Top Benefits of Using AI Customer Service (Chatbots & Agents) for Your Business

AI customer service is in nearly every eCommerce business today. Why? Well, it’s fast, cheap, and usually resolves customer queries quickly, leaving them satisfied and wanting to return to your online store. 


These AI customer service technologies take the form of chatbots and agents, all of which are artificial intelligence technologies that communicate with customers similarly to human customer service reps. They ask questions to establish the problem and then offer answers to resolve it. If necessary, they refer customers to human staff. 


This article presents the top nine benefits of AI customer service for your eCommerce business. When you’re done reading, you’ll know if chatbots and virtual agents will streamline your business and whether it's worth investing in. 

1. 24/7 Availability and Instant Responses

Humans need sleep, compassion, and food. AI needs none of these things, which makes them preferable to humans in some ways. They are cheaper and more efficient but also give less nuanced, warm, and human answers. The first benefits you’ll notice about AI are that they are available for customers 24/7, and their responses are instant. 


These benefits keep customers happy, especially if they are demanding and need answers quickly. Happy customers return to your online store, making AI customer service worth the price tag every time. 

2. Cost Savings and Operational Efficiency

Because of the human touch in communications, humans can offer excellent customer service and keep customers satisfied. However, it takes time to recruit, acquire, and train human staff. AI needs training, but it takes a tiny fraction of the time. Once you have the write prompts, you can apply them to all the chatbots or agents at the click of a button. 


This benefit provides better operational efficiency because AI always runs as you need and can handle high customer volumes without adding cost, reducing time and money waste. 

3. Scalable Customer Support for Growing Businesses

Acquiring and training the staff you need to scale when you get more customers can be challenging. You will never have the same problem with AI, as you can just buy more AI credits for more chatbots and agents. This approach means you can easily expand your business without increasing the headcount. 

4. Consistent and Error-Free Communication

AI isn’t perfect. It makes mistakes despite its scripts and rules for accuracy. But if you use it in the right way, are aware of its limitations, and update it frequently, you and your customers should have a positive experience for the majority of the time. 


One plus of AI customer service technology is that it is usually consistent, whereas human staff communicate with customers depending on their mood. This feature of AI means that customers get the same experience each time, helping to set expectations and increase brand loyalty. 

5. Personalized Interactions with AI

Have you ever had recommendations from technology that felt as high-quality as if they were from a close friend? 


Enterprise AI, like AI21, can offer dynamic, engaging personalization to encourage customers to buy when they receive personal recommendations for products they may want. AI achieves these fantastic feats by collecting user data and pulling from websites to show customers what they might enjoy, increasing customer experience and engagement. 

6. Multilingual and Global Support

Some of your current customer service staff may know a few languages, but AI can potentially know all of the most common ones. Bear in mind that AI translations for less popular languages may not be accurate, and it may take extra work to make them work for certain languages compared to others. 


However, if communication needs to remain basic, AI can be perfect for communicating with people in various languages to meet their needs. 


This feature can be especially beneficial in international businesses and diverse markets. 

7. Data Collection and Customer Insights

AI can sort through massive amounts of data, such as user interactions, behavior, and feedback, thousands of times faster than humans. It can also analyze it in real-time for efficient outputs that wow customers with new product recommendations, encourage them to buy new items, and allow chatbots to move on to new customers quickly.

Conclusion

AI isn’t perfect, but it has many benefits for eCommerce. It’s fast, cheap, and consistent. 


But despite the terms you may hear that flash in and out of business discussions, AI customer service is here to stay. It’s not just a passing trend; it’s an innovative, cost-efficient business decision worth considering today. 


On the other hand, fools rush in, and it's essential to consider your company's factors and how this technology could work for it. 


How large is your company? What’s your customer service budget? Would customers be okay with chatbots, or would it make them more frustrated? Consider all these questions before investing to ensure costs are low while customer success is high.