The retail landscape is saturated with generic digital experiences. Customers crave personalized connections, and businesses struggle to stand out from the crowd. The secret to this lies in the deep meaningful customer conversation and curated experiences.
According to Infobip's latest Generative AI IDC study, 69% of CEOs in Asia-Pacific believe that there is a 'significant' opportunity for them to leverage AI to drive differentiation and business growth. Interestingly, Southeast Asia demonstrates even greater enthusiasm, with 21% of businesses already in the advanced stages of AI/ML adoption, surpassing the regional average of 18%.
Enter conversational AI, an advanced feature of AI poised to be the retail industry's secret weapon for forging deeper customer engagement.
Why Conversational AI?
The answer lies in data. A significant 39% of Asia-Pacific businesses, according to IDC, view conversational AI as a crucial investment. This technology offers a deeper understanding of customer needs, enabling real-time, context-aware responses. As AI evolves to comprehend emotions and intentions, IDC predicts a surge in conversation-driven customer journeys. An IDC FutureScape report highlights that by 2026, over half of Asia's leading businesses will primarily rely on conversations to complete customer journeys.
To put it in perspective, it can cost 7 times less to retain customers than to convert a lead. That's why it's important for businesses to adopt a personalized conversational commerce system, to ensure that every interaction is engineered to increase the chance of a lead becoming a paying customer.
So what's good about digital channels powered by conversations? In the age of AI, digital channels become drivers of customer value throughout their journey, and conversations become the key to delivering it. The top motivators for investing in AI-powered customer experience (CX) applications include boosting customer loyalty and advocacy, which in turn leads company in the right direction to develop the products/services that truly reflect their customers' needs.
Chatbots: The Future of Retail Engagement?
IDC surveys reveal that customer-facing applications like chatbots are a top area for integrating AI (GenAI) in Asia/Pacific. This growing demand for omnichannel communication, scalability, and flexibility is pushing businesses towards a unified platform approach with conversational capabilities, achievable through Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS).
CPaaS, leveraging the cloud, simplifies the integration of real-time communication services (SMS, voice, messaging apps) via APIs. It eases the burden on customer service teams by enabling the deployment and management of AI-powered chatbots. In this AI-driven era, CPaaS allows businesses to manage all customer interactions across their journey, reducing acquisition costs and boosting efficiency.
Retailers are known for embracing innovation. Agile young brands are challenging established players by engaging customers in novel ways, particularly those targeting teens and young adults, who champion chat apps and social media as shopping channels.
The Future of Shopping Experiences is paved with many exciting updates. According to Infobip's latest Messaging Trends Report, Click-to-chat ads, end-to-end chat journeys, virtual assistants, and in-app delivery tracking are just a few exciting trends paving the way for a more personalized and engaging shopping experience. The future of retail is exciting, and conversational AI will help pave the way for this. This in turn fosters customer loyalty, drives sales, and ensures your brand remains competitive in the ever-evolving retail landscape.
To learn more about how retailers can revolutionize the retail experience, leveraging Infobip's CPaaS solutions to create a more personalized and engaging shopping experience with Conversational AI, visit www.infobip.com