The Next Generation of Chatbot Is a Proactive Agent

Dominik Seisser, Cognigy’s Director of AI, talks about how AI is breaking new ground to address critical use cases within the enterprise.

I love that we create solutions that give the enterprise all it needs to get up close and personal with its customers.

To make this happen, we are constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of AI to enable the enterprise to engage, interact and serve its people and customers, in a frictionless and easy way, leaving them happy and satisfied.

How we do this is quite amazing because we teach enterprise software systems to talk: literally and in all languages. You can hold a two-way conversation with a database or any number of back-end systems such as CRM, ERP, SCM, BI, PLM, HCM, etc.

The experience is so natural that it is easy to forget that it’s a person-to-machine conversation. Bots built using a conversational AI platform can communicate, answer questions, and, most importantly, ask questions and anticipate needs. These are a new generation of proactive virtual agents.

Proactive agents are breaking new ground to become critical to addressing powerful use cases for the enterprise. That’s because proactive agents ask questions, obtain data, and intervene to help prevent problems.

With proactive agents in place, IT can be more efficient and effective in its operations and contact centres can satisfy more customers in faster times. However, the power of simply asking a question is formidable. As the adage goes, ‘You’ll never know unless you ask.’

An example of this is found in the story of two friends, both salespeople. They were both competing for the same account. The first salesperson asked the customer what they wanted and then supplied it.

However, the second salesperson didn’t ask; instead, they bulldozed the customer and tried to sell what they thought they wanted. So guess who got the account?

Undoubtedly, this example shows the power of engaging in conversation and asking informed questions. As an enterprise, how can you leverage this power? Asking tens, hundreds, of thousands of employees or customers a simple question becomes a considerable undertaking.

This is where conversational AI comes in. For example, when customers do not pay you on time, have you ever considered simply reaching out and asking a friendly, what’s up?

Several Cognigy customers are doing precisely that and reaching out to their customers when payments are overdue with a friendly virtual agent. The results are mind-blowing! These customers report that they’re saving millions of dollars.