ChatBots

If you're familiar or have read up about artificial intelligence, it’s likely you’ve heard about large language models (LLMs), a type of AI that's used to analyze large amounts of data and generate text. However, you may not be as familiar with a newer phrase that's becoming more common: small language models (SLMs). SLMs are…

For years, brands have assessed the return on investment of customer experience automation by asking three questions: What does it cost to serve a customer today? What could it cost to serve a customer tomorrow? What is the investment price to get from A to B? With these questions guiding the way, we’ve seen a…

We’ve all experienced awkward, bad or just plain cringe-worthy customer experience situations — both with human and automated interactions. Maybe it’s the interactive voice response (IVR) system that makes you listen to an endless array of options. It could be the chatbot that just doesn’t understand your question and offers completely irrelevant answers. It might…

Order the tombstone. Print the obituary. The death of brick-and-mortar stores is upon us. That’s what many headlines would lead us to believe, but the numbers tell a different story. According to Forrester, offline retail sales in the U.S. will reach $4.2 trillion by 2028. Comparatively speaking, in-store conversion rates hover at 30 percent while…

The retail industry is gearing up for an artificial intelligence-first revolution, with customer experience (CX) at the center of this massive shift. AI is poised to become an essential instrument for retailers, enabling them to outpace competitors, provide standout personalized services, and keep CX at the core of their business strategy, creating a flywheel effect…

One of the big lessons retailers learned in 2023 is that consumers want to do it themselves. Some call it customer empowerment. Some call it the self-service economy. Essentially, it involves consumers making decisions about products and services without talking to a human. As generative artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as the breakout tech tool of…

At this point, doing one's holiday shopping at the mall feels almost like a nostalgic throwback — not far removed from listening to music on vinyl or taking pictures with a disposable camera. The records for online holiday shopping are broken on what seems like a yearly basis, with last year's $9.12 billion representing the…

'Tis the season to start shopping. For retailers, this means delivering stellar customer service at every step of the customer journey. Salesforce data shows that 94 percent of consumers say good service makes them more likely to buy again while 80 percent will abandon a brand after three bad experiences. But rather than wait for the “three strikes…

Online purchasing continues to be consumers’ preferred channel for their holiday shopping due to convenience and efficiency. In fact, this year, 60 percent of consumers plan to use retailer websites or apps to get inspiration and ideas for their holiday shopping, highlighting the importance of a solid omnichannel experience for brands to reach customers exactly…

Generative artificial intelligence is making waves across the retail industry, from consumers using the technology to inspire purchasing decisions to retail brands employing chatbots to improve customer service and experience. While chatbots have been around for quite some time, with the advent of generative AI, there’s been a huge revolution over the last 18 months…