“Don’t let yourself get caught off guard by thinking conversational AI is just a toy for younger generations to check the weather or play music,” writes Matt Smith, Associate Vice President, Conversational AI Practice Leader. “It isn’t. It is imperative and needs to be a priority driven from the top to ensure your organization survives the AI revolution.”

Excerpts from CustomerThink’s article:

“How companies engage with customers is quickly evolving as conversational AI moves beyond simple voice interfaces and basic chat to offer end-to-end transactional capabilities.

It’s important for c-suite leaders to know where AI technologies are being used across industries to get a sense for where to apply them in their own organizations. A structured education process will reveal the possibilities AI offers, help prevent unrealistic expectations and keep you from oversimplifying AI’s challenges.

Developing a winning AI strategy can’t be done in a vacuum. Most companies will need to rethink their organizational structure to ensure collaboration among areas that directly engage with customers or support those that do, including marketing, IT, HR, finance, supply chain, manufacturing and others. As the stewards of customer experience, marketing will be front and center in the quest to understand how customers want to interact with conversational AI.

Know your customers, and let them be your guide so you don’t end up simply replacing what they don’t like about engaging with you today with something equally frustrating. Knowing your customers and having a broad perspective of their needs and desires is critical and will help keep you from being outmaneuvered by your competition or miss opportunities to provide a better customer experience.

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