Customer input: “Check the status of my refund.”

Automated response in the 2000s: “Your refund has been processed. It will appear in your account within 5–7 business days. For more help, contact support.”

Gen AI response in 2024: “Hi Sally, your refund for Dyson Airwrap was processed on November 20th and should reach your account by November 28th. Let me know if you don’t see it by then or need further help!”

Gartner predicts that by 2025, more than three-quarters of customer service and support organizations will deploy generative AI in some form to boost agent productivity and customer experience.

Unlike its predecessors, which relied on decision trees and pre-scripted responses, Generative AI in 2024 doesn’t blindly follow predefined rules but constantly evolves.  

The modern Gen AI is about personalization, empathy and providing actionable support to refine customer experiences.

This blog post will explore the concept of generative AI, how it differs from conversational AI and the 12 most compelling use cases of generative AI in customer service. 

What is generative AI in customer service?

Generative AI applies artificial intelligence to generate human-like responses and interact seamlessly with customers. It can create new content, including text, images, and music decoding patterns, making customer interactions more personalized and dynamic.

This is done by learning from patterns in existing data and using that information to create contextually relevant answers on the spot.

How does generative AI differ from conversational AI?

To efficiently leverage the power of conversational and generative AI, you first have to understand their unique qualities.

Conversational AI, as the name suggests, works best for on-the-spot talks, while generative AI’s specializes in generating original content from prompts given by humans.

12 use cases of generative AI in customer service 

When we think of generative AI for customer service, we generally think of chatbots and instant answers. But in reality, the scope is much more enormous. In fact, McKinsey estimates that generative AI could increase productivity by 30% to 45% of current function costs. This means more productivity, less time, effort, and money.

To understand more about how Gen AI can revolutionize the service industry, let’s have a look at some of the impactful use cases:

1.Live support

Gen AI-powered chatbots can engage with customers and provide instant assistance. They can analyze customer queries in real time to provide accurate and relevant answers, reducing wait times and ensuring customers get the information they need without delays.

For example, Delta features “Ask Delta”— a Gen AI-powered chatbot that helps customers check in, track bags, and find flights. It provides detailed responses instantly, making it easy for customers to find answers.

2.Automated helpdesk

The idea of an automated helpdesk is to reduce the burden on human agents and give customers autonomy by answering common questions. Customers type their queries into the portal, and Gen AI retrieves relevant information to provide an instant solution.

Slack’s Gen-AI-enabled help desk displays a prominent search bar and links to common troubleshooting topics, empowering users to find solutions independently.

3.Customer sentiment analysis

Gen AI in customer service can detect the tone of a customer’s message— positive, neutral or negative. This helps AI or the human agent understand the emotional state of the customer and tailor responses accordingly.

For example, if the customer sounds frustrated or annoyed in a conversation, the AI can immediately display empathy in its reply to calm the customer.

Customer: “This is the second time I am contacting you, and my issue remains unresolved. I am running out of patience.”

Gen AI: “I am truly sorry for the inconvenience. This must have been frustrating for you. Let me look into the details and resolve this as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your patience.”

4.Customized recommendations

Gen AI for customer support can analyze user data such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and past interactions to understand customer needs and preferences. It then creates real-time tailored suggestions to make them feel more important.

Music giant Spotify does it best by creating personalized playlists based on your musical preferences. Here’s how:

• The Gen AI takes note of your listening history, including plays, skips, rewinds and likes
• The algorithm picks your favorite genre or artists by recognizing patterns
• Gen AI dives deep into the science of sound by analyzing tempo, mood, and instrumentation to tailor a playlist for you

5.Personalized marketing campaigns

Much like the previous point, Gen AI for customer service can create personalized marketing campaigns by processing vast amounts of data, including:

• Purchase history
• Behavioral data such as browsing patterns, clicks, and time spent on specific pages
• Demographics, including age, location and other profile information
• Feedback and preferences

Funko, a famous toy brand best known for its bobblehead figures of pop cultural icons, launched a “Pop! Yourself” line to allow customers to make Funko figures of themselves and their loved ones. This is a unique way of using Gen AI to promote a connection with the brand by creating something personal.

6.Multilanguage support

Gen AI can handle multiple inquiries around the clock while identifying the language a customer is communicating with. It can translate conversations or even respond in multiple languages without needing pre-scripted answers for each language. The bot can then solve customer issues independently or transfer the conversation to a support agent who speaks the language.

