data fueling enterprise systems. Document skills, like intelligent document processing can read, interpret and understand data to better make a decision, answer questions more thoroughly and correctly, and process a request faster.

Based on machine learning (ML) technology, IDP will ensure your chatbots learn overtime. By incorporating ML, you can be sure the customer won’t go crazy with repeating requests that deliver the same wrong answers or options. The bot will remember any previous interactions and recognize where it went wrong to ensure they take the right path next time. These interactions are also excellent at revealing customers’ needs and enhancing the customer experience by collecting actionable details like pain points and gauging the popularity of services.

Even better, with new low-code/no-code IDP products now available you can add these “brains” to your chatbots without the need for huge IT resource investment. It’s simply “plug and play” to upgrade your digital customer service rep.

Make Them a Detective

One of the biggest hurdles chatbots need to overcome is ensuring they are dealing with a genuine customer. Often this will mean having to verify identification or other supporting documents like proof of address. It’s a crucial step when you consider that someone becomes a victim of identity theft every 14 seconds in the U.S. However, it doesn’t mean a huge hassle for the user, who doesn’t want to toggle between screens to use a camera or open email to verify passwords.

Using AI technology, real-time facial scanning can be integrated to provide on-the-spot analysis of the person in front of the screen using live video and photo capture. That will then be compared to the official ID photo for immediate authentication—bringing a whole new level of security and far slicker, faster customer service. The same goes for trailing documents like utility bills, tax forms, or earnings statements. With machine learning technology that can read, recognize, and flag security issues, a doctored document can be spotted in no time. It’s like installing a mini forensics lab into your chatbot platform that operates like a human brain, quickly adapting to changing input. It comes as no surprise that Gartner predicts that 85 percent of organizations will be using this sort of document-centric identity proofing by the end of next year as part of their onboarding processes.

Be Ready to Be More Personal

According to analysts Forrester, 90 percent of customer service leaders believe personalization is core to the future of automation—and existing chatbot technology is stalling their efforts towards digital transformation. They realize that online conversations with digital assistants are increasing and must be improved. Also, with mobile devices now being a preferred method of engagement that means your chatbot must be available 24/7 in every channel.

As already mentioned, ChatGPT, the advanced chatbot launched by OpenAI, exemplifies chatbots’ potential for highly personalized experiences when using artificial intelligence to optimize responses. While there are legitimate risks associated with its use, such as its vulnerability to human biases, there is no denying the sophistication of its output and the utility it can offer to customer experiences. Microsoft’s plan for integration of ChatGPT functionality into elements of the Microsoft 365 suite also implies its connection to intelligent document processing, expanding the potential for chatbots to interpret data and provide sufficiently personalized responses. Although ChatGPT may currently require human oversight to ensure responsible usage, further training of the AI platform and integration with other forms of intelligent automation are likely to transform how chatbots are used in customer service.

Only with AI-powered technology can you deliver a truly impressive digital customer experience.

Unlocking the Future of P&C Insurance with the Power of ChatGPT