Want GenAI to Best Serve Customers? Start With Contextual Data

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has taken retail commerce by storm, drastically changing the behaviors of online customers to a point that retailers are making investments in the technology to improve the customer experience. According to Forrester’s March 2024 Consumer Pulse Survey,  consumers use of GenAI is growing, with 48 percent of U.S. consumers agreeing that it will make it easier to discover new things. That appetite is very quickly highlighting an opportunity for retailers.

While retailers are still in the infancy stage of using GenAI for sales, there has been some major progress on how it's being used to support customers when they need it most: customer service.

The marriage of GenAI solutions with customer data can deliver meaningful value to customers and brands alike, and they all center on improving CX at every stage of customer interactions. For brands looking to use this innovation to nurture relationships, build more valuable experiences, and support customers in more personalized ways, here are three considerations:

1. Your data strategy will make or break your ability to use GenAI effectively.

Are you paying attention to what your customers are telling you? Most brands would say yes, and there’s no doubt the intention is there, but customers are still experiencing gaps in their CX. Their feedback, whether it be through engagement data or more direct interactions like customer service queries, is perhaps the most important information they could share with a brand. Smart brands are not only paying attention, but they're also actively seeking feedback with a clear plan on how to use that information to improve customer-facing processes.

Within customer support, it’s important for brands to train their AI using contextual data. The suggestions GenAI models provide aren’t any good if they’re not pulling information from a dataset that's reflective of the business and relevant to the task at hand. Regardless of whether a customer is using self-service tools like chatbots or talking to a human agent, to be effective GenAI needs to surface specific solutions that are trusted and relevant based on historical success.

2. Customers are providing the best possible road map for their own experiences.

Your data can’t be useful if you’re not using it to inform and improve customer interactions. The truest, most honest data will come from direct customer communications. If you think about it, customers are telling you what’s broken about your brand. They're coming to you when they can’t find an answer to something, or if one of your products is failing, or if your instructions on something aren’t clear. These conversations that are often coming through a variety of channels are critical to a brand’s success.

Designing a data strategy that captures this customer data is important to future usage of GenAI. It hones the problem-solution formula based on real interactions and results, surfacing information that's most likely to satisfy the customer. This satisfaction, at scale, strengthens the overall brand, drives customer loyalty, boosts conversions, and underscores business success.

3. It’s only going to get better.

GenAI is here to stay, but we have to accept that we’re still in the early stages of understanding and using it effectively. New AI models will be developed, different integrations between customer-facing technologies will emerge, and there will be changes in how customers use the technology for different purposes. These factors will mold the future of AI and the developments will only help our industry sharpen its understanding of how we can use GenAI to benefit both customers and businesses. What we know for certain is that GenAI will make the biggest impact in minimizing the need for humans to perform mundane tasks by taking contextual automation to the next level. This in turn allows people to focus on more valuable, complex tasks that require a deeper level of problem solving, ultimately delivering better customer experiences and satisfaction.

I believe that we haven’t seen a solution impact retail technology to the degree that GenAI has in decades. It’s an exciting time and the future is filled with opportunities to learn and grow, but what is certain is that CX will continue to be a driving force. Making customers happy will be our north star — as it’s always been — regardless of the tech innovations that come and go. Retailers are at the dawn of something very exciting and I can’t wait to see what’s to come.

Niki Hall is chief marketing officer of Five9, a pioneer and leading provider of cloud software for contact centers..