Airbnb uses Gen AI to translate texts from hosts and guests, ensuring clear communication across all languages. They also have a team of support executives who can speak multiple languages to escalate conversations whenever necessary.

7.Automated transcription

Call transcripts are necessary for review, training, and quality assurance. Gen AI leverages advanced NLP and ML techniques to convert speech to text accurately.

This is how it works:

• Process audio data to produce transcriptions even in noisy environments or varied accents
• Differentiate between multiple speakers in a conversation, assigning text to the correct person
• Use contextual understanding to transcribe industry-specific jargon, acronyms, and technical terms
• Generate summaries or highlight important information

8.Complaint resolution

Gen AI can make complaint resolution more efficient through automation and generate more accurate responses and personalized solutions. It can quickly analyze and categorize customer complaints (e.g., delivery issues, product defects, service problems).

Once a customer raises a complaint, Gen AI can instantly generate tailored responses and provide immediate acknowledgement about the issue being addressed. It can then suggest personalized resolution suggestions or escalate to a human agent by analyzing the severity of the issue.

9.Immersive training

Businesses can incorporate Gen AI to refine training programs and offer instant and accurate customer service. It creates realistic scenarios and simulates customer interactions to provide employees with hands-on practice.

Gen AI-driven training programs analyze historical customer data to identify regular customer problems and develop tailored training modules. This ensures customer reps gain the specific skills and knowledge required to deliver outstanding service.

10.Automated billing support

Gen AI-powered automated billing systems can efficiently address the pressing pain areas in billing. It can:

• Detect fraudulent invoices by analyzing patterns and detecting irregularities in invoice records
• Check and confirm customer information, payment details, and other relevant information before initiating payment
• Create visually appealing invoices with Gen AI-generated suggestions for text, images and design elements

For example, Mastercard uses Gen AI, which features an automatic billing updater that can provide insight into account balances, review transaction histories and make personalized recommendations. It also automatically updates card information in real-time to reduce declined transactions.

11.Automated survey

Gen AI supports businesses in creating tailored survey invitations and reminders. It can effectively generate close-ended questions and analyze open-ended responses, streamlining the survey process while facilitating better data analysis.

It can even summarize reviews and categorize insights without manual effort. For example, if a user writes, “The website is slow on mobile.” Gen AI immediately tags it as a “mobile usability issue.”

12.Appointment scheduling

Traditional appointment scheduling is a time-consuming process that often requires customers to deal with long hold times and booking errors. Gen AI can address this issue by:

• Scheduling according to availability by integrating with calendars
• Allowing users to schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments anytime without human intervention
• Recommending personalized schedules by analyzing preferences, habits and historical data
• Sending automated reminders and notifications to improve customer engagement
• Rescheduling by identifying new slots

Generative AI meets Plivo CX: A new era in customer experience

The 2020s mark a significant turning point in customer support as AI shifts from being an add-on to becoming its backbone. It’s a giant leap toward a future where customer service, powered by data-driven insights, becomes the core of business success.

As an AI-powered omnichannel customer service platform, Plivo CX can be your ally in this journey, built to integrate effortlessly into your business and support mechanisms. It brings frequently-used communication channels, such as voice, SMS, WhatsApp, and live chat, under a single window pane.

Additionally, you can train OpenAI-powered chatbots using your company’s unique datasets, ensuring customer queries are answered with the most relevant and precise information.

Here are some of its top features:

• AI-powered chatbots: Interact seamlessly with customers by providing them accurate responses at speed
• Omnichannel support: Seamlessly monitor, manage, and track customer interactions across multiple channels on a single platform.
• Unified agent desktop: Empower agents with intelligent customer context and insights into a single, easy-to-use application
• Round-the-clock availability: Provide continuous, global customer support 24/7 without interruptions.
• Simplified escalations with notes: Effortlessly summarize conversations and pass them to human agents whenever needed.
• Detailed customer insights: Examine live or recorded interactions to uncover opportunities for growth and improvement.
• Agent training tools: Enhance agent performance with features like call recording, whispering, and barge-in coaching.
• Automated ticket management: Automatically organize and prioritize incoming tickets, ensuring critical issues are addressed quickly.
• Interactive voice response (IVR): Set up automated menus to direct callers to the appropriate team or agent efficiently.
• CRM integration: Access customer details from your existing CRM and tech stack for a more personalized experience.

Book a demo with us today!