Embrace AI Agents, Archive Chatbot Perceptions
Jarrod KingstonAgents are the next phase of AI’s evolution, making scalability possible while smoothing out customer experiences. And that smoothness is critical. Consumers find brands and products on social media, move between digital and physical stores, interact across digital channels, customize products to their liking, and expect to know statuses at any given moment.
That’s a lot for an internal team to maintain. And the expectations and number of channels and touchpoints involved are only going to rise. The answer for meeting these demands (both in terms of experience and in the strain put on systems and processes) is by incorporating AI.
The image in your head of that AI is probably a chatbot. But I didn’t say anything about chatbots in this new stage. There’s a reason for that. Some of you will have already said to yourself, We don’t need a chatbot, and I would agree. You don’t. These are completely different tools. Let’s break down the differences in this infographic:
If you think of chatbots as a tour guide, shuffling users around to different parts of the site, then agents are concierges, making experiences happen while on their journey.
Take Slack or most of the other collaboration tools. Most commands to launch integrations or workflows are started by entering a “/” and then typing a specific phrase in the right order. If you want to send a GIF in Slack, you type “/giphy” and then the phrase you want.
That’s a chatbot. You are following its language and it gives you a preview because it doesn’t know if it’ll be right the first time. An agent would be if instead of typing “/giphy no reaction” you just told Slack “Send a GIF of Michael Scott from The Office yelling ‘Nooooo’.” You get to use your conversational language to be more precise and direct.
The experience is much easier and more accurate with an agent than it is with a chatbot. This is where AI is moving. If you want to learn more about agents and how to ensure that your brand experience resonates in your AI, especially when it comes to the commerce journey, download our latest ebook, How to Incorporate Experience into Commerce AI.
Jarrod Kingston
One of the top Salesforce and B2B thought leaders, Jarrod works with Studio Science customers and partners to create exceptional solutions that provide business outcomes. He is a Salesforce MVP Hall of Famer with expertise across B2B and B2C sales, customer service, commerce, marketing, and automation.
